Tag Archives: Philosophy

PROMPT: Self-Care

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Daily writing prompt
How do you practice self-care?
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1.) Move my body often and with vigor. 2.) Eat my veggies. 3.) Rest as though it’s an essential part of the process of living (i.e. not as though it’s goofing off between “doing stuff.”) 4.) Drop anything without value, making personal development as much a process of stripping away as it is of adding to.

BOOK REVIEW: Asimov’s Foundation and Philosophy ed. by Heter Joshua & Josef Thomas Simpson

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Asimov's Foundation and PhilosophyAsimov’s Foundation and Philosophy by Heter Joshua
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: August 24, 2023 [Paperback; ebook is out]

When I was a budding social science grad student, I learned that Asimov’s “Foundation” series was impetus for many young nerds of the previous generation to enter fields like Economics and Poli-Sci. The reason? At the heart of the story is a fictional discipline called Psycho-history, a mathematical field that’s premised on the idea that [while one can’t reliably forecast what an individual (or even small groups) will do,] given a large enough population one can make grand over-arching predictions about what will happen to society as a whole. It’s an idea that Asimov drew from his education in Chemistry, a field where one couldn’t say much about individual molecules but you could accurately model collective parameters (e.g. temperature.) It turns out that humans and their interactions are more complicated than gas molecules and so Psycho-history only works as a powerful plot device (a fact that Asimov discovered himself, supposedly driving mid-course corrections in the limited space he had to make them.) Anyhow, the idea that one might predict the unfolding of societal, economic, and international events was a powerful scholarly aphrodisiac for individuals who might otherwise have dismissed study of the social world as hopelessly and absurdly chaotic.

With that background generating curiosity and having read a number of Asimov’s books, I was eager to investigate this book that explores the philosophic underpinnings of Asimov’s fictional world. I was not disappointed. The imaginative “Foundation” series of books provides plenty of situations and ideas to which one can apply the lens of philosophy, from the limitations of reason and symbolic logic as tools to solve humanity’s problems to the morality of manipulation and questions of transparency that follow from it to what kind of free will — if any — can exist in a universe where Psycho-history works. This anthology of essays considers questions of mind, logic, morality, free will, identity, and existence, as well as various ideas from the Philosophies of History, Religion, and Science. The twenty-one essays are grouped into six parts by philosophic subdiscipline.

There are so many of these “pop culture meets philosophy” books out there, but I think this one does better than most because Asimov’s creative mind really offered such a rich assortment of ideas upon which to reflect.

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PROMPT: Good Life

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Daily writing prompt
What are the most important things needed to live a good life?
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1.) Good company; 2.) studiousness; 3.) a sense of humor, and 4.) the capacity to let go of that which has no value.

PROMPT: Three Books

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Daily writing prompt
List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
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Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

This poetry collection teaches that most challenging of human skills: how to be insanely confident that you can do anything without being a jerk about it. (Also, how to see beauty beyond the societal consensus of what’s beautiful.)

Zhuangzi by Zhuangzi

The virtues of a carefree, spontaneous, minimalist, and down-to-earth approach to living explained through tiny stories.

The Tragedies of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

A master class in things that can turn a life into a tragedy.

Titus Andronicus: Live by the sword = tragedy (An eye for an eye, and everyone dies.)

Romeo & Juliet: Grudges (+ Lust) = tragedy

Julius Caesar: handing your adversary the mic (/ the fickleness of crowds) = tragedy

Hamlet: indecisiveness = tragedy (i.e. On or off the crazy-bus.)

Othello: jealousy = tragedy

Macbeth: excessive ambition = tragedy

King Lear: needing gratuitous signs of affection = tragedy

Timon of Athens: expectations of reciprocity = tragedy

Anthony & Cleopatra: mixing one’s love and work lives = tragedy

Coriolanus: a crotchety old warrior in peace time = tragedy

BOOKS: The Mind of Adi Shankaracharya by Y. Keshava Menon

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The Mind of Adi ShankaracharyaThe Mind of Adi Shankaracharya by Y. Keshava Menon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This book does a good job of that at which the title hints, offering the reader insight into the philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya. Along the way, Menon presents clear descriptions of Indian philosophical concepts such as Maya, Avidya, Antahkarana, etc., and also compares and contrasts Shankaracharya’s philosophy with those of other philosophers (from both the East and West) as a means to clarify ideas that can be subtle and complex.

That said, what the book isn’t is an unbiased and objective look at Shankaracharya’s ideas. While Menon doesn’t go as far as to support the supernatural myths of Shankaracharya’s life (which are only discussed in the Appendix,) and he skirts that 800-pound gorilla of Hindu philosophic controversy, caste, he does present the philosophy as an advocate for Shankaracharya rather than as an indifferent scholar who merely wishes to deliver arguments and ideas while inviting thought among his readers.

