On being dead

 

As a philosopher, I have came to the conclusion that greater minds before me have came to and that there is nothing to fear from death itself, it is just, nothingness. Like being asleep but not dreaming.

Have fun and make other people's lives better as best you can.

Live your life with honour and integrity and death shall hold no fear for you.
 

No personal achievement will matter to you once you are dead, the only thing that will live on after your death will be your impact on the people that are still alive. Hopefully your impact will be positive!



How to 'BE' a philosopher

The first thing to say about Philosophers is, some of the greatest and best remembered Philosophers were anti-authoritarian. 2500 years on and Socrates is still remembered as one of the greatest Philosophers to ever grace this planet and he was a self admitted political gadfly. So here's my punt on how to 'be' a philosopher.

1. Write it down: Ever wonder why some Philosophers question why you would want to chase fame and fortune, but they have written voluminous works? Write your thoughts down. Be it a personal diary, a jotter pad, a blog or a book proposal, get something written down. Diaries and general personal blogs are great for rambling thoughts. More serious writing involves more serious thoughts and cleaned up literature. While there are lots of 'junk' philosophy books out there, do yourself a favour and try to emulate the 'classics' in both style and thought.
2. Drink: This one is easy, coffee and good coffee is preferable to cheap dishwater stuff. A cup of good strong coffee, preferably in a situation where as you drain one cup, the next cup is right to hand. Don't use those pretentious thimble sized cups, they're for show, like that 'intellectual' book people haven't read but leave on their 'coffee' table to make them look smarter than they actually are. Get a decent coffee cup, not a mug, experiment with the correct constituency of coffee and get slugging that bad boy down. Caffeine is king, decaff needs to be binned, there truly is no point to it.
3. Food: This is pretty common sense stuff, life is way too short and were philosophers, not nutritionists. Peter Singer is a strong advocate of vegetarianism and he does have a point to a degree. However H.G.Wells advocated the working class eating the rich so Singer may need to add an extra chapter to his book. On one level I see the point, on another level a proper home made cheeseburger with real cow and onion inside the mix is too delicious for me to pass up for the rest of my life. If you can go veggie, great. If not, don't beat yourself up about it. Fresh meat, fruit and vegetables is good food. Processed foods, sweets, biscuits, processed drinks, all bad. We know what's good and bad for us, we don't need to be trained nutritionists, just think before putting something in your mouth and you should be ok.
4. Clothing: What you wear defines you. The problem is, any Philosopher worth his literature is going to be anti-authoritarian by choice. We don't like to fit the mould. We don't follow fashion 'trends', we like to wear what we feel comfortable wearing. That's not to say we should deliberately wear the opposite of what is expected of us. I am in my forties and prefer to wear hush puppies, trousers and shirts. To each his own as long as you are not deliberately conforming to the norm due to societal pressures, wear what you are comfortable with.
5. Music: Again, listen to what you enjoy. Sure you could but the collected works of Wagner on 45 cd's in an attempt to 'intellectualise' yourself, but if you have a passion for Elvis and Roy Orbison, go for it.
6. Reading: You should really do yourself a favour and read the original source classic philosophers, especially the complete works of Plato as a jumping off point. Then if you find yourself falling in to a niche, focus on that niche. For me political philosophy is my bag, I have enjoyed the works of Ayn Rand but must admit Hannah Arendt maybe the greatest political philosopher of the late 20th century.
7. Thinking: True thinking really is a forgotten art. With bold headlines in the newspapers, we react with a knee jerk and then move on to the next topic. Asking "What is behind that headline?" Digging for the truth, checking the statistics (a working intuitive knowledge of statistics can really help) all goes a long way to improve thinking skills. Take your time, come to a conclusion, challenge and counter challenge your conclusions and if possible, WRITE IT DOWN!
8. Living and dying well: Cicero wrote the book on this, so if you haven't already, read that! We intuitively know how to live well, be a good person, do right by others, be genuinely nice and kind, give time rather than money. Basically you have two things in life, your name and your reputation. Don't be tempted to tarnish either of them. On dying, well, Philosophy is a lesson on how to die well. Come to a conclusion you either go to a better place or it is the end and you won't know any different anyways. Imagine the freedom form all the pain and suffering life throws at us. If you read enough of the 'classics' you will face death stoically enough.
9. Work: Just remember, even the greatest of philosophers had to grind lenses for a living. I work in retail, that's a grind in itself. But we all need to be somewhere and whatever our 'job' is, we should do it the very best of our abilities. In our time, that's when the real work of the philosopher can be done.
10. Love: We all get hit with cupids arrow sometime, sometimes we have a partner for life, sometimes its unrequited love. Love hurts like a bitch at times and other times makes us glad to be alive. Just remember mutual respect and a stoic attitude.
11. Children: One thing a child craves is the attention of their parents or carer. Above all the gifts, toys, money, holidays and clothes a child just wants to be shown love. With parents stressed out and all the weight of the world upon their shoulders, it's the kids that get the short end of the stick. Make sure you spend quality time with your children, let them know everyday that you love them, take that T.V. out of their bedroom and most importantly, read them a bed time story, every night! Take the time for your children while they are young, it makes a world of difference and no matter what, they do appreciate the sacrifices you make for them. Your children didn't choose to be born in to this world, the least you can do is try to give them the very best start in life.