How should we present ourselves?
Too often we think only about what we want to say, and not enough about how we are likely to be heard and understood.
ReadTag: Self & identity
Radicalisation is not brainwashing
What is terrifying is the idea that anyone could have their free will neutralised by nefarious agents of evil. But what is reassuring is that this means these young men have not freely chosen their path, for reasons they believe to be good. This reassurance, however, is false. Radicalisation is not brainwashing and we cannot counter it if we pretend it is.
ReadMust we agree with ourselves?
Within each of us is a number of different voices that achieve just enough harmony to sing as one melodious choir – most of the time. Self-deception and weakness of will are just two familiar ways in which the divisions within the unit come to the fore.
ReadHow useful is self-knowledge?
The self is more the product than the producer of conscious activity. As Descartes should have put it: there are thoughts, therefore I am.
ReadThe philosophy of dieting
I sit here now humbled by both my personal failings and the inherent difficulties all humans have in taking charge of the one thing of which they are supposedly sovereign: their own bodies. My only consolation is that humility, so long as it does not descend into pointless self-loathing, is a virtue. No one becomes a lesser human being by becoming more aware of their limitations. While it would be wrong to become apathetic in the face of them, it is only by fully knowing the limits of our powers that we can make the most of the ones we have, and perhaps even learn how to increase them.
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