The Eudaimonist
@TheEudaimonist
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Reflections on Western tradition | Philosophy, wisdom, society & culture | Seeking the good life
England, United Kingdom
Joined December 2023
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Friends,
Life is very busy at the moment — full of good things but it's been hard to find the time to write as much as I'd like to.
I will get back to writing threads soon but in the meantime here's a megathread of some of my more popular posts in case you've missed any! 🧵
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Roger Scruton (1944-2020) was one of the most brilliant and incisive defenders of what he described as “high culture”, the West's great repository of art, literature, and philosophy that functions to bind people together into an ethical community.
Here’s why it matters… 🧵
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Plato’s Republic is one of the foundational works of Western civilisation. If you’ve never had a chance to read it, here’s a crash course to help you get to grips with this staggering and perennially relevant work of philosophy. 🧵
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G.K. Chesterton was right when he wrote that the problem with the modern world is not that it is evil but that it is “far too good.”
The real danger facing a society that has cast off its religious moorings, he says, is not just that the vices are let loose, but that the
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Most people have heard of Homer and are familiar with the epic poems attributed to him, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
But who was he? And why did this mysterious 8th century Mediterranean poet have such a profound influence on the development of Western civilisation? 🧵
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“We need to live in such a way that death, when it comes, is not a catastrophe but (if possible) a culmination - a conclusion to our actions that can be read back into all that preceded it and show it to be worthwhile.”
— Sir Roger Scruton
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Around the middle of the first millennium BC, an unprecedented spiritual revolution began to take place. Dubbed the ‘Axial Age’ by the philosopher Karl Jaspers, it was an era that birthed the Western mind; a time where “man, as we know him today, came into being."
A thread 🧵
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Danger gleams like sunshine to a brave man's eyes.
― Euripides
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We typically think of figures like Galileo, Newton, or Bacon, as being the “fathers” of science and the scientific method, but few recognise the degree to which Aristotle had shaped the foundations of the discipline more than two thousand years earlier.
Here's how... 🧵
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@Culture_Crit
The fact that they always target the emblems of our cultural identity demonstrates that it’s less about the climate and more about their hatred for the West.
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“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
― Sophocles, Antigone
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"Whoever feels unhappy in this world, whoever fails to find what he seeks - then let him enter the world of books, art and nature, this eternal domain which is both ancient and modern simultaneously, and let him live there in this secret church of a better world."
- Novalis
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Hesiod is one of the two founding fathers of the ancient Greek tradition of poetry, myth, and culture (the other being Homer). A humble farmer by trade, his poetry remains a profound source of wisdom for everyday life.
A brief thread on his great poem Works and Days. 🧵
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Unlike common culture, which can be thought of as the broad frame of reference that delineates the social identity of a group, high culture has a higher barrier of entry. Individuals must invest time, effort, and critical thought in order to apprehend its significance.
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"Ours is a catacomb culture, a flame kept alive by undaunted monks. And what the monks of Europe achieved in a former dark age, they might achieve again."
— Roger Scruton
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@holland_tom
You’re making an error to think that they actually care about the planet. They don’t. They just hate society.
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The modern state has no interest in educating its citizens beyond the technical necessity of keeping the economy productive. This is at the expense of the kind of education that the ancient Greeks called paideia, a holistic approach to learning that encompassed not merely
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Both common culture and high culture are important, indeed high culture springs forth from common culture, but the role of high culture is to sustain, nourish, and perpetuate the values, ideals, and aspirations that define a society.
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Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish-born British statesman and philosopher, is often called the "father of modern conservatism."
His defence of tradition and gradual change remains an important counterbalance to the dangers of progressivism.
Let’s take a look at what he thought…🧵
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In this sense, high culture concerns itself with the most serious and profound aspects of the human experience, addressing existential questions and exploring the depths of our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capacities.
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The poetry of Eliot, the music of Wagner, the philosophy of Kant, all set their sights towards some kind of idealised human condition that transcends the limitations of our everyday experiences and seeks to transform us,…
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The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made lasting contributions across various fields, from ethics and politics to biology and physics. His insights continue to influence our understanding of the world.
Here are 5 nuggets of wisdom from one of history's greatest thinkers 🧵
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"Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself, abide by them as if they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them."
— Epictetus, Enchiridion 50
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@Sargon_of_Akkad
“Climate change could cause mass flooding, mass famine, and drought but don’t worry we’ve got a solution.”
“Oh yeah, are there any risks?”
“Yes, mass flooding, mass famine, and drought. Oh and the sky might turn black.”
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Aristotle (384 -322 BC) famously wrote that “Man is, by nature, a political animal.”
But what did he actually mean by this?
