/philosophy/

What is Western Civilization
I have been reading Chinese and Indian history recently, and naturally I have begun to consider Western civilization in comparison.... posted 7d ago with 6 replies received history philosophy

What is Western Civi received

From a linguistic perspective I can offer some thoughts, if I start from the premise that a classical language and its corpus are closely linked to civilizational institutions responsible for the preservation and transmission of the canon. The concept I pr... 1d ago received

From a linguistic pe received

Welcome to Sofie Channel. Curated anonymous discussion about life and philosophy.
I've been working on a little something in the background for the past year, and more earnestly for the past few months. It's a new social media platform designed to curate a high quality discourse community about whatever topics are important to us.... posted 2y ago with 38 replies received meta philosophy computing

Welcome to Sofie Cha received

The high reputation poster is a bore and a lout of the highest order. As his reputation trends upwards the amount of information conveyed per post trends to zero. “On this topic the Socratics has this to say—” I can barely stomach this already. See h... 2y ago received

The high reputation received

Is it possible to add a (mandatory) short string field to the little 'X'? I've seen quite a few instances of 'rage downvoting' like behavior where the argument was rationally sound and reasonably well behaved, not too much in the way of calling their oppon... 4d ago received

Is it possible to ad received

Physis vs Nomos
I listened to the most recent 'The Students' episode with an interesting discussion on physis vs nomos.... posted 3w ago with 1 reply received philosophy

Physis vs Nomos received

Both Strauss and Heidegger talk about this btw 3w ago received

Both Strauss and Hei received

Aristocracy and Nature
Can an argument be made that the ecological destruction that humans have done lies mostly with the turning of power from the aristocracy to the bourgeoise? While there are cases about how the aristocracy led to the extinction of some animals (like some for... posted 1mo ago with 5 replies received history philosophy

Aristocracy and Natu received

Absolutely not. The process of industrial intensification, acceleration, population growth is fundamentally technological not political.... 1mo ago received

Absolutely not. The received

Here is an informal and abstract conceptual depiction of how I deduce what the actual problems (or problem) are to help you to focus your moral efforts where they should be focused:... 3w ago received

Here is an informal received

Greco-futurism: Solution for NRx trichotomy
Spandrell has written about the three different sides of NRx who are against the Cathedral.... posted 2mo ago with 31 replies received politics philosophy nietzsche

Greco-futurism: Solu received

I like the idea. The plan needs work. For example:... 2mo ago received

I like the idea. The received

Hereditary monarchy was goofy renaissance fair business even in the 1930s. The leading powers (France, UK, etc) had long replaced theirs or reduced them to symbolism.... 2mo ago received

Hereditary monarchy received

... dawg 2mo ago received

... dawg received

The Hegelian alien
All agents have a geist that have a will to God (perfection) in order to acquire a whole and stable state. This includes even ideas who utilize conscious beings in order to be materialized and undergo an evolutionary process to reach their own perfection. ... posted 3mo ago with 5 replies received philosophy

The Hegelian alien received

He did. They are the ones being selected against.... 3mo ago received

He did. They are the received

Peter Sloterdijk: You Must Change Your Life
Starting a book club thread for Peter Sloterdijk's You Must Change Your Life. Was recommended this text after talking about Sloterdijk with a friend of mine who's a university professor of Nietzsche — he said it's superb. I've read ~5% so far, and that a... posted 3mo ago with no replies received philosophy nietzsche

Peter Sloterdijk: Yo received

New paper claims LLM-powered stylometric de-anonymization? Anonymity is defense-dominant if you want it
We must assume that a motivated attacker will be able to do bayesian-optimal stylometric de-anonymization, and that this will be far more accurate than you might expect. There is no free speech without anonymity, and there is no free thought without free s... (x.com) posted 3mo ago with 3 replies received philosophy technology

New paper claims LLM received

The distinction between anonymity and persistent pseudonymity is important. It's best to assume that a persistent pseudonym could be doxxed at any time, and post accordingly.... 3mo ago received

The distinction betw received

I've posted nothing as xenophon that I would mind being tied to my IRL identity, exactly conforming to my advice to "post accordingly." 3mo ago received

I've posted nothing received

The Modern Galileo
What does it feel like to be Galileo? What is heretical truth?... posted 7mo ago with 14 replies received philosophy immigration

The Modern Galileo received

These are good points. I know these policies would be enforced with Party members with the most strictness (and there was perhaps less need for coercive measures with them, than with people way out in the provinces), and that there were exceptions for ethn... 6mo ago received

