I'm not sure about the metaphors. The "Axe of Satisfaction" suggests that some of the ills of late-stage capitalism can be overcome through individual grit alone. Maybe we need to band together and target the root system rather than hacking down individual trees?
How to live an intellectually rich life
21–30 of 337 posts
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#22> In August 2018, in the last month of my three-month sabbatical, I arrived at the Hamta village in Himachal Pradesh. I rented a one-room cottage, and my caretakers were Dolma Aunty and Kalzang Uncle, a couple well into their 70’s.
I got to this part and realized: I've read this article before in some form.
It's a really common trope to head out to some remote area of Asia and admire how happy people are. There's often a spiritual component to it. I will write the guy a bit of a pass, because he himself is (I think) Indian.
But westerners have been doing stuff like this for ages and prattling on about it - it's kind of a cornerstone of Orientalism. This was actually a plot point in the recent White Lotus season. People rarely go to Appalachia to have these experiences, but you certainly can find people living simple happy lives there. (At least, if they do, nobody publishes those articles - it doesn't fit our preconceived notions of who gets to be enlightened, which is to say it has to be some place far away and people very different than your average Americans)
Not to say there's no value in this article (there is), and it was a fun read at that.
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#23Not sure about the intellectual part of it, but how to live a rich life? Surely not by secretly cherishing a feeling of superiority and sophistication because these sentiments will cut you out of a lot of insights and encounters that make your life rich. True, life is a farce in a lot of ways, but who cares? Accept it where you can't change it and find your own islands of happiness. These may be intellectual if you like, but don't expect the people around you to follow the same (high) standards, that will only make you unhappy.
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#24This stirs up a good discussion. My way of having a satisfying intellectual life is not just by juggling many ideas, but also by problem solving. I find immense satisfaction in making something work or creating something that didn't exist before. Many times, this requires problem solving with creativity, compromise and tradeoffs. Some times, it requires deep diving into academic papers and doing some math. When this ends up working it is truly a triumphant feeling; however it might sometimes not work at all.
Another thing is meeting and absorbing knowledge from other people. It's incredible to learn or even just watch skillful people do their thing.
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#25This is a little meandering so just to focus on one part:
Philosophy can be valuable, but applying the ideas meaningfully requires discernment. I’m thinking particularly about the popularity of “Meditations”, for example.
Take Plato, for example: He and his also-famous mentor believed knowledge was a form of recollection from past lives, an idea illustrated with an unconvincing geometry lesson in Phaedo (EDIT: It’s Meno).
Sure, it’s worth stepping back to reassess what’s going to increase your “PC” to borrow from seven habits. That could involve leaving behind surface-level achievement in favor of deeper reflection, as the referenced article suggests.
But let’s not overly-romanticize ancient thinkers: Plato and Aristotle held fundamentally different views on knowledge. Even they couldn’t agree; there’s no need to treat any one of them as infallible.
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#26I enjoyed this article. I am confused though how this was a difficult problem to begin with, particularly with the internet. It is not exactly hard to find intellectually stimulating concepts if that's what gets you off. I also find "philosophy" to be a pretty miserable and unrewarding topic to think about, and I tend to run quickly away from those who want to talk about it. I find it very curious that the author fin…
The first precept of anti-philosophy philosophy is,
Philosophy as a concept isn't an issue; but we tend to romanticize the tendency to neurotically examine even when we know finding "truth" isn't possible, and I've noted a tendency in people so devoted to unconsciously emotionally attach to what are ultimately word games. This concerns me. Perhaps we should instead romanticize living a contented existence, some of which will surely still involve reading and discussing philosophy (in moderation, of course).
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#27> In August 2018, in the last month of my three-month sabbatical, I arrived at the Hamta village in Himachal Pradesh. I rented a one-room cottage, and my caretakers were Dolma Aunty and Kalzang Uncle, a couple well into their 70’s. I got to this part and realized: I've read this article before in some form. It's a really common trope to head out to some remote area of Asia and admire how happy people are. There's oft…
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Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#28> In August 2018, in the last month of my three-month sabbatical, I arrived at the Hamta village in Himachal Pradesh. I rented a one-room cottage, and my caretakers were Dolma Aunty and Kalzang Uncle, a couple well into their 70’s. I got to this part and realized: I've read this article before in some form. It's a really common trope to head out to some remote area of Asia and admire how happy people are. There's oft…
Rather reminds me of Pratchetts character Lu-Tze, who having seen so many travel to the monasteries to achieve enlightenment decides to travel to Ankh Morpork and learns many ancient wisdoms ('Is it not written "Oo, you are so sharp you'll cut yourself one of these days."?')
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#29This is a little meandering so just to focus on one part: Philosophy can be valuable, but applying the ideas meaningfully requires discernment. I’m thinking particularly about the popularity of “Meditations”, for example. Take Plato, for example: He and his also-famous mentor believed knowledge was a form of recollection from past lives, an idea illustrated with an unconvincing geometry lesson in Phaedo (EDIT: It’s M…
> Philosophy can be valuable, but applying the ideas meaningfully requires discernment. I’m thinking particularly about the popularity of “Meditations”, for example.
From one translation of Meditations (I forget which), and from memory, so I may have it slightly wrong:
"You can live your life in a calm flow of happiness, if you learn to think the right way, and to act the right way".
The act the right way is the hard part. The frame-of-mind stuff that lots of people focus on is necessary, but not sufficient. On its own it can be of some help, but it can also lead to traps like going too easy on one's own deficiencies of action. The thinking bits that get most of the attention, at least in stoicism, are largely reactive—the acting is proactive, as is the thinking to support it (which gets less attention in popular takes on Stoicism, and is harder).
Re: How to live an intellectually rich life
#30This is a little meandering so just to focus on one part: Philosophy can be valuable, but applying the ideas meaningfully requires discernment. I’m thinking particularly about the popularity of “Meditations”, for example. Take Plato, for example: He and his also-famous mentor believed knowledge was a form of recollection from past lives, an idea illustrated with an unconvincing geometry lesson in Phaedo (EDIT: It’s M…
The dialogue you refer to is Meno and the idea is a solution to “Meno’s Paradox”.