Dumbsophy
Had a nice granny nap that turned into a depro-sleep or maybe it was a food coma whichever it was, I feel quite awake. So now to stay up way too late so I don't waste my wakefulness and sunny fucking disposition at work.
I finished listening to a philosophy podcast recently - Philosophize This - well, I say finished. I mean caught up on a 136 episodes.
It is a nifty podcast that broadly covers many foundational and core areas, now don't be thinking I am studying any of this. As with anything I know, it is merely a case of adding some more general knowledge. I do not specialize I generalize...
I thought that was quite clever to be honest.
Anyhow
I don't care too much for the modern or post-post-modern philosophy... Ok, I don't care too much for what anyone alive has to say. I don't think they have an effect on the world yet so guess we have to wait for them to die.
Maybe it is just because there are now so many areas and they can just keep fragmenting them as they wish to the point that someone is only discussing the ethics of a one legged trans species chimp being revoked automatic pirate privileges.
Although ethics and morals are things that tend to trigger my interest or rage. It depends. Basically if it is on the news it is unethical and about people whom are immoral. Everyone loves a bad boy right.
“Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
So since we live in such a backward world where for example they try to apply logical thinking to backwards countries like South Africa and proceed to then bastardize that with their taint of cultural influence then these things on the grand scope serves no one... Until they are dead and the world takes a breather to exercise some hindsight.
Right now the only definition of hindsight that is being employed is having your head up your ass.
Isolate and Meditate
Fuck that is a shit title, but it has been typed so it shall be. One of the Schools of thought that stood out to me was Stoicism. Mainly it is how he covered it in the episode and although it gets quite extreme and has a few cuddle after a one night stand and cry values; on the surface there are many things a person would say well I do that already.
Ok maybe not many people but definitely for me. I read a bit more about stoicism and there is a lot that is very relevant to the world we live in now. I am not going to become some practitioner, because partly I was just born Stoic and the other because I am too damn lazy.
On the one side you have this indifference and then the softcock side of that indifference making you appreciate things more.
Now it may just be me, but I don't like acknowledging that I appreciate things or that I might be grateful. Maybe I can note it to myself but the thought of actually saying such things is... urrgh.
I did think about it, and sure it makes sense maybe you appreciate them more by accepting they are just things, or just people and they will be gone soon enough.
In the scope of the universe and time, I am but nothing other than my actions. My actions and thoughts are the only things I can control and it does make sense that if something does not directly affect me then it is not my concern.
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”
~ Epictetus
Now that may not be completely inline with Stoicism but it sure is inline with how I tend to go about things. I don't include talking smack about stuff or people as concerning myself with it. Talking shit about things is more an exercise in passing time.
“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won't make us happier.”
~ Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
So sure there are many quotes a person can just pull and then ooh and aah at the crap and I think even in some of those trashligions a person will find something that you can relate to. That is why the nonsense works.
I do think Stoicism does a hell of a lot more introspection and is more for the person than any of the others. It is practical advice written fancifully. What else do you want?
Anyhow...
The main quote that really made me read more alongside one from Marcus showing indifference to his wife and children are the ones that I relate to the most.
"Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them."
~ Seneca
I have a saying of my own which goes: "People are just accessories." I think another part of philosophy that trips me up is that they are truly earnest in the things they say.
I am more if the shoe fits.
When you start going down the philosophy rabbit hole you can start asking all kinds of tangential questions that have nothing to do with the original question. This is how all these types of things get started in the first place. In the world of crypto, for example, I feel that the meaning of who Satoshi Nakamoto is is more a question of the philosophical background of the individual than a matter of facts in many cases. Knowing enough about a person would lead you to various answers. And why is that? The questions would never end.
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So now or not long from now, it'll be the time you're at work again. Hope you got enough rest!
I always look at philosophers the way I look at any other person.
I look at philosophy as guidance coming from a usually very opinionated source. So in my opinion, those who actually make a decision to become philosophers have an overabundance of hubris and feel they offer something of great importance with their euphemisms.
