The Goodness of Work: Virtue, work, and salvation (Work #3)
Work, according to Thomas Carlyle, is a purifying fire that saves us from all vices. But is Carlyle right? And is work really a path to virtue?
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Latest news, writing, essays, thoughts, fragments, explorations etc.
The Zhouyi – a Tool for Invention
A copy of my talk from the third Zhouyi summit forum in Wuxi, China (with Chinese translation).
Maya Philosophy, and How to Give Shape to Time
The Maya philosophers were preoccupied the question of how ritual shapes time, and brings the world into being.
Spring, Like Us, Grows Old
A Poem about ageing and loss, written by one of China’s greatest women poets, Li Qingzhao
The Life of Activity: Work, Labour and Action (Work #2)
The philosopher Hannah Arendt provides an incisive account of work, labour and action. This week, we see how Arendt can help us think better about work.
Mozi and the Challenge of Universal Love
Mozi, one of the most influential early Chinese philosophers, proposed a society based on universal love, protected by a system of rewards and punishments.
Working it Out: The Philosophy of Work (Work #1)
Season three of our Looking for Wisdom course, where we're looking at the philosophy of work. This week: hunters and gatherers, Mencius, Aristotle and slavery.
Democritus and Reasons to be Cheerful
Democritus and his teacher Leucippus were the first philosophers to propose that all things were made up of the joining-together of imperceptible atoms.
The Art of Waiting: Tove Jansson’s Moominvalley in November
A masterpiece of children’s literature about grief, friendship, human difference, and the art of waiting.
Love and Understanding: The tangle of love and wisdom
Is philosophy the love of wisdom? Or is it, as some philosophers have suggested, the wisdom of love?
