Pierrick Simon

@pierricksimon

Philosopher. Working on philosophical exercises, philosophy as a way of life, and political disagreements. Enthusiastic about: #phenomenology, #mindfulness, #hermeneutics and the medical humanities.

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Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 15d

Oh boy... My brother in Baruch... You are in for a treat!

r/askphilosophy "Is there any proof for Spinozas god?"

"I should add, I haven’t read Spinoza himself yet so this question might be answered when I get around to reading him, thanks in advance!"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 16d

The French government released a PSA about eco-anxiety. They start by granting that anxiety is a normal response to the crisis. Then, they claim it becomes pathological when it is "overwhelming", "creates suffering", "disrupts daily life" with "unpleasant emotions (fear, anger, despair)" #philsky

a poster for a French psa about eco-anxiety. I am not sure what the image depicts: a naked woman in a plastic bag, looking overwhelmed? Some of the writing on the poster includes "let's talk mental health!", "how to deal with eco-anxiety", and "understanding this suffering and spotting the early signs".

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 16d

Advice I gave to an 18 year old fantasy writer who got feedback from a professional that their writing is good, but that they should first read Hugo, Kundera, Descartes and Kant, before they keep writing, otherwise their book won't be good enough. (Kant?! ... KANT?!!!) #writingcommunity #fantasy

"That seems like a bad piece of advice this professional gave you. I think a better piece of advice would be: look, your art is going to be better if you are inspired by *SOMETHING* that you do a deep dive on. I personally am a philosopher who writes fantasy, so I understand where the impulse comes from to say "how can you do world-building without knowing philosophy?" but, unlike this person, I am not so reckless as to inflict that impulse on people. However it remains true that if you want your world-building and your story to be good, if you want it to feel substantial, gripping, you need to turn to the real world, take a big bite of it (in could be anything, history, geography, sociology, etc) and then it will show up in your writing! What are YOU interested in beside fantasy writing? Find that out, and your fantasy writing will be more interesting to everyone. Have fun! :)"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 18d

It looks like the Exploding Fruit Tree (Hura crepitans). Thankfully for you, it's not the exploding fruit tree. Because otherwise... you know... exploding fruits! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hura_cr...

tree trunk with spikes all over (a species of tree called the dynamite tree)

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 19d

I feel like they barely tried with this one. It feels wrong that they would put such low efforts into being predatory. Like, come on! Chase me a little bit.

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 20d

When Pierre & Ilsetraut Hadot, echoing Thoreau, declared that professors of philosophy replaced true philosophers, I think they were engaging in what Eric Schliesser calls "philosophic prophecy". This concept helped me to make peace with controversial aspects of their work 🧵⬇️ #philsky #philtwit

Image from the title page to The Strange and Wonderful History of Mother Shipton (1686)
An old woman flipping through pages with strange images and diagrams.

first page of a book, which reads "The Strange and wonderful history of Mother Shipton : plainly setting forth her prodigious birth, life, death, and burial, with an exact collection of all her famous prophecys, more compleat than ever yet before published. And large explanations, shewing how they have all along been fulfilled to this very year"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 23d

Or maybe it's okay.

picture of a cat lying in dried mint. The poster asks "is it OK for cat to lie in dried mint?"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 25d

After watching Severance, I've upgraded to: "What is taking place?"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· 29d

I am doing my best to survive the heat wave, the ongoing climate catastrophe. My only solace these days is a philosophical exercise that we call "world-building" & that Tolkien called "creating a secondary world" I read his essay "On Fairy Stories" and wow, what a manifesto! ⬇️ #philsky #philtwit

Thomas Cole - Architect’s Dream
An architect is seated at the top of a huge pillar of stone. All around them is a vast landscape filled with immense buildings, as if they were "dreamed up" by the architect to fill the world around.

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jul 9

Cuno Amiet
Schneelandschaft
1904
Description: a solitary figure looking very small against the gigantic background of a land of snow, trudging in a snow storm. At the top of the painting, a little bit of landscape horizon, just enough to add to the impression of grandeur of the landmass of snow

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jul 6

This, but it's Tolkien playing Baldur's Gate 3, like: "The squid-men, are those the Elves? No? The skinny-pickle-men, are those the Elves? No... I'm sorry, I must ask.. WHERE are the ELVES in this FAE-RÛN of yours? This is Fantasy, is it not? Oh dear, who are these devil-men? Orcs surely."

someone cosplaying as J.R.R. Tolkien watching 1 minute of gameplay from shadow of mordor ; @paddywagz on youtube

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jul 2

There's this very fun letter that Tolkien wrote "to a man who described myth and fairy-story as ‘lies’" Tolkien wrote this:

$‘Dear Sir,’ I said - ‘Although now long estranged, Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed. Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned, and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned: Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly combined in living shapes that move from mind to mind. Though all the crannies of the world we filled with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build Gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sowed the seed of dragons - ’twas our right (used or misused). That right has not decayed: we make still by the law in which we’re made.’ SOURCE: found in "on fairy stories" in "The Monsters and the critics and other essays"$