While the book deals with epistemology, ethics, and various aspects of metaphysics, the biggest single subject is Self. I found the explanation of this topic to be fascinating. I had previously understood that among the major differences between Shankaracharya and Buddha was on this question. While I still find the Buddhist approach to Self (or, more properly, lack of Self — i.e. Anatta) to be the more compelling and parsimonious explanation, I feel that I was provided with about as clear an explanation of the Hindu (generally) and Shankaracharyan (specifically) views on Self as one could wish for.

I’d recommend this book. If you’ve come away from reading about subjects like “Maya” (Is it illusion? Is it NOT illusion?) this book can definitely help offer clarification, and (as books on philosophy go) it’s readable and not too jargon-laden. That said, if one is looking for a book that is not advocating a philosophy but, rather, objectively providing ideas and contrasting explanations, this book may bias your views.

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Limerick of Confucius

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The great Chinese philosopher Confucius
 wrote in maxims to avoid being circumlocutious.
   [That's a word that absurdly
   describes being wordy.]
 Be like Confucius, not like this verbose doofus.

Hannah Arendt Limerick

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The philosopher Hannah Arendt
 said, don't define us by how we make rent.
   like Dopey and Sneezy
   and George's wife "Weezy"
 one should be known for how public time is spent.

Idealist Limerick

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The philosopher known as George Berkeley
 denied the existence of all matter, curtly.
   Still, when he wanted pie,
   he wouldn't be denied,
  but made sure he ate it covertly.

Hit by a Hard Word [Free Verse]

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How is being hit by a hard word
 different from being hit by 
  a brick or a bat?

To burn, the spark of a hard word
  must find some kindling inside
   the recipient, elsewise it can't ignite. 

If someone points at me and screams:

"YOU ARE SUBPAR AT ALGEBRA!"

I remain unwounded.

[I'd like to say that it doesn't burn
  simply because it's true, 
   but the truth or falsity of hard words 
   is -- perhaps sadly -- not a major
   ignition factor.

 The kindling is a thing that sits inside one --
  something that makes one care,
   probably a complex mélange of factors.

 The truth of hard words? 
   That is an outside factor.]

Even if I were to discover that,
  to the person who issued the insult,
   there is no greater disparagement 
   than to cast aspersions upon a 
   person's middle school-level
   mathematics competency, 

I would remain unwounded. 

If I were to feel any sort of way
  about uncovering that knowledge,
   it would be to feel sort of bad 
   for the person who issued the taunt.

Now, how to burnproof one's soul,
  that is the question?

Five Great Yarns from Kahlil Gibran’s The Madman

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The MadmanThe Madman by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg Page

The Madman is a collection of poems and short fiction (often micro-fiction) of a philosophical nature. The protagonist claims he became a madman when a thief broke into his house and stole his masks, the masks that people wear to fit into society and appear “normal.” Beyond the thread created by this mad character, the entries meander along, each with its own moral and with little discernible overarching plot.

There are many clever stories in this collection, offering food-for-thought on religion, philosophy, and psychology. I’ll discuss five of my favorites:

“The Sleepwalkers” A mother and daughter are both sleepwalkers. When they are somnambulating, they speak to each other in horribly cruel terms, but when they wake up, they display (at least a veneer of) love and affection. Besides demonstrating the nature of the aforementioned masks, the loss of which gets one designated “crazy,” this story encourages the reader to discern the differences between conscious and subconscious mental activity.

“War” This one presents an analogy for war in which a thief breaks into the wrong building, walks into a machine, pokes his own eye out, and then takes the building owner to court seeking “justice” for his lost eye. The craftsman / shop-owner says he can’t lose an eye because he won’t be able to do his work, but he knows a neighboring craftsman who could have his eye removed without great loss of productivity. This story builds upon the well-known “An eye for an eye…” Bible verse with the added absurdity of violence being doled out randomly and without concern for whether the victim had anything to do with the events in question.

“The Wise King” A disgruntled witch poisons a city well with a substance that makes drinkers insane. The King avoids the well water and is spared insanity. However, the townspeople begin to plot against the king because, in their insanity, they believe him (as one who acts differently) to be insane. The king eventually drinks the well water in order to come back into synch with his subjects. This entry speaks to the arbitrary nature of classification of sane and insane, an idea that has been discussed in modern times by mental health experts such as R.D. Laing.

“The Two Cages” A bird is caged next to a lion. The bird’s confidence provides the central lesson, knowing they’re both imprisoned separately, the bird refers to the lion as “fellow prisoner.” The power dynamic has changed from that of the jungle. Perhaps, the bird has even happily exchanged its freedom — either for safety or to tear the lion down a little.

“The Eye” In this story, the other sense organs mock the eye after it comments upon how grand a mountain is. The ear can’t hear the mountain and the skin can’t feel the mountain. Therefore, the other senses assume that the eye is either lying or is delusional. This tale speaks to the risk of denying something based on one’s own limited perception.

This book was originally published in 1918 and is in the public domain (most places.) It’s definitely worth the short time investment required to read it.

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