The Sense of the Past

The present period in history is distinctive precisely in virtue of its awareness of being a period in history.

Saints and Prophets

Heidegger aspired to be a prophet and Wittgenstein aspired to be a saint. Prophets want to improve the world and saints want to perfect themselves.

On “Bourgeois” Philosophy

Especially on matters of value, it often seems settled from the outset that our minds or our hearts aren’t actually supposed to be changed in the process of reading or writing philosophy.

What Living Philosophers Will Still Be Read in 2123?

Which philosophers that are alive today will people still be reading one hundred years from now? There’s excellent philosophy and then there’s excellent philosophy that lasts. What’s the difference?

[Reflections] Attention to Particulars

Sometimes I wonder if philosophy is a big waste of time. Or worse than that, an impediment that keeps me from living well.

[Reflections] The Aesthetics of People’s Behaviour

Although I have my misanthropic moods, I mostly really like people, and a significant part of that liking involves aesthetic appreciation.

[Reflections] Something in the Way

Thinking well about the things that concern me requires intelligence. Understanding these concerns and what motivates them requires wisdom. Philosophy, to the extent that it is rightly called the love of wisdom, is essentially concerned with self-knowledge.

[Reflections] The Predicament of not Living Your Own Life

The idea that your life as a whole can feel wrong is a particular kind of suffering. This blog post offers some reflections on this kind of suffering.

[Reflections] I didn’t choose to write this blog post

When I try to picture what the determinist is telling me, I see myself in something like an x-ray view, a shadowy skull balanced on a skeleton, wiggling its jaw or moving about, but with the “person” absent.

[Reflections] Why Does the History of Philosophy Matter to Philosophy?

By situating my own thinking within a broader historical tradition, I can see more clearly how my particular concerns and preoccupations are mine rather than just the objectively and timelessly important ones that all people with philosophical inclinations might turn themselves to.