Gamerscore. Social media accolades. Hollow work milestones. What do these things have in common?
Existentialism
What would happen if some of history’s famous philosophers were alive today and tried to spread their ideas via Internet memes? I tried to answer this question by translating some of the major ideas of five famous philosophers into Matrix Morpheus memes. For your amusement and education, here’s what might happen if five great philosophers took [...]
“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!” ― Søren Kierkegaard [...]
In Nietzsche’s most popular book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he described what would become one of his most memorable theories—that of the Übermensch. In English versions of the work of Nietzsche, “Übermensch” is translated as “Superman” or “Overman”. The term “Superman” has adopted many connotations as a result of the comic book hero in popular culture, so for most [...]
“In encounters with others, asking the right question can sometimes bring you into the presence of someone new, and entirely unexpected.” The above quote was shared two weeks ago by a Jungian psychoanalyst whom I follow, and it immediately reminded me of an instance that occurred while I was traveling in Cambodia. I was on the [...]
What is all this stuff? What does it mean? Why is it here and why am I here? What the hell should I do? These are a few of the largest and most troubling queries of human existence—questions which have tantalized and terrified our sophisticated ape-brains since time immemorial. Philosophy, religion, art, and science—the classic cornerstones [...]
“When you feel happy, really happy, it somehow seems that you’ve always been happy and that you’ll always be happy. The same is often true when you feel sad, or lonely, or depressed, or broke, or sick, or scared. Something, perhaps, to remember.” A couple of weeks ago I had a sudden and sort of inexplicable [...]