The Problem with Goals
Conventional wisdom tells us that we should strive to be goal-oriented, and to most of us this sounds like good advice. There are things we want and setting up goals will keep our efforts focused on achieving those things. It’s true that goals will help you focus your efforts and thus aid you in attaining [...]
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The Paradox of Hedonism
Human motivation is governed by two genetically-programmed features: the pleasure/pain mechanism and the illusion of ego-persistence. The pleasure/pain mechanism is here to be understood in the broad sense of the “pleasantness”, positive or negative, of present experience. The illusion of ego-persistence is the programmed assumption that we have to be concerned about the future experiences [...]
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An Interview with Ayn Rand
The following interview is fictitious, but is based entirely on quotations by Ayn Rand herself (see citations at the end). To the best of my knowledge, none of the quotations are taken grossly out of context. cspice: Your philosophy of Objectivism is based on self-interest. Would you say then, that you are a type of [...]
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The Dilemma of Self-Revision
Our genes endowed us with a great power when they gave us an independent consciousness. Unlike probably any other species, we can use thought to change the program that we run during life. Other animals may be capable of some form of experience, but I think it is very unlikely that any non-human animal has [...]
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The Principle of Non-Arbitrary Distinction
Absolute principles do not contain arbitrary lines. Here, the word “absolute” means that the principle is based on objective reasoning rather than the personal prejudices of its creator. So we can see why this statement is true because if there was a line being drawn in the argument for an absolute principle, there would have [...]
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Understanding Zen
Zen is a system of beliefs and practices deriving from Buddhism. It has two primary purposes. From Buddhism it inherits the goal of ending mental suffering through the refinement of thought patterns. In addition to this, Zen incorporates the goal of counteracting “oversocialization” with its own set of techniques. Oversocialization is a term borrowed from [...]
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Dreams
Have you ever woken up from an amazing dream and thought “I should go back to sleep so I can get back to enjoying that dream.”? I said this to myself yesterday morning, but before I could get back to sleep, I had a sudden realization. I decided that this thought didn’t really make sense [...]
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Aphorisms on Happiness
I have been studying the topic of happiness for some time now. After digging through many books and articles on Positive Psychology, Buddhism, and Epicureanism, I think I have found a set of core principles that underlay these works. Each principle is accompanied by a famous aphorism that illustrates the idea. “He who understands the [...]
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The Drive for Success
I’ve noticed an interesting psychological phenomenon with regard to people’s perceptions of their material desires. There seems to be a disconnect between the desire and the root motivation. People often feel that their desire is based on comfort or aesthetics, when really the primary motivation is social prestige. This is not too surprising from a [...]
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Compatibilism
One of the biggest debates in philosophy is the free will vs. determinism debate. Determinists claim the world is predictable, so we should be able to predict all the actions of a person, at least in principle. Free will proponents claim that we have free will and see this as contrary to determinism. There is [...]
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