The Wisdom Of

Kant's "What is Enlightenment?" - Emancipate your thinking!

03 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dare to know and think! This was Kant's calling in his famous 1784 essay "What is Enlightenment?" Find out more! 

The Delphic Injunction - KNOW THYSELF!

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The words “know thyself” were carved into stone at the entrance to the revered temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. What does it mean? Well, the ...

Bertrand Russell - Why I am not a Christian

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1927 the philosopher Bertrand Russell gave a lecture called Why I am not a Christian. Find out more! 

Dostoevsky and Heidegger - How to escape the algorithm!

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Both Dostoevsky and Heidegger, in their own way, look for ways to salvage some deeper meaning and experience in the midst of our increasingly technolo...

Cormac McCarthy's The Road - Each the other's world entire!

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most emotionally powerful novels ever written! A father and son try to make their way across a post-apocalyptic America trying to get to a ...

Byung-Chul Han and Gabriel Marcel on Hope!

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is there anything more important than hope, especially today? These two profound philosophers have lots to say about this! 

Selfies and Existentialism!

19 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Selfie-ism permeates our world culture! Do we have cause for concern? What would the existentialists think? 

What the heck happened to integrity and character?!

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What's going on? Why don't we care about character anymore? This is very troubling. 

Marinetti and Futurism - Welcome to the machine!

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Italian futurist Marinetti called for the absolute glorification of everything new and modern, a worship of everything machine! What resonance all...

The lost art of reading! And why reading makes us truly happy!

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reading has become nearly obsolete in our age of momentary gratification. This is a great loss as reading engenders all sorts of important qualities t...

The problem with lying and liars!

20 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lying seems to be on the rise, especially in the political world! I don't think we realize how dangerous and how morally problematic it is! 

Why the existentialists hate the bourgeois!

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The French existentialists have a problem with bourgeois morality and relationships! What's their beef all about? Find out more! 

Aristotle, Leisure and AI - Outsourcing our humanity!

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For Aristotle, leisure is the most important human activity. Unfortunately we're contracting out our leisure activities to AI, and with it, our h...

Freud, the Uncanny and AI!

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we feel so disturbed by dolls and robots that are human-like? Why do we really fear AI? Freud has an answer! 

Can you be good WITHOUT god?

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dostoevsky said that if God is dead, then everything is permitted. In other words, morality depends on religion. Is that true? I don't think so! ...

Horace and Carpe Diem - What this famous phrase REALLY means!

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carpe Diem is usually translated as seize the day. But that's not quite accurate, and it's a reflection of our times! Sit back and enjoy, li...

The Presocratic philosophers - From myth to matter!

08 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Presocratics, the first philosophers and scientists, rejected traditional mythological explanations in favour of rational ones! Huge turning point...

The THREE most important things I learned from graduate school!

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Going to graduate school gave me some important abilities and approaches to things that have proven beneficial for my life as a whole! 

Kierkegaard's The Present Age - Why Kierkegaard would have HATED the internet!

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What would Kierkegaard have thought of our age of the internet? The philosopher Herbert Dreyfus argues that he'd be no fan, to say the least! Fin...

Socrates - The Hemlock Controversy!

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Did Socrates really die the way Plato describes it? And Socrates may have been a philosophical martyr but did he give much consideration to his FAMILY...

Karl Jaspers - Boundary situations and Transcendence!

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The philosopher Karl Jaspers argues that we only truly self-realize when we learn to confront the inevitable hardships of life properly! Find out more...

Callicles versus Socrates - On sound and leaky barrels!

13 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Apart from Socrates, Callicles is Plato's most formidable character. And he doesn't hold back! He thinks happiness is all about the full thr...

Byung-Chul Han's The Crisis of Narration - Why information is not enough!

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's a crisis of narration today, Han argues. Instead of narrative, we have information. And, unlike narrative, information can't give us...

Love's Resurgence - Part 3 - Love as an Activity!

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is Part 3 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we mi...

Love's Resurgence - Part 2 - Love as Expansion!

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is Part 2 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we mi...

Love's Resurgence - Part 1 - The Fall of Eros!

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is Part 1 of a 3 Part series on love! It should be listened to in sequence! In it, I explore the state of love today and what, if anything, we mi...

Orwell's 1984 - The abuse of language and history!

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

George Orwell's 1984  warns against the dangers of a totalitarian society! Take away our language and our history and it's all over! Find o...

Nietzsche on why art is crucially important for us!

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For Nietzsche there's no such thing as art for art's sake! No, art has indispensable practical value for our existence! Find out more! 

Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea - Beyond the customary fishing grounds!

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring the themes of skill and heroism in Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize novel! 

Socrates - The Man of Mystery!

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Socrates influenced many of his contemporaries, but the strange thing is they all went on to develop very different outlooks! What does that say about...

The Ethics of Lawns!

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we cultivate lawns? Should we have them? Let's explore! 

Bertrand Russell - Fear of Public Opinion!

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The philosopher Bertrand Russell has some interesting things to say about how it is our fear of public opinion affects our happiness! Find out more! 

