When I said a couple of days ago that I had to suffer through three hours of tai chi, that was pure hyperbole. Tai chi is usually the only thing which keeps me sane through the long hours of sleep and work.

Three chapters into Living Philosophy, and I am fairly impressed. The subject combined with the personal – sometimes approaching stream-of-consciousness – writing style sometimes reminds me of Finite and Infinite Games, but then Dr Rowe will focus in on a particular aspect of personal philosophy and make some quite interesting observations.

For instance, this is the first passage I underlined, from chapter 1: “The activity of philosophy liberates us…from assumptions and values, at least some of which we disagree with once we become conscious of them”.

To constantly ask ones self “why” can be exhausting. Each “why” leads to a because, which leads to another “why”, and so on, ad infinitum . Why am I angry? Because I am tired. Why Am I tired? Because I didn’t get enough sleep. Why? I stayed up late playing a PC game. Why? I was bored. Why? Distractions are easier than thinking. Why? And so forth.

I have not read a philosophy book in six or seven years. I changed my focus when I started writing, and critical thought made way for science fiction and poetry, the music of the language and the extremes of human imagination. Sharply focused deductive reasoning seemed less interesting and in some cases directly counter to my work. Now that I again have reason to read philosophy I find that I still enjoy it as much as I did in college, ten years ago.