
How to Use Philosophy as a Personal Operating System: From Seneca to Musashi - vinnylohan
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/05/18/philosophy-as-a-personal-operating-system-from-seneca-to-musashi/
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Alex3917
If you want to know where the metaphor of philosophy as an operating system
comes from:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8an2XZ3MU>

(The video is called Culture Is Your Operating System, but what he's talking
about is the philosophical assumptions that are completely invisible unless
you find a way to step outside your culture.)

~~~
davidtanner
Not to belabor the point, but I think it bears repeating that Terence McKenna
recommended a chemical perturbation of the brain, that is, a visionary
substance, be used in order to 'step outside your culture'.

Some substances can temporarily remove/obscure one's entire personality
structure and linguistic faculties while enhancing awareness. Such an
experience offers one the opportunity to truly exist outside their
biographical circumstances for a time.

~~~
Alex3917
"Terence McKenna recommended a chemical perturbation of the brain, that is, a
visionary substance, be used in order to 'step outside your culture'."

So does Tim Ferriss. Here is a short YouTube clip of him talking about his
views:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcqXRDqjIpo>

But the better source is probably his original interview with Joe Rogan.

~~~
Roritharr
So are we again talking about scientists encouraging young people to drop
acid?

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davidtanner
Well, at least in the USA, advocating that someone consume an illegal drug is
itself illegal.

However, old people can benefit greatly from the proper use of psychedelic
drugs. Certain types of psychedelic experiences, called unitive experiences,
have been found to be very effective in alleviating death anxiety. More
information can be found through searching but this video should be
informative: <http://www.maps.org/videos/source/video14.html>

Two excellent, little known books about the phenomenology of psychedelic
experiences are:

_The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca
Experience_ [http://www.amazon.com/Antipodes-Mind-Phenomenology-
Ayahuasca...](http://www.amazon.com/Antipodes-Mind-Phenomenology-Ayahuasca-
Experience/dp/0199252939)

Comments: This is a truly excellent book, it's published by OUP and the
scholarship is the best I've ever seen in a book about psychedelics. Benny
Shannon is a cognitive psychologist and philosophy and he's personally taken
Ayahuasca over 200 times in addition to gathering second hand reports from
many informants over years of investigation. In particular, he stresses
commonalities between different people's Ayahuasca experiences despite vast
cultural differences in their lives as well as the idea that Ayahuasca
experiences proceed in sequences reminiscent of a course of schooling.

_The Ecstatic Imagination: Psychedelic Experiences and the Psychoanalysis of
Self-Actualization_
[http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Ecstatic_Imagination...](http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Ecstatic_Imagination.html?id=6AJTo76KDO0C)

Comments: This book is also very strong in its own right, although I think
that the Antipodes book is superior. In _The Ecstatic Imagination_ Dan Merkur
takes a dispassionate, objective phenomenological view of psychedelic
experiences. The many, many block quoted experience reports from drug-takers
using LSD, mescaline and psilocybin are the best part of this book. Merkur has
taken almost all of these reports from published works about psychedelic
psychotherapy and they illustrate the diversity and healing potential of
psychedelic experiences.

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tangue
Well, one of the most famous disciple of Seneca, was Nero (yes the infamous
emperor)... As long as you believe that there is such a thing like a "Personal
operating system", it's a long way to understand stoicism. If you really spend
a lot of time reading Seneca and Marcus Aurelius (I don't encourage you to do
so, I did because I learned latin as a teen ) you'll realize that these
writings are deeply connected to the context of the first century in the Roman
Empire. Many of these thoughts have percolated through Christianism, that's
why they're able to reach most westerners today, but remember that stoicism
has failed to change romans, both individually and as a society.

~~~
zdw
Hedonism and capitalism have served us better as a society?

Judging a philosophy based on the merits of select adherents does not a
representative sample make.

~~~
tangue
I suppose that by hedonism you mean materialism, and I get your point. What I
was trying to say is that it's tempting to believe that some kind of ancient
wisdom could guide your life ( _indeed I'm sure Tim Ferris doesn't believe it
himself, but some readers might_ ). But ideas are reactions to a very specific
reality, and even in the context of this reality these ideas didn't work. It
doesn't mean that there is nothing valuable in the stoics' writings, just that
using these thoughts as a "Personal Operating System" is as useful as
installing MS-DOS on a smartphone

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friggeri
I can't recommend enough A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic
Joy[1]. It's a great and modern introduction to stoicism.

[1]: [http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-
Stoic/dp/01953...](http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Good-Life-Ancient-
Stoic/dp/0195374614/)

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Anth-ny
>Marcus Aurelius and his book Meditations, which was effectively a war
campaign journal.

I don't think he understands what the book is about.

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aristus
Of course he doesn't. This is Tim Ferris. He didn't spend more than 4 hours on
this crap.

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MDS100
Haha so true. All pareto all the time.

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dschiptsov
Art Of War? Book of Five Rings? Huh?) Seems like 4 hours for research is not
enough..

And, of course, Meditations isn't any war journal.)

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pfortuny
If your philosophy starts in Seneca you've got a problem: missing the real
thing (Plato & Aristoteles to boot but many others as well).

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noirman
I can't believe he used "Operating System" as "Decision Making Framework".

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vinnylohan
good read along similar lines - On War: Carl von Clausewitz

<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117031.On_War>

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deveshz
Philosophy and Technology mixed together.