Here’s a brief introduction to the main ideas in Aristotle’s Politics… 🧵
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But as Scruton wonderfully points out, the nihilism at the heart of the postmodern attitude (there is no meaning, no truth, no community that isn’t based on relations of exploitation) is unable to provide the kind of deep sense of purpose that human beings crave.
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Indeed, for Scruton, the role of high culture has been to replace religion as the primary source of meaning and moral guidance. Since religion is no longer able to form the basis of ethical life, the aesthetic becomes the object for contemplating truth and beauty.
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These days when we hear the word ‘rhetoric’ we tend to associate it with shallow or deceptive speech. And yet, done properly and with integrity it’s an incredibly important skill to have.
Here’s an introduction to its ancient philosophical origins... 🧵
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Importantly, the point of the dialogue is not for Socrates to teach his discussion partners what to think, but instead, to demonstrate how to think in the hopes that between them they can answer consequential questions like "What is justice?" and "Why should we act morally?”
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… to orient our emotions and beliefs so that we may know what to do and what to feel in a world that has become disenchanted and drained of meaning.
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But never bow to suffering, go and face it, all the bolder, wherever Fortune clears the way.
— Virgil
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Composed by Plato in around 375 BC, Republic is structured as a dialogue between Socrates and various interlocutors who discuss a range of topics, primarily focusing on the nature of justice, the ideal city-state, and the human soul.
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This attack on culture is a consequence of the retreat of religion. If there is no divine authority in the world then humans are sovereign which makes their power arbitrary and illegitimate. All social institutions— all culture, is therefore merely only a tool of oppression.
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… everything that surrounds us, in the sentiment of the sublime we seem to see beyond the world to something overwhelming and inexpressible in which it is somehow grounded.”
High culture, then, is the means to access the transcendent in a world where religion no longer works.
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The universities, which once saw their role as regenerating the social order through critique and engagement with the highest forms of human thought and expression, now seek to “deconstruct” and repudiate the "oppressive power structures" that these forms allegedly perpetuate.
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The genius of Republic, and the reason why it’s had such a profound impact is that scholars and thinkers are still to this day engaged in dialogue with Plato. The dialogue that began between Socrates and his interlocutors is still ongoing.
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Like all great works, Republic is a source of inexhaustible insight that reveals new depths on each reading. Everything presented here is therefore only intended as an introduction of the general themes and ideas to prepare you for your own adventure into the text.
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As Kant asserted, it is not through rational inquiry that the window is opened onto God but through the aesthetic, an attitude which Scruton shares: “…We have intimations of the transcendental… in the sentiment of beauty we feel the purposiveness and intelligibility of...
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While high culture may be equally unable to answer unequivocally our existential concerns, what it can do is unite us in sympathy. Art deals with universal themes common to humanity and teaches us both how to feel and how to be in the world.
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The decline of, and indeed the hostility towards, traditional sources of authority, combined with the commodification of art, the marketisation of society, and the veneration of individualism, have all conspired to undermine it.
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As with all of his works, Plato uses the character of Socrates as a literary device to coax out the inconsistencies, contradictions, and misconceptions in his interlocutors’ arguments as a means to illuminate a path towards truth.
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He concludes that a just society is one in which each individual performs their designated role according to their natural abilities and aptitudes, thereby contributing to the harmony and well-being of the whole community.
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The Philosopher Kings are those individuals who possess both intellectual insight and moral integrity. Plato argues that these philosopher-rulers are best suited to govern society because of their deep understanding of truth and their commitment to the common good.
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Indeed, the question of justice is one of the central and motivating themes of Republic and Plato uses it as a jumping off point to theorise the good and proper ordering of both society (the city-state or polis) and the human soul.
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Comedy plays an essential role in the maintenance of a healthy democracy, something that no one understood better than Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright later dubbed the “father of comedy."
Here’s an introduction to his enduring legacy and why it still matters 🧵
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The essays of the French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) are a veritable treasure trove of practical guidance, advice, and wisdom relevant to living a good life.
Here are six of my favourite insights... 🧵
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After refuting the various proposals set forth by the group, Socrates suggests an idea to examine the city-state as a way to examine morality writ large. If we can understand what makes a community just, then perhaps we can also gain insight into what makes an individual just.
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@jessphillips
I don’t agree with you politically but your treatment has been appalling. There is no space in our democracy for such abhorrent behaviour and everyone, regardless of political persuasion, should be deeply concerned about the vicious sectarianism developing in our politics.
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It begins with an unsuccessful attempt to define precisely what justice is, with a memorably testy exchange between Socrates and Thrasymachus, who belligerently defends the view that justice is merely whatever is advantageous to those in power.
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Accordingly, these traditional “structures” must be removed by any means necessary in order to liberate humanity from the shackles of the oppressive past. This also means eradicating the bourgeois elite, the guardians of high culture.
