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Pill Pod 164 - Self-Help is/not Philosophy (Patreon Exclusive)
🕑 Added 2024-04-16 02:03:05 +0000 UTCWe read a kinda boring article that spun off into a rather more interesting discussion about what philosophy actually is and who it is for. The article can be found here, but we're going to need your reflections to know if this was meaningful or not.
Comments
Mrityunjay Awasthy
My takeaway from this episode. Pills is spot-on for challenging philosopher's suggestion that philosophy transcends semiotics (He said it way clearly, but I am using this space for my self interest and I am paying also :P). I can just mute my philosopher with press of a button- here goes the language and the philosopher.
Khemith
I think of Philosophy as an expression of will to power. You want and need as much "truth" as your organism will withstand. The "game" is merely a narration over these bodily movements and agitations.
Akepa
I’m super interested in play and it’s radical potential
ageOfBumFires
Dope episode. I've found the self help of no self to be particularly helpful 😅 31:00 the segment on picking a self help or philosophy like you would a pair of shoes, and at core each option being fundamentally a singular truth that can held which cannot be matched and collaged. Sure, in an identity culture, this is obviously ridiculous. But what about from the side of daily practice? I don't practice Buddhism for identity, or for truth, I practice Buddhism because I find that the practice of Buddhism casually does indeed help to attenuate my daily sufferings. And from that aspect, if something is found to actually, by experimentation, even it's its means lead to the end, and if multiple practices can be combined without leading to circular carroe chasing but actual peace, then I see no issue or error in doing so. But this requires that the endless game of identity be put down, or if it must be played, to play it sincerely, ironically, in jest, but never seriously. Idk, does that make sense? Not a matter of right/wrong, truth/lie, but it works, and it works in its workings and it works. I'm sure here I'll be reminded Buddhism is for the most part around the world, practiced as everyday religion, but that doesn't deny that it can be practiced in the minor sense as well? Id actually love to hear your thoughts on Thich That Hanh, because 1) I found him to be the most genuine person I have ever seen speak, either irl or not, 2) he's a zen Buddhist master 3) he often gives Dharma talks which dip into Christianity and in those, his interest is never in exclusive truth or claims to truth. That would be an irl case study to dissect, one in which I think you'd find this whole discussion flipped in its head given the prioritization of practice over identity and values.
Daniel Stoltzfus
You guys should do an episode on The American Scholar by Ralf Waldo Emiserson. I just read it today (it's super short), and I think you could mine it for some good content.
Andy Louie
Is there a Discord?
Alex B
I find the indirect truths of critique accommodating of contradiction and creativity. Considering implications rather than getting stuck on verifications
Ashley H
I read Frege to learn how to be an alpha male
Zachary Manenti
https://www.facebook.com/share/NtVSEqq7RCKuiz49/?mibextid=WC7FNe
Henry Martyn
Very good ep. Admittedly there are times I can't help but wonder whether Philosophy is just self help with a veneer of fancy jargon. But then again, even if it is does it really matter 🤷 I feel like Pills has name dropped Schopenhauer a few times recently. Are we getting some Schopy content lol? His pessimism aside, I've always found his prose to be quite beautiful.
Eli
When are we gonna get the Bersani, Edelman, anti-social Queer theory ep 😔
Matt S
Great episode 🙏
Jo Marie
A good Cioran reader is by Daniel Branco - Emil Cioran: the criticism of the idea of historical progress. And then there’s the delightful Cioran classic - the trouble with being born. Happy days.
Stephen Nelson Willis
Academia is all about fencing in and fencing out. Neither improve understanding much, according to me. Should "philosophy" consider everything or only very small, circumspect notions? Or just 43 notions, maybe 62? (more or less) -- can there even be such a thing as "self-help" in the sense of "helping" this vague and fleeting thing which probably doesn't exist at all? (the self) As I have noted on the subject of the highly influential Ayn Rand -- who hawked the notion of selfishness uber alles, yet parced her sell with the concept of "enlightened self interest" -- that if selfish human behavior were guided by absolute enlightened self-interest, it would would come out of the wash as absolute unselfishness. Very well, makes sense to me.
Jo Marie
FFS just read E.M. Cioran already.
DilloBear
If you're planning a "What is Philosophy?" That could be cool (Lyotard and Deleuze, obviously, have great books on that - amongst too many other philosophers). But a series on the meaning of life or the self-help industry sounds far less interesting, to me. Doing episodes on play(fulness) or philosophy as a [language] game could be cool, though. Lugones and Graeber come to mind.
James Merrigan
Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips is maybe good to think about in the transition or relationship between self-help & philosophy. As a reader of Richard Rorty, there is a pragmatic edge to his essays, a give or take perspective, that presents the either/or distinction without taking sides. He has written good essays on “Against Inhibition” & artists like Diane Arbus. He is a great essayist also in how he folds language & argument, & is more likely found on the self-help shelf.
