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CarousersCorner t1_j1qqe4f wrote

What (in everyone’s opinion) are some good foundational philosophies for living a good, upstanding life?

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DayliteMag1234 t1_j1rclen wrote

Assume innocence.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1rezcw wrote

I feel like this is a very big thing that a lot of people struggle with

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DayliteMag1234 t1_j1rsz16 wrote

I try, but I regularly fail.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1t6uds wrote

I do as well, and much like an addiction, your first course of action is having the self-awareness to k ow you do

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bagofthoughts t1_j1qvm2y wrote

A good upstanding life is a subjective matter that will need to find some grounding to deconstruct on the philosophical plane.

One option is to consider the perennial competition between collective success vs individual gratification, among human societies, which lays the basis of a lot of ethical direction.

A human is like a crazy efficient optimization machine that encodes not just its own learnings but also experiences gathered over many many generations. Some injunction of nature vs nurture is implied here, which I'll keep myself from getting into.

Anyways, so an individual needs to optimise both for self (the short-term) and also for the society (the long-term). At the same time, each one of us is traded cards we can play with.

One of the best strategies that can be employed to attain a fruitful and fulfilling life is the one that lets you use your cards to the maximum positive effect.

A number of traditional philosophies seem to offer a solution in mindfulness, self awareness and acceptance as a means to move forward efficiently. What this means is that, one lets oneself be directed by a balance of thought and action, that avoids you from becoming too reliant on your egoistical motives. This seems like a rather difficult thing to explain in a few words, so I'll leave it there for you to explore further if you find it interesting enough.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1rerqq wrote

I really enjoyed this answer. It definitely serves the purpose of the question!

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Ytar0 t1_j1r22o8 wrote

For me, compatibilism, combined with different existentialist ideas, helped me get a perspective on my own emotions and a better grasp on how to lead/control them (or in most cases, how not to be affected by them). It made me realize that no one is directly responsible for anything, so take everything with a grain of salt, and it made me, for better or for worse, get a gigantic (hidden) ego lol. I have always been pretty content with my life, but these ideas really hammered it in. So yeah, do tell if this is useful at all :)

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CarousersCorner t1_j1rew49 wrote

I’ll do some reading on compatibilism, for sure. Who would you suggest I start with?

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Ytar0 t1_j1rffhj wrote

To be honest with you I’ve never really bothered to read many of the original philosophical works on these topics, I much prefer to use sites like the stanford philosophy encyclopedia, they also have a page on compatibilism. (Many related pages as well!)

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infestedgrowth t1_j1snhx6 wrote

The most important thing is always be aware of the self, and how others perceive you. Always be thinking of why you’re saying what you’re saying, and how it will effect the perceiver. Understand you are a product of this world, and everything you know is because of you’re own personal experience. We’re all individuals on this magical plane of existence, and nobody really knows any more than that for sure.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1t6zhb wrote

Wonderfully articulated. Thank you for this. It’s interesting; examining one’s “self” through the perception of others. It makes you really consider what you’re expressing, and how you go about it

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Nee_Nihilo t1_j1rbo8v wrote

Believing that human rights are the minimum love which we owe to other people. And that therefore, if we don't love them at least that much (honoring their intrinsic rights), then we are criminals.

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stijnvboxtel t1_j1rmitu wrote

Socrates: be curious and know that you don’t know.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1t6s0e wrote

I have a minor in philosophy, and the classical philosophers are my favourites

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yeah_yeah_therabbit t1_j1s12um wrote

‘The Dude abides.’ -The Dude

“To abide something is to follow it, to obey the rules. But when The Dude says it, he doesn’t mean being a square or listening to the man. When you abide, you go with the flow. You accept life as it comes. And if there’s anything that The Dude will always do, it’s go with the flow.”

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SlowJoeCrow44 t1_j1qrwt9 wrote

I don't think the causation runs in that direction. I don't think one can philosophizing themselves to becoming a good person. I think that we only use philosophy to justify our bad actions or support oit good ones after the fact.

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CarousersCorner t1_j1rejv7 wrote

This is an interesting idea. I guess I was kind of asking a complicated question in too simple of terms. As an example, someone could have a base life philosophy of stoicism, and model their actions based on those philosophical principals

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