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"For often evil men are rich, and good men poor, but we will not exchange with them our virtue for their wealth since one abides always, while riches change their owners every day."
— Solon
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And while it’s true that high culture has power over us in that it provides the paradigm for life, this doesn’t mean that it’s forced upon us though authoritarian means. As Scruton notes, power can be “decent and benign, like the power of a loving parent.”
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"This is courage in a man: to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends."
— Euripides, Herakles
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There are three types of roles that Plato identifies for his ideal society:
- The Philosopher Kings
- The Guardians
- The Workers
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The three aspects of the soul are:
- Reason (analogous to the Philosopher Kings)
- Spirit (analogous to the Guardians)
- Appetite (analogous to the Workers)
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The Guardians are responsible for defending the city-state from external threats and maintaining internal order. They are selected from the ranks of the warrior class and are trained from a young age to be courageous, disciplined, and selfless in their service to the community.
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But despite the important role that it plays in reproducing the social order and its values, as well as providing the communal bonds associated with a shared sense of meaning and purpose, high culture is under attack.
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The Workers comprise the majority of the population and are tasked with producing the goods and services necessary for the functioning of society. While they lack the intellectual or martial prowess of the other classes, their labour is essential to the stability of the polis.
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Without it we lose access to the entire grounding of ethical life, our identity, and the values with which we navigate the complexities of our condition and it is therefore something we must do all that we can to preserve.
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In the Politics, Aristotle launches a scathing critique of Plato’s radical collectivist vision of a utopian political community— criticism that is still relevant today.
Here’s what the OG anti-communist had to say about the pitfalls of collectivisation. 🧵
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High culture has this kind of natural, benign power precisely because it takes as its object the transcendent, which speaks to the heart of every human being even if they try to deny and repudiate it (as the postmodernists do).
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So, what’s it all about and why has it had such a profound impact?
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“There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”
— Homer, The Odyssey
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This is why when we read Homer today, he still feels so relevant. Not only does he tackle universal and timeless themes regarding the human condition, but The Iliad and The Odyssey are the first bold steps into the exploration of human consciousness itself.
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This is because the first Greek civilisations, the Minoan and the Mycenaean, two culturally rich and materially prosperous societies that represented a Golden Age to later Greeks, collapsed, plunging the region into a cultural backwater inhabited by barbarians and feuding tribes.
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In his famous Allegory of the Cave, Plato expounds a theory of knowledge, positing an ultimate reality of transcendent ideas— the Forms— which the Philosopher Kings must ascend to in order to discover eternal truths that can serve as the guiding principles for governing society.
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Reason: The rational part of the soul is responsible for seeking truth, wisdom, and understanding. This part governs our ability to make decisions based on logic and knowledge, guiding us towards ultimate truth, and keeps the spirited and appetitive parts in check.
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@jollyheretic
This is how the mind virus spreads. Three well-meaning teens, desperate to fit in with their peers and well aware of the social consequences of dissent, scrabbling to find the appropriate doctrine to recite when confronted with the obvious irrationality of everything they’ve been
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“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
— Euripides
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Socrates’ warnings in Plato’s Republic that the excessive freedom demanded by democracy will inevitably lead to despotism is so relevant to today, it’s almost prophetic.
Humanity possesses so much wisdom, and yet we refuse to listen to it.
Any of this sound familiar? … 🧵
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The memory of these lost cultures was kept alive by wandering poets and storytellers, who orally transmitted tales of the heroic warriors and great battles of the past to captivated audiences.
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You should treat the time set aside for study with the highest degree of reverence. After all, in these moments you’re entering into dialogue with some of the greatest minds to have ever lived. Machiavelli writes:
“At nightfall I return home and enter my study. There on the
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But– and this is where I’ll finish—Republic is arguably not much of a work of political philosophy at all,but an analogy that allows Plato to primarily explore epistemology,ethics, and metaphysics. It therefore doesn’t matter if he was wrong about how the ideal state should look.
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) identified thirteen virtues that he thought everyone should seek to master if they want to live a better and more prosperous life.
Let these be your guide... 🧵
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Almost nothing else is known about his life and scholars have argued endlessly over whether Homer, as the purported author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, was an individual man or whether the name Homer came to represent the collective identity of a group of poets.
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The word “school” comes from the Greek word “scholē” meaning leisure or rest, which might seem odd given the opposing connotations we attach to the word today.
But for all of the ancient schools of philosophy, and for Plato and Aristotle in particular, leisure was seen as a
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Spirit: The spirited part of the soul is the source of courage, ambition, and emotional responses, such as anger or indignation. This part is responsible for defending our values and beliefs and motivating us to act in accordance with what we perceive as right or just.
