Suggested readings, #101

Here it is, a rundown of interesting articles I’ve come across recently, to consider for your weekend readings:

7 lessons from Diogenes that will change the way you look at life. Learn from the notorious philosopher-troll. (Medium)

Beyond Order shows the disconnect between how Jordan Peterson is perceived and what he writes. Why not? One more on JP! (Globe & Mail)

The machine stops: science and its limits. (LA Review of Books)

The sustainable food paradox. Why are so many attempts to eat ethically counterproductive? (Medium)

Academics aren’t content creators, and it’s regressive to make them so. A video by a professor for only their class is akin to the single-copy, handwritten book disseminated to just one room of people. (Times Higher Education)

Published by

Massimo

Massimo is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He blogs at platofootnote.org and howtobeastoic.org. He is the author of How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life.

4 thoughts on “Suggested readings, #101”

  1. Diogenes! I told you I’d make you a Neo-Cynic! The lessons are true, starting with a secular-based version of detachment as being good simply for a non-metaphysical psyche, not the salvation of one’s soul or life force. And, of course on rejecting convention for convention’s sake. And, of course, at the end, “to thine own self be true.”

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    LA Review piece is pretty good. To take off on its last few paragraphs, as a newspaper person, I hate the modern phrase “news consumers” and related. Related to that, per the header of the link to your last piece, I hate news being referred to as “content.”

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  2. Couldn’t read the JP piece without a subscription. But, I don’t imagine that I need too–I can’t remember any public figure that was so disliked by the elites and liked by the population as JP. Seems that he rocks the boat in a way that makes those in power or those invested in the current power structure very worried.

    I liked the food paradox article although the “paradoxes” seem to come from trying to optimize multiple functions at the same time…if you optimize for organic, you won’t be optimizing for local, and so on, no big surprise there. While no diet is perfect in all ways (i.e., won’t optimize all relevant functions), as a vegan I think that this diet comes closest to optimizing multiple relevant functions (health, suffering, and environment are the big three, but in terms of local/organic, etc., it’s a heck of a lot easier to grow your own tomatoes than to grow your own cow, which is of course why we are destroying the rain forests…not for wood, but for grazing land for the export of flesh to Europe, America, etc.).

    I hope you could refer to me as your friend as well even though we’re often NOT on the same page ;-)

    Happy Weekend everyone!

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