5 Lessons From Will Durant
Insights from an incredibly practical philosopher
I recently wrote a piece revealing some interesting insights from reading the writings of philosopher Will Durant. As I’m feeling generous, I’d thought I’d publish more.
Durant is a fascinatingly practical philosopher, and I’d recommend anybody philosophically curious to check out his work.
1/ Life is competition
Life is competition. Those who become wilfully blind to this truism will not prosper. They will be left behind.
Competition is rife in every facet of our lives.
Durant:
“So the first biological lesson of history is that life is competition. Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life….we are acquisitive, greedy and pugnacious.”
2/ Your virtues were once vices
Morality changes. What was regarded as acceptable years ago is now regarded as abhorrent today. And just because you live in 2025 does not make you a good person. Our morals, in large part, are a product of our environment.
Durant:
“Pugnacity, brutality, greed and sexual readiness were advantages in the struggle for existence. Probably every vice was once a virtue…Mans since may be the relics of his rise rather than the stigmata of his fall.
3/ Freedom requires regulation
A common trope of modern society is the craving for “freedom”. “All I want is to be free”. But complete freedom is chaos, and breeds inertia and inaction. Durant acknowledges that freedom, ultimately, has to be constrained:
“Since men love freedom, and the freedom of individuals in society requires some regulation of conduct, the first condition of freedom is its limitation; make it absolute and it dies in chaos.”
4/ Just because our virtues were once vices, doesn’t mean the past should be disrespected
Whilst we’re flawed, and there’s no better place to witness the results of our flaws than reading history, we have to understand our qualities. And our qualities, manifested in today’s prosperity, is much the result of the ingenuity of the past.
Durant:
“To break sharply with the past is to court the madness that may follow the shock of sudden blows or mutilations. As the sanity of the individual lies in the continuity of his memories, so the sanity of a group lies in the continuity of its traditions.”
5/ Adventurousness needs to be channeled, not repressed.
We like suppressing our nature, our competitive instincts. It was Nietzsche's criticism of Christianity that it did not allow the true power within the human being to be expressed. Durant communicates that in order for man to thrive, his true instincts need to be polished, but ultimately utilisied:
“It is pitiful that so many young men die in battle, but more of them die in automobile accidents than in war, and many of them riot and rot for lack of discipline; they need an outlet for their combativeness, their adventurousness, their weariness with prosaic routine.”