my thoughts on anything related to philosophy.
An Actor’s Life for Me All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts – William Shakespeare In Disney’s Pinocchio, the song “An actor’s life for me” is sung by the fox, luring Pinocchio into … Read more
What are Myths? In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell shows us what the myths of the past have in common. He identifies an archetypal story structure that explains the patterns most great myths and folk stories follow. He describes the role of the archetypal characters within the story and what they symbolize. The … Read more
The Tricks of Sisyphus The myth of Sisyphus has become analogous to working futilely at an arduous task forever. But how are we to interpret to the punishment he received from the gods? Many have reached different conclusions of what the punishment of pushing a rock up a hill eternally means, and some are more … Read more
The Sam Harris Cookbook Example Ricky Gervais once appeared on Stephan Colbert’s show and had a casual debate about the existence of God. Colbert (a Catholic) asks Gervais (an atheist) how something could come from nothing. Gervais was momentarily stumped, and then referred to scientific facts for support – but Colbert pointed out that Gervais didn’t … Read more
Reconciling our Irrational Beliefs with Happiness One of the central questions to life is: How can be happy? That’s not a straightforward question, of course. What does it mean to be happy? How do we reconcile our irrational beliefs with our desire to be happy? And what exactly is our definition of happiness? Dan Gilbert, … Read more
Evolving Values There is only one authentic way to live, and it’s according to your own values. The more serious considerations are put on hold when you are a child and have not yet developed your superego. As an adult, you will often long for a time when you were not exhausted by the hardships of … Read more
‘He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee” – Nietzsche An archetypal truth is like a law of nature in that it describes a pattern that eternally repeats. It is hardly wise to classify … Read more
The Scapegoat Instinct “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” Dwight D. Eisenhower Blaming others is easy. You transfer responsibility to someone else for what went wrong, and without much effort on your part, other voices in the crowd will start following your lead. With social media, the act of scapegoating … Read more
If you compliment another person, you must quickly knock on wood to prevent bad luck that might occur to this person, that an evil eye might bring about bad luck. Many people inherit their superstitious beliefs from society or family, and pass those beliefs down to their children. But is it good to be superstitious? A … Read more
Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson had a two hour exchange over the definition of truth in 2017. If you have the hard luck of having a friend who’s philosophically inclined and unlikely to let a single statement pass unchallenged, you’ll feel right at home when listening to the conversation. If not, you’ll probably switch off … Read more