There is something almost comedic about the fact that one of the most influential thinkers in modern ethics had a nervous breakdown at twenty. John Stuart Mill, the man who would go on to write the definitive text on liberty and reshape how we think about happiness, fell apart before he was old enough to […]
You can buy a Karl Marx t-shirt on Amazon for $19.99. It ships in two days if you have Prime. The shirt says something like “I Hate Capitalism” or features Marx’s bearded face screen printed in red, and it arrives in a plastic mailer produced in a factory overseas, sold by a third party vendor
There is something deeply strange about knowing what a stranger had for breakfast. Not a friend, not a neighbor, but a person you have never met and almost certainly never will. Yet millions of people wake up each morning and reach for their phones to find out exactly this. They scroll through the curated lives
The Celebrity Obsession: Schopenhauer on Why We Worship Vain Fantasies Read More »
You have probably lost an argument to someone who was completely wrong. Not because they had better evidence. Not because their logic was sharper. But because they knew how to fight dirty with words while you were busy trying to be reasonable. Arthur Schopenhauer knew this would happen to you. In fact, he wrote an
The 5 Schopenhauerian Phrases to Dismantle Any Argument Read More »
There is something almost comedic about placing Karl Marx and Elon Musk in the same sentence. One died in 1883 with barely enough money to cover his funeral. The other could buy a small country and still have enough left over to launch a car into orbit. And yet, both men share something unusual: an
Karl Marx vs. Elon Musk: Two Visions for the Future of Humanity Read More »
There is a particular kind of courage that most people claim to have but almost nobody actually demonstrates. It is the courage to defend speech you find revolting. Not speech you agree with. Not speech that makes you feel warm and enlightened. The other kind. The kind that makes your stomach turn. John Stuart Mill
The Case for Offensive Speech: Why We Need “Hate” to Find the Truth Read More »
Every revolution begins with a promise. The old guard will be swept away. The corrupt will be punished. Power will return to the people. And for a brief, intoxicating moment, it looks like it might actually happen. Then something familiar settles in. New faces appear at the top. They wear different clothes, use different slogans,
The Circulation of Elites: Why Revolutions Never Actually Change Anything Read More »
There is a particular kind of genius that does not get celebrated enough. It is not the genius of discovery. It is the genius of naming. Before Auguste Comte came along in the early nineteenth century, people had been thinking about society for thousands of years. Aristotle did it. Montesquieu did it. Ibn Khaldun did
He Named the Field: Why Auguste Comte Is the True MVP of Social Science Read More »
You got a raise last year. Maybe even a good one. You bought the slightly better coffee, upgraded your streaming plan, and for about eleven days you felt like you had finally made it. Then the feeling vanished. The new number on your paycheck became the new normal, and normal never feels like enough. This
Karl Marx’s Math: Why Your Salary Never Feels Like Enough Read More »
There is a particular kind of advice that floats around modern culture like a bad perfume. It goes something like this: eliminate stress, avoid discomfort, optimize for happiness. Download this app. Try this breathing technique. Remove toxic people. Curate your environment until nothing scratches you. Friedrich Nietzsche would have found this absolutely pathetic. Not because
Why Friedrich Nietzsche Thought Suffering Is Essential for Greatness Read More »