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How to Change Your Mind

7/3/2020

The Socratic Method is a way of thinking which helps you to become more open-minded and less afraid of being wrong. Socrates felt that we are more ignorant than not, so to achieve excellence, we can’t be satisfied with what we already know, we should keep striving to gain knowledge and get closer to the truth.

Changing your mind is more Socratic than dogmatically clinging to your beliefs throughout life. But it's not always easy to do, that is what I discuss with my guest Justin Vacula.

We cover the important point that free speech - even controversial free speech - is essential for true critical thinking and for Socratic Dialog and therefore must be protected. Without free speech, we have what happened to Socrates himself - he was imprisoned for speaking freely and committed suicide. Human knowledge cannot be advanced without open discourse, without which, we remain in ignorance.

Support the channel to see even more videos like this: https://ko-fi.com/commonsenseethics

Read Next:
How the Left/Right Political Spectrum Deceives Us
How To Get Rid of the Need to Be Right
How Can We Overcome Our Biases?

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What Surviving Coronavirus Taught Me About Life and Death

6/12/2020

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Jane Pauw, a 60-year-old pastor in Seattle, fell ill with coronavirus in March 2020. Pauw spoke of coronavirus as a darkness with a silver lining. Like Pauw, my family and I became sick with the coronavirus, and it was the most difficult thing that I have ever been through. (You can hear the story of my illness and recovery on Stoic Solutions Podcast, plus practical advice for if you get sick on my parenting blog.) Like Pauw, I also lived in a state of darkness as our illness and recovery dragged on and on.

In Alchemy, this state of darkness or blackness is called Nigredo. It is a stage of development which symbolizes the dark night of the soul, the shadow, all of our fears and failures. But Nigredo also symbolizes the fecundity of the earth, the black soil's potential for growth and rebirth, and opportunity waiting to be seized. Going through the darkness, we become more conscious of ourselves and the world around us.

Negative experiences contain tremendous potential for growth. They shake us out of our comfort zone, forcing us to confront out deepest fears so that we can emerge stronger and re-energized and face our future with more awareness and gratitude. Here is what surviving coronavirus has taught me about life and death:

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How to Do Socratic Dialog: What Is Justice?

5/25/2020

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Socratic Dialog (also called the Socratic Method) is a way of working together to discover the truth and test whether your ideas or opinions are sound. The Socratic Method is also a way of thinking which helps you to become more open-minded and less afraid of being wrong.

In this video my guest, Max Maxwell, explains Socratic Dialog and demonstrates how to engage in Socratic conversations with an open mind as we discuss justice and the purpose of government.

The Socratic Method is especially important today since political discussions are often so polarized, and people tend to act in a less than charitable way when discussing issues that they disagree on.

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Interview with Piotr Stankiewicz: A Manifesto for Modern Stoics

4/30/2020

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Today I interview my friend Piotr Stankiewicz author of the brand new book Manual of Reformed Stoicism.

Piotr's book is a manifesto for modern Stoics. "It proposes a system of life which is bullet-proof, universal, viable and effective in every cosmic setting. It holds in every possible universe, under any government and within any economic system. We can be reformed Stoics no matter what we believe in."

Here Piotr answers my questions on how to apply the Stoic toolbox in your life and to life right now during a pandemic.

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Hope, Courage & Gratitude During CoVid-19

3/31/2020

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Following the national state of emergency declaration here on March 13, I went through several days of panic, frantic information seeking, then grief.

That's normal. Nothing like this has happened for over 100 years. We are in uncharted territory.

But those emotions have mostly subsided and at this point, and I'm feeling pretty strong and resigned to whatever comes.

Here are some thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic to inspire hope, courage, and gratitude during this difficult time.

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Would You Risk Your Life For Philosophy?

2/12/2020

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That's exactly what philosopher Sir Roger Scruton did when he went behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s and 1980s. Scruton believed in public philosophy and free association so strongly that he taught - at great personal risk to himself - secretive groups of dissident students who were denied knowledge of Western philosophy by their respective Communist regimes.

Scruton was a one of a kind iconoclastic thinker. Though a Burkean and a Traditionalist, he frequently wrote about bohemian subjects like art, sex and drinking. Courageous, funny, humble, and a tireless advocate for "the true, the good and the beautiful," the world lost something very special when he died of cancer January 12 of this year.

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Major Announcement! My New Parenting Website is Live!

1/25/2020

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I've had something big in the works for a while that I'd like to share with you...announcing my new parenting website, Common Sense Mother!

For several years, I and various guests have written about philosophy and parenting here at Common Sense Ethics. However, not all CSE readers are parents, and (unfortunately) not all parents are are interested in philosophy. For this reason, I've wanted to launch a parenting site for a more "mainstream," audience. Common Sense Mother is that site.

Please head on over and check it out! If you like what you see, subscribe via the email opt-in there and share widely! You'll find helpful posts about creating a happy home, finding joy and motivation as a parent, overcoming stress, and managing the limited time that you do have well. My parenting philosophy is all about doing things intentionally, based on what you value most.

Of course I'll be continuing to publish new posts and videos here at Common Sense Ethics. This site is a labor of love that I've stuck with for more than 6 years! Thank you so much for your continued support!

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How To Resist Propaganda

12/22/2019

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Unchecked exposure to propaganda - even in a democratic society - tends to make people psychologically totalitarian.

Propaganda works against dialog, towards belief systems which prop up the system as a whole, but make it genuinely hard for us to live together.

So how do we avoid being influenced by propaganda? Watch to find out.

Read Next:
Why Is Politics So Divisive?
5 Ways to Avoid Being Manipulated and Dumbed Down by the Media
4 Pieces of Stoic Wisdom for Dealing With Negative News Media

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The Socratic Temperament - The Ultimate Growth Mindset

11/30/2019

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For Socrates, the Socratic Method was just a means to an end which is the excellence of human character.

Socrates believed that a continuous journey of self-improvement is essential for every person and can be realized through the acquisition of knowledge.

Fear of having your worldview challenged is the greatest inhibition to developing excellence in critical thinking.

Links: http://www.socraticmethod.net/the_soc...

Read Next:
How to Make Yourself Immune to Propaganda
How to Get Rid of the need to Be Right
How Can We Overcome Our Biases

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7 Common End of Life Regrets - And How to Avoid Having Them

10/29/2019

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When we are children, we can't even imagine the end of our lives. As we grow up, we are often so busy with daily tasks that we forget to notice how quickly life is passing by. We don't allow ourselves to think much about death, because we imagine that we a still have time.

But the truth is that life is short. None of us knows how much time we have. In Plato's Phaedo, he introduces the idea that philosophy is "about nothing else but dying and being dead". The Stoics were also fond of this discipline, and Seneca's letters are full of injunctions to meditate on death. Thinking about death need not be negative. On the contrary, it may inspire us to live betters lives in the here and now.

According to Bronnie Ware, a hospice nurse from Australia, many of her dying patients expressed regrets over how their lives had played out. I've gone on to list 7 of these regrets below. Meditating on common regrets of the dying can help us to put our own lives into perspective before our time is up.

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