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jun 28

Using the word "Hermeneutics" is the way into my heart. And throwing Any Austin in the mix is like combining peanut butter and jelly. Over the moon happy right now.

any austin in a youtube interview from a channel "conversations with tyler" ; title of the video "any austin on the hermeneurtics of video games"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jun 25

My answer to a TTRPG Game Master who asked how to deal with a problem they've noticed more and more: players who do not understand the values of medieval or ancient society, and therefore just conclude that all NPCs are sociopaths in an incomprehensible way. #ttrpg #dnd

"Yes, that is a tricky problem. I have only one player, so I only have limited experience, but I did run into this. At some point it occurred to me that we were playing DND, but that most people in the hobby were quite disconnected from History. I started to suspect: "wow, I am not sure the majority of people who play this game truly understand what a "noble" is, or what a "knight" is, or why on earth people would want "slaves"". They have an anachronistic vision of these things. With my player, the solution that I found was to have talks in and out of game about the history of these things, and to make it clear that if they want to interact with this world they will have to deal with the fact that the NPCs think this way. With a lot of social encounters found within the game, my player had to engage with the fact that the NPCs had a feudal mentality. Also, one thing that helped is that I always allowed this player to play their character with 21rst century ethical ideas: after all, all eras have their trailblazers and their philosophical heroes, so you can't restrict them by saying "you are not allowed to expect better of the world". This way you have a compromise: they bring in their ethical sensibilities, but they cease to think that NPCs are personally stupid or personally sociopathic, as opposed to just historically stupid & historically sociopathic :)

My attitude was "look, why are we playing a game set in a medieval looking world or an ancient looking world if we are not going to truly connect with these time periods? Is it just superficial aesthetic fluff? What would be the point of that?" I was bummed at the thought of that, and so I decided to be frank and pedagogical."

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jun 24

#meditation

batman meme where batman describes "a lightness. a sense that things will work out for the best" When his sidekicks point out that "it's called 'happiness'" Batman makes an intense, almost angry, face and exclaims "whatever it is, I like it".

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jun 14

One moment, you're chilling... the next moment, you get existentially spooked by cold air!!

"Cool Air
By H. P. Lovecraft"
"You ask me to explain why I am afraid of a draught of cool air; why I shiver more than others upon entering a cold room, and seem nauseated and repelled when the chill of evening creeps through the heat of a mild autumn day. There are those who say I respond to cold as others do to a bad odour,"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· Jun 12

Hazards of the contemplative life:

reddit post that says "Accidentally became too mindful while eating a Dorito" tagged "Question"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 27

Great interview. I loved the passage about the alienation from Nature. This is such a perennial and ever relevant topic. One that makes us look to the past for new answers. The fact that Owen Ware's students were so keen to create art about those topics is so heartwarming too. #philsky #philtwit

Owen Ware says: "As I see it, beneath the plot of Ofterdingen is an exploration of how the self originates, how we lose a sense of connection with nature and with others, and how we might regain that connection from a higher standpoint. Novalis works with the Romantic idea that the challenge we face is one of integrating reason and sensibility into a more complex form of harmony that still allows for individuality, differentiation, and particularity."

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 26

Ran into someone who made angry remarks about me & partner wearing masks outside (as if he knew why we're doing it). These trantrums are rare here, but it happens. I laughed & waved at him. I know I ruined his day with this peaceful resistance. People are no match for the confidence of philosophers:

From "Ecophilosophy as a Way of Life" by Freya Mathews:
"As a latter-day expression of such a root tradition, the figure of the ecophilosopher could, in a contemporary Western setting, claim considerable authenticity, authority, and gravitas. For those of us wishing to defect from modern, techno-industrial civilisation, an identity as a philosopher might grant us social licence to flout cultural norms and push back against social pressures. Turning up to our workplace or to social gatherings looking home-spun, gap-toothed,
dressed in simple, perhaps second-hand, attire, without vanity, oblivious of the fads and trends"

From "Ecophilosophy as a Way of Life" by Freya Mathews: "we could retort to those disposed to dismiss us as eccentric that no, we are not
eccentric, but ecocentric—we are proud ecophilosophers. By assuming this badge of identity,making it genuinely our own through strict regimes of rigorous reflection and experiential practice, we could, in other words, proclaim our supposedly “deviant” way of life as an exemplary rational choice—in our view, the only rational choice—rather than as defective"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 24

Someone asked "how do you get to the second jhana?". Below is what I answered. It is inspired by the teachings I received from the youtube recording of Rob Burbea's Jhana Retreat. A great resource for jhana meditation. #jhana #meditation #spirituality

Stuff that worked for me to unlock the second jhana (according to the notes that I took at the time):

- I was advised to not worry too much about achieving a complete absence of discursive thinking. Getting obsessed with this would be a distraction.

- I was told it was okay to *reflect on* how pleasant the sensations were in first jhana, and to get really joyful and happy about how pleasant these sensations were. In this way, you are smoothly transitioning from pleasant sensations (j1) to the acknowledgement of pleasant sensations in the form of gratitude, happinness, compassion.

