Philosophy

Attention is first philosophy

1\. Attention is the practice beneath all philosophical practices. Nearly every contemplative tradition—Stoic, Platonic, Christian monastic—was built on attention as the foundational practice. Practices like fasting, physical training, and meditation exist to guard the stillness attention requires. Philosophy, in this sense, is a discipline of perception, not mere argumentation. 2\. Distraction is a perennial human problem,…

Simone Weil is awesome

Going down the rabbit hole of learning more about who Simone Weil is.

A considered life

The lesson to take from Nietzsche is that we all may not fully understand the implications of our most cherished values, our personal beliefs, or actions, and live our entire lives in ignorance or self-denial, unconsciously undermining ourselves and others. How do we avoid this? We need to make sure that the belief systems we occupy, and the values we deeply attach ourselves to, are actually serving us and those around us. We…

A short intro to Baruch Spinoza's philosophy

Baruch Spinoza: The Philosopher Who Saw God in Everything Baruch Spinoza stands as one of the most radical and influential philosophers in Western history, yet his ideas remain surprisingly relevant to modern concerns about meaning, freedom, and our place in the universe. Born in 1632 in Amsterdam to Portuguese Jewish refugees, Spinoza would eventually be excommunicated from his community for heretical views—only to produce a…

Dare to feel

Cummings should know — just four years earlier, he had fought that hardest battle himself: When he was awarded the prestigious Academy of American Poets annual fellowship — the MacArthur of poetry — Cummings had to withstand harsh criticism from traditionalists who besieged him with hate for the bravery of breaking with tradition and being nobody-but-himself in his art. With an eye to that unassailable creative integrity…

On the joys of writing

What I didn’t realize was that writing a Substack would also reignite my intellect. Over the first five months, I posted an essay nearly every week. I’ve always read a lot, but before, the words passed through me—my mind a sieve. Now, I keep dozens of running files in my notes app about topics I hope to write about. Before, spare moments were taken up by mindless scrolling. Now, they’re spent writing and editing. Substack…

Learn some philosophy

It might sound banal but I'm still amazed at how much good content is available for free on YouTube. Got example, here's a list of curated channels about philosophy.

Charlie Munger on dealing with setbacks in life

Here is a summary of the video based on the transcript. Video: How Charlie Munger Survive Life’s Hardest Moments... | Final Interview with CNBC 2023 Channel: YAPSS This video features a segment from Charlie Munger’s final interview with CNBC, where he discusses resilience, personal tragedy, and the progress of civilization. \ \[00:00\] Marriage and the Iron Rule of Life The interview begins with Munger reflecting on his…

On having a philosophy of money

A few thoughts on people doing dumb shit with money.

We are borrowed stardust

I thought of Einstein, who at sixteen, lonely and introverted, began wondering about the nature of the universe by imagining himself chasing a beam of light through outer space; I thought of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, also lonely and also dedicated to the light, who at the same time was formulating his general theory of love as “two solitudes that protect, border, and greet each other.” And I thought about how love is…

Philosophy understood as a way of life

Hadot isn’t saying philosophy-as-life disappeared after antiquity and medieval times, leaving only professors in universities. He notes that the existentialists, for instance, carried this tradition forward. Other scholars—like Matthew Sharpe and Michael Ure—have shown that it runs through Socrates, the Stoics, medieval and early modern thinkers, Descartes, Bacon, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and even Foucault. My own…

The death of silence and the loss of contemplative spaces

An essay about how the loss of contemplative space is robbing us of our humanity.

Stephen Hawking on the philosophy of life

Guest: You have said you do not believein God. Do you have a philosophy of life that helps you? Stephen Hawking: It is clear that we are just an advanced breed of primates on a minor planet orbiting around a very average star, in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. BUT, ever since the dawn of civilization people have craved for an understanding of the underlying order of the world. There ought to be…