“Wisdom is one of the grandest and oddest words out there, so lofty it doesn’t sound like something one could ever consciously strive to be. Nevertheless, it deserves to be an aspiration.” Alain de Botton “Wisdom is one of those qualities that is difficult to define—because it encompasses so much—but which people generally recognize when…
“A crisis of wisdom as the defining crisis of our time? This diagnosis, and from a scientist and scholar at that, is unusual. Science, psychology and even the multitude of modern and postmodern therapies and social practices, have not been able to fill the vacuum.” Thomas Steininger “Who wants to be wise anymore? People want…
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Individuality and civility are opposing forces. In one extreme, we serve individuality – be it expression or conquests. In the other extreme, we serve others. Where on this continuum do we…
“We are suffering from a wisdom famine.” John Vervaeke “We long for beauty, wisdom, and purpose. We want to live for something more than just ourselves.” Alain de Botton Wisdom Sources A wisdom source is a collection of ideas and practices for living a good life. The hallmark of a wisdom source is comprehensiveness –…
“It is not our souls that are broken but, as neuroscience teaches us, it is our minds, These minds, the faulty walnuts we interpret reality through, did not evolve in ways that render them easy companions in the harried conditions of modern life. And it’s not just we who are broken. We live in societies…
“They say: ‘THAT was MORE REAL! That was REALLY REAL! And because of my desire to be in contact with what’s real, I’m going to change myself, and I’m going to change my world.’ They start to transform their whole lives and their whole self. The whole agent-arena relationship is radically and revolutionarily restructured.” John…
“Society tells us to direct our hopes in two areas- Romantic love and professional success. And it distracts us with news, movies, and consumption. It’s not enough, as we know. Especially at three in the morning.” Alain de Botton “Welcome to McLife. What’s your order?” I’ll have a dream job, love life, and intermittent bouts…
Where do you go for information? … internet? Where do you go for knowledge? … university? science? history?Where do you go for wisdom? John Vervaeke “We long for beauty, wisdom, and purpose. We want to live for something more than just ourselves.” Alain de Botton WHY — is modern life so vexing? In 2022, the…
“Rationality is not merely being ‘logical’. Rationality is realizing your capacity for self-deception and illusion, and, for self correction. The core motivation of rationality is to come into contact with reality as close as possible, by those means that are reliable as possible.” John Vervaeke “[Life] sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation…
100 something essays later… My aim with this blog: to “know myself” and “help people suffer less”. I feel good about the first part – the journey to “know myself” is now quite alive, and will carry on as long as I do. As for “help people suffer less”, I never really knew what to…
“A crisis of wisdom as the defining crisis of our time? This diagnosis, and from a scientist and scholar at that, is unusual. Science, psychology and even the multitude of modern and postmodern therapies and social practices, have not been able to fill the vacuum.” Thomas Steininger “Who wants to be wise anymore? People want…
“There’s a deep continuity between the way biological life self-organizes and the way cognition self-organizes, which means there is a deep interconnection and interdependence between the functioning of your brain and the functioning of your body.” John Vervaeke Does the world need another fitness essay or influencer? Nah. I will merely share as evidence -…
For certain, we can each know personal peace and freedom. Even so, it would be naive to ignore the greatest challenges in our global society. By acknowledging them, we can conduct and shape our lives in a way that doesn’t exacerbate them, either for us, or other people. These topics will be tracked and expanded…
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Individuality and civility are opposing forces. In one extreme, we serve individuality – be it expression or conquests. In the other extreme, we serve others. Where on this continuum do we…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
