Highlights from Myer’s “Oldest Books in the World”

“Study on a subject before giving an opinion” and other truly old realizations.

Post from November 24, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Scovel Shinn’s “Your Word is Your Wand”

Short excerpts that convey a rather unconventional view on our realities. “Happiness and health must be earned by absolute control of the emotional nature.”

Post from November 22, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Living and Mistakes

We can’t make a mistake living our own lives. A counter to the fear of doing wrong, the harmful idea of guilt, as well as unhelpful doubt, the statement’s power lies in the realization that it’s impossible for us to live our lives “incorrectly.”

Post from November 7, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Why Philosophy Matters

Philosophy is a field that once combined all the sciences and had considerable influence. Over time that influence waned, to an extent that philosophy is now simply one of the humanities, a “second order” discipline that some people wonder what it’s useful for…

Post from October 31, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Paine’s “Common Sense”

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”

Post from September 8, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”

Launching a new series of highlights and factoids from public domain books, classic or not, that had piqued my interest, and perhaps excite yours. Here from American polymath Henry David Thoreau.

Post from August 27, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Life’s Golden Rules

From all my cheeky laws and a number of absolutistic posts you already know I have a thing for dramaturgy. The same here.

Post from August 4, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

The Bio Enhancement Dilemma

Or, what if Donald Trump was Iron Man.

Post from August 2, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

The Dilemma of the Kind Person

Imagine a fine human being who has a laudable goal. She wants to become a genuinely, cordially, most truly kind person. So she works on her objective…

Post from July 4, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

On Rationality, and Love

Philosophy can be heart-breaking, or is it the other way around.

Post from July 2, 2016, filed under Philosophy and Everything Else.

On Consciousness

Speaking of which.

Post from June 9, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

New Book: “How to Work on Oneself”

Doubt led me to explore ways to grow, doubt now led me to ask my editor three times whether to publish under a pseudonym: I sketched, in what resembles a fluffy essay, how to learn, how to grow, or—How to Work on Oneself.

Post from June 2, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Problems, No Problems, Desires

In my own non-academic studies I’ve found common definitions of “problem” unsatisfying. So I’ve tried to redefine “problem” for something more flexible, and I believe there’s a redefinition that holds for common scenarios. Philosophize together with me.

Post from June 1, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Humanity and “The Other Manifesto”

On a wish for more work on a vision, on values, on principles, on goals actually worth striving for, on utopias, on a good future, a good cause, a good world for all of us.

Post from February 23, 2016, filed under Philosophy and Everything Else.

Stream Theory

Not just since the Law of Attraction is there this idea of “like attracts like,” of self-fulfilling prophecies, of better being “careful” what we wish for. There’s another concept that I do like to work with though, in another thought experiment.

Post from January 31, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Philosophy Factoids

Meanwhile.

Post from November 30, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

On Mistakes

What is a mistake, really?

Post from November 16, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

On the Anatomy of Beliefs

From a philosophical viewpoint, here a strictly solipsistic one, any statement is a belief. Beliefs are important because they determine how we interpret, and per some schools of thought, make our realities…

Post from November 8, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

The 1,000 Lives Thought Experiment

Open up a text editor or grab a piece of paper, and write down what you’d do if you had another life. Or what you’d wish for in another life. Assume that anything goes…

Post from October 27, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

On Science Experimenting on Life

There are boundaries, and some boundaries must be non-negotiable.

Post from September 10, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

The Teaching Dilemma

Maybe we’re here to learn, but is it at all said that we can be taught?

Post from September 7, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

Several Lives

I have no doubt that we live several lives. I have no doubt for there’s an entirely different belief system, an entirely different thought framework, that supports this model. Here, though, I want to isolate a single idea, the one of multiple lives, as opposed to one life.

Post from August 20, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

Two Realities

Wundt wrote in 1911 how “a human being is a psycho-physical and not only a physical unity,” and here we’re thinking about that a little, aloud.

Post from August 13, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

Loving Technology

I love the idea of caring, of loving technology. I believe we need technology that is loving. I think we have ample opportunities to envision and build technology that is loving. Here I’ll be brief and merely bring up the concept.

Post from May 8, 2015, filed under Philosophy.

On the Problems and Limits of Science

Science can’t explain everything. It never could. It never will. Yet science is run as if it could explain everything. It is run completely unchecked. And this unchecked pretense of omniscience and omnipotence is a problem for us for a number of reasons.

Post from March 31, 2015, filed under Philosophy.