Will To Wisdom

Today's episode is all about injecting a little dose of optimism into your day!

The world is not as bad as you think...

I hope to achieve three things:

1. To explain why pessimism has become so rife in modern times. 
2. To explain why optimism for the future is of great benefit to us. 
3. To discuss some of the macro trends that should give us all good reason to be optimistic about the state of human progress.

So come on, join the bright side! 🌞

To my beloved aunt. 
I will always carry your memory in my heart. 
I love you more than you can imagine. 
I will see to what you started.

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

In this episode, we're taking a look at the core principles of Buddhist thought.

Buddhism has been growing in popularity in recent years. In the west, this growth has been correlated with the declining number of people who hold a belief in God.

For many, Buddhism has provided the spiritual outlet that they need in a Godless world.

We'll discuss:

• The life of the Buddha
• The Buddhist denial of self
• Similarities to modern views in cognitive science and philosophy of mind
• Samsara and the endless cycle of rebirth and death
• The four noble truths
• The eightfold path

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

In this episode, we're covering Aristotle's view on the road to Eudaimonia in his Nicomachean Ethics.

Eudaimonia is often translated to happiness, but that’s not quite right. Really it means something like human flourishing.

For Aristotle, Eudaimonia is achieved through the pursuit of virtue over the course of an entire life.

We'll discuss: 

• Aristotle's life
• His function argument
• The rationalist approach to ethics
• The 'golden mean'
• Cultivating virtue by habituation
• Some common criticisms of Aristotle's virtue ethics

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

In this episode, we're talking about Jonathan Haidt's seminal contribution to moral psychology, The Righteous Mind.

Do you agree that our society is more divided now than at any point in recent history?

 Despite the fact that living conditions are improving at an impressive rate around the world, it feels like we struggle to get along with our ideological opponents more than we ever have before.

I believe the question of how we can foster a more productive discourse in our society is one of the most important of modern times. Not only because more productive discourse would be of benefit to society at large, but also because learning how to disagree productively is of great benefit to us as individuals in pursuit of a good life.

Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind is the most persuasive attempt at answering this question that I've come across.

We'll cover some of the main ideas in the book:

• Moral beliefs are formed intuitively rather than rationally
• Moral foundations theory - Morality is about more than just care and harm
• The function of morality - Moral reasoning is about looking good not being good
• The positive and negative aspects of human groupishness

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

In this episode, we're taking a look at Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search For Meaning'. It's partly an account of Frankl's internment in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and partly an exposition of his new approach to psychoanalysis - Logotherapy.

Despite the book’s bleak subject matter, it is full of hope, insight and even humour, on occasion. Against the darkest depictions of the worst parts of human nature, examples abound of the very best aspects too.

Logotherapy centres it's approach to psychotherapy around the principle that the primary motivation in life is the pursuit of meaning. 

 We'll discuss Frankl's early life, the psychological conclusions he drew from his imprisonment, the core principles of Logotherapy and sources of meaning in modern life. 

I hope you enjoy.

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

Welcome to Will To Wisdom - A podcast exploring perspectives on living well.

In this episode we're taking a look at the dichotomy of control - the stoic practice of dividing the world into things we control and things we don't. The stoics suggest that by focussing our attention on only those things that we control, we will become more resilient to the often cruel whims of fate.

In this episode we'll be discussing the origins and history of stoicism, the fundamental principles of stoic philosophy, the dichotomy of control and its applications in modern life.

I hope you enjoy.

Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on new episodes.

Welcome to Will To Wisdom - A podcast exploring perspectives on living well.

When we think about philosophy, we think of grand questions. Does God exist. Do we have free will? What is the relationship between body and soul. That kind of thing.

What philosophers tend not to think so much about nowadays is what it takes to live a good life.

This wasn't always the case. Philosophers in ancient times viewed the question of the good life as one of the subject's most fundamental.

Will To Wisdom seeks to continue this ancient investigation by discussing various perspectives, both new and old, on the craft of living well.

I hope you enjoy.

Please feel free to get in touch by email at [email protected] with questions, critiques, or even just to say hello.