Parenting Category

Topics: Change Consistency Death Eternity Happiness Independence/Dependence Injustice Loss Normality Parenting Personal Identity (True Self) Questions Sacrifice Selfishness Strangeness Suffering Virtue

Philosophers: Emily Dickinson Fyodor Dostoevsky Ralph Waldo Emerson Alexander Hamilton Heraclitus Homer Franz Kafka Friedrich Nietzsche Plato Rainer Maria Rilke William Shakespeare Socrates Henry David Thoreau Ludwig Wittgenstein

Can One Person's Suffering Be Another Person's Happiness?
Text: Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov and Notes From The Underground

The novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky draws two impossible scenarios that together highlight the everyday reality of the potential conflicts between one's own happiness and the happiness of others.   First imagine a world that is a utopia except that it is built upon the suffering of a single child.   Then imagine a person who is willing to sacrifice the rest of the world in order to secure his own well-being.  The question, one we face on a daily basis whether we contemplate it or not, is how we experience and value our own happiness in relation to the happiness of others. Full essay.

The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change
Text: Heraclitus, fragment

The change that occurs in a river is vivid and unmistakable. By claiming that the change we see in a river is true of our world in general, Heraclitus challenges the idea that some things simply stay the same: we may not see the change so clearly, but change is occurring nonetheless. Full essay.

The Most Important Philosophy Is Your Own
Text: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

No matter how wise Zarathustra or any teacher may be, and no matter how much we may benefit from their guidance, Nietzsche reminds us that ultimately we must each find our own way. Thus his hero, Zarathustra, a spiritual teacher of mankind, removes himself from his students lest they remain his pupils and disciples forever. Full essay.