Category: Books And Reading

3 Great Philosophical Movies to Watch Tonight

6/1/2023

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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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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3 Great Children's Books About Ancient Greek and Roman Virtues

7/16/2022

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As a parent, children's librarian, and writer interested in Classical philosophy, I'm excited to share this month's post, which brings together all three of these areas.

While there are many fabulous fiction and non-fiction children's books about Classical antiquity, most focus on mythology or history. Those subjects are excellent in their own right, as knowledge of history and myth help us put things in historical context and allow us to dream.

However, with this list, I am especially focused on children's book that teach Classical virtues like courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom, and which illustrate how we can aspire to become a person of character. These 3 books help kids learn about important Greek and Roman virtues:

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Freedom and Flourishing: Why We Need Both for a Good Life

5/5/2021

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Freedom enables individuals to flourish in different ways, allows for growth of opportunities, and supports personal development by enabling individuals to exercise wise and well-informed self-direction.

My guest, economist Winton Bates, argues in a new book that Western freedom was more or less a happy accident of history. Loose it, and we may not get it back again.

We discuss the future of freedom, progress, personal growth, and a lot more in his new book, Freedom, Progress, and Human Flourishing.*

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Virtue Begins at Home With Intentional Family Culture

4/1/2021

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Brendan Malone, of Left Foot Media, a father of 5, gives wonderful tips on how to teach and model virtue to our children at home. One way to do this is to create an intentional family culture based on our specific moral values, that will act as a counterweight to the negative aspects of the culture that we find ourselves in.

How do we teach our children virtue? This issue was being discussed in a similar context back as far as the Enlightenment by thinkers like Locke and Rousseau. Rousseau thought that a parent's primary role is to be a buffer between their child and culture, rather than simply being an agent of the dominant culture. Rousseau described the insular and affectionate family that educated its own children as “the best counterpoison for bad morals.”

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This One Idea Explains Most of What is Wrong With Politics

9/21/2020

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Why do governments tend to become more corrupt over time? It turns out that the best answer to this question may have been floating around for over 100 years, and I think everybody should know about it.

“Who says organization, says oligarchy," states Robert Michels, a German historian who produced one of the most scathing assessments of government ever written. He argues that bureaucracy and democracy don't mix. Michels is best known for the ingenious Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, published in 1915. The book positively begs us to examine the maxim that power corrupts, and to seriously consider if democracy is nothing more than a idealistic impossibility.

Oligarchy is defined as rule by an elite or privileged few. Today people often use the word oligarchy to refer to a leadership class of corporate plutocrats, but what is less understood is how oligarchies form. Oligarchy is rule by a few to be sure. However, the concept of oligarchy in Michels' lexicon - the “Iron Law of Oligarchy,” - is both an explanation for how oligarchies originate, as well as a compelling critique of the inherently flawed structure of all forms of democratic government itself.

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Read These 5 Books For a Deeper Understanding of Politics

7/31/2020

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This being an election year in the United States, and given the dismal state of political discourse, I felt inclined to share this list of 5 books that have changed my perspective on politics.

These books are part of the reason that I stopped looking at politics in partisan terms. (The other reason is that I've worked to develop a more Socratic temperament where I try to look at the other side(s) of any argument.)

A partisan perspective is actually a severe handicap when it comes to examining politics, because partisanism creates a false dichotomy where we tend to ignore alternative or conflicting information. When we think that "This is my party/preffered media outlet and I agree with what they do and say," this mindset compels us to just scratch the surface of what is really going on.

If we want a real understanding of politics, we need to dig deeper, and that's where this list comes in. Here are the best 5 books to read for a deeper understanding of politics:

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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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Character Education is Up to Parents, Not Schools

7/31/2019

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Albert Einstein notably said that, “Most people think that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong. It is character.” Einstein should know, because it was at his urging that Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Manhattan Project, which would develop the world’s first atomic bomb. Though he was not personally involved in the Manhattan Project, it was a decision which Einstein regretted his entire life – he was horrified by having contributed to the destruction that the bomb made possible.

In my estimation, we are typically educated so that we will get into the right college and be successful monetarily. Far less emphasis is placed on developing a strong moral character, which is often only an afterthought. If intellectual achievement outpaces the development of moral character, we get a population of people bent on being smart and successful but not much concerned about the needs of others.

How does someone develop moral character? I'll give you a hint; not in school. The largest scientific study conducted on the subject concluded that school-wide character education programs produce no improvements in student behavior or academic performance. Moral character develops in the family and through exposure to various life experiences. Parents therefore need to be intentional about character education for their children, and in this post, I’ll give some tips for how to do it.

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The Philosophy That Could Save Humanity

12/29/2018

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Most of what we know about ethics is wrong, and unless we get our act together soon, humanity is doomed. That is, according to The Zombies (On Morality), a just released book by Josh Bachynski, which I've had the pleasure of reading, reviewing, and discussing on my YouTube Channel (see the video at the end of the post). Our lack of appropriate ethics is the basis of all of our problems. Essentially we are infected with a virus which sabotages every society that we try.

The problem, in Josh's estimation, lies with people imposing what he calls "objective-prescriptive," moral beliefs on others, when doing so may be sub-optimal for them. If the essence of morality is goodness, then any sub-optimality may be immoral for the person imposed upon. His argument is about maximizing what is ideal for each person. Nothing matters but the maximal epitome of what's positive and ideal.

To be more precise, he calls his system inter subjective-predictive morality or ISPM for short. ISPM is about giving each person what is morally ideal for them based on what they want, based on fact, rather than offering generalizations about what is right for everyone or what everyone should do, even if it isn't evident. Provided they aren't hurting someone else, there is no self-evident justification from barring someone from their best end good or from living their most valuable life.

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<<Previous

3 Great Philosophical Movies to Watch Tonight

5 Ways to Counterbalance an Ugly and Barren Cultural Landscape

3 Great Children's Books About Ancient Greek and Roman Virtues

Freedom and Flourishing: Why We Need Both for a Good Life

Virtue Begins at Home With Intentional Family Culture

This One Idea Explains Most of What is Wrong With Politics

Read These 5 Books For a Deeper Understanding of Politics

Would You Risk Your Life For Philosophy?

Character Education is Up to Parents, Not Schools

The Philosophy That Could Save Humanity

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Book of the Month: Journal Like a Stoic by Brittany Polat

Personal Growth Resources:

Follow Common Sense Ethics on Pinterest:

Join the Stoic Parents Facebook Group: