“Nietzsche stated ‘amor fati’ is how he’s going to stay his life henceforth. Every part he’s going to say sure to. He will probably be a yes-sayer, is what he says. That is an affirmative stance in the direction of actuality the place, even when issues are unhealthy or uncomfortable or horrible, we’re going to affirm actuality as it’s and never idealize it into one thing that it’s not. It’s quite common for folks to do, even after they’re not spiritual, to consider actuality as if it owes you one thing. However to affirm actuality absolutely is to simply accept the nice, the unhealthy. It’s to not rationalize about it and attempt to make excuses for it or body your struggling in a manner the place it makes it go away. To really affirm life and actuality is simply to be in it and to have life itself be sufficient, really.”
— Stephen West
Stephen West (@iamstephenwest) is a father, husband, and host of the Philosophize This! podcast. He makes an attempt to clarify, translate, and humanize philosophy in a manner that doesn’t ever intention to inform folks what to suppose however to ask them to raised perceive their very own ideas by exploring alternate options.
Please take pleasure in!
Hearken to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or in your favourite podcast platform. The transcript of this episode might be discovered right here. Transcripts of all episodes might be discovered right here.
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Stephen West — From Excessive College Dropout to Hit Podcast (Plus: Life Classes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Simone Weil, and Extra)
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Wish to hear one other podcast episode specializing in philosophy and the character of actuality? Hearken to my dialog with Galileo’s Error creator Philip Goff, during which we mentioned panpsychism, quantum consciousness, Built-in Data Idea, mystical traditions inside Christianity and Islam, psychedelics and numinous experiences, the matter of matter, and far more.
What was your favourite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know within the feedback.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Join with Stephen West/Philosophize This!:
Web site | Patreon | Twitter | Fb | YouTube
The transcript of this episode might be discovered right here. Transcripts of all episodes might be discovered right here.
Podcasts and Radio Exhibits
Books, Articles, and Written Works
Advantageous Apps and Assets
Artwork
Folks
- Dave Elitch: Skilled drummer.
- Thomas Chatterton Williams: Author (The Atlantic article).
- Ernest Hemingway: Author.
- Adam Carolla: Radio host (Loveline).
- Dr. Drew Pinsky: Radio host (Loveline).
- Howard Stern: Radio host.
- Socrates: Historic Greek thinker.
- Plato: Historic Greek thinker.
- Jerry Seinfeld: Comic.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: Author, poet, lecturer, and thinker.
- Jimmy Whisenhunt: eSports shoutcaster pal of Stephen’s.
- John Madden: An skilled American soccer coach and sports activities commentator.
- Dan Carlin: Podcaster (Hardcore Historical past).
- Basic Subutai: Historic determine.
- Dave Chappelle: Comic.
- Miles Davis: Musician.
- Dizzy Gillespie: Musician.
- Peter Adamson: Podcaster/thinker (Historical past of Philosophy With out Any Gaps).
- Invoice Burr: Comic.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky: Author.
- Epicurus: Hellenistic thinker, founding father of Epicureanism.
- Seneca: Stoic thinker (Letters from a Stoic, On Anger).
- Henry Shukman: Meditation instructor (The Method app).
- Kevin Rose: aka KevKev. Launched me to Henry Shukman.
- Friedrich Nietzsche: Thinker related to amor fati.
- Bertrand Russell: Thinker and logician related to atheist arguments.
- Vincent Van Gogh: Artist.
- Richard Dawkins: Author/biologist, related to New Atheism (The God Delusion).
- Sam Harris: Author/thinker/neuroscientist, related to New Atheism (The Ethical Panorama, Letter to a Christian Nation).
- Søren Kierkegaard: Nineteenth-century thinker.
- Simone Weil: Twentieth-century thinker/mystic, main affect on Stephen West, idea of “consideration.”
- Simon Blackburn: Up to date thinker (Suppose), idea of “conceptual engineering.”
- Paracelsus: Historic determine (supply of “dose makes the poison” thought).
- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Thinker (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus).
- Diogenes: Cynic thinker.
- Gilles Deleuze: Twentieth-century thinker.
- Mahatma Gandhi: Chief.
- Jack Kornfield: Buddhist instructor/author.
- Albert Camus: Author/artist/thinker related to Absurdism.
- William B. Irvine: Author (Information to the Good Life).
- Ryan Vacation: Author (The Impediment is the Method).
- Julian of Norwich: Mystic author.
- Dogen Zenji: Founding father of the Soto college of Zen.
- Thomas Aquinas: Thinker and theologian.
- Henry David Thoreau: Author/thinker (Walden).
- Rolf Potts: Author (Vagabonding).
- Jean-Paul Sartre: Thinker (Being and Nothingness).
- Isaac Newton: Scientist and pure thinker (Principia Mathematica).
- Adam Smith: Moral thinker and economist (The Wealth of Nations).
