Philosophical Dictionary

The 2024 U.S. election has taken a surreal turn with Elon Musk and Donald Trump cozying up, all while both camps ironically invoke George Orwell’s "1984" to attack each other. Musk, who frequently warns about dystopias, now mingles with Trump, a figure whose doublespeak mirrors Orwell's warnings. The contradictions are palpable: Musk critiques Big Brother yet controls X (formerly Twitter), a platform central to information manipulation.

Utilitarianism is all about maximizing happiness for the greatest number, a philosophy founded by Jeremy Bentham and refined by John Stuart Mill. Bentham treated all pleasures equally, which led to the joke: “If a pig’s happier than you, it’s better to be the pig!” Mill, worried we’d all become pleasure-chasing pigs, argued that higher pleasures (like thinking) are superior to lower ones (like eating).

Though noble, utilitarianism gets tricky—predicting outcomes and balancing happiness can turn life into mental gymnastics. After all, we can’t analyze every choice, not even pizza toppings!

Explore Mark Fisher's critique of capitalism, focusing on his concept of capitalist realism—the idea that it's easier to imagine global catastrophe than an alternative to capitalism. Tied to Slavoj Žižek's notion of surplus-enjoyment, Fisher argues that capitalism traps us in cycles of unfulfilling desire. While this may seem bleak, I offer ways to navigate capitalism's demands without falling into exploitation, emphasizing the importance of a personal philosophy of life for resisting distractions and finding meaning. For more, subscribe to our Memesletter for digestible philosophical insights.

The meme humorously captures a core truth about philosophy: the ongoing, cyclical nature of philosophical inquiry. From Plato’s idealism to Kant’s critical philosophy, each generation reinterprets timeless questions in new contexts. This continuous dialogue reflects philosophy's dynamic growth, as thinkers build on the past, challenging and refining it, enriching our understanding of the world and ourselves.

Join us as we explore Descartes's philosophical revolution which is listed amongst the likes of Newton and Copernicus. Descartes, a Rationalist, sought to rebuild knowledge on the foundation of reason alone, famously using his method of Cartesian Doubt to discard uncertain beliefs making him an extremist Socratic reincarnation. We delve into his Meditations 6, particularly his exploration of the mind-body problem, where he argued for the distinct, yet interacting, substances of mind (res cogitans) and body (res extensa). We also look at criticisms of Descartes’ Dualism by figures like Princess Elizabeth and Gilbert Ryle, who mockingly called it the “Dogma of the Ghost in the Machine.” 

Discover why Buddha never actually said 'life is suffering' and how this famous misquote led to the ultimate philosophical showdown with Schopenhauer. Learn the real difference between Buddhist wisdom and Western pessimism through this hilarious office meme explanation.