Dec 27, 2022Member-onlyClearing Up Misconceptions About PyrrhonismMassimo Pigliucci has published a review of the book How to Keep an Open Mind: An Ancient Guide to Thinking Like a Skeptic. …Skepticism13 min readSkepticism13 min read
Nov 22, 2022Member-onlyThe Buddha Did Not Teach an End to SufferingHow the mistranslation of “dukkha” has mislead Western Buddhists It has become normative and conventional to translate the Buddhist term “dukkha” as “suffering.” This is a bad translation. “Suffering” is not what the Buddha meant by “dukkha.” Translating terms about concepts is always tricky because often the closest words in…Buddhism5 min readBuddhism5 min read
Nov 5, 2022Member-onlyThe Thunder, Perfect Mind: A Heraclitean InterpretationPerhaps the most enigmatic of all of the ancient texts recovered at Nag Hamadi is The Thunder, Perfect Mind. It is wholly unlike the other texts found in this cache of ancient Gnostic texts. Based on the meter of the text, it was probably composed in Greek. …Heraclitus13 min readHeraclitus13 min read
Oct 25, 2022Member-onlyAn Epitome of PyrrhonismDon’t Confuse Pyrrhonism With Skepticism Pyrrhonism is the earliest form of Western philosophical skepticism; however, what we now consider to be skepticism is so greatly different from Pyrrhonism that calling Pyrrhonism “skepticism” produces severe and difficult-to-reverse misconceptions of what Pyrrhonism is. This is exacerbated by presentations of Pyrrhonism that distort…Pyrrhonism9 min readPyrrhonism9 min read
Oct 16, 2022Member-onlyPhilosophy Begins in BlunderEpictetus and Sextus on the Beginnings of Philosophy Why does a person become interested in philosophy as a way of life? Is it because they discover there is something wrong with themselves and wish to address that problem, or is it because they wish to end their mental suffering? Epictetus…Stoicism5 min readStoicism5 min read
Oct 5, 2022Member-onlyAtaraxiaA Key Pyrrhonist Concept The Greek philosophical concept of ataraxia has drawn quite a bit of attention recently among Medium.com writers, such as in these articles: The Problem with Ataraxia Ataraxia, Neuroscience, Rock Climbing, the Bhagavad Gita and Zen As ataraxia is a central concept in Pyrrhonism, it seems that…Ataraxia4 min readAtaraxia4 min read
Sep 13, 2022Member-onlyWas Marcus Aurelius a Stoic?No. Marcus Aurelius Was Not a Stoic One of the great treasures of the surviving ancient Greek literature is a philosophical journal kept by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is a glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary man, in extraordinary circumstances, doing something extraordinary: philosophical self-counseling. As such…Marcus Aurelius13 min readMarcus Aurelius13 min read
Sep 9, 2022Member-onlyThe Stoicism ScamExposing a Colossal Bait and Switch Trick Much of what is currently being promoted as “Stoicism” is not Stoicism in any meaningful sense of the term. It’s just self-help techniques that were widely accepted in ancient Greece. …Stoicism7 min readStoicism7 min read
Sep 7, 2022Member-onlyRobert Pirsig, Pyrrho, and the Buddha versus SocratesZen and the Art of the Least Understood Pyrrhonist Spiritual Exercise The spiritual exercises of the ancient Pyrrhonists can be classified into three categories. The category we know least about from ancient sources is the zetetic exercises. These exercises are the focus of this article. The term “zetetic” is derived…Socrates15 min readSocrates15 min read
Aug 30, 2022Member-onlyAncient Greek Cures for AnxietyThe Old Is New Again Our age seems to be the age of anxiety and depression, with rates rising particularly for the young. Many people are not only compulsively anxious for themselves, they project anxiety onto others. That we should have so much anxiety going on right now seems surprising…Anxiety6 min readAnxiety6 min read