These are good point received

The Rise and Fall of Abstraction
I find Robin Hanson quite good. He has the ability to generate interesting, actually new thoughts, which is a skill that shouldn't be taken for granted these days. He speaks plainly and can cut through bullshit quickly as a result. Even in this tiny blog p... (www.overcomingbias.com) posted 6mo ago with 5 replies received philosophy eugenics

The Rise and Fall of received

He's so close to the truth but mixes things up and gets the equation backwards (maybe intentionally?). "Social darwinism" and life (for humans and for everything else) as competition is not an "abstraction." It's the opposite. It's lived, biological, empir... 6mo ago received

He's so close to the received

Nature Onto Man
Look o' Last Men at the land of your predecessors who lived and died on the Po Valley, River Thames, or the Mongolian Steppe. A land that produced titans who roamed across the earth, desecrated populations, loved life, and produced beautiful cultures. What... posted 10mo ago with 10 replies received philosophy life

Nature Onto Man received

Asks the DMV lady, her voice dripping with smug sass.... 10mo ago received

Asks the DMV lady, h received

Wars do more than just infrastructure damage. They psychologically influence populations by forming an us vs them mentality, retaining some values instead of throwing them away, etc. 10mo ago received

Wars do more than ju received

Christian Thermodynamics
You are an organism in an environment that contains free energy. What do you do?... posted 10mo ago with 8 replies received philosophy gnon

Christian Thermodyna received

This also calls into question the assertion made in >>3870 by gotzendammerung:... 10mo ago received

This also calls into received

I don't think Christianity can be understood in terms of thermodynamics. 10mo ago received

I don't think Christ received

Medidation, Enlightenment, Dharma, and Sokushinbutsu
I see we have some enlightenment-seeking buddhist types lurking around. I have a question for them: what is it you think is valuable about these "enlightened" mental states reachable with meditation etc? I hear about them occasionally but by the self-admis... posted 12mo ago with 24 replies received philosophy life rationality

Medidation, Enlighte received

I think the main problem here is that people like to over-mysticize "enlightenment" and have vastly different things in their heads when they say this, especially amongst "believers."... 12mo ago received

I think the main pro received

There is a phrase in the Pali Canon that is used frequently that goes something like "the Buddha teaches a Dhamma that is good in its beginning, good in its middle, and good in its end" and this is exactly why you might want to leverage the ideas even when... 12mo ago received

There is a phrase in received

Previous posters have given examples of exemplars, as well as the living tradition of practice and writings for anyone to fully engage and understand their goal, even if someone disagrees. Do you similarly have people you believe to have followed this goal... 11mo ago received

Previous posters hav received

Applied Philosophy and ... Product Design?
Wanted to share one of my favorite pieces of aesthetic philosophy (as a branching off from >>3734). It is cleverly disguised as a product design blog post. If you haven't ever given much thought to why things look the way they do, this should be pretty con... (www.core77.com) posted 11mo ago with 11 replies received philosophy technology

Applied Philosophy a received

You normally wouldn't catch me defending the rectangle ideology, but i must protest your characterization of rectangles as “unnatural”. They are natural to rational thought. We did not invent the rectangular grid just out of pure postmodern arbitrarine... 11mo ago received

You normally wouldn' received

I take your point. There's an interesting technical discussion to be had here around optimality. The amount of compute required to run optimizations over form within an aero CFD environment is very large. I looked around a little while back and believe tha... 11mo ago received

I take your point. T received

A Hidden Gem
One of the reasons I am posting here is to discover some hidden gems that cannot be found easily elsewhere on the web.... (www.sscnet.ucla.edu) posted 2y ago with 10 replies received meta philosophy bookclub

A Hidden Gem received

This is really interesting. Struggle is the principle that creates life, health, and truth, and it has justice to it. I have not heard of this so I will have to go read it. Is there a good english translation you recommend? Looks like archive has the germa... 2y ago received

This is really inter received

Could you send some of your favorite R/ACC essays or discussions on "agonistic inamic unity"? It seems highly relevant and historically fascinating, but I can't find much online apart from the foundational book which is an academic tome. 11mo ago received

Could you send some received

Center Studies Intro Thread
A close friend has championed the work of a certain Dennis Bouvard for a long while. He calls the broader field of related inquiry 'Center Studies', and certainly has gotten some mileage out of the ideas himself. I suspect many of you will be tangentially ... (dennisbouvard.substack.com) posted 11mo ago with 3 replies received philosophy

Center Studies Intro received

From Bouvard:... 11mo ago received

From Bouvard:... received

I've started reading some of the essays and the book Anthropomorphics. My immediate impression is that this is the kind of writing that sucks you into an intellectual vortex, makes it very hard to tell if there is something to it or if it is wordcel nonsen... 11mo ago received

