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Profit and Loss
Some philosophers treat ethics like it were a career in finance; wherein the primary measures are gross profit and what you can expect to earn in return.
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Shadow Chasing: Afterword
By sheer coincidence, the day I published a post about how ‘once upon a time I used to chase shadows but now I don’t do that anymore’ was the same day I caught a shadow that I’ve been chasing for a little while. While out shopping for food and nappies and cleaning products, I thought I’d check the magazine stand to see if they had a copy of a publication for which I’d notionally had an article accepted. And there I was, enigmatically-half-smiling back at me from the back page! I feel a rush of…pride? Satisfaction? I’m not sure, but…
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Good Enough
I am convinced that virtue is necessary for happiness. I am not convinced that it’s sufficient. But knowing that it is necessary to be good is good enough for me.
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Be More of What is Good
The goal in life is not to have more of what is good but to be more of what is good.
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Shadow Chasing
Over the past few years – having made an attempt to pursue philosophy as a way of life, to take it seriously and digest its lessons and not only treat it as an academic discipline – I’ve come to see new depths in old ideas. One example of this is the cynical little detail in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’. There, Plato suggests that these poor souls – imprisoned in a dark cave of ignorance and only able to look at the shadows on the wall in front of them – would esteem those who are best at discerning the…
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Dirty Water
If you think you are swimming in dirty water, you get out. You don’t keep swimming, adding to the filth.
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Junk and Nonsense
A lot of philosophy and philosophers are junk and nonsense. But you can’t dismiss philosophy itself for that. There are a lot of bad musicians and bad music, but that doesn’t make music itself bad.
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Philosophy is Lost
Philosophy has lost its way. It is inconsistent with itself. It is not living in conformity with its nature. It believes itself to be profound and important, but what is characteristic of its daily activity is trivial and it produces trivialities.
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A Philosopher’s Difference
Philosophers chase what matters and so neglect what doesn’t. Most people neglect what matters and so chase what doesn’t.
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The Musician Allegory
As a musician, to play out of tune and not realise it is one thing. But to realise that you are playing out of tune and to keep playing: that is absurd. Such a person is ridiculous. If you realise that you are playing out of tune, you stop playing. You don’t start playing again until you have tuned yourself up.
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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