“My advice is really this: what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life.
We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching, and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application—not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech—and learn them so well that words become works.
No one to my mind lets humanity down quite so much as those who study philosophy as if it were a sort of commercial skill and then proceed to live in a quite different manner from the way they tell other people to live.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
Stoa
Where I share finds on thought, ethics and philosophy I found intriguing this week
How the Octopus can help challenge our thinking about meat - Ahhhh, man. Meat is one of those topics. I think in 100 years we may look back at how we treated livestock and ate meat, think it barbaric. There are some really good ethical arguments against eating it. I still do, I have no justification for it besides liking the taste.
Are you a naive realist? - there’s reason to think that now might be a particularly important moment to venture past our own perspectives.
Curia
Works related to democracy, liberty and Foreign Affairs
What makes a power great? - And why the US may be imperil of no longer being one.
No, America is not collapsing. - An interesting analysis, pairs well with some of the less optimistic ones, including the above. Also, Noah Smith is a great writer, and his substack worth subscribing to.
Dune Foresaw— and influenced, half century of global conflict - I am a tremendous fan of (the first) Dune and Sci-Fi in general. This was a really interesting take, a bit of a stretch I think, but thought provoking nonetheless.
This Week
A variety of finds I came across this week, sometimes bound by a theme; sometimes not.
MBS $500,000,000,000 Desert dream just keeps getting weirder - Man, this story is just… out there. That number, and how callously it seems to be spent, is very difficult for one to wrap their head around.
He dropped out to become a poet. Now he’s won a field medal. - An absolutely fascinating profile. There are not many truly exceptional individuals out there.