I've started reading received

Vitalist/BAP/Nietzsche Metaphysics Question
BAP - drawing from Nietzsche et al., but perhaps more explicitly - discusses an “innate intelligence” in nature. Some kind of conscious (or at least intentional) entity with its own ends and purposes.... posted 12mo ago with 5 replies received philosophy nietzsche

Vitalist/BAP/Nietzsc received

As one of the harder "materialists" around here, the vitalists are right there is an innate intelligence in nature. Start with Darwin: the results of the mutation-selection organism-design process that we call evolution look pretty intelligent. We can deny... 11mo ago received

As one of the harder received

Will Future Civilizations Bother to Excavate Our Remains?
https://www.palladiummag.com/2025/07/08/will-future-civilizations-bother-to-excavate-our-remains/ posted 12mo ago with 3 replies received history philosophy

Will Future Civiliza received

Those examples are all textual and also in the context of modern archeology, which as BLT says is transient. It's not that it doesn't draw on archeology for access to texts, it's that archeology as a whole field isn't sustained by that process, and the soc... 12mo ago received

Those examples are a received

Yes, the general pattern has been that civilizations rise and fall, but technology gets better over time. There are local tech regressions like the Bronze Age Collapse and the fall of Rome—but even the darkest of the post-Roman Dark Ages had much better ... 12mo ago received

Yes, the general pat received

"Cosmic Alignment" is almost right. Life is the answer
Philosopher it-girl Ginevra Davis gave a great talk on "Cosmic Alignment" the other day. I was glad to see serious thinking against the current paradigm of "AI Alignment". Her argument is that alignment makes three big unsupported speculations:... posted 12mo ago with 10 replies received philosophy agi gnon

"Cosmic Alignment" i received

...bruh... 12mo ago received

...bruh... received

I call this "faith in being." It is the primordial form of faith. One may or may not have more particular faith in particular things (revelations, ancestors, familial relations) but one must have faith in being, or one will be lost in nihilism. 12mo ago received

I call this "faith i received

Political philosophy vs Natural science
Strauss on Hobbes... posted 12mo ago with 2 replies received philosophy

Political philosophy received

I agree with Hobbes there is quite a strong distinction between political philosophy and natural science, at least in methodology. Natural science is strongest at creating tight predictive frameworks for external non-living phenomena, out of which we can b... 12mo ago received

I agree with Hobbes received

Gigachad John Winthrop and His Merry Band of Chadly Puritans
Harvardtards know Winthrop House, but have they read the works of its titular figure? I think not, but you can, anon. Here’s a nice cold plunge for you:... (minio.la.utexas.edu) posted 12mo ago with 3 replies received history philosophy

Gigachad John Winthr received

I would've recommended Bradford, but that sourcebook also looks great. Anything with Perry Miller's name on it is quite worth reading, especially something like a compendium. He's a giant. Skimming through the table of contents, I'd actually be quite inter... 12mo ago received

I would've recommend received

Was Cypher Right?: Why We Stay In Our Matrix (Hanson, 2002)
https://mason.gmu.edu/~rhanson/matrix.html posted 12mo ago with 2 replies received philosophy agi

Was Cypher Right?: W received

Fuck you anon_gwjy, this is a good link. 12mo ago received

Fuck you anon_gwjy, received

Received loud and clear. I'll read it. 12mo ago received

Received loud and cl received

Phenomenology as useful turbo-autism
I was reading the Heraclitus fragments this weekend, and luckily my pdf had the Greek alongside English. Fragment 10 says "Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ", which was translated as "Things keep their secrets". My Greek knowledge, despite being ... posted 12mo ago with 4 replies received philosophy gnon bookclub

Phenomenology as use received

You should check out THE ART AND THOUGHT OF HERACLITUS by Kahn. Lots of commentary on Heraclitus filters his fragments through Aristotle and other later philosopher's interpretation. Kahn attempts a purely textual exegesis which attempts to reconstruct Her... 12mo ago received

You should check out received

These resources are all very good — thank you to everyone who's replied. I think given the tenor so far we should just turn this into a spergathon of posting the best Greek resources. Please continue with hidden gems, forbidden texts, and generally the m... 12mo ago received

These resources are received

Is Unitarianism the true religion of the coming civilization?
Jefferson didn't quite get the dates right, but I offer the provocation that he was right in spirit about Unitarianism. Unitarianism takes the best of the Christian tradition and broader European philosophical tradition, and unifies and purifies it of supe... posted 13mo ago with 27 replies received philosophy gnon nietzsche