- Kanye West: Musician.
Establishments and Firms
Philosophical Ideas
- Absurdism: Philosophical idea related to Camus that addresses the battle between the human seek for that means and the universe’s meaninglessness.
- Amor Fati: (“Love of Destiny”) Philosophical idea, notably utilized by Nietzsche, that entails embracing all points of 1’s life, together with hardships and struggling.
- Assemblage: Deleuzian idea describing dynamic compositions of heterogeneous components that kind non permanent practical wholes by way of processes of coding and territorialization.
- Consideration: Idea from Simone Weil involving self-emptying deal with others, described as a type of ready and receptivity quite than energetic focus.
- Conceptual Engineering: Metaphor for philosophy (Simon Blackburn) involving the evaluation, evaluation and enchancment of ideas.
- Conceptual Tracings: Thought of forming new methods to see actuality by way of the event and refinement of ideas.
- Ideas vs. Machines: Deleuzian distinction between summary thought types and practical assemblages that produce results.
- Cynicism: Hellenistic college of philosophy targeted on residing virtuously in accordance with nature and rejecting standard wishes.
- Deliberate Follow: Centered strategy to ability improvement requiring particular targets, suggestions, and concentrated effort.
- Disruption of Frequent Sense: Description of philosophy’s perform to problem accepted methods of pondering and unexamined assumptions.
- Divine: Idea associated to final actuality/God and the transcendent qualities that exist past strange expertise.
- Epistemology: Department of philosophy targeted on the speculation of data, analyzing how we all know what we all know and the justification of perception.
- Ethics: Department of philosophy regarding ethical rules, values, and the ideas of proper and unsuitable conduct.
- Epicureanism: Hellenistic college of philosophy based by Epicurus that emphasised the pursuit of delight (outlined as absence of ache) and tranquility.
- Fascism: Political philosophy/system characterised by ultranationalism, authoritarian energy, and suppression of opposition.
- Freedom: Philosophical idea regarding the capacity to behave based on one’s will with out constraint or coercion.
- Lucid Revolt: Camus’s idea of rebelling towards the Absurd by way of acutely aware recognition and defiance with out false hope.
- Marxism: Political/financial philosophy developed by Karl Marx that analyzes class relationships, historic materialism, and critique of capitalism.
- Mysticism: Strategy to spirituality emphasizing direct expertise of final actuality past strange understanding.
- Narcissism: Psychological/philosophical idea involving extreme self-love, self-centeredness, and lack of empathy for others.
- Pure Philosophy: Historic precursor to fashionable science targeted on understanding nature by way of philosophical inquiry.
- New Atheism: Twenty first-century motion essential of faith, characterised by scientific rationalism and public criticism of non secular perception.
- New Wealthy: Idea from The 4-Hour Workweek describing individuals who prioritize way of life design over conventional wealth accumulation.
- Numinous: Idea referring to awe-inspiring non secular/divine high quality that evokes each fascination and concern.
- Out of Africa Idea: Essentially the most extensively accepted mannequin explaining the origin and unfold of recent people.
- Phenomenology: Philosophical motion specializing in buildings of expertise and consciousness from the first-person perspective.
- Philosophical Fiction: Literary style that explores philosophical concepts by way of narrative storytelling.
- Philosophy: The self-discipline itself, involved with elementary questions on information, actuality, existence, and values.
- Philosophy of Language: Department of philosophy analyzing the character of language, that means, and the connection between language and actuality.
- Philosophy of Thoughts: Department of philosophy exploring the character of thoughts, consciousness, and their relationship to the bodily world.
- Presocratics: Earliest Western philosophers who investigated nature and actuality earlier than Socrates, laying foundations for philosophical inquiry.
- Spiritual Phenomenology: Research of non secular expertise from a phenomenological perspective, specializing in how the sacred seems to consciousness.
- Sanbo Zen: A selected lineage/model of Zen Buddhism emphasizing direct expertise of enlightenment by way of meditation.
- Skepticism: Hellenistic college of philosophy questioning the potential of certainty in information and suspending judgment.
- Stoicism: Hellenistic college of philosophy targeted on advantage ethics, emotional regulation, and accepting what’s past one’s management.
- Sufism: Mystical department of Islam emphasizing direct private expertise of God by way of practices like meditation and poetry.
- Transcendentalism: A literary, philosophical, spiritual, and political motion of the early Nineteenth century.
- Zen: College of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing meditation, instinct, and direct expertise of actuality past conceptual pondering.
SHOW NOTES
- [00:00:00] So it begins.
- [00:06:11] Stephen’s difficult childhood — from San Diego to Little one Protecting Providers.
- [00:07:55] How Stephen supported himself after dropping out of faculty at 16.
- [00:09:37] The bodily put on and tear of warehouse work (and sudden upsides of the job).
- [00:11:48] How Stephen found philosophy by way of googling “wisest individual in historical past.”
