Nice article. I had always held that Philosophy was an immensely practical discipline but bottled up by academia (after the scientific revolution) in meaningles

Nice article. I had always held that Philosophy was an immensely practical discipline but bottled up by academia (after the scientific revolution) in meaningless debates/pointless nitpicking thus emasculating it of its vital essence. Philosophy was meant to be practiced, adjusted and modified for "Real Life" within a Worldview with certain inviolable core principles. Some books that i have personally found illuminating are (in no particular order); 1) Epictetus' Handbook and The Tablet of Cebes: Guides to Stoic Living by Keith Seddon - The author takes Epictetus's "Enchiridion" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchiridion_of_Epictetus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchiridion_of_Epictetus) and adds detailed commentary to it thus giving you a deeper understanding of its practical philosophy. "The Tablet of Cebes" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebes#The_Tablet_of_Cebes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebes#The_Tablet_of_Cebes ) is an allegorical tale of the structure of Life and the interplay of various factors affecting it; absolutely beautiful and one of my favourites. 2) The article's mention of Mengzi's "sprouts" reminds me another chinese text Caigentan aka "Vegetable Roots Discourses" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caigentan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caigentan). Two good translations are the one by Robert Aitken/Daniel Kwok and the other by William Scott Wilson. 3) Hindu philosophy has multiple schools. One of the most ancient schools whose fundamental ideas have been taken into and modified by other schools is Samkhya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya). The beauty of this school is the way it defines and structures everything both material and non-material and distinguishes them from the "True us/self" (i.e. Consciousness/Awareness) into one unified framework. A good (and relatively easy to understand) translation of one of the main texts is The Essence of Samkhya Karikas: The Foundation of Yoga Philosophy by Damini Dalal.