This essay reflects on Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo and the limits of philosophical system-building, arguing that true wisdom lies in recognising the inadequacy of our concepts in language, economics, and metaphysics, and in embracing humility in our human constraints.
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This essay explores the psychology and neuroscience of first impressions, showing how the amygdala, memory, and bias shape our snap judgements, and why reflection and restraint are essential before reducing a person to a fleeting perception.
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This essay looks at Popper’s insistence that science is defined by its capacity for error, and Kuhn’s claim that even this openness is framed by the paradigms we inhabit. It extends these insights beyond science itself, asking how philosophy of science can be used to test daily beliefs. Falsification and paradigm-awareness become habits of mind that protect against deception and reveal the fragility of the frameworks we live within.
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This essay uses Steinbeck’s East of Eden as a lens on free will and determinism, drawing on Sapolsky, Spinoza, Kant, and Jung to ask whether we must preserve the illusion of freedom to live meaningfully. Cal, Cathy, and Lee embody the tension between nature and choice. The claim: even if determined, the presupposition of freedom is essential for morality, motivation, and hope. Evil is not inhuman, but unknowing.
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This essay examines whether we can separate art from the artist through logic instead of moral instinct. From Nietzsche to Huberman to Heidegger, it argues that ideas supported by reason retain value regardless of personal flaws, unless one proves that moral failure corrupts truth itself.
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This essay examines whether evil is ignorance or deliberate will. Engaging Socrates, Plato, and Arendt, it contrasts naive wrongdoing with intelligent malevolence, asking why we remain captivated by evil that thinks and chooses, in fiction and in life.
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This essay asks what it means to be a good philosopher. Thinkers like Aurelius and Camus offered remarkable clarity and insight, yet often worked with loose argument and imprecise definition. Within analytic philosophy they might not qualify as rigorous, yet as guides for living they are difficult to surpass. This essay explores the space between writing that moves us and philosophy that endures under scrutiny, arguing that good philosophy cannot be limited to narrow criteria.
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This essay traces philosophical divides between East and West from neurobiology to metaphysics. Where Plato demands fixed Forms, Taoism embraces contradiction as reality. Drawing on The Art of War and mythological parallels like the snake, it explores unity, duality, and the value of simplicity over dissection.
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