30 Phil, Chapter 19, Guru Nanak, Touchstone 48: The Five Thieves. Central to Sikh philosophy is the concept of the Five Thieves. The Five Thieves assert that the path to happiness is achieved by managing or removing the negative forces in your life including lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. The Five Thieves provide ethical guideposts,
30 Phil, Chapter 18, Peter Abelard, Touchstone 46: Pattern Recognition. Humans possess an extraordinary ability to identify patterns both in nature as well as in our minds. It is fundamental to how we understand the world, and at the core of the universals debate. Building on pattern recognition, our minds also engage in pattern ranking.
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30 Phil, Chapter 18, Peter Abelard, Touchstone 44: Intent. The concept of intent has deep roots. Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, argued that voluntary actions guided by intention were essential for moral responsibility and virtue. Similarly, Roman law incorporated the concept of “mens rea,” a guilty mind, as a vital element in determining guilt. In
30 Phil, Chapter 17, Alhazen, Touchstone 43: Perception. Perception is the process by which your brain interprets sensory information. While senses give you direct information, your perception gives you indirect understanding.
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Existence grounds essence; identity is not discovered in a metaphysical realm but formed within structured reality.
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30 Phil, Chapter 16, Al-Farabi, Touchstone 40: Intellect. Intellect refers to the ability to reason and understand objectively, particularly with regard to abstract or academic matters. Al-Farabi delineated human understanding into three phases: the potential, actual, and acquired. His insights laid the groundwork for today’s understanding, a roadmap for how our thinking grows over time.
30 Phil, Chapter 15, Saint Augustine, Touchstone 39: Eternity. Eternity is the idea of an endless timeline. Visualize a river that flows in both directions as far as the eyes can see. But for Augustine, eternity is “all time at once,” and his idea positions it as a precursor to the modern block universe theory.
30 Phil, Chapter 15, Saint Augustine, Touchstone 38: Chronoception. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is intertwined with space in a four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. However, our experiencing of it is called chronoception. Augustine was one of the first to describe time as a subjective experience. Today we know it is influenced by
Your mind bends reality before you notice. Take control by owning your biases. Slow down. Check your confidence against evidence.
Cause and effect shape outcomes regardless of belief. Actions, not intent, nor faith, determine what follows.
Cognitive distancing is the ability to look at an event from a distance.
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Negative visualization is the technique of analyzing future adverse scenarios including various worst-cases.
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Cognitive reframing is the technique where you ask how else you can interpret something.
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Allegorical interpretation is reading a story for meaning beyond its literal surface.
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30 Phil, Chapter 11, Epicurus, Touchstone 31: Dichotomy of Pleasure. Epicurus defined two types of pleasure: short-term and long-term. Too frequently people put short term pleasures over long-term ones causing deeper harm than warranted. A short-term pleasure is kinetic as in the active enjoyment of fulfilling a desire, such as eating a delicious meal or
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Agnosticism is the honest pause between belief and denial. Used well, it helps you live with mystery, spend your attention wisely, and choose which unknowns are worth exploring.
30 Phil, Chapter 10, Pyrrho of Elis, Touchstone 28: Skepticism. Skepticism emphasizes the continuous challenging of beliefs. Pyrrhonian Skepticism, founded by Pyrrho of Elis, takes this a step further by encouraging you to suspend judgment about reality and truth. This approach urges you to question your beliefs and avoid dogmatism. With skepticism, you question both
Ethics begins with the good life, but the good life is bigger than personal happiness. Flourishing means growing well within reality while helping others, society, and nature flourish too.
30 Phil, Chapter 9, Aristotle, Touchstone 26: Logical Fallacies. A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning that invalidates an argument. In simple terms, it’s when a conclusion doesn’t logically follow from its premises. They sidestep issues with a lack of valid argumentation. While using a fallacy doesn’t mean the conclusion is wrong, it does
