According to Walter Mischel, the key to self-control is learning to mentally “cool” the “hot” aspects of your environment, those things that pull you away from your goal. How does his research and personal experience with self-control fit with philosophical questions about free will, determinism, compatibilism, etc.?
E3: What makes a good person good?
Philosopher kings
The Schumpeter blog of the The Economist says business leaders would benefit from studying philosophers. For example, “philosophy-based courses would help executives overcome their obsession with status symbols. It is difficult to measure your worth in terms of how many toys you accumulate when you have immersed yourself in Plato.”
How to live … Stoicism and Epicureanism
How should we live? Cheerfully resign ourselves to what happens or pursue true pleasure? From the School of Life a short film explaining Stoicism and another explaining Epicureanism.
Philosophy for warriors
What can philosophy do for warriors? Very interesting interview with Nancy Sherman about philosophy and the military profession … with special attention to the blessings and curses of Stoicism.
Empathy … for and against
Paul Bloom claims that “if you want to be good and do good, empathy is a poor guide.” Some agree, some disagree, and that leads to a very interesting exchange of ideas on empathy.
Outlook: gloomy
Are you an optimistic person always looking on the bright side? Not likely, says Jacob Burak. But there is a bright side to the fact that we are wired to be gloomy: “In fact, studies show that depressed people may be sadder, but they are also wiser … . This ‘depressive realism’ gives the forlorn a more accurate perception of reality, especially in terms of their own place in the world and their ability to influence events.”
Plot twists in the story of your life
How and why do people change? For those big changes, Will Storr says that “when the storyline of one’s life hits a dead end, a redemption narrative offers an alluring, if dubious, transformation.” Quite a few interesting points about self-identity, including whether there is such a thing as a self.
Plato and football
Should we teach Plato in gym class? Yes, according to Mark Edmundson. “We’ve got to entertain the idea that the hunger for glory and even for supremacy is part of every individual. In some people it’s nearly as strong as the hunger for food. All of us, but athletes and warriors in particular, have to understand how to deal with that hunger. As Plato told us, the spirit needs education just as much as the mind.”
Know thy selfie
Philosopher Simon Blackburn thinks Narcissus would be busy on Instagram. “Can we have a virtuous sense of worth without the vanity of self-love?”
Trapped in time
William Boyd on how mortality shapes our existence. “I am convinced that what makes our species unique among the fauna of this small planet circling its insignificant star is that we know we are trapped in time, caught briefly between these two eternities of darkness, the prenatal darkness and the posthumous one.” And yet, the philosopher might reply, do we have any good idea whether time is real or an illusion? Either way, however, Boyd’s answer to what we should do in view of our mortality is not bad advice: love and be loved.
Socratically Speaking 