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We owe it to future generations to preserve the inherited traditions of our civilisation.
As Edmund Burke poignantly writes, a society is “a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”
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Appetite: The appetitive part of the soul encompasses our desires, instincts, and physical needs.This part is primarily concerned with fulfilling our basic needs and seeking pleasure, but it must be regulated by the other two parts to maintain harmony and balance within the soul.
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There are, however, some proposals that have been highly controversial like the abolition of the family and private property, his support for eugenics, and the excessive level of censorship he endorses. He’s been accused of laying the ideological foundations for Totalitarianism.
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What’s amazing about the insights gleaned during the Axial Age is that they have never been surpassed. Human beings have advanced technologically in ways unimaginable to the ancients, and yet, spiritually and psychologically, we continue to look back them for guidance.
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Before we can get to Homer, we need to understand a little bit about the kind of world that he inhabited.
The period between 1100-800 B.C., the centuries prior to when the Iliad and Odyssey are thought to have first been written down, is usually referred to as Greek Dark Ages.
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Now that the ideal society has been fleshed out, Plato moves on to show how the same tripartite structure, which corresponds to the various roles defined in relation to the polis, applies to the soul.
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The Iliad and The Odyssey are not just mere tales, they are repositories of the Greek people's history, mythology, and worldview. And as the Greek world began to emerge from its dark age, these epic poems became the bedrock from which it would build its cultural identity anew.
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The Odyssey, on the other hand, shifts the focus from the battlefield to the realm of adventure and exploration. It follows the journey of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, as he struggles to return home after the fall of Troy.
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He also discusses the importance of imparting the cardinal virtues, the role of art and culture in forming his ideal citizenry (famously ruling that poetry would be outlawed), as well as the kinds of education that each class of citizen would need to undertake.
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The Iliad, which is the earlier of the two poems, recounts the final weeks of the Trojan War, a legendary conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans where we meet characters like the great warrior Achilles and the arrogant King of Mycenae, Agamemnon.
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And it is within this oral tradition that Homer emerges as a central figure. While the exact details of his life remain a mystery, it is believed that he lived during the 8th century B.C., possibly in the region of Ionia on the western coast of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
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Comparisons between the Bible and Homer are often drawn because in both cases, history and myth are blended in such a way as to bring human beings into the unfolding of a divine narrative which provides the basis of a shared cultural identity and moral system.
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Indeed, Homer’s epics, which sprawled the entire spectrum of the human experience— love, anger, betrayal, fate, vengeance, as well as the limitations of human volition in the face of divine will— gave the Greeks a sense of their place in the world.
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The Homeric worldview, with its emphasis on human agency, heroism, moral excellence, and the necessity to think through complex ethical situations, birthed the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and the later Hellenistic schools, which in turn infused the Roman and Christian worlds.
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Either way, the great works that came to bear his name stand as towering achievements of ancient storytelling, embodying the collective wisdom, values, and cultural heritage of the Greek civilisation.
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But what’s fascinating is that by the time of the Odyssey, this starts to change as Homer has his characters start to reflect on their actions, displaying a sense of self-awareness and introspection, turning things over in their minds and feeling a role to play in their own fate.
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Fuck the king? How edgy. One day these people will get what they wish for and it won’t be the world they think they’re getting.
When all the last vestiges of tradition, culture, and shared identity are purged from the life of the collective;
when the state comprises of
Idles teaching everyone at Glastonbury the new National Anthem.
I think it’ll catch on.
#Glastonbury2024
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While there is little to no evidence for the historicity of the Trojan War, Homer’s narrative, which features real places like Mycenae and Troy, is certainly designed to fit into history, marking a contrast with Greek myths where events occur in a timeless, primordial era.
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Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness. Wisdom surpasses all wealth.
— Sophocles
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These stories, where great warriors fought valiantly against insurmountable odds, instilled in the Greeks a unique ethical outlook, defined by nobility, courage, honour, and arete (moral excellence).
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Moreover, they represented a shift in outlook where man began to awaken to his own conscience and individuality. He was no longer carried along with the caprice of the gods but was in fact responsible for his own fate, something we see for the very first time in the Odyssey.
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Cogito, ergo sum— I think, therefore I am— is probably the most famous line in all philosophy. Formulated in the 17th century by the mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, the cogito has had a profound impact on Western thought since.
But what does it actually mean? 🧵
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There is something perennial in their discoveries and they continue to shape our understanding of the world as well as guide our pursuit of wisdom, our moral compass, and spiritual growth.
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Firstly, it should be said that the Axial revolution was not confined just to Greece and the regions of the Near East, but also encompassed similar spiritual developments happening in China, India, and the Far East.
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