Category: Sage Advice
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Latin and Greek for Philosophers
Here, by James Lesher. Sample: Ex vi terminorum: preposition + the ablative feminine singular of vis/vis(‘force’) + the masculine genitive plural of terminus/termini (‘end’, ‘limit’, ‘term’, ‘expression’): ‘out of the force or sense of the words’ or more loosely: ‘in virtue of the meaning of the words’. ‘We can be certain ex vi terminorum that…
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Skin in the Game
One alone has 'skin in the game' of one's own life. This helps explain why the advice of others, however well-intentioned, is often useless or worse. Listen to the advice of others, but at last keep one's own counsel.
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Are You a Gray Man?
In contemporary Internet lingo, a gray man is typically a prepper who seeks to be unobtrusive and to blend in. He is 'gray' in that he tries not to call attention to himself, his beliefs, and his stock of guns, ammo, food, and other survival supplies that he hopes will see him and his family…
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Socrates Supplemented
We have it on good authority that the unexamined life is not worth living. It is equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.
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The Great Blizzard of ’78 and How I Got my Dissertation Done
Reader Josh E. asks for tips on how to get a dissertation done. Here is how I did it. …………………………………… I had an odd schedule in those days. I hit the sack at four in the afternoon and got up at midnight. I caught the last trolley of the night to the end of the…
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Cured by Age
Old age is the sovereign cure for romantic folly and I sincerely recommend it to the young and foolish. Take care to get there. Philosophers especially should want to live long so as to study life from all temporal angles.
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Panicked over the Wuhan Flu (Wu-Flu)?
For perspective, consider that in recent years 30,000 to 40,000 Americans each year have been killed in car crashes, and that thousands and thousands die each year of various strains of influenza the names of which are not bandied-about by the 24/7/366 media. The Maverick advises: resist group-think and mass hysteria. While taking reasonable precautions,…
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The Stock Market is Tanking. Do Nothing.
Good advice. I learned the lesson back in '87. New to the game, I freaked out on Black Monday. Of course you remember the 508 point drop in the Dow. I got out, locking in losses, but then took too long getting back in. Now I am older, wiser, and if truth be told, a…
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‘Facially’
'Facially' is seeing a lot of use recently. I take it to be an English equivalent of prima facie. Some say that we should avoid Latinisms. I say instead: use them sparingly.
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“The Great Use of a Life . . .
. . . is to spend it for something that outlasts it." (William James)
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How to Get Your Spouse to do Some Work around the House
Do some work around the house.
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What Can a Sane Individual do in the Present Political Situation?
What can an individual do? Not much, but here are some suggestions. Exercise your rights and in particular your Second Amendment rights; the latter provide the concrete backup to the others. A well-armed populace, feared by the totalitarians, is a strong deterrent without a shot being fired. Money spent on guns, ammo, accessories, and range…
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Ideals and Non-Attachment
Self-mastery, you say, is the highest mastery. You are attached to this ideal and you live for the most part in accordance with it. But on occasion you stumble and fall. You lose your temper, overeat, or succumb to lust. And then you feel disgust with yourself. The failure hurts your ego. It diminishes your…
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The Need for Vindication
"See? I was right, and you were wrong!" But why does one want to be seen as right by an indigent and fickle mortal? Why not be satisfied with being right? Let it go!
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Useless Rehearsals
Rehearsals are for a future performance. Why then are you 'rehearsing' that altercation with so-and-so from twenty years ago? Do you plan to bring it back to the stage?