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3 Unpopular (But Likely Correct) Opinions According to Cicero

9/7/2023

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It's time for this year's iteration of the According to Cicero series. I've been writing these posts since 2016, and they are a lot of fun, as they allow me to explore ancient Roman history, culture, philosophy, and how Cicero's ideas can be applied today. 

Cicero has garnered renewed attention in recent years.
He was a Roman Senator whose writings, as Historian Edward Gibbon put it, “breathed the spirit of freedom.” Particularly influential was his idea of natural law, followed by John Locke and other enlightenment thinkers: Human nature included reason, which could discover justice, which was the basis of law. Voltaire said “He taught us how to think.”

This month's post will focus on 3 of Cicero's opinions that may be unpopular, but are likely quite correct. Read on to find out what they are:
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Time to Parent by Julie Morgenstern: Book Review & Summary

8/12/2023

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Parenting really is the ultimate time management challenge. The reason is simple. Once you become a parent, you feel you now have that responsibility, plus everything you were trying to do or maintain from before you had children. Time to Parent shows us how to work smarter not harder when it comes to what we do with our time.

In last month's post, I described how I had to take a hiatus from blogging during 2014-2015 around the birth of my first child. I simply couldn't figure out how to get enough time to work on the blog. As I learned over the years, the good news is that you can still manage your time well once you have children, you just have to become much more strategic about it, and that is what Time to Parent is about. The book, by professional organizer and productivity consultant Julie Morgenstern, is a blessing for parents, and I highly recommend it.

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Time to Parent is unlike anything I have read before, as Morgenstern organizes life as a parent into two main categories, "Raising a Human Being," and "Being a Human Being," each with four essential quadrants which represent how we should be spending our time. Parents are often stressed about the busyness in their lives and how to meet their child’s needs along with all the other demands of life. I honestly think this book helps to take much of that stress away. Read on for my full review:


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Celebrating 10 Years With 10 Great Common Sense Ethics Posts

7/28/2023

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​Common Sense Ethics is turning 10! To celebrate the site's 10th birthday, a bit of reflection about why I started CSE, as well as a list of the best posts from the past decade, is in order. I've also included a throwback graphic above from the original site. 

When I started the website back in 2013, I had no idea I'd spend 10 years on it, meet all kinds of friends from all over the world, and publish two books. But my motivation for writing has not changed much as the time has passed. Back in 2015 I wrote: "I started the blog because I'm genuinely concerned about a lot of the distressing behaviors and issues that we see in our society. I'm interested in discussing ethical and psychological issues that may be at the root of moral problems. I also enjoy presenting solutions that have helped me to build my own character and made me a happier person my own life. I hope that this blog will help others." 

To celebrate, I've made a list of my favorite posts, one for each year.
In some cases it was hard to choose my favorite, so I picked a runner up. These selections are not necessarily the most popular posts, but they are my personal favorites, and range in subject from the ethics of self-defense, philosophical maxims for growth, movies, Stoicism and Cynicism, books, TV shows, cognitive biases, Cicero's fortitude, propaganda, the divisiveness of partisan politics, taking risks for philosophy and freedom, the healing balm of the natural world, family, culture, and much more. 


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3 Great Philosophical Movies to Watch Tonight

6/1/2023

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Great cinema, and great art in general, can enhance our lives with a sense of joy and meaning. Such excellent films make us laugh, cry, and get us thinking about the deeper significance of life. I've been wanting to write a post for a while about some highly philosophical films that I really enjoyed watching. Below, I'll share three of the best with you. 

For those who haven't seen these films, while I summarize and discuss the philosophical themes, I think I have been careful not to reveal anything that would spoil the movie or reveal the entire plot. 

Finally, before we dive in, one other excellent movie that tops my list of philosophical films is the sword and sorcery film Solomon Kane, but I already did a detailed write-up of it back in 2016 that you can read here. Now, let's discuss three other great philosophical films to watch tonight: 
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New Video: The Ethics of Sex and Guns with Dan Demetriou

5/16/2023

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In this provocative discussion, I interview philosopher Dan Demetriou about his work on sexual ethics and self-defense.

We discuss societal trends which are leading to Dan's (Gen Y) students having less sex than prior generations and being more sexually unhappy on the whole. Dan discusses statistics indicating a that high percent of young men today are sexless, why people are dating or getting married less frequently, and the negative implications that this may have for Western civilization. Dan also discusses his work on "sexual creepiness," why people get called creepy, and when it might be fair or unfair to classify someone as "creepy."

We also discuss self-defense, pacifism, and how Dan's argument for dignity informs the gun rights debate from a position that both left and right might agree on.


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Beauty in Philosophy, Ethics, and Art: A Conversation with David Fideler

4/19/2023

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In this engaging conversation, David Fideler and I delve into the rich history of ancient Greek philosophy to explore the concept of beauty as an objective quality of nature.

We discuss the ideas of Pythagoras, Plato, and the Stoics, and the ideas they held about beauty. In this highly illustrated video, we also explore the importance of harmony and proportion in nature and art, and how they were used to enhance beauty in ancient architecture and Renaissance paintings.

