Philosophy
"It ain't no cereal brand, lil' buddy!"
Philosophy is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those concerning existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language.
"It's a wonder I haven't
abandoned all my ideals,
they seem so absurd and impractical.
Yet I cling to them
because I still believe,
in spite of everything,
that people are truly good at heart."
- Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
Links
Wikipedia: Outline of philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
PhilPapers - Comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by "the community of philosophers."
Philosophy Pages
Curlie: Philosophy
Logical Fallacies
Untools
Principa Cybernetica
Aaron Swartz's Raw Nerve - Shoutout Aaron man, these had a positive influence on me back when I was like 13.
Mental Models
Lexicon
akrasia: state of acting against one's better judgment
altruism: actions undertaken for the benefit of other people
epistemology: a theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion
hedonic treadmill: the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable happiness level despite major positive/negative events/life changes
hermeneutics: the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation
maxim: a concise expression of a fundamental moral rule or principle
mimesis: mimicry; the imitation/representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions
Occam's razor: problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements
ontology: the topic concerning the nature of being
phenomenology: the philosophical study of objectivity and reality as subjectively lived and experienced
qualia: individual instances of subjective, conscious experience
rationality: characteristic of thinking and acting optimally
teleology: a branch of causality giving the reason or an explanation for something as a function of its end, its purpose, or its goal, as opposed to as a function of its cause
telos: an ultimate goal
ubermensch: the one who seeks out hardship and creates new values
umwelt: the metaphorical bubble in which organisms experience the universe
wabi-sabi (侘寂): a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection/acknowledgement that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and that nothing is perfect
Art
Readings
Essays
The World As I See It by Albert Einstein (Archive)
"Darling, stop being philosophical.
It doesn't suit you,
it makes your nose red."
- Leonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet