Philosophy Archives

Lucy Kalanithi’s Epilogue: Completing Paul’s Manuscript and Legacy

Lucy Kalanithi is an American physician. She was Paul Kalanithi’s wife, and completed and published his book, When Breath Becomes Air after his death. In Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s touching memoir about life and death in the face of a cancer diagnosis, he details the harrowing journey of treatment, starting a family, his marriage, and learning to live life on different terms. Paul met his wife, Lucy Kalanithi at Stanford. The couple later married and moved to California together. Throughout When Breath Becomes Air, Lucy Kalanithi is a central figure. Lucy is initially angry about Paul’s diagnosis, but both later admit

Change Is Part of Life—Here’s How to Deal With It

Change is part of life. It can be distressing or rewarding, depending on our approach. Who Moved My Cheese is a parable that demonstrates in practical terms how to handle change better and avoid pitfalls, by practicing a few key principles: anticipate and prepare for change, overcome fears, envision success, and enjoy change. Because change is part of life, we need to learn to deal with it. By depicting simple, memorable characters and scenarios, the parable gives you a framework for responding to change successfully.

How to Deal with Change in Life—8 Lessons

No matter what environment we operate in — whether a town, city, family, relationship, workplace, or other setting — change is inevitable. Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson is a parable about a place that changed, and how its inhabitants reacted. Through the characters’ triumphs and travails, the story offers lessons and tips for how to deal with change in life by changing our attitudes and behavior. We’ll cover the story of Who Moved My Cheese and discuss how you can apply its lessons every day to learn how to deal with change in life.

How to Cope with Life Changes and Transitions

Who Moved My Cheese, a bestseller by Spencer Johnson published in 1998, is a parable about the inevitability of change, the ways in which we typically deal with it, and how revising our attitude toward change can reduce stress and increase success. Like all parables, it’s told as a story that you can relate clearly to your life, and it can help you learn strategies for coping with life changes and transitions. We’ll cover the basic premise of the Who Moved My Cheese parable and discuss how its lessons might apply to your life. Learn the secrets to coping with

How You Define “Successful” Matters: Here’s Why

What is the meaning of success? Does your definition of success in life matter? How do you define “successful”? We’ll cover why how you define “successful” actually influences how successful you are in life. Learn how the world’s best athletes and CEOs define success, and why it makes them more successful than the rest of us.

Criticism of the Welfare State: It Enables “Hillbillies”

What is the criticism of the welfare state? Do people take advantage of the welfare state? Hillbilly Elegy‘s JD Vance has strong criticisms of the welfare state. Learn why he thinks it brings out the worst of the Appalachian hillbilly community in particular.

Postmodernism on Culture: Is Your Culture Destroying You?

What is postmodernism’s view on culture? How does postmodernism on culture affect the way we view history? Postmodernism on culture says that humans exist to serve culture, and not the other way around. In a sense, according to the postmodernist view, cultures are plagues of society, not entities that serve us. We’ll cover postmodernism on culture and look at other ways scholars view our relationship with culture.

Does Everything Happen for a Reason? Not According to Experts

Does everything happen for a reason? Looking back at the past, can we tell why certain things happened and not others? Is history progressing to create a world that’s better for us? According to many scholars, history doesn’t benefit humans and things don’t necessarily happen for a reason. We’ll cover theories from historians and scholars in the humanities and social sciences to answer the question, “Does everything happen for a reason?”

Naive Empiricism: When Ignorance Makes You Smarter

What is naive empiricism? How does it work to counter confirmation bias? Naive empiricism is the scientific practice of approaching a problem without any assumptions or expectations, relying solely on empirical evidence. This term is occasionally used differently in other fields. We’ll cover how naive empiricism combats confirmation bias and other cognitive errors.

Unknown Unknowns: Things You Don’t Know You Don’t Know

What are “unknown unknowns.” Why do we have the tendency to avoid them? We’ll cover why unknown unknowns are so hard to see (we don’t know that we do don’t know them!) and how our tendency to “tunnel” gives us an inaccurate picture of the world.