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I also noticed it is a recurring self-help philosophical aid, particularly among the tech crowd. Of course, the stoicism version that gets publicized here only

I also noticed it is a recurring self-help philosophical aid, particularly among the tech crowd. Of course, the stoicism version that gets publicized here only keeps the "pragmatical" aspect of stoicism, but ignores all the metaphysical theory around it (which provides the justification for a particular practice, but oh well). In the end, it becomes an inconsistent catch it all term for "being resilient" in a Hemingway way, which is very removed from the actual Stoic philosophy. But I guess this is inevitable and it has happened to many traditions when they get publicized for self-help.

float4 5y ago
One thing I find interesting about this time, and maybe HN specifically, is how the people focus on wealth and success (as a substitute for community and religion I think), and at the same time invest time in things like stoicism. Part of stoicism is the practice of thinking about (your impending) death, often called memento mori[0], which directly contrasts any focus on ephemeral things such as wealth. It's not surprising that this very contrast became a rather popular type of painting, called the Vanitas[1]. Two of my personal favorites: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori#/media/File:StillLifeWithASkull.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori#/media/File:Still... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas#/media/File:1628_Claesz_Vanitas-Stillleben_mit_Selbstbildnis_anagoria.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas#/media/File:1628_Claes... Memento mori / Vanitas also escalated a bit in the 15th century, when we arrived at the Danse Macabre[2] (these days probably mainly known for that one famous Saint-Saëns composition). My favourite Danse Macabre painting was destroyed in a bombing, but there's still a high resolution photograph of it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Totentanz_LübeckR.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Totentan... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre
deregulateMed 5y ago
Metaphysics is basically impossible to know for certain. I can't blame people for rejecting one metaphysics story and replacing it with another. Heck you can invalidate all philosophy by being a metaphysics skeptic. It's just not particularly useful.

float4 5y ago

One thing I find interesting about this time, and maybe HN specifically, is how the people focus on wealth and success (as a substitute for community and religion I think), and at the same time invest time in things like stoicism. Part of stoicism is the practice of thinking about (your impending) death, often called memento mori[0], which directly contrasts any focus on ephemeral things such as wealth. It's not surprising that this very contrast became a rather popular type of painting, called the Vanitas[1]. Two of my personal favorites: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori#/media/File:StillLifeWithASkull.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori#/media/File:Still... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas#/media/File:1628_Claesz_Vanitas-Stillleben_mit_Selbstbildnis_anagoria.JPG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas#/media/File:1628_Claes... Memento mori / Vanitas also escalated a bit in the 15th century, when we arrived at the Danse Macabre[2] (these days probably mainly known for that one famous Saint-Saëns composition). My favourite Danse Macabre painting was destroyed in a bombing, but there's still a high resolution photograph of it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Totentanz_LübeckR.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Totentan... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre

deregulateMed 5y ago

Metaphysics is basically impossible to know for certain. I can't blame people for rejecting one metaphysics story and replacing it with another. Heck you can invalidate all philosophy by being a metaphysics skeptic. It's just not particularly useful.