Books & Ideas
Reading notes, philosophy and reflections on living and thinking well.
Philosophizing With a Hammer: Nietzsche's "Twilight of the Idols"
Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols: philosophizing with a hammer, the attack on Socrates and reason, and a philosophy of saying yes to life.
Why We Run From Freedom: Erich Fromm's "Escape from Freedom"
Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom: why people surrender freedom to authoritarianism, conformity and destructiveness, and the freedom worth having.
I Rebel, Therefore We Exist: Camus' "The Rebel"
Albert Camus's The Rebel is his great philosophical essay on revolt, and it is a far more political and historical work than The Myth of Sisyphus.
Beauty and Decay: Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice"
Thomas Mann's Death in Venice is a short, perfect, and deeply unsettling novella about the collapse of a disciplined life into obsession.
Where Do "Good" and "Evil" Come From? Nietzsche's "Genealogy of Morals"
Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals: master and slave morality, ressentiment, the bad conscience and questioning the value of our values.
Freedom and Responsibility: Simone de Beauvoir's "The Ethics of Ambiguity"
Simone de Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity: how existentialist freedom grounds an ethics of responsibility and willing the freedom of others.
Bad Faith and the Look of the Other: Sartre's "Being and Nothingness"
Sartre's Being and Nothingness explained: bad faith, the Look of the Other and why we are condemned to be free, and how these ideas show up every day.
The Music of Ordinary Lives: The Short Stories of Anton Chekhov
After the thunder of Dostoevsky and the vast canvases of Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov can seem, at first, almost too quiet.
Exploring Family Dynamics and Generational Conflict: Ivan Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons"
Turgenev's Fathers and Sons: the nihilist Bazarov, the clash between generations and what the novel teaches about family, ideas and love.
Labor, Work, and Action: Hannah Arendt's "The Human Condition"
Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition: labor, work and action, natality and how modern life has eroded our capacity for public action.
God Is Dead, Now What? Nietzsche's "The Gay Science"
Nietzsche's The Gay Science: what "God is dead" really means, the danger of nihilism, eternal recurrence and amor fati.
Solidarity in the Time of Plague: Camus' "The Plague"
Camus' The Plague: an epidemic in Oran as a symbol of evil, Dr. Rieux's quiet heroism and solidarity as the answer to the absurd.
Despair as the Sickness Unto Death: Kierkegaard on the Self
Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death explained: the self as a relation, despair as failing to be oneself, and why despair can lead to faith.
The Conquest of Happiness: Russell's Antidote to Modern Misery
Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness: why much unhappiness is self-made, and how zest, wide interests and affection lead outward to joy.
Condemned to Be Free: Sartre's "Existentialism Is a Humanism"
Sartre's Existentialism Is a Humanism explained: existence precedes essence, condemned to be free, bad faith and choosing for all humanity.
The Trouble With a Truly Good Man: Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"
Dostoevsky's The Idiot: Prince Myshkin, a truly good man in a corrupt society, and why the world mistakes pure goodness for foolishness.
Being-Toward-Death: An Approach to Heidegger's "Being and Time"
Heidegger's Being and Time made approachable: Dasein, being thrown into the world, the they, and how facing death can make us authentic.
The World as Will: Schopenhauer's Tragic Vision
Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation: appearance and the blind Will, why striving means suffering and the escape through art and compassion.
Chasing the White Whale: Obsession and the Infinite in Melville's "Moby-Dick"
Melville's Moby-Dick explained: Ahab's obsession, what the white whale symbolizes, and why Ishmael, the curious observer, is the one who survives.
Navigating Life's Maze: Wisdom from William James' Pragmatism
Lessons from William James' Pragmatism: truth as a process, the value of experience, radical empiricism, pluralism and an action-oriented philosophy.
The Long Road of the Spirit: Wrestling with Hegel
Wrestling with Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: the dialectic, the master-slave dialectic, truth as the whole and how to read a book this hard.
Imagining Sisyphus Happy: Camus on the Absurd
Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus explained: the absurd, why we should refuse both suicide and false hope, and why we must imagine Sisyphus happy.
The Leap of Faith: Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling"
Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling: Abraham and Isaac, the knight of faith, the teleological suspension of the ethical and why faith is so hard.
Unveiling the Philosophy of Power: Exploring Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Will to Power"
Exploring Nietzsche's The Will to Power: power as life's driving force, the Übermensch, confronting nihilism and affirming life through eternal recurrence.