The six books presented here are chosen based on one criteria: the depth and elaboration of thoughts oh human nature and human condition. They are not strictly philosophical; for example La Rochefoucauld’s Maxims might be…
Tag: Psychology
Leszek Kołakowski on The Source of Man’s Need for the Mythical
In his book The Presence of Myth, Leszek Kołakowski attempts to identify the source of the man’s need for myths. In enumerating the three forms in which the need for myth appears on the surface of our…
Psychological Downsides of Democracy and Equality
Democracy has done a lot for humankind. It made people feel equal and equally important. It made them feel free. As I have just finished reading a great book by Alain de Botton – Status Anxiety,…
Richard Schweder’s Three Ethics That Help Understand Culture Wars
Many of the key battles in the American culture war are essentially about whether some aspect of life should be structured by the ethic of autonomy or by the ethic of divinity…
Do Reason and Science Improve Humankind? Summary of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his novel Notes from Underground presents another strong case against the blind reliance on logic and science for the betterment of humankind. Dostoyevsky presents his arguments through a fictional character – the Underground Man, a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg.
La Rochefoucauld on The Perverted Nature of Love
François VI, duke de La Rochefoucauld was a 17th-century French nobleman and author. Along with writers such as Vauvenargues, La Bruyère, Chamfort, he was a part of the so-called “French Moralists” – a group of…
Why It Is Hard (and Bad) To Learn From Experience
Experience is a dear teacher. – Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin is certainly right. However, learning from experience can be expensive. And quite hard. Kahneman and Tversky in their paper describe the main reasons why it…
Naval Ravikant on How to Create a Habit
[…] “I don’t have time.”… “I don’t have time” is just another way of saying that something is not a priority. What you really have to do is say if something is a priority or…