Right here we’re on the finish of one other yr! In case you didn’t comply with the weblog over the entire yr, listed below are among the posts that I, personally, discover probably the most insightful and provoking.
Though Each day Philosophy has been going since October 2016, it’s solely this yr that I lastly managed to work repeatedly on my articles. So sit down with a glass of wine (or juice), some mild music within the background, and luxuriate in a relaxed hour of sharing among the ideas of the perfect minds from three millennia of philosophical historical past. Let’s go!
On September nineteenth, 2020, I began the brand new run with a subject that may be very pricey to me as an expert thinker: freedom of speech. The article discusses the well-known phrases of socialist reformer Rosa Luxemburg “Freedom is at all times the liberty to assume in any other case.”
It is going to be no secret to the readers of this weblog that I like Aristotle, so there have been fairly numerous posts over the previous months that explored the traditional thinker’s views on advantage, ethics, and happiness. Listed below are two examples:
For Aristotle, the ethical growth of an individual progresses in three levels. From the kid, which can not resist temptation, by means of the intermediate stage of the grown up, who’s tempted however resists temptation, to the ultimate stage of the smart particular person, who is rarely even tempted and at all times, spontaneously, does the morally proper factor.
Aristotle on dwelling a life properly by means of exercising one’s virtues.
In my private opinion, philosophy is most related when it permits us to make use of the knowledge of the previous as a way to perceive the issues of at present. Richard Taylor makes a case for extra creativity in our lives:
Richard Taylor (1919–2003) thought that it’s creativity that makes us really feel blissful and fulfilled. In line with Taylor, a life lived with out exercising one’s creativity is a wasted life.
And, equally, Erich Fromm laments how the trendy methods of business manufacturing have impoverished human expertise. You’ll find our Final Information to the Philosophy of Erich Fromm right here:
One other space during which the trendy idea of progress is radically completely different from the previous is our potential to separate the weather of complicated methods from one another and to make use of them outdoors of their unique context: the refining of sugar, the extraction of petroleum and our potential to have the pleasure of intercourse with out the hazards of being pregnant are all situations of the identical fundamental sample:
For St Augustine, the pleasure inherent in any exercise is sweet so long as the exercise is carried out due to its supposed perform. After we attempt to get the pleasure with out the perform of the exercise, we’re violating the order of nature and committing a sin.
By way of utilized ethics, we have now talked concerning the ethics of whistleblowing, of consuming meat, of social media, and whether or not it may be proper to interrupt the regulation. Right here’s an instance, and yow will discover the remaining on the homepage:
Social media have an effect on our society in some ways. We think about problems with dependancy, democracy, the decline of journalism, privateness, surveillance, and results on friendships and consumer happiness. Taking the obvious issues of social media into consideration, it appears that evidently LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Pinterest are extra moral, on the entire, whereas Twitter, Fb and Instagram are least moral.
Lastly, we have now coated among the classics of philosophy and associated fields. One matter I notably love is the Romantic motion on the finish of the 18th and the start of the nineteenth century, which may declare among the brightest minds of historical past. We didn’t have an excessive amount of time to get into these prior to now yr, however I’ll write extra on them within the subsequent! Right here’s an instance from the German thinker Novalis:
German Romantics, very similar to their English counterparts, valued spontaneity and naturalness, partially as a response to the start lack of the pure world on account of industrialisation and urbanisation.
And with this we’re on the finish of the previous yr!
However crucial factor will not be the previous however the future, and here’s what’s developing subsequent yr: our year-long experiment of _actually _dwelling six completely different philosophies, every all through two months. I’d be blissful if as many readers as attainable would take part on this! You don’t must decide to something, and you may simply learn alongside and resolve, day for day, whether or not you wish to take among the recommendation supplied by the day’s thinker or not. It’s all free and voluntary. However, in fact, the extra you (privately) decide to following that program, the extra profit you’re more likely to get from it. Listed below are all of the juicy particulars:
Each day Philosophy has the thought for this yr’s decision: stay your life like a thinker. Six basic philosophies of life, every lived for 2 months, with a number of weekly emails to maintain you knowledgeable, entertained and engaged in your journey. Come alongside to the One 12 months, Six Methods challenge!
Thanks for studying! I hope that you simply loved this little retrospective, and much more, I hope that you’ll come alongside within the coming yr!
See you in 2021! Completely satisfied New 12 months!
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