Have any philosophically catchy euphemisms ever served to solve, heal or change things in the real world, or do they just make us sound like we're smart when we interject them into normal conversation?
And when you think about it, isn't literally everyone a philosopher, and not just those ancient guys they made into statues and for whom we are to have the deepest respect?
Child please. ;)
Not sure about solving but I also don't think many of the problems are solvable as much as they are mutatable. From the bits and pieces, I read philosophy has kickstarted many things in the sciences and of course, our current politics in itself is a problem-based in philosophy. I think maybe a good term might just be brainstorming. If I were to be a philosopher I would not aim to lead and rule but just go well here are some thoughts on the matter, debate so we can strengthen or do without then when that is done may be many more accept it and it becomes a guiding light to all... I don't think philosophy or the person philosophizing can be at fault for not starting revolutions and forcing their views down peoples throats.
Agreed everyone can be a philosopher, almost everyone. Many just are not and maybe those abusing their rule and the ones protesting now can be said to be part of a school of thought and that surely makes them philosophers? It is not that those old guys are the only ones but that they formed the foundation and probably just because they are the most popular. There are modern philosophers or people I guess they more officially refer to as philosophers because those are the ideals they lived by etc. Simplest example would be like the Marxist things and there were Sartre and people like that which I guess played their political card very heavily. I don't know too much of the people themselves and like I said don't care much for the modern things as they seem a bit twisted but all are based on something showing how thought has developed and changed.
That is the parts I like how ideas and such change or are still relevant. Sure I took a jab at the philosophers that are alive and I guess there are people shaping our futures alive right now with their philosophies whispered into the ears of the masses etc.
But I don't think philosophy is irrelevant since how can it be if it is so all-encompassing. Solving things though is up to people and just having an idea has never been enough hence Christianity rose so quickly as in its time it gave people the assurance which I think philosophy just can't. We have to accept we just don't know things, unlike religion.
Haha and thanx for the tip again but really not necessary also I think I might be contradicting myself a bit so maybe I too can be a philosopher?
What is Child?
My own, personal philosophy on life would be that we can't "plan" our lives. We can plan an education, a career, a wedding, a funeral, etc., but we can't plan our whole life before we've lived it. I think of philosophy sort of the way I think about HR; it's there, and it's always going to be there, but I'm not sure there is an overall value realized in the end when accounting gets it.
I think what any philosophy accomplishes, especially when widely accepted, is to induce a subtle form of manipulation over a substantial portion of the general population. I see it as a tool philosophical scholars have used many times to simply shame a person into acceptance, even if it's a completely superficial acceptance. Superficial still promotes the philosophy.
And that's what's important to a philosophical belief, ideal or way of life - acceptance.
There was a time when I had that respect for philosophers that most people have, but when I developed my own philosophy, I then only saw them as opinions with which I could agree or disagree. But that's just me.
I think too many philosophical ideals being presented today lean towards completely upsetting life as we know it, and with purpose. Some of these "ideals" have nothing to do with philosophy and everything to do with, for lack of a better term, brainwashing. But it hides behind the respected name "philosophy," when it's really scam philosophy.
"Child please," was a quote by Terrell Owens, an ex NFL wide receiver whose philosophy was to make a lot of noise and get lots of interviews. In one of the interviews I think he was sitting out of training camp because he wanted more money, and a reporter asked him if he was worried about getting cut I think, and he said, "Child please" as a rebuff. I like to use it when I can, lol.
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Hello!
Well, your post made me think of several things that are important in my thoughts, I admit that your post is deep and of normal expectation
Greetings from Venezuela
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Well I like this statement... I think imma use it too, for random/other things. 😄
Hey I haven't checked much on what Stoicism is yet. Interesting penderis topic as always. haha. What about thinking less of people and more of nature? 🤔 Haven't checked if there's any related school of thought, etc., for that. 😅
I think you will find quite a few things that focus on nature maybe try to avoid the more occult like ones though :)
Lol... Is that like Druidism or something? 😋
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