/lit/ - Literature

Yes, i've applied some of Epictetus's teachings to my life since I read the Enchiridon.

>>14952655
I imagine life would be some how better in a simple way, like a child, but that this is necessary.

Everything is so stale now.

Has it affected your life in a meaningful way? Other than just being able to sneer at other people on /lit/

I didn't kill myself in my early 20's and got laid talking about Wittgenstein so it's hard to say no

>>14952670
Also give me places to start, I'm self admited a bit of a midwit, so I'm not ready to dive into Hegel or anyone as extreme.

>>14952655
>>14952664
That's it! I MUST BE A POET!!! To keep life fresh, you know. "For us old men".

Philosophy is good, but the only true man is a poet as Schiller says. Philosophy answers things.

>>14952681
I tried Hegel once and did not understand all the formulas one bit.

>>14952664
This sounds cunty but I think saying life would be easier without it is reductive to the constant struggle of it. But if it means you can cope with that struggle better than its definitely sounds worth it.

>>14952694
I've read Camu, and that's the only strict philosophy I've dug into (anything else is political) and found even that to be a bit dense 4 my little brain.

It made me sad

>>14952655
It made an in-tangible impact

>>14952655
Massive impact. My dick's at least 3" longer

>>14952707
Do you still want to get into Camus? What did you try to read, he has some EZPZ texts.

>>14952655
Yes, it’s drastically improved my drive and motivation as well as increasing my understanding of reality and ability to perceive/think for myself. I’m far happier with myself than I ever was before despite now recognising everything that’s wrong with society

>>14952655
It really has. If nothing else, thinking about ethics can make it easier to make considered choices in your day-to-day life rather than running on autopilot.

>>14952655
yes I can't reach any conclusions anymore even for ordinary things

>>14952958
what fucking ethical choices are you making on a day-to-day basis my man? are you some sort of 90's baltic warlord, unsure which ethnicity to cleanse each day? And what philosophers? I don't need Spinoza for my daily life

>>14952978
>are you some sort of 90's baltic warlord,
you mean balkan?

>>14952983
Yeah thanks for clearing that up anon

>>14952912
Myth of Sisyphus, which I struggled with because it relies on references quite a bit, and I'm not sure if her effectively answers the question of suicide any more than Kierkegaard's leap of faith (from what I understand of that concept). The Stranger was easy peasy, and I also enjoyed it.

>>14952701
If you're not aware of the struggle you don't have to deal with it.
Philosophy multiplies the struggles.

>>14953000
Nice digits, not anon but I could see making extremely minor ethical choices day to day, and how having a clearer understanding of what those choices may engender from that point, minor as they may be, could be useful.

>>14953007
Reading political philosophy has made me more conscientious of of some political realities, extrapolating from that point I see what you mean. But then the question becomes is it worth it? Is the added struggle valuable

>>14952978
What, you think that the average person can just go around making choices arbitrarily and it won't have an effect on their life?

>>14953001
Check out Lyrical and critical essays by Camus, it has L'envers et l'endroit as the first set of essays which covers the same ideas, but in a much more graspable way. His essays, not his books, are the central aspect of his work. He was a notable intellectual that France would pay to travel and give speeches that are also worth reading.

>>14953011
You're checked as well. Realistically, isn't the idea of ethics at an individual consumerist level really just an expression ideology a la Althusser?

>>14953030
Yeah, the idea of your choices mattering in any sense of identity or consciousness, hell even utility is a stretch

>>14953037
>Yeah, the idea of your choices mattering in any sense of identity or consciousness, hell even utility is a stretch
Okay, go inject yourself with HIV-infected blood and then come back and tell me whether you believe it was an inconsequential choice.

For the most part yes. I'm glad I've looked into many of the classical philosophers.

>>14953057
Great point, except that's not actually a choice anyone would make. Virtual possibilities of choice are fundamentally separate from choices people make, especially on a day-to-day basis. You fuck.

>>14953076
Well played, good sir.

Ever read "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"? Do you think Tolstoy was barking up the wrong tree?

>>14953088
I think Ivan Ilyich wanted to fuck Gerasim and this story was Tolstoy's way of letting out his repressed homosexuality. So yeah, Tolstoy should have had his irl Gerasim reading his diaries.

>>14953103
In all seriousness, there are a few choices I've made in my life that seem to have had profound effects not just on the material circumstances of my life but also on how I experience the world. I often think, "My God, if I hadn't done X, I might still be suffering needlessly like I was back before I did X." Do you believe that's all illusory?

>>14953112
I honestly think that causality is a retroactive lie we tell ourselves to maintain an illusion that we do/could have control over things when faced with an aleatory universe. If we look at anything in terms of cause and effect, then look at the causes of those causes, things fracture out into infinite directions.

>>14953037
I'll read some of his essays, I'm interested in his Absurd but don't really understand it in a meaningful way. I dont know what and expression ideology is, or who Althusser is, I'm novice.

>>14953037
>>14953157
Where start with Althusser? Or just push him until I have more foundation, I have read Marx but not Kapital so I haven't really "read Marx"

>>14953157
No worries! The Absurd is a result of a relationship between the desire for meaning that a man has, and the universe that offers none. Camus specifically talks about how the absurd is the result of our relationship to the world. The absurd is how you feel when you want things to be a certain way, but they aren't. His philosophy (when he published The Stranger) is heavily based of keeping the absurd alive in our hearts, and acting from there.

>>14953167
If you're more interested in Ideology as an idea, Zizek has a book called Mapping Ideology which is a collection of essays directly and abstractly related to ideology. Althusser himself is in the book, or you can read Althusser's Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.

>>14953182
This is exactly what I needed, a firm place to start so I can make decisions on what comes next with confidence. I'm not ready for Kant, or sense Greek philosophy. Looking for some comfy reading to make things a little more coherent. Appreciate it anon.

>>14953205
In that case Zizek might be a bit hard unless you're comfortable with dense text. George Batailles The Accursed Share is a 3 volume set that covers similar ground with an easier style of writing that's comfy. He's also referenced in the Mapping Ideology.

>>14953258
Aw fuck, dense text isn't absolutely foriegn, it's the constant having to Google Heidegger, and then Schopenhauer, and then Hegel, and so on until I've spent more time trying to get a grip on historical context than actual reading.

no, not at all. i "read" the stoics yet i'm anxious and think about suicide pretty much 24/7.

>>14953270
Then you're fine, it's got references to other philosophers but they're all contextualized. It's just a fairly academic style of writing. It's not like trying to read Heidegger and getting pissed cause you can't google words that are in fucking greek with no footnote to explain them.

>>14953295
Perfect then, thank you for helping to push me in a right direction anon.

>>14953302
No problem! I just took a look at my copy, it's got 11 authors in it plus however many texts are referenced, so that book will give you plenty of ideas for where to go afterwards.

>>14953322
Checked, for the second time I think, dubs visit those who deserve them.

Philosophy is all about autistically analyzing everything down into the most detailed of details. And then going further on the details of those details and never finding a satisfying resolution. As a result I have come to find nearly every argument and train of thought in normal discourse to be extremely lacking and half-baked. The biggest thing I have gained from it is the realization of how inadequate and unsupported most thinking is, and never being satisfied with what I am told as immediately presented.