Is Unitarianism the received

For present purposes, I'll pass over theological debates about Christian revelation, and simply note the sociological fact that actually existing Unitarianism is pure shitlibery. In fact it's among the most shitlib of all Christian-adjacent configurations.... 13mo ago received

For present purposes received

I was very moved by this post and so I went to my local Unitarian church and explained to them all that we have discussed here. They called the police on me. 13mo ago received

I was very moved by received

You are right about these things. I will attempt what you have specified. But i'm still lacking two things: a good hook, and "what's the point". We can be as right as we like about philosophy and so on but if there isn't some actual operational program tha... 13mo ago received

You are right about received

The Hellenic View of Existential Risk
When I was a teen, I read much of the Less Wrong and the rationalist work of the day. This provided the basis for a vague worry surrounding "existential risk." The feeling was pervasive, and I would read works about the dangers of AI or other technology to... posted 1y ago with 10 replies received philosophy technology rationality

The Hellenic View of received

Great post, OP. Most of the X-risk field reflects a spiritual illness and worldview poisoned by utilitarianism.... 1y ago received

Great post, OP. Most received

I think in this discussion, as well as the places where I generally see this particular kind of critique of EA and x-risk come up, there's a conflation of two intertwined but separable core issues. The first is the factual risk of irreparable damage to the... 13mo ago received

I think in this disc received

When does a people become "historical"? Can we achieve a Greek-like stance as Nietzsche believed late 19th C. Germans could?
Inspired by the final section of Nietzsche's Untimely Meditation titled "On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life".... posted 13mo ago with 9 replies received history philosophy nietzsche

When does a people b received

In the context of Nietzsche's essay, "historicality" refers precisely to when a civilization/people emerges from acting freely, or, uninhibited by a variety of historical phenomena—ancestral worship, rigid moral tradition, and so forth. Perhaps in other ... 13mo ago received

In the context of Ni received

The Slice of Life Mindset
Consider a slice-of-life anime and what it chooses to romanticize. Commuting to work, preparing a meal, reading a book, drinking some tea, watching a movie. The characters are typically unambitious, the opposite of a shonen character who sacrifices everyth... posted 1y ago with 2 replies received philosophy

The Slice of Life Mi received

I like this wholesomeposting. Interesting you connect Ayn Rand to slice-of-life philosophy. It's a sort of lifestyle wu-wei: just be clear on your code of values and try to live it as directly as possible, and refuse to apologize or compromise. To your poi... 1y ago received

I like this wholesom received

Yes. I do a few different things that help turn boring moments into extraordinary ones. One is to notice and thank God for everything. The small bird perched on a branch, the sun peaking over rooftops, or a nice drive in the car. It doesn't matter how ever... 14mo ago received

Yes. I do a few diff received

Just how alien would the space-octopus be?
It's hard to say what a true alien species would be like. But octopi are pretty alien, and we know a bit about them. One of you doubted that a space-octopus from alpha centauri would be much like us. So here is a xenohumanist thought experiment: SETI has i... posted 1y ago with 5 replies received philosophy agi accelerationism

Just how alien would received

intelligent super-ants make a good thought experiment. Let's add the standard set of capabilities: language, learned culture, tool use, fire, reflection, etc. Note these are just capabilities, not values or arbitrary architectural narrowings, but they are ... 1y ago received

intelligent super-an received

The devil's argument against the falseness of eden, and God's reason for evil
I have been bothered for some time by the idea that Eden is either coherent or desirable. This idea is implicit in the problem of evil: we see that reality is different from Eden in that it includes a bunch of scary dangerous uncomfortable stuff we would r... posted 1y ago with 6 replies received philosophy accelerationism

The devil's argument received

The point of the story isn't that the devil is good or even that the devil was right. It’s that this creation (physical reality) is the good one, the pain in it is part of a greater plan and beauty, and the paradise imagined by bronze age semites is fake... 1y ago received

The point of the sto received

How would we educate a young prince?
In another thread we considered whether a more intelligent population would have fewer social problems. Some comments brought out the intriguing idea that for matters of the functionality of society, structure and regime and therefore education may matter ... posted 1y ago with 10 replies received philosophy life

How would we educate received

Good read. I've noticed how I'm drawn away from academia that has gone vapid and mainstream towards religion that has a core group of people refining the craft. 1y ago received

Good read. I've noti received

The beach is the only place of enjoyment that the human species has discovered in nature.
I went to the beach today and wanted to write about it. I don’t have a manifesto. The beach makes me feel good.... posted 2y ago with 4 replies received philosophy life

