How To Listen – Jeffrey Beneker

In the same way, students who don’t appreciate or accept what a speaker has to offer and ask instead for things outside the speaker’s competence not only harm themselves but also gain a reputation for mean- spiritedness and ill will. [18] You must be careful not to pose too many questions, which is the habit of people interested in self-promotion.

The scholarly and collegial habit is to listen agreeably while someone makes an argument, unless what you’re hearing strikes a nerve, producing an emotional response that needs to be controlled or exposing a moral defect that should be treated. Perhaps in that case it’s not “better to hide one’s ignorance,” as Heraclitus says, but rather to get your issue out into the open and address it.26 Maybe you’re feeling anger, suffering an attack of superstitious fear, having a sharp disagreement with a family member, or experiencing an intense sexual attraction “which pulls at even the most resistant heartstrings.”27 If something like this is disturbing your mind, you mustn’t run off to a more comfortable lecture to avoid examining the problem.28 Rather, you must attend lectures that address the very things that are bothering you, and even privately approach the speakers afterward to analyze your problems further.

Don’t do the opposite, which is what most people do: They listen happily and with admiration when a philosopher speaks about issues that trouble others, but then, when a lecture transitions to issues that hit close to home and deals with them bluntly, they become agitated and believe that the philosopher is being meddlesome.

This is perfectly reasonable, since most people think they ought to listen to philosophers while they’re in school, just as they listen to actors while in the theater, but when it comes to nonacademic subjects, they believe that philosophers are no better than they are. This is a reasonable attitude with respect to sophists: Once they’re out in the real world, outside the classroom and away from their books and prepared lessons, sophists seem to most people to be meek and insignificant.29 But people who treat real philosophers this way are mistaken.

For a full list of titles in the series, go to https://press.princeton.edu/series/ancient-wisdom-for-modern-readers. How to Listen: An Ancient Guide to Learning from Others by Plutarch How to Compete: An Ancient Guide to the Virtues of Sports by Lucian How to Find Happiness: An Ancient Guide to the Good Life by Marcus Tullius Cicero How to Be Grateful: An Aztec Guide to the Art of Gratitude by Pablo of Texcoco How to Cope: An Ancient Guide to Enduring Hardship by Boethius How to Feel: An Ancient Guide to Minding Our Emotions by the Buddha How to Be Caring: An Ancient Guide to a Compassionate Life by Shantideva How to Make a Home: An Ancient Guide to Style and Comfort by Vitruvius and Guests How to Have Willpower: An Ancient Guide to Not Giving In by Plutarch and Prudentius How to Talk about Love: An Ancient Guide for Modern Lovers by Plato How to Eat: An Ancient Guide for Healthy Living by a Buffet of Ancient Authors OceanofPDF.com HOW TO LISTEN An Ancient Guide to Learning from Others Plutarch Translated and introduced by Jeffrey Beneker PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON & OXFORD OceanofPDF.com Copyright © 2026 by Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is committed to the protection of copyright and the intellectual property our authors entrust to us.

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Courtesy of Casa d’aste Capitolium Art. OceanofPDF.com In memoriam Philippi Stadter magistri humanissimi OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Introduction ix How to Listen 1 Notes 109 Further Reading 121 OceanofPDF.com INTRODUCTION Listening well is the foundation for living well. —PLUTARCH OF CHAERONEA, HOW TO LISTEN 31 Who among us does not want to live well?

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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