In this episode, James and Robby explore the connection between the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, and more specifically his book "After Virtue", and its connection with fitness. In his book "After Virtue" MacIntyre asks us to imagine there was some sort of catastrophe by which all of our scientific knowledge came to be destroyed. Eventually enlightened people try to restore that knowledge but all they have are fragments of the past. For example they know objects near the surface of the Earth fall at 9.8m/s2 but they don’t know the why behind it (gravity) MacIntyre argues that we are in exa ..read more

Most people would agree that things like rocks, tables, chairs, the sun, and oceans are all real. By real here, we mean something like: these things would exist even if humans didn't exist. But what about social reality? What about things that depend on humanity for their existence and yet have real power and influence? Here are some examples -Money -The presidency of the United States -Laws -The existence of nation states Take money for example. There's no inherent value or meaning to green pieces of paper (at least in the US) outside the meaning and value that humans have made up. And yet, t ..read more

Reality is one of the central concepts in philosophy. In fact, one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy is, "What is real?". Philosophers are very frequently trying to distinguish appearance from reality. Fitness provides one of the most direct forms of access to the external world/reality in terms of directly sensing the world around us. Fitness can also provide a direct "reality-check" to what we believe to be true about of ourselves in terms of our physical capabilities. That "reality-check" can serve as an inspiration to get better. In this episode James and Robby ask, and attem ..read more

Habits are central to both philosophy and fitness. As far back as the Ancient Greeks, Aristotle famously said "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle in this particular case is talking about virtue, but the point applies equally well to other parts of life, especially health and fitness. One could argue that habits are the central determining factor in success in health and fitness. Here's an example to illustrate the point. Take two people one of whom grew up in a home based on ancestral principles and habits of sleeping at the right times, e ..read more

Most of our life, technology, and progress is centered around the idea of making life easier. Think about things like Door Dash, sleeping pills, and self-driving cars. But a central question that comes up is: Is an easier life necessarily a better life? It seems that as humans we're hard-wired to need some difficulty, challenge, or struggle to live a full and meaningful life. In this episode James and Robby discuss the extent to which ease and difficulty play a role in fitness and our lives in general. They ask and attempt to answer questions like: -In a world where things have become so "easy ..read more

Beauty in philosophy is considered one of the ultimately values like justice, truth, knowledge, and goodness. One of the central goals of most people in engaging in fitness is to look better, or to cultivate physical beauty. In this episode James and Robby ask and give their answer the following questions What makes beauty worth pursuing? Is beauty just "appearance" that hides a deeper "reality" Is beauty in the eye of the beholder (subjective) or out there in the world? (objective) How does the modern fitness industry influence standards of beauty? How closely are physical fitness, evolution ..read more

What is a legacy? At the most basic level it's what we leave to future generations of people. When it comes to a legacy with regard to fitness, the question becomes: What do we owe the future when it comes to the world of fitness and health that we give to future generations? In this podcast, James and Robby ask and attempt to answer the following questions. -Is all we should be doing in fitness and health studying the legacy of our ancestors? -Are our current health and fitness practices tarnishing the legacy of our ancestors? -How is our own personal legacy determined? Is the last things we ..read more

Since the release of ChapterGPT in late 2022, interest and discussion around Artificial Intelligence has exploded. Why? There are so many societal and ethical implications around the development of AI such as: -Will it lead to the end of all work? -How can we tell appearance from reality when AI is getting so good at mimicking reality? -Is AI essentially stealing the work of genuine creatives without any credit or attribution? In part 2 of the discussion we ask and attempt to answer the following questions. -Will AI entirely replace fitness coaches? If so, what are the implications of this? -A ..read more

Since the release of ChapterGPT in late 2022, interest and discussion around Artificial Intelligence has exploded. Why? There are so many societal and ethical implications around the development of AI such as: -Will it lead to the end of all work? -How can we tell appearance from reality when AI is getting so good at mimicking reality? -Is AI essentially stealing the work of genuine creatives without any credit or attribution? In the fitness world, the development of AI leads to very interesting questions as well like: -Will AI be a net positive or net negative for the health and fitness world ..read more

In the second part of their discussion about human nature, James and Robby continue to investigate the connection between human nature and fitness. They ask and attempt to answer the following questions. What is human nature? Is there an essence to humans that applies across all places and times? What is the balance of nature vs. nurture in human beings? How much of a part of our human nature is fitness? If fitness is such a natural part of our human nature why is it so neglected these days? When it comes to our human nature how should that influence how we try to get as many people as possibl ..read more