I skimmed parts of The Closing of the American Mind. For a Culture War classic you wouldnāt think it would spend so much time with philosophers. But it does. Itās kind of introverted, considering what itās famous for. And it does feel like heās constantly coming back to his four or so invisible friends.
Same with some other philosopher scholars. A problem presents itself: how would Alexis confront this? Well letās consider that time when he was...
It can be invigorating to read some āancientā author and find out that they are 99% the same person as you are. But that means reading them. Not reading five-times removed sources on them.
Also, early this year I read Pigliucci's How to Be a Stoic. In that book the author often references that he had "conversations" with his "friend" Epictetus.
All this to say: there might be something to this practice of befriending the dead.
I skimmed parts of The Closing of the American Mind. For a Culture War classic you wouldnāt think it would spend so much time with philosophers. But it does. Itās kind of introverted, considering what itās famous for. And it does feel like heās constantly coming back to his four or so invisible friends.
Same with some other philosopher scholars. A problem presents itself: how would Alexis confront this? Well letās consider that time when he was...
It can be invigorating to read some āancientā author and find out that they are 99% the same person as you are. But that means reading them. Not reading five-times removed sources on them.
Thematically related recent piece about how Machiavelli and Du Bois had a similar perspective: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42127895
Also, early this year I read Pigliucci's How to Be a Stoic. In that book the author often references that he had "conversations" with his "friend" Epictetus.
All this to say: there might be something to this practice of befriending the dead.
This philosopher's name wouldn't work in Brazil...
I tried looking up what Mengzi might mean in Brazil (or alternatively, in Portuguese) and couldn't find anything. Would you mind elaborating?