Philosophy & Great Books
Stoicism, ethics, classic books, political philosophy, consciousness and AI, and the art of living.
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This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Philosophy & Great Books. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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HoP 500c Troels Engberg-Pedersen on St Paul and the Stoics
In the third of five episodes to mark the 500 episode milestone, an expert on Paul's letters tells us how Stoic ideas shaped his philosophy and theology.
Thomas Nagel, Sexual Perversion - Initial Clarifications Of The Concept - Sadler’s Lectures
This lecture discusses the 20th century Analytic philosopher, Thomas Nagel's essay "Sexual Perversion", and focuses upon the initial clarifications Nagel thinks needs to be made about the concept of sexual perversion before going on to examine it in further detail. He makes three positive clarifications, which are what we calls general conditions the concept must meet.
Life on a hair trigger
A world of violence sustains itself through guns, poverty and other social ills, but also through the minds it creates - by Megan Kang Read on Aeon
Green tree ants are famous in the tropics
In tropical forests ruled by aggressive ants, these species have adopted a ‘fake it till you make it’ survival strategy - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
Reason is more than a tool
If intelligence is merely optimisation then machines will outrun us. Kant tells us why human reason is so much more - by Sasha Mudd Read on Aeon
Why We Go Cold On Our Partners #theschooloflife #animation #fearofintimacy
Going cold on our partners is often a sign not that we have stopped caring, but that we are - somewhere deep down - furious or hurt. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/ho0r2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sIgLc FURTHER READING “The story of the path to coldness in love is well known. We start off full of affection for one another and then – with time – feelings fade. We start prioritising work; we check our phones while they’re speaking; we don’t especially want to hear how their day went…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Produced in collaboration with Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://tomatico.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife
What Years of Heartbreak Actually Teach Us
Relationships are profoundly complicated, but when they finally end, we often find we can summarize years of turmoil into a single, compact sentence on a Post-it note. Start your free Membership trial – 2,000+ articles, 1,000+ videos, 50+ courses, free for a week: https://www.theschooloflife.com/membership The tragedy is that while every lesson of love is simple to state, each one takes years of heartbreak and exhaustion to truly learn—and there are well over a hundred traps waiting on the syllabus. In this film, we explore the bittersweet reality of emotional education and why we secretly just want an uneducated, illiterate happiness to finally have its turn. "Relationships are hugely complicated but sometimes, when they’re over, we find that we might be able to summarise what we think the whole thing was about into pretty compact sentences. For example, we may find, to our surprise, that six years with someone is capable of being captured on something not much bigger than a post-it note like this: Never believe the promises of someone who is still working out who they are..." 📖 Go deeper – read the full article (Members get full access): https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/the-curriculum-of-love/ ✉️ Weekly Lessons + 10% off your first order: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup OUR COLLECTIONS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpcEwc0qydf2jSszQFSht81E https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpckOvZZ_AZjD7WM2p9-6NBv https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeUL1vz9Su7OmeghBDgmj7X https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeypJMHfNbJ4RAFkRtmAN3P https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpcpxBm1RoGRx4mVKNRIrKkG https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpcp7jXVszdNruKUtHZ2zuZb https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpfv2COuuJaKzy6E2n8nSMdi https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpc1qCJ6RYYh4rKNOOlKtFIK SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon Facebook: https
Passportless mess
A fool, a genius, or ‘a man who destroys everything’? Piecing together Zoran, a mythic figure of Belgrade - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
HoP 500b Melissa Lane on Herotodus and Thucydides
Our second episode in celebration of reaching the 500 mark fills a significant gap: Melissa Lane helps us to understand the ancient Greek historians Herotodus and Thucydides, including their relationship to Plato.
Don’t use the ‘C-word’
A cancer diagnosis carries with it fear and upheaval. For many patients the cellular changes do not warrant the label - by Matthew R Cooperberg Read on Aeon
Affect theory
In the mid-1990s, thinkers pushed back against the idea we’re built by language, turning to feeling and the body instead - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
Paternity is poetical
The notion that fatherhood and creativity are at odds is plain wrong, as both poetry and neuroscience are showing us - by Daniel Swift Read on Aeon
166 Are Plants Conscious? - Michael Pollan
Get all sides of every story and be better informed at https://ground.news/AlexOC - subscribe for 40% off unlimited access. Come to my North American tour this November: https://www.alexoconnor.com/p/tour. For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com. Michael Pollan is an American journalist and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Get A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness. TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) North America Tour
Neo Noir
On this episode, Ryan and Todd return to their film genre series to discuss the neo noir. As opposed to the classic noir period, which is named retroactively by French film critics (1941-1958), neo noir films were aware of how they fit into a specialized genre. Does this mean the Neo noir is more of a genre than the class noir? Less of one? Is it just a style? What unique affordances hold the genre together now that these films are made post-Code?
What Is It to Be Emotionally Mature #theschooloflife #animation #facts
Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/s_nMb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xK6Mo FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/j24Tal “Emotional maturity is a state few of us ever reach - or at least not for very long. But it may help us to try to lay out what some of the ingredients are so that we have an idea what we might aim for: If we were to grow into emotionally mature people, this is some of what we would have learnt how to be: - We would understand the key role of self-understanding in helping us to grow into more reliable and predictable partners, parents, friends and colleagues. Our greatest ambition would be to reach a heightened understanding of our own minds. - We would constantly be aware of not being able to complete more than a fraction of this elevated goal and would hence be deeply cautious in all our assertions and conclusions. ‘Sorry’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ would be some of our favourite words. - We would recognise what unfaithful allies our conscious minds are for the project of self-discovery; how much of us wants to know ourselves and how very much more doesn’t want to in the least. We would be humbled by the strength of our inclinations to distraction and denial. - We would properly realise that we were going to die and would put this terrifying thought to use on a daily basis to nudge us towards greater appreciation, authenticity and focus. It would help us to say, at points, and at last, ‘no.’ - We would realise, with considerable dark humour, that we were fools. We are idiots now, we were idiots then and we will be idiots tomorrow. There are few other options for a human being. - We would shed our pride; we would realise how much we const
HoP 500a Marguerite Johnson on Sappho
In the first of five episodes to celebrate reaching the episode 500 mark by looking at things he skipped in earlier series, Peter talks to a leading expert on the poems of Sappho.
Reasoning together
Jürgen Habermas, the great defender of deliberative democracy, lived up to its demands: he never feared changing his mind - by Emilie Prattico Read on Aeon
Britain’s last great airship
The remarkable engineering and tragic demise of the vessel that would end Britain’s dream to dominate the skies - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
Where a land ethic blooms
Caring for this planet entails decisions that are intimate, about our farms, our homes, our human and our wild neighbours - by Craig Maier Read on Aeon
How to Get Out of a Despairing Mood #theschooloflife #animation #facts
In moments of despair, we may be suffering not from a failure of spirit, but a failure of imagination. The way out lies in exercising our creative capacities. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/cfnni Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/w8uJR FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2IvSflV “It may sound strange to locate the problem here, but some of our most despairing moods are caused by failures of the imagination. We are not merely ‘sad’; we cannot picture any better life than the agonised one we currently have. What we really mean by imagination is the power to summon up alternatives. When we are sad, we can’t imagine finding another job; we can’t imagine retraining or shifting profession. We can’t imagine not minding what the gossip says about us. We can’t imagine finding another partner and letting ourselves trust someone again. We can’t imagine getting by in a wheelchair. We can’t imagine living on a very modest budget or relocating to another country. We can’t imagine having to make a completely new set of friends…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/
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