Sebastian Purcell
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Articles by Sebastian Purcell
Celebrating Hispanic Voices: 8 Books to Read This Month
This Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrate with nonfiction that’s as bold as it is inspiring—books that spotlight powerful voices, fresh ideas, and stories you won’t forget. Learn something new every day with “Book Bites,” 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction.
This Aztec Philosophy Offers an Effective Alternative To Western Self-Help
Sebastian Purcell is an award-winning associate professor of philosophy at SUNY-Cortland in New York. He researches ethics, Aztec philosophy, and mathematical logic. While traditions like Buddhism and Stoicism teach you to go inward—to still your mind through meditation and journaling—the Aztecs taught the opposite. Your mind, they believed, is easier to steady if you start with your surroundings: your environment, your habits, your relationships. You take the outward path.
How We Can Achieve a Good Life Through the Help of Others
The “pursuit of happiness” figures into the United States of America’s Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right. When Thomas Jefferson penned the line, he was recalling a standard and ancient view of the good life in the history of “Western” philosophy.
Ο «δεκάλογος» των Αζτέκων για μια καλύτερη ζωή - ΤΑ ΝΕΑ
Οι αρχαίοι κάτοικοι του Μεξικού πίστευαν ότι ο «εξωτερικός δρόμος» μπορεί να γίνει το μονοπάτι προς την εσωτερική γαλήνη Οι αρχαίοι Αζτέκοι δεν συγκαταλέγονται συνήθως στους σημερινούς γκουρού της αυτοβελτίωσης. Ομως η φιλοσοφία τους, που διασώθηκε σε καταγραφές της περιόδου μετά την ισπανική κατάκτηση, προσφέρει εντυπωσιακά πρακτικά εργαλεία για τη σύγχρονη ζωή.
I Was Born From A Secret Marriage, Sebastian Purcell
Sebastian Purcell’s Philosophical Biography If you ever run into a professional philosopher, ask them how they ended up on that track. Their answers almost always follow a winding path. In that respect, my own life is no different. But I’m atypical even for a philosopher. I write and research on topics, like Aztec and Mayan philosophy, that most other professionals don’t even know exist.
Why Derren Brown's Stoicism Is The Solution to Happiness You Didn't Know You Were Looking For
Derren Brown is a celebrity magician and philosopher. His secret for happiness is that you should become a pessimist--a Stoic pessimist. Let me explain why.
Why The Buddhists and Aztecs Insist That Happiness Follows The Words You Say
What Crosses Your Lips Pre-Frames Your Mind The noted psychologist, Robert Cialdini, relates a story that changed his mind about the impact of small words. He was invited to give a talk at SSM Health, a non-profit in the medical industry renowned for its stratospheric performance. Yet he was told that in his presentation he would have to replace specific words.
United States’ History Comes to Life
You are who you vote for AdobeStock_236242476.jpeg (Rawpixel.com) If you want to know why diversity efforts are failing, we need only to look at election results. Even if I concede that Trump is right for the economy, I must believe that money matters above all else. Of course, it does. This is the United States. But you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t maintain happy, positive relationships with the people whose interests you vote against.
The Stoics’ Secret to Staying Calm in the Storms of Life
Why Tranquility is a Choice (But That Doesn’t Mean It’s Easy) Since nearly its inception, around 300 BCE in ancient Greece, Stoicism has had a mistaken reputation for promoting a robot-like, unemotional attitude. But the goal of Stoicism isn’t to eliminate emotions so much as bad responses to emotions. There is an old story that illustrates the point. Aulus Gellius, a Roman author, was traveling on a ship with a reputed Stoic philosopher when they met a strong storm.
What the Aztecs Can Teach Us About Happiness and the Good Life
Image from Photos.com/Getty Images. In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. Everyone raises a hand. Always. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
What The Aztecs Can Teach Us About Happiness And The Good Life
In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. Everyone raises a hand. Always. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
Here is what the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good life
Four Aztec warriors in drawn in folio 67 of Codex Mendoza. (Wikimedia Commons) In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. Everyone raises a hand. Always. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
Aztec moral philosophy didn’t expect anyone to be a saint – Sebastian Purcell | Aeon Essays
When Halloween rolled around last year, my wife and I were prepared to be greeted by scores of eager trick-or-treaters. Guided by the thought that too much candy was better than too little, we bought entirely too much, and simply poured the excess on to a platter in our living room. The problem is: I have a sweet-tooth. ‘I can’t stop eating these!’ I said to my wife, peevishly, a few days later.
Here's What the Aztecs Can Teach Us About Happiness and the Good Life
Here's What the Aztecs Can Teach Us About Happiness and the Good Life In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. Everyone raises a hand. Always. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
Aztec philosophy proposes that doing something worthwhile is more important than enjoying it
In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
What the Aztecs can teach us about happiness and the good life
Detail from the Florentine Codex, late 16th century. Courtesy the World Digital Library In the spring semester of the school year, I teach a class called ‘Happiness’. It’s always packed with students because, like most people, they want to learn the secret to feeling fulfilled. ‘How many of you want to be happy in life?’ I ask. Everyone raises a hand. Always. ‘How many of you are planning to have children?’ Almost everyone raises their hand again.
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