Articles
American Diogenes – Henry David Thoreau’s Living Philosophy
Philosophy’s not about having “subtle thoughts” but about loving wisdom so much that you “live according to its dictates”
There is a type of temperament that, when mixed with philosophy, produces a very interesting flowering of the human condition. Diogenes the Cynic is one that we looked at in a previous episode. The Ancient [...]
Nietzsche vs. Jung: The Revaluation of All Values
Values are born not made
I shall probe these things more thoroughly and severely in another connection (under the title “On the History of European Nihilism;” it will be contained in a work in progress: The Will to Power: Attempt [...]
Epicurus: 4-Part Recipe for Happiness
And his long shadow through the ages
So the vital strength of his spirit won through, and he made his way far outside the flaming walls of the world and ranged over the measureless whole, both in mind and spirit. — Lucretius, in [...]
What is Metamodernism?
The era that follows postmodernity
“Let’s just say it: it’s over” Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernity Metamodernism might be the most important idea you encounter this year. In a world that is growing increasingly fractured and complex, Metamodernism is [...]
What is Empiricism?
The Philosophy of Locke, Berkeley and Hume
A few centuries before philosophy schismed between Analytic and Continental Philosophy, it was schismed between another two schools. The setup is much the same — the Anglophones and the “Europeans”. Only back then, in the [...]
The 20th Century’s Greatest Philosopher’s Struggle with Suicide
How Bertrand Russell Saved Ludwig Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein (image via Wikimedia: Public Domain) Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the most brilliant geniuses of the 20th century and has been claimed by many as the greatest philosopher of his century. To those who knew [...]
Why the Masterpiece of Medieval Philosophy was Never Finished
The Epiphany of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas was the shining light of medieval philosophy; he is commonly held to be one of the greatest philosophers of the Western tradition. He was the pinnacle of the Scholastic school of philosophy — [...]
The Difference Between Guilt and Shame
The difference between success and stagnation
You might expect the difference between guilt and shame to be a trivial, semantic distinction but nothing could be further from the truth. Research has shown that shame is highly correlated with addiction and depression [...]
Nihilism vs. Existentialism vs. Absurdism
The birth of Modernity’s Meaning Crisis and two responses to it
In the 19th and 20th centuries, modernity came into its fullness and with this maturation the vestiges of the religious worldview began to fall away revealing a crisis of meaning that we’ve come to [...]