What is Commonplace Philosophy?

Too many people think about philosophy as something for other people — stuffy academics or ponderous undergraduates typically. But philosophy is for everyone. Even heady, abstract, highly theoretical philosophy.

The goal of Commonplace Philosophy is to think about life through works of literature and philosophy. Sometimes we read a book together, like Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Sometimes I write about topics like failure, job loss, and gatekeeping ourselves. Throughout all of that writing, I’m drawing on my background in academic philosophy and my love of great books.

Really and truly, though, my goal is to increase wonder. The world seems too plain, even dull, and yet it is a spectacular thing. Wonder is that feeling we have when we glimpse the world’s hidden depths and complexity. You don’t have to take my word for it; you can read what Bertrand Russell had to say about the matter in The Problems of Philosophy:

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

Why You Should Subscribe

I post quite a lot — some weeks, I post every single day, but usually two or three times per week. If you like good books and philosophy, then I think you’ll get something out of it.

Some posts – like my read-along of the Meditations or of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics – are free. Some are behind the paywall. On average, paying subscribers get twice as many posts as free subscribers.