The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy takes the teaching of the rationale and the intellect back to its roots. Drawing motivation from six of the finest minds in history - Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche - he addresses the need for cash, the torment of adore, insufficiency, uneasiness, and similarity. De Botton's book driven one pundit to call reasoning 'the unused shake and roll'.