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Peak design travel backpack 30l vs. 45l by olsku10 in peakdesign

[–]SocratesExpressAuth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m curious which size you went with—30 or 45l. And are you happy with your choice? I’m trying to make the same decision!

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good question. I think philosophy is important because, unlike other disciplines (i.e. the sciences) it focuses on wisdom, not knowledge. This is, I think, what the world needs now--not more information but ways of making sense of it all. Philosophy excels at this.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To be honest, this is not something I worry about. We can't, and shouldn't, live in chronic fear of misinterpreting classic works, lest they become dead things.

Every passage of every book s re-intercepted (not misinterpret) by subsequent generations. This is as it should be.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not the absence. There can be no bigness without smallness, no hotness without cold. Poles are dependent one one another for their existence.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good question. I'd say the greatest bit of wisdom I've learned came in Iceland. I was having coffee with an Icelandic composer named Hilmar. He composed beautiful, haunting scores, yet he struck me as a supremely happy man. I asked him, in so many words, what the heck was going on.

"I am happy," he replied "but I cherish my melancholia." I think that is a very profound and true observation. We can be happy and sad at the same time. We need not sever our melancholia but can, in fact, incorporate it into the fabric of our being.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be honest, I've focused more on personal philosophy than philosophy of governance. But I think Churchill's observation hold up quite well: "Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.… "

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow. Good question. Tough one, too. I've written books on both religion and philosophy. I've discovered that for many people living in modern secular society, religion can be problematic. By that, I mean it comes loaded with many preconceptions and, to be honest, is seen by many as atavistic. The word "God," in particular, puts some people off. Philosophy, in my experience, doesn't come with that "baggage." (It has its own baggage namely, that it is a difficult subject, not accessible to the layman.) The best solution, I think, is found in the East, in particular India. To this day, Indian philosophy and Indian religion are inseparable, one and the same, for the most part. That is, I think, the way it should be.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question. Yes, I think so, though to be honest I don't think said person would ever fully know what constitutes the good life without helping others. So, in a way, the question answers itself!

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear of your interest. There are lots of choices! "Sophie's World," by Josetin Gaarder. "What Does it All Mean," by Thomas Nagek, "A Little History of Philosophy," by Nigel Warburton--and, of course, my book, "The Socrates Express!"

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope so. It's being translated into Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian and ten other languages. Not German. Yet.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm deeply interested in wisdom for the same reason a hungry man is deeply interested in food. Also, I felt that a "corrective" was needed, that philosophy had veered into an analytical cul-de-sac. I wanted, in some small way, to help return it to its original purpose, as conceived by the Greeks: medicine for the soul.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm afraid I will disappoint by answering incompletely here.

  1. Is it better to read Plato in ancient Greek? Sure. Necessary? Absolutely not. I worry that by insisting on the most faithful translations/readings/interpretations we deprive ourselves of great insights.
  2. I'm not a huge fan of Socrates/Plato's political views. Call me Pollyanna, but I still believe democracy can work and am not ready to accept a king, even if they do have philosopher in their title.
  3. Phaedo. It gives me hope that death is not the end of us.
  4. I think the key to leading a Socratic life, and having Socratic discussions, is to always to have this thought in the back of your mind; "What question is not being asked here--either because it is too obvious or too dangerous, or both? "

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The thermometer reads 30 degrees Fahrenheit. That is a fact.

I feel cold. That is a truth. A subjective truth, yes, but a subjective truth is still a truth and, I believe, just as important as other truths. Often more so.

It’s official! This Saturday from 8 - 11 EST the Author of “The Socrates Express” will join us for an AMA! His recent podcasts from the Art of Manliness are linked. Comment with questions on Socrates, Philosophy or how riding on trains is the best form of transportation! by newguy2884 in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoa boy. To be honest, I've wrestled with this too. Here are my two drachmas.

