Category: Sage Advice
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Choice of Model
Take no one man as your model; take many in the drafting and crafting of your inimitable self.
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Travel: More Than Ever a Fool’s Paradise
Kim du Toit: I’m not sure I want to travel internationally again. Me too. Been there, done that. One of his reasons: . . . we all know how the Filth in Britishland regard the matter of self-defense Over There. Nothing puts a damper on the travel experience like having to explain to some judge…
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Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the Will to Believe
My friend, I continue to read and reread your Heaven and Hell essay, especially the "Concluding Existential-Practical Postscript". Psalm 23. "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not…." Let us pray that there is a Good Shepherd who cares deeply about his flock and will do things to relieve their suffering. Can we come…
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Heaven and Hell: the Looming of the Last Things at the End of the Trail
A friend of mine, nearing the end of the trail, afflicted in body and soul, writes: A question, my friend. Can you imagine someone on his deathbed saying, "Well I never really believed I'd meet Jesus, but the possible reward (eternal salvation) was so great that I was persuaded to be a believer so…
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Look on the Bright Side!
The world is rife with pathologies of all sorts: spiritual, psychological, moral, and medical. But it's all grist for the thinker's mill. That is the bright side. One can allow oneself to become depressed at how pathetic we all are — in different ways and to different degrees — or one can cultivate wonder at…
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Biometric Authentication
I use multifactor authentication for access to many of the sites I visit, but conservatives are cautious by nature. So I am not inclined to spring for biometric authentication, some of the hazards of which are discussed here. The alacrity with which the young adopt the latest trends is evidence of their inherent excess of…
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Life After 70
Wisdom from Jordan Peterson. I'd say this man is a national treasure, except that he is Canadian. His advice comports well with a self-admonition I lately coined: Forgive, forget, let go, move on, live now!
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It’s Later than You Think
A Substack protreptic. Pithy and pointed. No TLDR excuses accepted. In rhetoric, protrepsis (Ancient Greek: πρότρεψις) and paraenesis (παραίνεσις) are two closely related styles of exhortation that are employed by moral philosophers. While there is a widely accepted distinction between the two that is employed by modern writers, classical philosophers did not make a clear distinction between the two, and even used them interchangeably.…
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Wrong to Believe on Insufficient Evidence? Contra Clifford
Is it wrong always and everywhere for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence? (W. K. Clifford) If so, the young would never be right to believe in the realization of their potentials. But they are right so to believe. If they didn't, none of them would ever have 'made it.' But many of us…
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Idle Talk and Idle Thought
If you aim to avoid idle talk, then you ought also aim to avoid idle thought. A maxim to mind: Avoid the near occasion of useless conversation. This applies both to conversation with others and with oneself. The latter is avoided by internal situational awareness which is classically enjoined by: Guard the mind. Not easy.…
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How Much Bad Behavior Ought We Tolerate from Our ‘Friends’?
The following arrived on Christmas Eve: Apatheia, Ataraxia, and Holiday Spirit I was wondering if you had any advice for those struggling to maintain their Stoic calm as Christmas approaches. Alas, I am one of those souls this year. I will not burden you with the details, but it seems the holidays also bring out…
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On Taking One’s Time in Philosophy
Both Brentano and Wittgenstein advise philosophers to take their time. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value (University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 80: Der Gruss der Philosophen unter einander sollte sein: "Lass Dir Zeit!" This is how philosophers should greet one another: "Take your time!" A similar thought is to be found in Franz Brentano, though I have…
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Worldly Success and Spiritual Growth
Worldly success can easily ensnare, and most will fall into the trap. But for some, worldly success has the opposite effect: it reveals the vanity, the emptiness, of worldly success, and thus subserves spiritual advance. One is therefore well-advised to strive for a modicum of success as defined in the worldly terms of property and…
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A Salutary Spiritual Exercise for the Month of Gratitude
November is gratitude month around here. One way to start the day right is by finding five things to be grateful for. Example: I slept well. All household systems are fully operational. The cats are happy and healthy. And so is the wife. ("Happy wife, happy life.") Nature is regular and reliable: coffee goes down,…
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A New Morning
The morning is new! Why make it old by the rehearsal of yesterday's rants? The morning is alive! Why mortify it by the re-animation of useless memories? So I admonish myself, to little effect. Theme music