Wisdom
This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.
The questions that illuminate it
What should we do with our desires: affirm them, sort them, or detach from them?
Desire is at once what sets us in motion and what torments us: to extinguish it is to extinguish life, to follow it unchecked is to forfeit peace. To take a position is to say where the drive that makes us live ends and where the servitude that wears us out begins.
Facing the world, should we focus on what is up to us or strive to extend our mastery?
Is the only seat of our power within, in our judgements and desires, the course of the world wholly beyond us, or can we lay hold of that order and reshape it to our hand? To take a position is to say how far our real grip on things extends, and whether freedom is won within us or out in the world.
What is philosophy for?
Anyone who opens a book of philosophy expects something from it: finally understanding the world, changing society, learning to live better, or shedding badly posed questions — when a widespread opinion does not simply deem it useless, superseded by the sciences. Philosophers themselves have never stopped quarreling over their own vocation; this site, which invites you to build your own worldview, itself takes a stand in that debate.
Is diverting oneself a flight from what matters, or an art of living?
We spend a growing share of our lives diverting ourselves, and whole industries now compete for every minute of our attention. A flight from what matters, or the art of inhabiting a life no one can spend forever face to face with the essential? To take a position is to say what the hours we give to nothing important are worth.