Hello everyone!

Welcome to

My "Friendly" Home!

(I'd very much like to be remembered as a Saintly Sophist over that of a Devil's advocate. But, I fear now that there is perhaps a significant consensus of good day acquaints whom regards the latter to be more true than not. However, the important question for me must be "Is life meaningful?" What is my philosophical logos? Arete )

“Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.”

― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

Part 1 of 2

I truly believe that all soulful love starts with friendship (philosophy). Just as Diotima perceived it. (Plato’s ladder of love)

Contact Me

(form link)


( For those who wish contact (or possibly hazard/risk a skeptical friendship) with my gregarious ( or confoundingly garrulous ) Philosophical Personality:
"I don't particularly care about the usual. If you want to get an idea of a friend's temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life. Can you assess the danger a criminal poses by examining only what he does on an ordinary day? Can we understand health without considering wild diseases and epidemics? Indeed the normal is often irrelevant. Almost everything in social life is produced by rare but consequential shocks and jumps; all the while almost everything studied about social life focuses on the 'normal,' particularly with 'bell curve' methods of inference that tell you close to nothing. Why? Because the bell curve ignores large deviations, cannot handle them, yet makes us confident that we have tamed uncertainty. Its nickname in this book is GIF, Great Intellectual Fraud."
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The Black Swan )

Transcendental Ethos: A Study of Thoreau's Social Philosophy and ... and his belief that nature exists independent from the mind and consists of eternal laws.

frederick_transcendental_ethos.pdf "After all, most of the founding fathers were deists in rejecting Biblical authority over natural laws."

The age of enlightenment. ( Deism vs. Pandeism — "Has God ceased to exist?" )

December 2020

A Philosophical Study: "Ethics" of "The Good LIfe"

(human flourishing, prosperity and blessedness)

"Eudaimonia, a philosophical term for the life that one would like to live, originally associated with Aristotle."

"It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. "

— Epicurus ( Tetrapharmakos Wikipedia link )


( The Project Gutenberg EBook -- Epicurus' The Tetrapharmakos )
( LibriVox Public Domain Audiobooks of The Principal Doctrines by Epicurus )( A YouTube descriptive video of the Tetrapharmakos )
Image Source: Google Images

The Stoic Good Life Video Play List Window

(Philosophical Self Help YouTubes)

"The Cognito?"

(A Dictum)

("I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am")

A prescription for life?

( The Tetrapharmakos )

1) Don't fear god,

2) Don't worry about death,

3) What is good is easy to get,

4) What is terrible is easy to endure!

What is Eudaimonia?

( audio Pronunciation )Human Flourishing | EUDAIMONIA

Can you free your mind? [1] Use your imagination? [2] Live Stoically happy and Flourish? [3] What do you need to live? [4] Have you examined Maslow's hierarchy of needs? [5] Can you minimalize enough to become free and transcend? [6] As Henry David Thoreau attempted at Walden? [7] And, as Epicurus spoke of as Eudaimonia? [8] Can you be as self-reliant as Emmerson wrote about? [9] Does your life have meaning? [10] Have you examined your life carefully enough using the Socratic Method? [11]

What is living a Good Life?! [12] Do you need some food for thought?! [13] Do you actually know, or do you just think that you know? [14] Are you the one? [15] Or are you some cave minion in love with the shadows of a despot puppeteer? [16] Have you not seen the good? [17] Is the good the one? [18] Do you see a duck when it is really a rabbit? [19] Is the question is not what you look at, but what you see? [20]

"Enlightenment is the "full comprehension of a situation""

― Wikipedia

But what about the Age of Reason, the freedom of Self-Reliance, Virtue ethics, and being Socially Conscious and Just?

"Just and Unjust are, and these having been defined it is plain that just acting is a mean between acting unjustly and being acted unjustly towards: the former being equivalent to having more, and the latter to having less."

― Aristotle, Ethics

What is a Transcendental Argument? (Philosophical Methods) (Length: 6:16)

A Lesson From Socrates That Will Change The Way You Think (Length: 5:48)

Plato's Phaedo: Socrates' Final Words and Thoughts (Length: 6:14)

What is the Elenchus? (The Socratic Method) (Length: 5:29)

Here's A Video Playlist for an insight into the Wisdom of Flurishing and the Virtue Ethics of a Good Life! A.K.A. Eudaimonia!

