Philosophy for Life | Blog | Philosophy | Wisdom | Spirituality

Roman Krznaric on the need for an empathy revolution

This is a brilliant talk and a brilliant animation.

UncategorizedJules EvansDecember 3, 2012Comment

Top ten tips for recovering from mental illness

Here are my top ten tips for recovering from mental illness. Tell me any really good tips I've missed out in the comments. They're not commandments, just what worked for me in recovering from social anxiety and minor depression - feel free to disagree. And although I don't mention medication, because I personally didn't use it, I know lots of people find that a helpful part of the recovery process - and an essential one if you suffer from a serious psychotic condition.

DIY therapy, self-help, UncategorizedJules EvansNovember 20, 2012 Comments

Moments of epiphany

There's an interview with me in de Volksrant, a Dutch newspaper, published today. The very nice interviewer asked me about an experience I described right at the end of the book, which was sort of a near-death experience I think.

UncategorizedJules EvansNovember 20, 2012Comment

The Master: self-help, and the Puritan longing to escape the past

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, The Master, tells the story of drifter Joaquin Phoenix’s relationship with the head of a New Age sect, which looks suspiciously like Scientology. The group, called The Cause, aims (like Scientology) to clear its members of the karmic traces of their past lives, and return them to their inherent perfection. They do this by hypnotising their members to retrace their past incarnations, or by subjecting them to a b

cinema, Cults, self-help, UncategorizedJules EvansNovember 16, 2012 Comments

Talk I did at A Good Week

Thanks to A Very Good Company for organising a great event.

UncategorizedJules EvansOctober 25, 2012Comment

We're all getting smarter (except for Scandinavians)

One of the most unchallenged and unexamined narratives in our culture is that the culture is dumbing down. High culture is disappearing beneath the toxic sludge of reality TV. The dark ages are around the corner. We are in the End Times, culturally speaking.

UncategorizedJules EvansOctober 8, 2012 Comments

On English melancholy

An academic got in touch with me last week, inviting me to a seminar on Stoicism, which was nice of him. On the seminar programme, he described me as 'an author of books on happiness'. Alas I've only written one book (one that was published anyway), and it's strange to have it described as 'on happiness'.

depression, Dreams, emotions, happiness, History of Emotions, UncategorizedJules EvansSeptember 2, 2012 Comments

Does philosophy still matter?

UncategorizedJules EvansAugust 29, 2012Comment

Philosophy clubs in MMOGs

Below is a video of a place on Second Life called The Philosophy Garden, set up by Portland community College. I'm not a big Second Lifer myself, but am curious - do any of my readers know of other philosophy groups, schools, cafes or communities that exist in massive multiplayer online games like SL? Let me know if you do, it would be useful for my research on philosophy clubs. Tnx.

UncategorizedJules EvansAugust 20, 2012Comment

Forgive the holiday hiatus...

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of blog-posts and newsletters the last couple of weeks - I'm on holiday in Venezuela, travelling around and visiting the rather beautiful beach below, and will resume normal service next week. Thanks to all the people who've recently signed up to the newsletter - we've now passed the 1,000 mark of subscribers!

UncategorizedJules EvansAugust 10, 2012Comment