Shortly after launching this blog, I summarized my views on philosophy as a way of life in an essay for Three Quarks Daily entitled The Scandal of Philosophy. The short version of the essay is that philosophy has become an academic discipline existing almost exclusively in academic institutions. As a result, it has sacrificed itsContinue reading “The Scandal of Philosophy”
Category Archives: Philosophy as a way of life
Norms, Critique, and the Double Mind
When faced with questions about how one should live, most people begin by exploring answers within the settled norms and conventions that already frame their lives. The conventions we live by are familiar and thus seem right even when life throws curveballs at us, even when we swing and miss. To look for answers outsideContinue reading “Norms, Critique, and the Double Mind”
What Does it Mean to Lead a Philosophical Life?
To lead a philosophical life is to live a life devoted to reason—to live in accordance with one’s own deep and comprehensive understanding of how one’s life can be most fully lived. This is not about accepting a text or set of principles as authoritative. One must be committed to one’s own process of reasoningContinue reading “What Does it Mean to Lead a Philosophical Life?”
Socrates the Unwise
Socrates famously argued that we achieve the good life only through the rigorous practice of philosophy. Most of the premises in Socrates’ argument have proven to be false or at least highly contentious. Through philosophical reflection and dialogue, he came to believe that the soul survives death. Thus, we should be deeply concerned with its’Continue reading “Socrates the Unwise”
Attunement and Living Well
I am interested in developing a concept that I think will be particularly useful in thinking about philosophy as a way of life. I call the concept “attunement,” with apologies to Heidegger for commandeering his terminology although not his concept. The idea is that we, as well as the situations in which we find ourselves,Continue reading “Attunement and Living Well”
Philosophy’s Impasse and the Animal Within
Is there a coherent perspective today from which to argue that philosophy is not merely an academic discipline but a way of life? To answer that question, we must understand the differences between the contemporary philosophical context and the ancient philosophers who believed that only philosophy could provide the insight and motivations for the bestContinue reading “Philosophy’s Impasse and the Animal Within”
An Urgent Question
I fear philosophy has lost its way. Philosophy’s foundational question exemplified in the life and words of Socrates—how should one live?—is no longer asked with the urgency and stakes it had for the ancient philosophers who originally posed it. For those ancient philosophers, philosophy was a way of life and philosophical ideas were to beContinue reading “An Urgent Question”
Philosophy: A Way of Life 