Negative Philosophy

The same five questions to all three mentors. A minute each. Three different answers. One thing you would tell a person deciding whether to apply. The sentence a student said that you still think about. The thing people get wrong about determinism. What you stopped doing after a year of this. What the practice has not changed. Anastasios, B. Doyle and Zubin answer in turn. The last question is the...

Zubin moved from being mentored to mentoring recently, and the change is fresh enough to describe. What’s here is what altered when he started listening rather than waiting to speak. Where his own experience differs from how the practice is written down. Who this practice is not for, and he is specific. And what he would say to someone who finds it bleak. What changed when he stopped being mentore...

B. Doyle has been in the practice five years and mentors in it. Here he describes a session from the first minute, without names, and answers five more questions about the work itself. B. Doyle describes a session, without names. He answers questions about what students most want from a mentor and will not be given, the commonest mistake of the first year, and what the machine looks like in an ord...

Anastasios has been in the practice for eight years and now mentors in it. He came from a background in finance and now runs a painting business. Here he answers four questions about the beginning. * What did you think this was when you came in, and when did that turn out to be wrong? * What did the first three months actually consist of, day by day? * What is the difference between reading Spinoz...

The practice is about power and freedom, reached through understanding. Much of it you can do alone. Some of it you cannot, and for that you need an external force that sees past your own illusions and names what you are avoiding. That is what a mentor is for. In this short introduction, Debbie Butler introduces Anastasios, B. Doyle and Zubin, who mentor in the practice. Over the next two weekends...

Power Is Incremental In Steps We are after power. All of us, all of the time. Spinoza calls virtue nothing other than power, the capacity of a thing to persist and to act from its own nature, and once you see it that way you stop pretending that anyone is after something else. You are after power. So am I. The only question worth asking is how it is acquired. It is acquired in steps. That sentence...

My book is out. Today. It opens on how you believe that everything in your life is a choice. But the decision to choose was never yours. Something older and faster has already chosen for you. That’s what this book is about — the machine that runs you. The habits, the identity, the reactions are all decided before you do, then you are handed the feeling of having decided for yourself. You’re just t...

1. Scary Santa at the Grotty Grotto - creepy old man with beard fed to small children who are into monsters in stories and nursery rhymes. 2. Shopping - really? Who needs yet another ornament. Battling the crowds for that very last toy that your daughter wanted. Imagining the pain when she unwraps the Chloe the Cat instead of the Wagalots Kitty that she so desperately wanted. Finding ‘yet another’...

Today I want to tell you a secret: Most of the things you chase… aren’t actually yours. And I’m not talking metaphors, I’m talking Spinoza, biology and the architecture of your mind. Let’s break down the sequence that runs your entire life: Essence → Conatus → Appetite → Desire. It’s the difference between living according to your nature and living according to a fantasy of yourself. Let’s start a...

Proposition No thing can be destroyed except through an external cause. Demonstration This proposition is self-evident. For the definition of any thing affirms the essence of the thing and does not deny it; that is, it affirms the thing’s existence, not its nonexistence. So, if we attend only to the thing itself, and not to any external causes, we will find nothing in it that could destroy it. Q.E...

I break down a brutal truth most people avoid: words are cheap and so are your ideas. We explore why so many intelligent, insightful people stay stuck in fantasy while convincing themselves they’re making progress. Drawing on Spinoza’s theory of conatus, Martin Butler’s realism, and modern psychology, we unpack how desire, appetite, imagination, and behavior connect — and why nothing changes until...

In this episode, I (Debbie) read and reflect on “The Heart of Practice,” a foundational piece of Negative Philosophy written by Martin Butler. Rather than chasing knowledge or spiritual fantasies, this practice asks the only questions that matter: How am I feeling right now—and why? What am I thinking—and why? Through body sensing, observation, and deep understanding, the work leads to genuine inn...

This episode continues the exploration of how the mind creates its own version of truth. We discuss the psychology and neuroscience of traumatic memory, the role of the conatus in protecting the self, and why the brain rewrites reality to preserve functioning. Drawing on research and realism, we talk about how to observe these processes with compassion and without self-blame. The mind adapted to h...

If the first part of my video was about how Spinoza broke free from the world he was born into, this part is about what he built in its place. After his excommunication, he walked away from status, family, and comfort; and chose a life most people today would call austere. But that simplicity wasn’t poverty. It was freedom . Spinoza rented small rooms, owned almost nothing, and spent his days grin...

We throw the name Spinoza around as if we know who he was. Baruch, or Benedictus if you prefer the Latinised version, was a philosopher born too soon. But most people only know the myth, not the man. This video is about the real Spinoza; a man who lived every word of his philosophy . He didn’t just talk about reason, he embodied it. Born into a storm of religious chaos in 17th-century Europe, Spin...

Most people live as grateful fools or frightened mice — forever thankful for scraps from life’s table, or forever terrified of losing what little they have. In A Minority Interest , Martin Butler dismantles these roles and offers something far rarer: the brutal clarity of reality without illusions. This is not a book for the many, but for the few who dare to look life in the eye without flinching....

Conversations With Jelly by Martin Butler is no ordinary book—it tears the mask off polite illusions and drags the reader face-to-face with the raw, unsettling truth of existence. Through the eyes of Jack, a disillusioned young man, we are led into a clandestine world of uncomfortable questions, fierce honesty, and devastating revelations about the human condition. At its core sits Jelly, a frail...

Trauma Bonding Trauma bonding is one of those psychological concepts that sounds dramatic but is actually quite subtle and insidious in real life. At its core, trauma bonding is a strong emotional attachment formed between a victim and an abuser, often in relationships marked by cycles of intermittent abuse and intermittent affection . It’s not about “liking” the abuser — it’s about the brain and...

In this candid video, I share my struggles with speaking on camera, explaining why I prefer writing to express my thoughts clearly. Despite teaching students daily, I get nervous and tongue-tied in front of a camera, which I’m working to overcome. I also discuss my upcoming articles, inspired by my students’ ideas and grounded in Spinoza’s ethics and Martin Butler’s negative philosophy. The articl...

Martin Butler’s book Corporeal Fantasy (available on Amazon ) is a daring and unflinching exploration of human nature, desire, and the wild contradictions that live within us. It challenges the reader to confront what lurks beneath polished personas and spiritual aspirations—a raw, instinctual force Butler metaphorically calls the wolf . At its core, Corporeal Fantasy is a philosophical meditation...

Find the book on Amazon Here is the video transcription: I'm now going to ask Chat GPT to tell me about easy the novel by Martin Butler can you tell me about the novel EASy by Martin Butler the novel EASy by Martin Butler is a satirical exploration of the corporate world focusing on the inner workings of a fictional software company Enterprise Application Systems EASy the story delves into the cul...

“What if everything you believe about life, success, and happiness is a distraction from reality? Conversations with Jelly is not for the faint-hearted—but for those ready to face the truth.” What drives your life? Survival? Desire? Illusion? Conversations with Jelly by Martin Butler is an unapologetic dive into the raw mechanics of existence. If you’ve ever asked yourself: * What’s the point of i...

Martin Butler on Grumpiness and Truth | A Rant on Reality, Limits, and the Illusion of Knowing In his usual style of raw and honesty, Martin start off in a self-declared grumpy mood — and for good reason. He takes issue with shallow ideas of "truth" circulating online, especially in spiritual and philosophical circles. One particular quote sparked this episode: “We taste and feel and see the truth...