  1. Aristotle on 'Flourishing' (Length: 1:59)

  2. Socrates's Concept of the Self - Philosophical Perspective of the Self (Understanding the Self) (Length: 9:48)

  3. Plato's Concept of the Self - Philosophical Perspective of the Self (Understanding the Self) (Length: 8:41)

  4. Descartes's Concept of the Self - Philosophical Perspective of the Self (Understanding the Self) (Length: 10:31)

  5. Human Flourishing | EUDAIMONIA (Length: 23:20)

  6. Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Sing-Along with Eric Idle (HD) (Length: 3:49)

  7. We Are Most Amused Finale (Always Look on the Bright Side of Life) (Length: 7:42)

  8. “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life” - 30 singing people cover (Length: 4:38)

  9. What Is a Good Life?: Crash Course Philosophy #46 (Length: 9:18)

  10. Stoicism as a philosophy for an ordinary life | Massimo Pigliucci | TEDxAthens (Length: 18:38)

  11. PHILOSOPHY - History: Epicurus’ Cure for Unhappiness [HD] (Length: 9:32)

  12. EPICUREANISM: Ancient Answers to Modern Questions" | Marc Nelson | TEDxOgden (Length: 11:29)

  13. The philosophy of Stoicism - Massimo Pigliucci (Length: 5:29)

  14. What is Epicureanism? (Philosophical Position) (Length: 9:05)

  15. Why Stoicism Matters (Length: 7:27)

  16. Imagination: It’s Not What You Think. It’s How You Think | Charles Faulkner | TEDxIIT (Length: 17:44)

  17. Logan's run CATS! (Length: 1:30)

  18. "What Is Imagination?" – An ImaginationUCSD Discussion (Length: 1:59)

  19. The Cogito (Meditation I) (Length: 7:10)

  20. The Cogito (Meditation II) (Length: 5:14)

  21. Doubting "I Think Therefore I Am" (The Cogito) (Length: 6:15)

  22. Doubting "I Think" (The Cogito) (Length: 8:41)

  23. Doubting "I Exist" (The Cogito) (Length: 7:50)

  24. Socrates and the Examined Life: 1. The Gadfly (Length: 5:48)

  25. A Lesson From Socrates That Will Change The Way You Think (Length: 5:48)

  26. Socratic Method (Length: 5:22)

  27. Plato's Phaedo: Socrates' Final Words and Thoughts (Length: 2:15)

  28. What is the Elenchus? (The Socratic Method) (Length: 5:29)

  29. Studies in Pessimism by Arthur Schopenhauer (Length: 3:24:01)

  30. How To Practice Stoicism in Daily Life (Length: 53:22)

  31. Episode #010 ... The Hellenistic Age Pt. 1 - Epicurus (Length: 47:58)

  32. Episode #011 ... The Hellenistic Age Pt. 2 - The Early Stoa and the Cynics (Length: 43:31)

  33. 2 Hours Of The Greatest Stoic Quotes From The Last 2500 Years (Length: 2:01:04)

  34. 1 HOUR OF STOIC QUOTES - LIFE CHANGING QUOTES YOU NEED TO HEAR! (Calmly Spoken for Sleep, ASMR)Length: 1:00:54)

  35. A Guide to Stoicism by St George Stock Full Audiobook (Length: 1:56:31)

  36. The Art and Science of Human Flourishing (Length: 2:28)

  37. With: An Idea for Human Flourishing | Phillip Fletcher | TEDxUniversityOfCentralArkansas (Length: 10:17)

  38. Human flourishing through reciprocity | Soheil Abedian | TEDxGriffithUniversity (Length: 11:56)

  39. What Great Philosophers Can Teach Us About How to Live: Alain de Botton (2000) (Length: 1:20:10)

  40. ALAIN DE BOTTON - THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: How To Apply Philosophy To Real Life - Part 1/2 | London Real (Length: 48:39)

  41. Alain de Botton on Emotional Education (Length: 1:01:30)

  42. Alain de Botton on Romanticism (Length: 1:12:48)

  43. Aristotle's Golden Mean (Length: 14:03)

  44. Aristotelian Virtue Ethics (Length: 1:24:29)

  45. (Length: )

December 16, 2020

For my birthday this year, I'm asking for donations to Feeding America. I've chosen this nonprofit because its mission means a lot to me in this period of sadness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I hope you'll consider contributing as a way to celebrate with me and help feed a needy child. No Thanksgiving, no Christmas, the loss of family, and Hunger. The suffering doesn't stop for those children in poverty. This is America. Every little bit will help me reach my goal. I've included information about Feeding America below.

Thank you,

Mark

What is FeedingAmerica.org?

As the largest network of food banks, pantries, and meal programs in the country, Feeding America is the leading organization in the fight against hunger in the United States. 200 food banks strong, we serve over 40 million people in virtually every community in America. Since our beginnings 40 years ago, Feeding America has made innovative strides in combating food waste and providing fresh food to hungry people across the country. We believe that everyone has a role in ending hunger in America. Will you join us? Learn more at FeedingAmerica.org. Founded in 1979 (formerly named America's Second Harvest) Charity Navigator: Four Star Charity Better Business Bureau: Accredited Charity

Facebook pays all the processing fees for you, so 100% of your donation goes directly to the nonprofit.