William Barrett - The disappearance of mystery in a world of technique!

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The philosophers William Barrett and Gabriel Marcel argue that the hegemony of technique is closing us off from what is truly most important - the rea...

The benefits of living a more simple life!

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For millennia, voluntarily adopting a more simple life has been a calling by almost all wisdom seekers. For good reason! Find out more! 

Final Regular Podcast Episode - The six thinkers and artists that have inspired me the most!

07 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Though there may be some future episodes from time to time, this is the last regular episode of The Wisdom Of! In this episode, I talk about six of my...

Jung and The Stages of Life - Mid-life crisis and old age!

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We need to start a college course designed to deal with the typical midlife crisis! Or so says Carl Jung! Find out more! 

The degeneration of gift-giving! A Christmas special!

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's happened to the joy and authenticity of gift-giving? Find out more! 

Nietzsche on Buddhism!

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nietzsche had mixed feelings about Buddhism. Find out more! 

Kafka's Letter to his Father!

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kafka's Letter to his Father offers an incredibly striking and penetrating analysis of the psychological roots and the effects of power within a ...

Sartre vs. Camus: Revolutionary vs. Rebel - The Big Dispute!

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Once close friends, Sartre and Camus had a huge public falling out. Find out why! 

Can you be GRATEFUL for life if you're an ATHEIST?

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can non-theists feel existential gratitude? Let's explore! 

Existentialism and Cezanne's Doubt!

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why is there such a close connection between existentialism and the artist? Let's explore! 

Lucretius - A spoonful of sugar!

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In his On The Nature of Things, a work devoted to an explanation of the views of Epicurus, Lucretius writes poetically rather than using standard pros...

Heraclitus - The times they are a-changin!

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Change is normal, Heraclitus tells us.  But how about the sort of rapid change we see happening today? Is it too much even for Heraclitus? Let's...

Thanatos - The fear of, and the desire for, death!

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From plastic surgery to Freud's death-drive, we seem to both fear death and secretly welcome it at the same time! Welcome to the underworld! 

Some thoughts on the notion of the SUFFERING ARTIST!

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why is suffering and self-destruction associated with the artist? Has it always been this way? Let's explore! 

John Stuart Mill - The marketplace of ideas, and the question of Truth!

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does the marketplace of ideas really produce the truth? Let’s explore!

Flaubert, le mot juste, and Schopenhauer's philosophy of language!

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Always searching for that exact right word? You're not alone, so did Flaubert and Schopenhauer! 

Euripides' Medea - Revenge turned into something inhuman!

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's this shocking play where filicide happens about? Let's explore! 

Vico and The New Science - The Barbarism of Reflection!

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Giambattista Vico was a philosopher of the Italian Enlightenment. He believed history moved through stages only to culminate in what he called the bar...

St. Paul and Nietzsche - Make work a VOCATION not a job!

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's the difference between a job and a vocation? And why does the distinction  matter?  Let's explore!  

Saving the sublime and bringing back the awe in awesome!

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does the word sublime really mean? And why does getting this right matter? Find out! 

Some differences between Eastern and Western philosophy

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are some of the fundamental differences between Eastern and Western philosophy? Find out! 

Karl Marx - Religion is a product of social disorder!

02 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marx believed that if you fix our social condition, then religion will disappear! Find out why! 

Can the immoralist be happy?

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can a bad or evil person be happy? Seems so, but maybe it's not so straight forward after all! 

Do you really want to live forever?

19 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is immortality all that it's cracked up to be? I don't think so! Find out why! 

Are you a Platonist or an Aristotelian?

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you share Plato's orientation or Aristotle's? Find out! 

The Pros and Cons of Nostalgia!

05 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is nostalgia exactly? And is it beneficial or can it be disadvantageous? Let's find out! 

Eros and Agape - Two great but very different kinds of love!

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The history of eros and agape is super interesting, and each, in their own way, express incredibly powerful and important aspects of love! Find out mo...

Lou Salome - Was Nietzsche actually religious?

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lou Salome was a personal friend of Nietzsche for a short time. Later she wrote a book about him. Let's find out what she said! 

What I like about Robinson Crusoe!

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I try to explain what I love about Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe!  (I think I called him Willam Defoe, but, who cares, there a...

Paul Tillich and Plato on Courage!

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is courage exactly? Whatever it is, it's more than a Tragically Hip song! 

Descartes' I think, therefore I am!

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I talk a bit about Descartes' famous line and what sort of influence it's had on us! 

Marcuse and Nietzsche - Rebellion against the Masses!

01 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why rebel against mass society? Let me count the ways! 

Fromm's To Have or To Be?

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A little less having and a little more being! So says the famous psychologist Erich Fromm! 

Does money bring happiness?!

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's the correlation between wealth and happiness? Not a good one! Find out why! 

Negative and Positive Freedom! (Isaiah Berlin, Plato and Fromm)

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sure, you might be free from things, but now what are you free to do?! Coming up, negative and positive freedom! 

The power and sound of silence!

