Analects
analects
noun, pl
a collection of ideas, extracts, or teachings;
marginalia
noun, pl
notes one makes in the margins;
In order to choose our ideologies, we must first explore them. With a background in brain science and the sciences of mind, the analects are my explorations into how ideas become ideologies become the actions we take. The marginalia are my shorter notes on content around the web.
On Love
stuff On loving and being loved
On ‘romantic friendship’:
Murdoch’s own account of love. In The Sovereignty of the Good (1970), she theorised that love is vision perfected. It is seeing the other person with clarity, as she really is, in all her particularity and detail. In Murdoch’s view, love is a willingness or a choice to see another person this way. But it is also more than this. Love is a desire – a desire to really see the other person and to be seen by them in return.
filed under:
collective-architecture
connection
on-(un)happiness
on-attraction-and-love
on-emotion
on-friendship
on-love
somatic-architecture
On the value of nurture. “Exploring how different brain states accompany different life stages, Gopnik also makes a case that caring for the vulnerable, rather than ivory-tower philosophising, puts us in touch with our deepest humanity.”
filed under:
accidental-civilisation
collective-architecture
connection
gratification
on-attraction-and-love
on-emotion
on-ethics
on-friendship
on-love
on-thinking-and-reasoning
Kin-based institutions as an inhibitor of economic growth. Once again, a throwback to Parsons and Murdock: community should be secondary to civilisation. One is always left wondering whether the happiness trade-offs are worth it. Effective Altruists certainly seems to think so.
little attention has been paid to the oldest and most fundamental of human institutions: kin-based institutions—the set of social norms governing descent, marriage, clan membership, post-marital residence and family organization … we establish a robust and economically significant negative association between the tightness and breadth of kin-based institutions—their kinship intensity—and economic development
filed under:
accidental-civilisation
connection
economy-of-small-pleasures
on-being-fruitful
on-friendship
on-leadership
on-love
wealth-architecture
Love, in the ancient Greek world, is not about sacrifice but eudaemonia:
Diotima shows Socrates that love is a kind of joint ascension towards something greater. Love leads us towards good and beautiful things, the highest of which is knowledge. Loving then, according to Diotima, is helping each other to become better people
filed under:
betterment
connection
on-being-fruitful
on-culture
on-friendship
on-love
there is nothing essential or inevitable about the ways we conceive of romantic relationships
Romantic friendships take some of the elements of a traditional romantic relationship – the desire for intimacy, the commitment to build one’s life around another person, and even sex – without having to take all of them at once
filed under:
connection
on-(un)happiness
on-attraction-and-love
on-friendship
on-love
Low-cost sexual gratification (e.g. porn) might make us more likely to want to get married: it’s old data, and only men, but the idea that cheap sex makes up less interested in long-term commitment might not be the only narrative worth thinking about.
filed under:
connection
on-love