1000-Word Philosophy

For very concise introductions, check out the 1000-word essays on philosophical topics written by philosophy professors. https://1000wordphilosophy.com For a deeper dive also written by philosophy professors, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is unrivaled. https://plato.stanford.edu Richard Marshall's 3:16am interviews with philosophers are also great. https://www.3-16am.co.uk

Descartes take is refuted by almost all philosophers that followed him, because it's just not a convincing argument. > The problem with Descartes’ standard for knowledge is that almost no beliefs meet it. Descartes thought he could show how our ordinary knowledge claims are ultimately based on the Cogito, but most philosophers have not been convinced by his case -- https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2018/11/26/descartes-i-think-therefore-… Now I don't deny the existence of a reality, I'm not saying everything is an illusion and we're not even real. I'm saying that reality need not be a constant, which would mean that truth can be a moving target, as it can change in time and space. And then I'm saying that irregardless of if that reality (or ground truth let's call it) is constant or ever changing, when we humans explain that truth, we are always simply modeling our understanding of it for practical purposes. Our search for truth itself is driven by this practical drive, understanding of the ground truth is researched in order to better predict the future or act upon our environment to create the future we'd prefer. If you instead think of our explained truths as the absolute ground truth, you are entering the world of human dogma and beliefs, that is a world of personal opinion, with no way to argue or debate anything, its only practical benefits are seeking comfort and/or power. For me, this was a big "haha" moment. I realized that the opposite of dogma is pragma.…

> incredible and beautiful new technology To me, one could call this technology incredible and beautiful in the same way that a detached observer might use those terms to describe a hurricane bearing down on my hometown. In the Kantian sense it is more "sublime"[0] rather than "beautiful", and yet the sublime is experienced as such only if it can be viewed from a position of safety; but there appears to be no safe place from AI. [0]: https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2023/11/11/kants-theory-of-the-sublime

Hmm https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2023/11/11/kants-theory-of-the-sublime/ The essay is (roughly 850 words) and I can forgive the not-insignificant pre-amble, but the notes take this up to 2600 words. Is this really a thousand word essay when it is propped up with so many explanatory notes.

Yet heaven is each other [1] [1] https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2021/02/08/hell-is-other-people/

Good point. More on this here: https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2015/05/13/karl-marxs-conception-of-ali…

I also got strong whiffs of nihilism from this post. Your comment reminded me of Camus's interpretation of Sisyphus: > As a life filled entirely of mundane and trivial labor, Sisyphus’s existence is meant to illustrate the futility (and absurdity) we confront in our own lives. Camus observes that a person’s life can become, essentially, a mundane routine: “Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday according to the same rhythm…” (12-13). Yet, for Camus, Sisyphus is not to be pitied. Sisyphus represents the “absurd hero” because he chooses to live in the face of absurdity. This “choosing to live” is a matter of consciousness, for through his attitude and outlook, Sisyphus can free himself from his punishment and triumph over his situation without being able to change it. Sisyphus is aware of the full extent of his punishment: he is fully conscious of the fate imposed on him by the gods and the utter futility of his existence. His passion, freedom, and revolt, however, make him stronger than the punishment intended to crush him. https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2019/05/01/camus-on-the-absurd-the-myth…