Eclectic Living
Part I And just then the boy had a sudden spasm, as if something had bitten him in the stomach, and uttered a long, shrill wail. For moments that seemed endless he stayed in a queer, contorted position, his body racked by convulsive tremors; it was as if his frail frame were bending before the... Continue Reading →
"I think we have reason to believe that the mind is equipped with a battery of emotions, drives, and faculties for reasoning and communicating, and that they have a common logic across cultures, are difficult to erase or redesign from scratch, were shaped by natural selection acting over the course of human evolution, and owe... Continue Reading →
In Part I of this edition of Poppa's Notes, I briefly discussed and then summarized Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" (aka "Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium"). Seneca wrote these letters to his friend Lucilius. Here's Part II: 78 - Sorry to hear you've been sick, Lucilius. Now buck up, li'l soldier - you can overcome it with your mind. An... Continue Reading →
Are you sick of me talking about dead Mediterranean dudes? Well, I have one more I'd like to hype, because he fits in so well with our discussion, then I'll give it a rest for a while. Seneca was an eclectic and a Stoic. By most accounts, he was an imperfect man who didn't necessarily follow... Continue Reading →
In a word, Eudaimonia. According to Aristotle, that's what it's all about. This is the highest good, what we should all be striving for. So what is it? According to my translator, Martin Ostwald, it is Happiness. But that's not quite right (as I'm sure Ostwald would admit). Eudaimonia encompasses more than our notion of... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 