The beach is the onl received

I have not read Lefebvre, but it sounds similar to thoughts I've had. The beach, the real one out there on the coast and not just some piece of watery sand on the local waterway, is a little slice of titanic permanently wild landscape. Civilization can't r... 2y ago received

I have not read Lefe received

A pinpoint brain with less than a million neurons, somehow capable of mammalian-level problem-solving.
https://rifters.com/real/2009/01/iterating-towards-bethlehem.html?fbclid=IwAR1b9QURSJnizgy7r4HD7UCYmc06A7uL5muc7igz8uJHxLAIZWEwDMSqyPk posted 3y ago with 15 replies received philosophy agi computing

A pinpoint brain wit received

Aristotle described animals as having souls* capable of knowledge derived from the senses and the capability to use that knowledge to support the movements characteristic of their species.... 2y ago received

Aristotle described received

On Religion
IMO, the #1 insight I've absorbed from our general sphere is a far better grasp of the holistic significance of religion and theology within human society. In this regard, I found Wolf's article on Abraham especially insightful. I especially owe him for hi... posted 2y ago with 13 replies received politics philosophy gnon

On Religion received

Glorious. Right on. With respect to the other transcendentals, I've recently been thinking the way we should launch this philosophical movement is radicalizing around the natural law ("The Idea") operationalization of Truth. Beauty is very charismatic, but... 2y ago received

Glorious. Right on. received

What are the most important (history, philosophy, etc.) books for the home educator to read?
Think: “things the teacher needs to know so he or she can avoid misleading his or her students”.... posted 2y ago with 14 replies received history philosophy bookclub

What are the most im received

I was going to say the English Civil War seemed like one of the first big blows for liberalism. The Peace also seems relevant. In any case the point stands: maybe study the historical genealogy of our own system. But if I can refine the prompt somewhat, I'... 2y ago received

I was going to say t received

I wanted to select OP's refinement of the prompt for the newcomers. My interpretation of this prompt is that we want to determine what is important to us, and I think that would start with understanding what the ideological foundations of our current regim... 2y ago received

I wanted to select O received

The Structure of Exoteric Ideology
Zero HP Lovecraft wrote a series of post called "Toward a Functionalist Understanding of Religion" that culminated in a proposal for a "Christian-Nietzschean" synthesis. I'm not much interested in the latter. However, in the first post in the series, he sk... posted 2y ago with 5 replies received philosophy nietzsche

The Structure of Exo received

I like this reframing. It's very much in the spirit of what I was thinking when I (re)posted the reference. 2y ago received

I like this reframin received

The Post-Liberal Synthesis. The founding essay of the Governance Futurism project.
https://www.palladiummag.com/2018/09/29/towards-the-post-liberal-synthesis/ posted 2y ago with 3 replies received politics philosophy

The Post-Liberal Syn received

Yes. "Post-Liberal" rapidly became a useless label colonized by insincere pseudo-movements.... 2y ago received

Yes. "Post-Liberal" received

Nietzsche - Homer's Contest
Some of you may have already seen this piece; I think it’s worth revisiting following the book club. In it Nietzsche offers more details on the relation between tyrant/warrior and philosopher/artist in the ancient Greek polis. It’s another of his early... posted 2y ago with 5 replies received philosophy nietzsche

Nietzsche - Homer's received

Yeah there's a phase shift with Plato to philosophy as a self-conscious program and type, with a politics. Alamariu points out tyranny and proto-philosophy existed for a while pre-plato, but true philosophy only really comes into being with xenophon and th... 2y ago received

Yeah there's a phase received

The martial art of ideology
The best idea on Lesswrong was the martial art of rationality. It didn't deliver.... posted 3y ago with 24 replies received philosophy rationality family

The martial art of i received

Rationality is the virtue of thought and I think it's good to keep the term around, but it isn't the father of virtue, since sometimes it is prudent to stop thinking, and because a lot of activities are better without thought.... 3y ago received

Rationality is the v received

Interesting. I need to be more consistent with the Romanization. It is a pet peeve of mine that the usual Romanization of the Peking dialect promulgated by the government... 2y ago received

Interesting. I need received

Don't be a fat.
posted 3y ago with 12 replies received philosophy

Don't be a fat. received

Dieting beyond what is comfortable for your digestion seems much more energetically taxing than simply increasing your activity, which actually *builds* your energy. The human body is a perfect example of a structure that becomes more, not less powerful th... 3y ago received

Dieting beyond what received

Ideology is not for arguing or justifying. It is for living.
A forum is an ideological thunderdome in which we can train the martial art of ideology.... posted 3y ago with 9 replies received politics philosophy

Ideology is not for received

u got me 3y ago received

u got me received