- [00:14:07] Defining philosophy as a “disruption of frequent sense” and “fitness center for rethinking.”
- [00:16:06] The 4-Hour Workweek as a philosophical textual content.
- [00:19:27] A philosophical shift round Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- [00:22:18] The transition from warehouse work to beginning Philosophize This! with pleasant encouragement.
- [00:27:47] Authenticity as the key sauce to Philosophize This!
- [00:32:24] The discomfort of evaluating outdated episodes with new.
- [00:34:15] The present state of Philosophize This!: 225 episodes, Patreon, advertisements, upcoming e book deal.
- [00:37:18] The worth of specializing in content material high quality earlier than monetization.
- [00:38:44] Hottest Philosophize This! episodes to date.
- [00:40:00] Philosophize This! episodes I’d like to listen to.
- [00:41:20] Pondering of philosophy as a verb, not a noun.
- [00:46:44] The idea of amor fati (love of destiny) and its sensible software.
- [00:48:41] Wittgenstein’s ladder as a metaphor for philosophical progress.
- [00:51:36] Stephen’s perspective on philosophy as a course of quite than a set of protocols.
- [00:54:43] Philosophies which have private that means to Stephen: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil.
- [00:56:40] Simone Weil’s idea of consideration and self-emptying.
- [00:59:26] Stephen’s strategy to simplicity and sacrificing effectivity for that means.
- [01:04:07] Valuing time and enjoying the lengthy sport.
- [01:06:01] How philosophy lives “within the shadow” of what we give credit score to (science, psychology).
- [01:08:31] The worth of philosophy in producing higher questions.
- [01:10:06] Stephen’s future plans: presumably writing philosophical fiction.
- [01:19:05] Stephen’s billboard.
- [01:21:41] Suggestions for getting began with philosophy.
- [01:24:29] Gilles Deleuze and ideas as machines.
- [01:26:55] Why can we imagine what we imagine?
- [01:30:40] Stephen’s evolving relationship with faith after beginning as a New Atheist.
- [01:32:33] Exploring mysticism and non secular phenomenology.
- [01:37:51] Parting ideas.
MORE STEPHEN WEST QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“Why do we’d like outdated males yelling at one another about unverifiable hypothesis? Why do you want philosophy? And what that time misses is that philosophy is how we bought to the purpose the place we’re wanting on the world in the best way we do now.”
— Stephen West
“I don’t give recommendation, as a result of if an individual is asking for recommendation, usually, they’re not the person who actually takes the recommendation, so it’s nearly at all times a waste of your time. However when you’re the one which genuinely takes recommendation, and it’s mockingly me providing you with recommendation to be the one which takes recommendation—if you are able to do that, when you can handle that, you then received’t want recommendation right here in six months; you’ll be the one giving it.”
— Stephen West
“The best degree of abstraction in any area goes to be philosophy. In the event you’re any individual well-educated in a area, on the prime of your area, in an effort to make progress in that area, you must subvert the present set of protocols and assumptions, axiomatically, which can be happening in that area. To maneuver the sphere ahead, you must be doing philosophy.”
— Stephen West
“I actually do sacrifice effectivity for that means fairly usually.”
— Stephen West
“You don’t must be a genius; you simply must be saying one thing that resonates with different folks.”
— Stephen West
“Simon Blackburn … describes philosophy as conceptual engineering. It’s an important metaphor. If an engineer appears to be like at a bridge and so they know concerning the uncooked supplies of the bridge and so they understand how they hook up with different components of the bridge and every thing, when you can present an engineer one bridge, a specific bridge, and he’d be like, ‘Properly, it holds weight over right here, but when we put weight over on this facet, it’s going to all begin crumbling down.’ Philosophers do that with world views.”
— Stephen West
“A manner I’ve heard [philosophy] described is it’s the disruption of frequent sense. I imply, what’s wanting on the world in any respect? It’s an approximation. We’re works in progress. I have a look at the world a method for some time, and all people is aware of what it’s like to alter the best way that you just see every thing on this planet. I simply suppose that philosophy is the strategy of doing that.”
— Stephen West
“Nietzsche stated ‘amor fati’ is how he’s going to stay his life henceforth. Every part he’s going to say sure to. He will probably be a yes-sayer, is what he says. That is an affirmative stance in the direction of actuality the place, even when issues are unhealthy or uncomfortable or horrible, we’re going to affirm actuality as it’s and never idealize it into one thing that it’s not. It’s quite common for folks to do, even after they’re not spiritual, to consider actuality as if it owes you one thing. However to affirm actuality absolutely is to simply accept the nice, the unhealthy. It’s to not rationalize about it and to attempt to make excuses for it or body your struggling in a manner the place it makes it go away. To really affirm life and actuality is simply to be in it and to have life itself be sufficient, really.”
— Stephen West
Associated
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