r/philosophy

Peter Singer, philosopher: ‘People still think the animals we eat live out in the fields, outdoors’

In his prescient 1967 work The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord argues that modern consumer society increasingly replaces lived experience with its representation. Rather than actively engaging in reality, we are becoming passive spectators of endless spectacle.

A lot of Machiavelli’s advice is simply — and intentionally — bad. As a discerning reader will notice, Machiavelli often recommends stupidly heedless courses of action likely to get one killed, mostly to weed out the idiots and pretenders.

The mind isn't flat, but modernity has suppressed transcendent experience

Materialism is ecologically destructive

Then where did God come from? (Carl Sagan)

According to the Stoics, two people can have the same physical reactions, but only one experiences fear. The explanation requires the introduction of a new Stoic concept: propatheia, or pre-emotions.

Nietzsche argued that philosophy since Plato has focused on metaphysical beyond-worlds that distract from the material. With the death of God, metaphysics died too, and the question of suffering asks itself anew. The Übermensch is Nietzsche's answer

Susan Sontag on Violence, Desensitization, and What Images Cannot Show Us

"An Account of My Hut" by the zen monk Kamo no Chōmei (1200's Japan)