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Against the Standards of Society
It’s not unusual for people to go against the norms and standards of society, only ordinarily they do it for the wrong reasons: they claim rewards that they don’t deserve; they assert knowledge that they don’t have; they lie. The difference between the ordinary person and the philosopher is that when the philosopher violates social norms, they do it for the right reasons. We refuse the reward when most people would claim it; we deny knowledge when most people would assert it; we tell the truth when most people would lie.
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Solitary and Poor
When society is so much junk, it leaves you longing for a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. (Or at least the first two…)
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Nature, Society, and Government
Society is necessary for human beings to overcome the difficulties of nature. Society ameliorates some of these difficulties but adds an entirely new set of difficulties. Government is necessary to overcome the difficulties of society. Government ameliorates some these difficulties but adds an entirely new set of difficulties. We are always adding to our difficulties with difficulties of our own making. This explains why it’s true to say that people run to society to escape the evils of nature, but run to nature to escape the evils of society. ‘We are everywhere in chains!’, says the pessimist.
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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 […]
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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