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Attend to What Matters: Fear
I had reason to refocus on this idea on a recent trip to the dentist. I haven’t had much dental work in my life, but when I have, I am one of those people for whom the anaesthetic never really works properly the first or second (or sometimes third or fourth) time. I know this, having been taught it by repeated experience, but of course any dentist encountering me for the first time must learn it for themselves.
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Attend to What Matters: Willpower
My earliest pre-philosophical application of the idea was ‘willpower’. As a younger person, caught up in the lust for admiration that is characteristic of some younger people, I was very motivated to be physically fit, strong, and attractive. To this end, I understood the need for diet and exercise. But these are difficult things to do, requiring a degree of discipline and a willingness to subject yourself to suffering.
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Attend to What Matters: Introduction
‘If I attend properly I will have no choices and this is the ultimate condition to be aimed at.’ (Iris Murdoch) I believe this to be true; and if it is true, then it is very important. Possibly few ideas in philosophy are more important, since in this idea you will find the ultimate aim and purpose of philosophy, and in that something that points to the finest way that a human being can live.
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One Year On, Part Three: The Hypocrisy of the Ironic Philosopher
This website is nothing but words and I am all talk. And this from someone who says that ethics is best shown by conduct and not by words; that philosophy ought to be shown and said, in such a way that the inner meaning and outward appearance are as one. But what do I show, here, except the continuation of so many ironic contradictions?
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One Year On, Part Two: Philosophy Applied to Public Debates
I’ve lost a measure of faith in the idea that philosophy can be ‘applied’ to the various debates of our times. In most cases, most people wouldn’t understand the arguments because they lack the requisite ‘preparation’; and so if you have a cause to fight for then that would be better served by appeal to other means of persuasion, such as one celebrity endorsement.
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One Year On, Part One: Philosophy as Therapy
This website is one year old. One year on, I think and feel very differently about things: this shows it’s done its work.
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The Allegory of Martial Arts, Bad Fortune, and the Sceptic
Philosophy is routinely dismissed as good-for-nothing: an old and out-dated discipline that serves no useful purpose. It is not alone.
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A Strange Play
I saw a strange play the other day. I’m still not sure what to make of it. It didn’t make much sense to me, but maybe it can make some sense to you? In the first act, a player strutted onto the stage in full costume, wearing a grotesque and elaborate mask. He said ‘I […]
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Esoteric Protreptics
1. Society will support whatever it values. Society does not support philosophy. Evidently, society does not value philosophy. Philosophers should put all their efforts into demonstrating the value of what they do. 2. The value of philosophy can only be seen by those who understand it. Few people understand philosophy. Consequently, few people can see […]
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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