Drawing strength from the notion of sisu | Letters
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Guardian Staff
3d ago
The Finnish concept of collective resilience in adversity also exists in Estonia, writes Ilvi Jõe-Cannon. Plus a letter from Michael Djupsjöbacka Re the Finnish concept of sisu (Why we all need sisu – the Finnish concept of action and creativity in hard times, 10 February), Estonian, one of the Finno-Ugric languages, has the same word. In Estonian, sisu means something that is inside – as in a box, jar, luggage, or a letter, book, or in a fruit or vegetable. With regard to humans, it is a quality or a characteristic, or even the absence of meaning to life if a person seems to be ..read more
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‘We’re not doing the thing we’re built to do’: Agnes Callard, the philosopher living life according to Socrates
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Tim Adams
1w ago
Why did the professor get divorced, remarry, but allow her former husband to remain in the house? In her brilliant new book, Open Socrates, she makes the case for an intellectually honest life What happens when a dedicated life of the mind confronts the messiness of earthly desires? The University of Chicago philosophy professor Agnes Callard, who in some moods believes herself to be channelling Socrates, was forced to ask herself that question one afternoon in 2011 when she was discussing with a graduate student a particular thorny problem in Greek thought, the abstract question of why one me ..read more
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AI is developing fast, but regulators must be faster | Letters
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Guardian Staff
1w ago
Dr Tom McClelland on the consequences of AI consciousness, Michael Webb on protecting creative industries, and Prof Virginia Dignum and Prof Wendy Hall on the need for a global regulatory framework The recent open letter regarding AI consciousness on which you report (AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved, says research, 3 February) highlights a genuine moral problem: if we create conscious AI (whether deliberately or inadvertently) then we would have a duty not to cause it to suffer. What the letter fails to do, however, is to capture what a big “if” this is. Some p ..read more
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Forget the pundits – here’s how philosophers see America’s moral divide over Trump
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Matthew Cantor
2w ago
How can neighbors have such a fundamental disagreement about seemingly basic concepts of rightness and justice? In 2016, it was easy for the left to process Donald Trump’s election as a fluke – thanks to the electoral college, he’d essentially won on a technicality. But as he took office once again this month after winning the US popular vote, there is a sense that his every action comes with the tacit endorsement of the voting public. Trump is, of course, far from the first American leader to be accused of cruelty. What’s striking about him is that he doesn’t pretend otherwise. Presidents in ..read more
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Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Damien Gayle
2w ago
Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience. The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring ..read more
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Humanism can offer us answers in the assisted dying debate | Letters
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Letters
1M ago
The underlying premise of the philosophy is to respect people’s autonomy, dignity and freedom Sonia Sodha asks where a sense of moral values is rooted in secular rational liberalism, her question implying that she does not know the answer – even that such liberalism does not have an answer (“I am a rational liberal, yet a question about the sanctity of life floored me”, Comment). This is evidence of two things: the false claim of the religions to have a monopoly on such an answer, and the woeful ignorance about the better and richer answer available, which is humanism ..read more
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Even among artists in exile, the myth of Russian cultural supremacy lives on
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Paula Erizanu
3M ago
Many liberal Russians shelter in states once part of the Soviet Union. It’s time that they learned to respect the cultures and languages their nation has so long suppressed One day in the 1990s, I was playing with my cousin in a local park in Chișinău, the capital of Romanian-speaking Moldova, when two little girls from the Russian-speaking minority asked us what our names were. We told them: Mihai and Maria Paula. They immediately rebaptised us: “Misha i Masha!” To them, we were all Russians after all. In 2024, such expressions of cultural imperialism are still rife in Putin’s Russia, but you ..read more
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In finding beauty in the broken, we can form a bridge between the mundane and the divine | Jackie Bailey
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Jackie Bailey
3M ago
Like a ceramic bowl with a golden fissure, mending my late sister’s socks wove my love for her into the present Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life Holes are forming in my favourite socks. They aren’t anything special – a black poly-cotton blend. But they are just the right length to cover the gap between my trousers and my boots, with the perfect amount of elasticity, staying up without pinching. I could try to darn them but why bother, when I can replace them with a few dollars and a click on a shopping app? There is the planet ..read more
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The media must not cower before Donald Trump | Brief letters
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Guardian Staff
4M ago
Washington Post non-endorsementStoic tech brosCar versus canal boatPower failureBudget secrets One wonders if there is still a free press in America (Bezos faces criticism after executives met with Trump on day of Post’s non-endorsement, 27 October). With a convicted felon running to be president and threatening all who oppose him with retribution, it is frightening to see the number of media outlets that appear too scared to express an opinion. Everybody who values freedom of expression should oppose Donald Trump, regardless of either candidate’s policies. Steen Petersen Nanaimo, Canada • I a ..read more
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The stoicism secret: how Ryan Holiday became a Silicon Valley guru
Philosophy | The Guardian
by Zoe Williams
4M ago
He has sold 5m books about this ancient Greek approach to life – and been feted by sports teams and CEOs. What makes this former PR man so popular? What is it that made the former PR man turned lay philosopher Ryan Holiday a giant of the bestseller lists? That his writing on stoic philosophy is beloved by everyone from professional athletes, politicians and tech CEOs will have helped. Investor-entrepreneur Tim Ferriss calls stoicism the “ideal operating system”, while entrepreneur-fraudster Elizabeth Holmes constantly cited Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, before her imprisonment. Sports stars f ..read more
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