- I was told that it was okay to entertain quasi-thought experiments to achieve that reflection. For example, someone might be thinking, very briefly about their "happy place", and it could launch Jhana 2. Personally, what worked for me was to emulate the emotions I felt when I had a crush on someone or when I was completely free on holiday. You shouldn't think extensively about those topics while meditating, but it's okay to drop a little imaginative exercise in your stream of consciousness, just for a second, so that you have a model to imitate the joyful emotional pattern.

- All in all: I was told not to worry about a bunch of things meditators are typically overly worried about, and I was told to try a bunch of weird stuff that can really get you going. I was told that, with time, you learn to stop relying on those weird bootstraping devices, but that whatever works is good for you, you don't have to worry about your practice not being "pure" enough. We can get too attached to spiritual dogma.

Hope that helps! It truly worked for me.

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 23

From Wikipedia: Caodaism is a Vietnamese monotheistic syncretic religion that combines ethical precepts from Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories from Buddhism, & a hierarchical organization from Catholicism.... Oh and also one of its saints is Victor Hugo (!) in the bicorn hat here.

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 23

This is what I answered to someone who asked "I've heard the advice multiple times that you should have your main character make the decisions that drive your plot to make the story engaging. Is it bad that my main character mostly drifts along and reacts to stuff?" #writingcommunity #writer

"It's fine for a character to not be the main mover/shaker that shapes the world's events. They can be a passive person. But they should not be a passive character. I feel like a passive character is someone who goes "oh wow, that's crazy, anyway...". They react to what's happening around them but they don't do that very human thing that everyone does of trying to *interpret* what the events around them mean. Of trying to get at what the events should mean for them personnally. Even a passive person does that.

I always like to make a distinction between the plot and the story precisely because of paradoxes like this. It's fine for the character to not move the plot forward (the facts, events, chain reactions), but we must feel like they drive the story forward (the emotional engagement we have with the mystery that is the tale being told). We ask "What's gonna happen next? Will people be okay?" and we must feel like the main character is at the center of that emotional engagement."

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 23

My answer to someone who asked "is it really worth it to do a bunch of research to be historically accurate when you write a story set in a different time period, given that shows like Bridgerton are very popular and inaccuracies do not seem to bother anyone?" #writingcommunity #writer

"I think doing research is worth the time, but doing research only for the sake of being "accurate" is not worth it, no. The point of research is for you to have a greater understanding of how different or similar the historical period was from yours: being curious in that way makes it so there is a "good reason" for your story to be set in that period and not another. I would go as far as to say that you could disregard anything that comes up in your research: you can just decide to do some anachronisms if you want, if you think that it serves your plan better than being "accurate". Still, you need to know that you are doing it. It's not homework done so that the readers are not mad at you, it's more an exploration of what attracted to a different era in the first place :) It's fun"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 22

I'll make and post any silly meme, as long as I think there's a chance it might indirectly spread awareness about the weirdness of the contemplative life.

You Guys Are Getting Paid We're the Millers Meme Template. "My hypnagogic hallucinations are visual" "Mine are auditory" "you guys have hallucinations?" "you guys remember falling asleep?"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 21

The problem with a lot of writers asking advice on reddit is that they ask questions to which the answer is always: 1) Write a Story (a Good Story). That's what you're doing anyway, right? 2) Some people won't like your story. Not becoming famous is the only thing that diminishes backlash. #writer

"How can I write a callous main character without making him unlikable or annoying?"
OP adds:
"(callous means emotionally hardened, unsympathetic, and insensitive to the suffering of others)"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 19

Post a meme made by you

disco elysium parody with a Dan Dennett quote "“If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things."

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 19

Post a meme made by you

a black and white drawing of a man falling off his horse because he is blinded by divine light (like saint paul on the road to damascus). The man is labelled "Me" and the divine light is labelled "the driest phenomenological text"

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 17

I am writing down the central myths of my secondary world, and I am so very excited, because I can already tell that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. #fantasy

Mythos
Special Gifts
A Human wills their breath and sees in the sun.
A Rarkan wills their heart and sees in the night.
A Gnome wills their memory and sees aeons past.
An Elf wills the world and sees everything.

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 16

Carving nature at the joints with a machine gun:

"How to write an evil protagonist who is not an edgelord"
"It seems there is a fine line between writing compelling evil protagonists whose actions we know are wrong, but who are intriguing nonetheless (Walter White, Anakin Skywalker, Louis the vampire) and "edgy" characters, who the author intended to come across as irredeemable, but who are widely misinterpreted by audiences as role models or attempts to justify terrible philosophies (Eren Jaeger, Joker, Patrick Bateman)."

Pierrick Simon@pierricksimon· May 15

D&D is a game that allows you to explore fascinating scenarios. In my #D&D game, the heroes reformed a pirate city, to abolish indentured servitude. The most evil pirates are fighting back to reclaim their way of life. Naturally, The adventurers enlisted the help of a whale to protect themselves