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In our age of noise and distraction, we need to remember the benefits of silence! 

My problem with Tolstoy's Confession!

27 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tolstoy's autobiographical memoir always bugged me. Here's why! 

Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Philosophy as a Way of Life was written by Pierre Hadot, a French historian of philosophy. He takes us back to a time when philosophy meant real perso...

Plato's Allegory of the Cave: A warning to us!

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Plato’s allegory of the cave, a section in his great philosophical masterpiece Republic, is one of the most iconic and influential passages ever wri...

Negative Visualization: the art of coping with tragedy!

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maybe the best way to cope with misfortune is to imagine it in advance. Maybe the best way to happiness is cultivate the gratitude that comes with the...

Why we should care about classical antiquity!

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Don't care about the likes of Homer and Sophocles and Thucydides? You should! 

Gabriel Marcel's Man Against Mass Society

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gabriel Marcel was a French existentialist Christian philosopher.  What he had to say is very relevant today, more so than in his own time!  

A Philosophy Short: Privilege the present over the past! (Sartre and Nietzsche)

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Both Jean-Paul Sartre and Friedrich Nietzsche privilege the present over the past. Let's find out why! 

Badiou's In Praise of Love

22 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alain Badiou is a French philosopher. In this episode, we discuss his In Praise of Love. The work is a passionate defence of love in a time when roma...

Nussbaum and Nietzsche on Revenge and Punishment

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I talk a bit about the notions of revenge and retribution and punishment. The Book of Revelation, Nietzsche, Martha Nussbaum and Hann...

A Philosophy Short: Only humans can die! (Rousseau and Heidegger)

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Don't all living things die? Well, not according to Rousseau and Heidegger! 

Heidegger, ChatGPT, Buber and our bot relationships!

08 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ChatGPT spit out some prose on our command. Is it art? What might Heidegger say? What should our relationship be to objects and artifacts? What does M...

Niceness is Overrated!

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is it actually good to be nice? Is niceness a virtue? That’s to say, is it a character trait that’s admirable? At the end of the day, should we va...

Why our death isn't always about ourselves!

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There's a social aspect to our death that philosophers often tend to overlook when discussing the issue of death, or so it might be argued. In th...

Aldous Huxley, Psychedelics and God!

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I try to say a little something about the writer Aldous Huxley and his view on psychedelics!

Indigenous thought

18 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode on indigenous thought, we try to discuss the importance of storytelling and the cyclical nature of time! 

Thoreau and the Companionship of Solitude

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is solitude? How is it different from loneliness and alienation? What does Thoreau think about solitude? Let's explore!  

Marcus Aurelius - Even emperors have no power over death!

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I try to say something about Marcus Aurelius and what's going on in his book the Meditations.

William Barrett on Modern Art and Existentialism

04 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

William Barrett was a professor of philosophy. He wrote a book called Irrational Man, published in 1958, that’s considered to be one of the finest i...

Ideology!

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I try to briefly say a few words about the role and nature of ideology and ideological thinking!  

D.H. Lawrence and Schopenhauer on Sex and Love

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I try to talk a little bit about the nature and importance of sex and love according to the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the w...

Ayn Rand

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ayn Rand is a Russian born writer. She’s best known for her two novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In this episode, we discuss Nietzsche&a...

Boethius's Consolations and the Talking Cure

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Boethius was a Roman philosopher and political statesman. In this episode, I discuss his great work On the Consolation of Philosophy! 

Camus' The Fall

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Fall was Camus’ last complete work and it was published in 1956. In this episode, we discuss the themes of insincerity and virtue-signalling. 

Shatner's tears and Earth's little onion skin

29 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Some thoughts about what happened to the actor William Shatner when he went to space aboard a capsule operated by Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin.

The love letters of Heloise and Abelard

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Abelard and Heloise are one of the most celebrated couples of all time, known for their love affair and for the tragedy that separated them. In ...

Courage, Tillich, and that coward Silenus!

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What's courage? Are there different kinds of courage? Why is courage important? Let's see what Plato and Paul Tillich think! 

Happiness is Overrated!

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is happiness just about feeling good? Is that the way we should view it? Or is there more to it than that? Let's find out! 

Evil

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I try to talk a bit about the nature of evil. I use Susan Neiman's book Evil in Modern Thought as the context.  

Byung-Chul Han on Fingers, Phones and the Strangeness of Socrates!

07 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Byung-Chul Han is a south Korean born philosopher and he’s currently professor at the  Berlin University of Arts in Germany. In this episode, we ta...

Existentialism - The Philosophy of Affirmation!

01 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For all its focus on the struggles of the human condition and on our spiritual ailments, ultimately existentialism is a deeply affirmative and constru...

Santa and Ethics!

24 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Should we lie to children about Santa? What about Santa's exchange of gifts for good behaviour? These are some of the questions I reflect on in t...

Nehamas's Only a Promise of Happiness - The Place of Beauty in a World of Art

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alexander Nehamas is a professor of philosophy and comparative literature at Princeton University. In this episode, we discuss some of the main themes...