It’s something that for generations, has been constant. It’s a message. It’s in some of the most popular songs recorded. It’s what many religions discuss at length. It’s what psychologists and philosophers have been debating for centuries. It’s what the self-help industry tries to sell you at every moment they get the chance. What is … Read more
Improvement of the Mind by Isaac Watts is an early text about how to learn, and it was recommended by Faraday, who claimed that it had provided him with the framework and tools he needed for his eventual discoveries. No one can learn everything, it is neither possible nor desirable, but everyone should try to … Read more
Television and radio do not stimulate your mind or force you to think. They provide you with pre-packaged opinions that give you the illusion that you are thinking. How to Read a Book argues for switching to the written word, and to doing it right. You are enlightened, not when you know what the author … Read more
In ancient Chinese rituals, straw dogs were used as sacrifices to the gods. ‘Gaia’ is the name of a goddess in Greek mythology, and the Gaia principle, by Lovelock, suggests that the earth is a self-regulating, complex system that is influenced by its habitants. And that human beings, are merely organisms in this system, that … Read more
What is the point of philosophy? It is not to get rich (clearly). It is not about truth (how do you define truth anyway?), it is not about wielding power, or sharpening the axe, or impressing people, or making a difference. The point of philosophy is to escape. The personal dialogue you have with yourself … Read more
The Mind is an Excellent Servant, but a Terrible Master Robin Sharma The David Foster Wallace graduation speech comes to mind when I read this quote. The message is that your mind represents your automatic, default setting, your mind does whatever it is biologically wired to do, and part of this wiring requires to be … Read more
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom is about the inevitability of a technological dystopia unless serious action is taken. Imagining a technological dystopia is not original.Huxley and Orwell, have been able to write about the end of the world we love in novels, that people to this day refer to, they even have debates about who was … Read more
Pleasure and Rationality In trying to understand human nature more deeply, I have read what some philosophers and psychologists have had to say, to get a starting point. To understand what man is, it is first necessary to understand what he wants, and more crucially, what he does not want. One of the first ideas … Read more
The idea of deception is easy for most people to understand. It is not a puzzle that some people are able to deceive others. It is not difficult to think of many reasons why they would do so. But why self-deception? It appears paradoxical, that a person would harm themselves. Why would you, an intelligent … Read more
The perception of mental illness has changed across time. According to Foucault in Madness and Civilization, this change has more to do with social and economic needs, than any humanitarian feelings towards the mentally ill. From the discovery of that necessity which inevitably reduces man to nothing, we have shifted to the scornful contemplation of … Read more