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Align Your Will with Nature
Diogenes the Cynic sees a mouse, happily running about, not looking for money or prestige, and finds a lesson in the mouse’s behaviour: Diogenes says the gods have given us an easy life but we’ve made it difficult for ourselves by overlaying it with nonsense. Even in Diogenes’ time, to talk of ‘the gods providing’ would be taken metaphorically. This is all the more true in our more secular time. So we can replace ‘the gods’ with ‘nature’ here and the effect is the same. Nature has given us a relatively easy life but we’ve overlaid it with nonsense. We…
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The Courage of Cynicism
I love the Cynics and I wish I were courageous enough to be one. I think they are essentially right in everything they say. A student once expressed surprise at this, when I said as much in a lecture, pointing out that I had celebrated Socrates’ prioritisation of the ethical. Weren’t the two incompatible? Socrates says there is nothing more important than living a decent life; the Cynics go around spitting in people’s faces and generally causing trouble. However you justify it, there’s not much ‘decency’ in Cynic life. I think that’s true, and I was glad to have the…
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The Purpose of the Problem of Evil
I think there’s something odd about discussing the weightiest matters for trivial ends. If I’m being honest, I think philosophers have lost sight of their true purpose, their ‘that for the sake of which’ they philosophise, especially about the problem of evil. Once upon a time, the purpose of philosophizing about the problem was to correct our attitude to the world, one way or another. Whether to alleviate our anxieties about pleasing the gods, or to remind us of our faulty opinions, or to reassure us about the ultimate underlying goodness of the physical world, we wanted to reconcile our…
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Shouting from the Sidelines
I’ve often thought there’s something absurd about a philosopher shouting from the sidelines of society, accusing everyone of being miserable. Most people seem quite content to go about their business; they don’t seem particularly tormented by being in ordinary society; it’s only the philosopher that is. Who is more miserable here? The one who is happy in the world or the one who lives outside of it? But then I look at the brief biographies of famous and successful people, or our leaders, the great and good, the paragons of ordinary society, the pictures of success, and although it is…
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Look Beyond the Body: The Phaedo
‘It’s easy to get caught up in material reality and forget what really matters. Caring for a newborn infant is a particularly clear example of this. Your life is made up of activities necessary for the care and maintenance of a body: feeding and cleaning and sleeping, inputs and outputs; these are all material measures. It’s easy to let those measures dominate your perspective and determine what you see. That would be a mistake. It only takes a moment’s philosophical reflection to see that your baby is more than just their body. They are not only a physical thing but…
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Philosophy is a Fruiting Tree
Whenever I consider introducing philosophy to people, it always seems like it’s the wrong time: too late for the old, because they don’t have time or inclination to change themselves, and too soon for the young, because they don’t understand why it could be needed. Only the young person who has suffered knows why you might need to defend yourself against life with an art of living. A philosopher can only offer what they have, which is philosophy. But philosophy is made of ideas and ideas are only seeds. Seeds are not fruit. Some of these seeds might take root…
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The Call of Callicles
‘Is he serious or is he joking?’, asks Callicles, having heard Socrates philosophise. Socrates says he is serious. But for Callicles it’s all too absurd to take seriously. To prefer to live miserably under a tyrant than happily as a tyrant? To prefer to suffer wrong than to do it? To prioritise wisdom and ethical excellence over pleasure, money, reputation, popularity, and power? No one in their right mind would choose this, says Callicles, and he’s heard enough. It’s time someone told Socrates some home truths. What follows (in the Gorgias) is a damning tirade against the philosophical life. Callicles…
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It’s not about the gods: The Euthyphro
Socrates talks to a lot of different people about a lot of different things. In each case, Socrates meets people where they are, on their terms, and tries to move them one step closer to a better understanding. Mostly this movement is towards a better understanding of goodness and ethical excellence, regardless of the subject matter at hand. If you want to understand Socrates, understand this: It doesn’t really matter what they are talking about, Socrates is talking about virtue. A clear example of this is what we see in the Euthyphro. Socrates is talking to Euthyphro, who is busy…
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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