Philosophy & Pop Culture Archives - Page 4 of 5

Toss A Cogito To Your Witcher: Stoicism And Geralt Of Rivia’s Philosophy Of Life

Popular culture is filled with characters who live and breathe philosophy through their actions. It’s through this lens I find philosophy easier to interpret and become more thoughtful about how to apply certain lessons in my own life.

When it comes to a philosophy like Stoicism, a character that displays Stoic aspects is Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher series.

I’ll caveat this article by saying I don’t believe Geralt to be a pure Stoic. What is worth noting is that he does embody certain traits that gel with the philosophy.

So, let’s take a deeper look into The White Wolf’s philosophy of life and how it can help to make Stoicism easier to understand.

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Finding Your Path To The Good Life: Philosophy Of Tales Of The Frontier

What I’ve come to love about philosophy is that it can be reinvented and reinterpreted throughout history. It can be moulded into countless mediums and be seen through different lenses. So, it was only a matter of time before I introduced philosophy into Tales Of The Frontier, a horror universe based on the wild west that contains monsters and magic.

I also recently published my debut horror novella AT THE DEAD OF DUSK that is set in the world of The Frontier. The philosophies that are explored in this article are inspired by worldviews like Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism.

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Seidr

The vikings believed in concepts that existed outside the material world. Gods, magic and myths mingled with the everyday of raiding, farming, living, fighting and loving. This was Old Norse philosophy in practice and vikings sought to change their fate and raise their fortunes with a concept called seidr.

In Old Norse, seidr translates to cord or string. It’s a magic-based ideology that looks at fate as a flowing, malleable object. It’s about symbolically changing the course of one’s life and bringing new events into reality.

To do this, seidr practitioners relied on specific objects to bring them closer to the gods. They needed to enter a trance in order to enter the world of the spirits.

The following photo collection tells the story of seidr through Norse objects and viking runes.

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Sake And Stoicism: Exploring The Four Stoic Principles Through Nihonshu

Practicing philosophy invites the opportunity to bring it into aspects of life that you may not have thought about initially. In my case, I’ve become interested in the philosophy of Stoicism and over the course of learning, it’s made me curious to see how it could be introduced into other topics I find intriguing.

It’s for that reason I’m exploring Stoicism through the lens of sake brewing and how the four Stoic principles of courage, wisdom, temperance and justice is embodied in the sake industry.

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