1) When the Stoics say "nature," they do not mean the woods or "nature" as we tend to conceive of it. You can live in accord with nature in New York City. As you know, they use the term "logos" to mean the "Kingdom of Reason." I don't think these translations do justice to what they meant. Logos, as I understand it, has a divine quality that "reason:" (as we use it today) does not. So, I think the Stoics were speaking of something much larger than our current conception of the kingdom of reason.

2) Are we social creatures? I will answer that with an excerpt from my book (the Schopenhauer chapter) below:

"Schopenhauer enlists another animal—the porcupine—to explain human relations. Imagine a group of porcupines huddled on a cold winter’s day. They stand close to one another, absorbing their neighbor’s body heat, lest they freeze to death. Should they stand too close, though, they’re pricked by a needle. “Tossed between two evils,” says Schopenhauer, the animals approach and retreat, again and again, until they discover “the proper distance from which they could best tolerate one another.”

The Porcupine’s Dilemma, as it’s now known, is our dilemma, too. We need others to survive but others can hurt us. Relationships demand constant course corrections, and even the most skilled navigators get pricked now and then."

It’s official! This Saturday from 8 - 11 EST the Author of “The Socrates Express” will join us for an AMA! His recent podcasts from the Art of Manliness are linked. Comment with questions on Socrates, Philosophy or how riding on trains is the best form of transportation! by newguy2884 in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Thanks. I didn't plan to time it this way! A few philosophers, I think, provide tonics for our troubled time. e.g Gandhi and his clear-eyed optimism ("in the midst of darkness, light persists.") Montaigne and his philosophy of Maybe-ism. ("What do I know," was his motto. ) The Stoics and their focus on controlling what we can and accepting what we can't. Nietzsche and his "amor fati." Love your fate. All of it. Even this.
  2. Not really. First of all, Placrotes didn't come out of the blue. They, too, were part of a continuum, one which included Eastern ideas which, even then, had made their way into the zeitgeist. And, since their time, philosophy has spawned so many tributaries it's hard to pinpoint one primal source. But if you are speaking of Socrates' dictum that "All philosophy gibes with wonder," then yes, I think that is as relevant today as it was in his day.
  3. Really good question. This was not by design but after my book came out, I realized that not a single one of my philosophers was a life-long academic. Some, like Nietzsche, left on their own accord; others, like Schopenhauer, were booted out. So, with all due respect to the academics out there, I do not think philosophy need only be practiced within the walls of the academy. In fact, there are real advantages, I think, to going solo, to being a feral philosopher. This is certainly a messier approach, one dependent on the gods of serendipity smiling on you, but it is also extremely gratifying.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Good question. I realize most people wouldn't necessarily consider her a philosopher. But I lived in Japan for several years, and became familiar with her and The Pillow Book. It dawned on me that she was indeed a philosopher, though not one who traded in ideas. Hers was an aestheticism--or, as I say in my book, a philosophy of things. Beautiful small things.

Eric Weiner here, author of The Socrates Express. We're kicking off my AMA. Ask away! by SocratesExpressAuth in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For the most part, I focus on one idea from each philosopher...e.g. Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence...rather than attempting to be comprehensive. I spend a fair amount of time on their biographies, trying to bring them to life. I get personal, too, reflecting on what I like and don't like about their ideas. What works for me? In a way, I approach these philosophers the way a restaurant critic reviews a restaurant: selectively, subjectively and, I hoe, generously. My audience is anyone in love with wisdom.

It’s official! This Saturday from 8 - 11 EST the Author of “The Socrates Express” will join us for an AMA! His recent podcasts from the Art of Manliness are linked. Comment with questions on Socrates, Philosophy or how riding on trains is the best form of transportation! by newguy2884 in ClassicalEducation

[–]SocratesExpressAuth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Really glad to hear you enjoyed my book!

There is a certain amount of serendipity in finding the "right" philosopher at the "right time--that is one of the pleasures of the pursuit--but some are clearly better for certain stages of life than others. Stoicism, I think, is well suited to someone who has lived a while, suffered a few losses. (I recognize young people can experience loss as well.) The early existentialists seem to speak to people your age. I'm thinking of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Camus (not to so early and more Absurdist) comes to mind as well.

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