Philosopher Epictetus said: “It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them.” I can see how we can use this idea in our present lives, however it occurred to me today that perhaps it could help us deal with the past as well. I am inclined to believe that we have all had some bad/difficult moments or experiences throughout our childhood, teenage years and beyond. We didn’t have much say over […]
“Some things are in my control and others are not” – I have known this concept for what feels like forever through the Serenity Prayer. For the first time I have paid more attention to the “things I can change” aspect rather than the things I cannot. I think it is because I heard it in different words (Stoic philosopher, Epictetus), as above: “Some things are in my control and others are not” that opened […]
The Daily Stoic, written by Ryan Holiday, includes a wise quote for each day of the year and then a modern day interpretation of the quote. Today’s quote is from Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. I thought it to be relevant to today amidst the politics of COVID19.
Since late 2019 I have been preparing to deliver a Course for our local University of the Third Age called “Unleash Your Creative Spirit”. I put myself through the course for the second time and allowed all sorts of creative ideas to flourish. In some ways I turned my house upside down in the process. I have already shared some of those experiences in previous blogs. Eighteen people enrolled and I divided them into two […]
Our philosophy discussion group recently met and talked about Soren Kierkegaard. I really liked this quote! Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Soren Kierkegaard
The Philosophy discussion group that I facilitate considered Confucius last week. Who would have thought that the topic would be so relevant – the 70th anniversary of Communism in China and the unrest in Hong Kong? Some of the comments that came out of the discussion included: ‘Confucius spoke of unity but what we see in China today is uniformity’; ‘it is so difficult to examine an Eastern Philosophy when we (in the group) all […]
We had two interesting discussions on Thursday based on information on Descartes in Tom Butler-Dowdon’s book, 50 Philosophy Classics. I also provided some handouts based on my research mostly on the internet. This morning’s group found Descartes famous ‘I think, therefore I am’ difficult to grasp. Also the idea that Descartes could discard all existing knowledge and experience and start again in judging what he believed to be true. Is it really possible to imagine […]
Tomorrow our U3A Group will be studying Machiavelli. He is definitely an interesting character to consider and I am sure there will be some lively discussion. Consider the following quote: It makes one think in these times when we long for strong leadership based on integrity. Stay tuned for more …
Recently I have been exploring many avenues seeking wisdom. I have studied (with a small group of other interested folks) Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche (not in any great depth, I might add!) From there I spent some time in October studying the Stoics – Seneca again, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. Following on from there we leapt a few centuries to consider Karl Marx and Mary Wollstonecraft. We finished up with a quick look […]
I am into Week 2 of my course on Practical Philosophy Online I loved the Story of the Week so thought I would share it with you. The author is unknown. One day Arnav and his friend Bhima were having a friendly chat while walking just outside the marketplace in Dhubri. A beggar asked for some help from Arnav, who told him to ask him tomorrow. The beggar went away. Looking around Bhima saw a […]
