Philosophy Was Meant to Make You Better | Robin Waterfield
Robin Waterfield is a classicist, author, and one of the most prolific translators of ancient Greek philosophy and history into modern English, with more than thirty-five volumes of translations to his name. His work includes Plato’s Republic and Symposium, Herodotus, Marcus Aurelius, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Epictetus, Xenophon, Euripides, and other major Greek and Roman authors. His latest translation is Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, published in 2026, continuing a career focused on making ancient philosophy, Greek history, and classical literature accessible in readable modern English. In this conversation, we discuss Thucydides and the Melian Dialogue, including the famous line “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,” and why Robin considers that familiar version misleading. We compare Thucydides and Herodotus, examine how the ancient Greeks understood history, and discuss Aristotle, eudaimonia, happiness, ancient Greek religion, moral philosophy, slavery, Spartan helots, leisure, education, and the origin of the word “school.” We also explore how Plato and Aristotle have been transmitted and translated over more than two thousand years, what modern translators change when working from ancient Greek texts, the surviving fragments of the Presocratics and Democritus, and Robin’s skepticism about how much we can know about the historical Socrates from Plato and Xenophon. The episode also covers Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Greek manuscripts and papyri, translation theory, Euripides, Aesop, ancient jokes, and the challenges of translating philosophy, history, prose, and poetry into modern English. Robin's website: https://robinwaterfield.com/ Instagram and other platforms: https://linktr.ee/philosophy.everyday More from Philosophy Everyday: https://www.thephilosophyeveryday.com/