Enjoying the view from Limbo
I had the following exchange the other day with a thoughtful student who is currently in the process of working out how to orient her life in ways that involve the least spiritual compromise. I reproduce it here with only minor cosmetic editing. Do you like money? I like it as much as I don’t like living on a park bench. But I...
I was recently asked, by a student seeking to understand the full conditions and practical implications of the philosophic life, a question which has, in one form or another, probably occurred to, or rather preoccupied, the mind of every person attracted to philosophy in a serious way from the sixth century B.C. to the present. I paraphrase her question closely: “Let’s suppose everyone...
“The soul” is mankind’s general name for everything we are and are meant to be. “The body” is our name for every obstacle, hardship, and distraction that would prevent us from becoming what we are and are meant to be. The old war between the Ancients and the Moderns turns on the fact that the Ancients understood this relation and therefore perceived the...
Nietzsche is, without question, the most influential philosopher in today’s world, and his influence has grown steadily for more than a century. While it is probably true that more people read Nietzsche’s words these days than those of any other major philosopher, book sales are certainly not the way a philosopher achieves profound influence. Rather, the great philosophers influence the world to the...
There is nothing wrong with thinking there is something wrong with you. There undoubtedly is something wrong with you, and the precondition for any serious thought and growth is the recognition of this fact. Modern psychology is continually trying to persuade us that self-doubt, self-rebuke, and the periodic influx of shame and social discomfort, are illnesses to be cured, whereas these are rather...
Friends.– No one has fewer natural friends than the tyrant, who is rivalled in this only by the philosopher — the former to the extent that he has reduced his soul to nothing but vested interests, the latter to the extent that he has expunged his soul of vested interests. The tyrant falls farthest away from the conditions that make true friendship possible;...
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 5, 2025 · Last modified July 6, 2025
The opening lesson I offer whenever I teach any kind of classic literature, in a classroom or privately, and whether fiction or philosophy, is always some version of this: “There are ideas in this book that might strike us as immediately strange, morally uncomfortable, or completely contrary to our modern way of looking at things. When you see such ideas, always remind yourself...
by Daren Jonescu · Published February 18, 2025 · Last modified February 21, 2025
Occasionally, one happens upon a certain page of classic literature at a strikingly appropriate moment, such that its evergreen insights appear to have fallen directly into one’s immediate midst and experience like a gracious snowfall of cleansing wisdom, leaving one feeling almost as though a long-dead author had mysteriously inserted this commentary into his work anachronistically, or just yesterday, for your personal benefit....
Elon Musk, as I have previously discussed here, has been widely accused of giving a Nazi salute to his fellow Trump supporters, said accusation consisting in an object lesson in establishing a truth by dint of endless repetition of a blatant lie. For the video clip of the supposed neo-Nazi outrage is readily available for all to see, although I am quite sure...
by Daren Jonescu · Published January 28, 2025 · Last modified September 3, 2025
Listening to a friend’s description of a disappointing social engagement with a former work colleague, in which she confessed, though without any great sense of self-recrimination, that she herself was “being boring” during that evening’s dinner conversation, I was compelled to reflect upon my own life as a social entity, such as it is, or rather to reflect on the sense in which...
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