Philosophy

School of Athens, c.1510. Raphael














The meaning of philosophy is veiled in complexity and dispute. Its Greek root is 'philosophia' which is best translated as love of wisdom. To practice philosophy in this ancient sense is to lead a reflective life attune to the truth of our condition (our value, purpose and frailties) and combative toward deceptive values (eg. power and wealth), unnecessary suffering and uncontrolled or dissipating tendencies. This could involve exercises in disciplining feelings, dialoguing, remembering beliefs and positive experiences, discharging duties, imagining death and evils in preparation for them and attention to the present. Different visions of this life gave rise to diverse communities organised around shared outlooks and practices (e.g. Stoics and Epicurians). Our disciplined sage has, however, in the popular imagination morphed into a desked, tweeded academic puffing on a pipe. What was once seen as a worthwhile life pursuit has now shrunken into a world of specialised arguments and journals sadly cast as an instrument (and perhaps an ineffective one) to generate money or skills for alternative pursuits - quite an indictment of the prevailing culture!

Philosophy in contemporary usage is an institutional discipline consisting in systematic or ordered thinking about any subject (e.g. philosophy of language, art, mathematics etc.). Among its more core taught sub disciplines are metaphysics (thought about the underlying structure of reality- God, being, identity, change, time etc.), epistemology(thought about the scope and limits of knowledge), ethics (thought about how to comport ourselves), logic (thought over structure of reasoning) and aesthetics (thought about the character of art, beauty). Below are links to areas of philosophy that connect well with the topic of examined living.

Stanford E.P:

Happiness
Virtue Ethics
Meaning of Life
Free Will
Ethics of Plato
Ethics of Aristotle
Moral, Political and Legal thought of Thomas Aquinas
Natural Law
Moral and Political thought of Nietzsche

I.E.P

Ancient Ethics and Modern Morality
Pierre Hadot
Ethics of Aristotle
Ethics of Aquinas
Western Theories of Justice
Alastdair MacIntrye
Sex

C.E.

Happiness
Character
Humanity
Acting Humanly
Virtue

Alexander Pruss: fascinating lecture notes on EthicsLove and Sex 

John Cottingham on God and the Meaning of Life (video lecture)

Open Yale Course on Philosophy and the science of Human Nature - Phil 181 (video lectures)

Cornell West on Examined Life film

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