The conversation also touches on the connections between beauty, truth, and goodness, and the timeless wisdom of ancient philosophy that can still inspire us today.

Links:
https://livingideasjournal.com/
https://therenaissanceprogram.com/the-renaissance-program-in-florence-italy/

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What Does it Mean to be an Aristotelian?

3/17/2023

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This guest post was first published at Freedom and Flourishing by my friend Winton Bates, author of the excellent book Freedom, Progress and Human Flourishing.*

In my view, Aristotelians are people who seek guidance from Aristotle's Ethics in considering how to live their lives. 

I was prompted to consider this thanks to an article by John Sellars entitled "How to be an Aristotelian" (recently published in Antigone). While thinking about the question I read Sellars’ new book, Aristotle, Understanding the World’s Greatest Philosopher.* By coincidence, at the same time I was reading Stoicism Today, Volume 4,* which contains an article by John Sellars entitled "Hard Truths and Happiness". The approach that Sellars adopts in discussing what it means to be a Stoic seems to also be relevant when considering what it means to be an Aristotelian. (I also think many of the articles in Stoicism Today are worth reading. It is fascinating to read about how people seek to apply this ancient philosophy in their daily lives.)

I will begin by outlining Sellars’ view about what it means to be a Stoic, and discuss the view Sellars presents of what it means to be an Aristotelian in his Antigone article before moving to a discussion of the approach he adopts in his book, and conclude with some comments on what it means to be an Aristotelian:



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Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids Online Course and Book Review

2/28/2023

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I just finished taking an in-depth 12 week parenting course, Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids, that I have really benefited from, and I'd like to share more about it with you. Laura Markham, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, and founder of the Aha! Parenting website, based her approach "Peaceful Parenting." As a longtime reader of Dr. Laura's website, I'm very excited to be able to review both the course and Dr. Laura's book! 

The Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids course teaches parents to coach and connect with their children while better regulating their own (parental) emotions. Both course and book provide many strategies on how to have a more positive, cooperative relationship with your children. The course offers detailed strategies and information, plus weekly audio lectures, daily meditations to help rewire your brain, and homework. Interestingly, this parenting philosophy is very compatible with Stoicism, which also seeks better emotional regulation. 

In this post, I've written a full review of the course including key concepts, who will benefit from it, plus benefits and drawbacks of this parenting approach. If you're interested, but not enough to commit to a 12 week course, the key concepts are all addressed in Dr. Laura's book, Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting ​available on Amazon.*
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5 Ways to Counterbalance an Ugly and Barren Cultural Landscape

1/20/2023

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In 1962, French philosopher René Guénon suggested that we live in "degenerate times", at the end of a long age during which important spiritual truths have been forgotten, ancient centers of wisdom have been destroyed and the guardians of that wisdom dispersed.

​In my opinion, many modern people are hurting from a lack of beauty, meaning and wisdom in their lives. ​I myself sometimes get stuck in the cultural doldrums and begin to forget what is important. Beautiful things lift the spirit. Meaning gives our lives true purpose. Wisdom helps us to live well. 

Our current situation is not always helped by popular culture, which with some exceptions, isn't particularly beautiful, meaningful or wise. If we want independence from the toxic values of popular culture, there are things we can do to counterbalance those toxic values. Here are 5 suggestions for counterbalancing today's barren cultural landscape:  

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New Video: Why Free Speech Is Misunderstood

12/9/2022

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This month's video explains why free speech is often misunderstood: because people confuse defending someone's civil right to free speech with agreeing with what they say.

Just because you defend someone’s right to speak freely does not mean you agree with the content of their speech. You could vigorously disagree with what they are saying but still defend their right to say it. This video explains why, in a non-partisan way as always.

I also cover:


  • A brief history of free speech/parrhesia which dates back to ancient Greece
  • The rationale for free speech in the modern context, why it's so important for liberal democracy, and what happens when we loose this right
  • Why anyone working for social justice who doesn't support free speech is hurting their own cause


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    Thank you for your interest in Common Sense Ethics! I'm Leah, a librarian and freelance editor with a background in history and philosophy.
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    3 Unpopular (But Likely Correct) Opinions According to Cicero

    Beauty in Philosophy, Ethics and Art: A Conversation with David Fideler

    5 Ways to Counterbalance an Ugly and Barren Cultural Landscape

    How Propaganda Makes us Psychologically Totalitarian

    5 Things That You Need to be Happy According to Cicero

    5 Wholesome Character Education Books to Read to Your Child

    Why is Politics so Divisive?

    9 Great Critical Thinking Books for Children and Teens

    Why You Should Create Your Own Culture to Be Happier

    How to Make Yourself Immune to Propaganda

    ​The 10 Best Philosophy Books For Beginners

    The 13 Types of Modern Stoics...Which One Are You?

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    Quick Guide: Understanding and Applying Stoic Ethics in Modern Life

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