The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoevsky is a short story that begins with a man walking St. Petersburg’s streets while musing upon how ridiculous his life is, as well as its distinct lack of meaning or purpose. This train of thought leads him to the idea of suicide, which he resolves to commit … Read more
Summary The American president has little power compared with European prime ministers. A president faces two parliaments, countless federal judges, and fifty sovereign states. He can rarely achieve anything, but he focuses the mind of the nation. The founders set this up intentionally, and it has stood the test of time. When the nation goes … Read more
Master For the master, there is no ‘tit for tat’… when we give something to the Master, we do not expect anything in return…” Stated more simply, the implicit Master who utters each proverb does so in a lordly manner apparently immune to counterargument. But once we consider the actual verbal content of a proverb, … Read more
The idea that the moon makes people go weird is one that’s been around for centuries. It’s literally where the word lunacy comes from; it’s why we have werewolf mythologisms. Agriculture hung around not because it made everybody’s lives better, but because it gave societies a Darwinian leg up. As the author Jared Diamond, a … Read more
Microbiome The microbiome affects our mood , libido , metabolism , immunity , and even our perception of the world and the clarity of our thoughts . It helps determine whether we are fat or thin , energetic or lethargic . Put simply , everything about our health — how we feel both emotionally and … Read more
I focus on rosacea chapters in The Skincare Bible by Anjali Mahto. What is the cause of rosacea? Rosacea remains poorly understood. We still do not know the exact cause, although there are several hypothesized factors, including hyper-reactive blood vessels that dilate more easily than they should. Other possibilities include an abnormal immune response in … Read more
In What is Ancient Philosophy? Pierre Hadot shows us the more practical side of philosophy, based on the way it was practices by its originators in ancient Greece over two thousand years ago. Hadot teaches us about the different schools of philosophy that existed at the time, and delineates their similarities and differences in an … Read more
To be aware of ourselves thus means to be aware of our moral state. This is what the tradition of Christian spirituality calls the examination of the conscience, a practice which was very widespread in the philosophical schools of antiquity. This practice has its roots, first of all, in the simple fact that in all … Read more
Silent meditation could be practiced while standing motionless – this was Socrates’ way-or while walking, as in the following verses by Horace: “Do you go silently, tiptoeing through the healthful woods, harboring in your mind all the thoughts worthy of a sage and a good man?” Likewise, the Stoic Epictetus: “Go for a walk alone, … Read more
Yet philosophical discourse is required in order to eliminate philosophical discourse. We know this Skeptical philosophical dis¬ course thanks to Sextus Empiricus, a physician who wrote at the end of the second century A.D. Sextus also gives us precious information on the history of the Skeptic movement. The Skeptics considered Pyrrho the model of the … Read more