While I can largely accept this criticism, I’d also like to point out that it might be missing the spirit of a lot of ancient philosophers historical context. F

While I can largely accept this criticism, I’d also like to point out that it might be missing the spirit of a lot of ancient philosophers historical context. For starters a lot of their books and texts have been lost so we aren’t sure for several what nuance has been lost. Secondarily a lot of that nuance you describe was meant to be explored via shared dialogue (the Socratic method) between pupil and teacher, until a common and nuanced understanding of the topic was achieved, not just studied out of a book, which was enormously expensive and not at all available to most people in the first place. I’d largely view their teachings as a starting point upon which to build a dialogue and nuanced understanding with a long since dead teacher.