Daily 15: Philosophy to Welcome the Day

Today’s excerpt comes from Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Kant distinguishes acting from duty (from respect for the moral law) from acting merely in accordance with duty out of inclination or in pursuit of specific outcomes. Join the conversation and share your reflections at  community.alifeofthought.com , or dive deeper into the annotations at  alifeofthought.com/d15 .

Today's excerpt comes from a paper titled ‘The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories’ by Michael Stocker. One quick correction: though Socrates famously denies one can do what he knows to be worse, many philosophers think otherwise! Join the conversation and share your reflections at community.alifeofthought.com , or dive deeper into the annotations at alifeofthought.com/d15 .

Today's excerpt comes from a paper in which Cora Diamond explores an argument often heard in conversations about vegetarianism: the charge of speciesism. She pushes back on its success as an argument and offers an alternative. Join the conversation and share your reflections at community.alifeofthought.com , or dive deeper into the annotations at alifeofthought.com/d15 .

Today's excerpt is a follow up from Williams’ Persons, Character, and Morality. Here, he discusses how moral thinking – thinking about moral theories and ideas – is supposed to figure into our decision making. Join the conversation and share your reflections at community.alifeofthought.com, or dive deeper into the annotations at alifeofthought.com/d15

Today's excerpt comes from Bernard Williams' paper, Persons, Character, and Morality. Williams discusses why, if at all, we ought to fear death and what this means for our conception of ourselves. Join the conversation and share your insights at  community.alifeofthought.com , or explore the annotations at  alifeofthought.com/d15 .

Today's excerpt comes from the very beginning of Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Psychology -- A Fragment. Wittgenstein explores the complexities in our application of terms like 'hope' or 'grief' -- and what they require from us in terms of our form of life. Join the conversation and share your reflections at  community.alifeofthought.com , or dive deeper into the annotations...

Today's excerpt comes from an essay called Freedom and Resentment. Philosopher P.F. Strawson explores a chestnut of a philosophical question – the debate over free will. But he comes at it from a different and unique angle, asking what our emotions like resentment, anger, or love, can tell us. Join the conversation and share your thoughts at  community.alifeofthought.com , or explore the annotatio...

Today's excerpt comes from a paper by Bernard Williams, in which he explores the charge that we sometime levy upon people who refuse to do something because they find it “morally distasteful." Are such people self-indulgent. Join the discussion at  community.alifeofthought.com , or read the annotations at  alifeofthought.com/d15 .

In this episode, "Freud on Transience," we look at a thoughtful piece Freud wrote just after World War I. He's wrestling with something we've all felt - why does knowing something beautiful won't last forever make it harder to enjoy? Freud makes an interesting point: beauty doesn't become less beautiful just because it's temporary. The real problem is how we handle kn...

In todays excerpt, we turn to one of Plato's most famous dialogues: the Symposium. Specifically, we look at an exchange between Socrates and Agathon. Socrates discusses the nature of desire with Agathon, and attempts to show him that to desire something, we must lack it or forsee our lacking it (i.e., one cannot desire what he already has). But this is a problem: because it means that if love is f...

Today's excerpt comes from a recently published paper, titled Eros and Anxiety, by Professor Vida Yao. The paper explores ideals of rationality, authenticity, and how they interact with transformative experiences – specifically, the experience of falling in love. Yao is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at UCLA, and is interested in Ethics and Moral Psychology, specifically the philosophy o...

Today’s excerpt comes from §92-94 of Wittgenstein’s ‘On Certainty.’ In it, Wittgenstein explores the difference between normal, every-day, beliefs – like “the bus is going to get here at 2:30pm” – and beliefs that serve, in one way or another, as backdrops for us, and seem quite obvious: ‘The world has existed for a long time. Read it yourself at ⁠⁠alifeofthought.com/d15⁠⁠ -- Or join the conversat...

Today's excerpt comes from a lecture written by Henry David Thoreau, titled walking. The lecture itself is a sort of walk, meandering and sauntering around. Read it yourself at ⁠⁠alifeofthought.com/d15⁠⁠ -- Or join the conversation at ⁠⁠community.alifeofthought.com⁠⁠ . Citation: Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking.” In Thackeray Newman Ruskin Huxley Thoreau and Others , Deluxe Edition., 393–425. Ha...

Today's Daily 15 is an excursion into one of Freud's first introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. In the lecture, Freud asks whether slips of the tongue, misplacements, or seemingly random forgettings, in fact, have a sense or a meaning or an interpretation. Read it yourself at ⁠alifeofthought.com/d15⁠ -- Or join the conversation at ⁠community.alifeofthought.com⁠ . Citation: Freud, Sigmu...

Today's excerpt comes from the introduction of Jean-Paul Sartre's seminal work,  Being and Nothingness . In this episode, we delve into Sartre's exploration of reflective consciousness and its intricate relationship with self-awareness. He challenges the notion of knowing what we are doing, emphasizing that consciousness is not merely a passive state but an active engagement with our e...

Today’s episode delves into the intricate relationship between habit, memory, and love as explored by Marcel Proust in his monumental work,  In Search of Lost Time . Lucas guides us through a profound excerpt where Proust posits that what truly reminds us of someone is often what we have forgotten, challenging our conventional understanding of memory. As Lucas highlights key phrases and concepts,...