The Curiosophers
watch or listen to on Youtube
Five years ago during the Covid-19 lockdown my friend Carlo Navato (The Curiosity Dividend) and I did a daily Instagram Live about the letters of Lucius Annaeus Seneca to his friend Lucilius. The idea was to see if the ideas of ancient philosophers could help us deal with a life changing event in real time. We both enjoyed these conversations immensely and got lots of messages of support. After five weeks or so we stopped, I can’t remember why, but we carried on talking off-line about philosophical questions instead.
I should point out here that neither of us are particularly learned when it comes to philosophy. We are stumbling about in the dark a lot of the time. But no matter. We are keen and curious and chatting about philosophical questions always helps us tackle the inevitable existential and metaphysical scrapes that come up in life.
Today I’m happy to say we are launching a new (low-fi) project inspired by our lock down conversations. In each episode of The Curiosophers we will discuss a philosophical question over an hour or so and see where we end up.
The question we tackle in episode one is ‘What is the opposite of love?’
If you have thoughts on the conversation, or a question you think we should chat about in the future, please let me know.
This episode goes up at 10 am UK time today (13th April).
Hope you enjoy it.
Dan
The opposite of love, to me, means keeping things to yourself for fear of being reduced. And by things, I mean ideas, observations, praise, support... as much as emotions and worries.
It cuts both ways - we hold back for fear of overburdening those closest to us, but how many times a day do we think: 'you look beautiful in that colour' or, 'I love the unique way you think about that' but keep it to ourselves?
To love is to be human - connected, open, hopeful and present. I am not advocating a stream of consciousness approach to living where we share absolutely everything, but any time I have reminded someone that their smile, or the way they set the table or how much effort they're putting into their work is something I cherish, respect and am grateful for, I feel the love deepen and the possibilities between us grow.
So, the opposite of love is keeping things to myself. It feels narrow and dim, and ultimately lonely.
All the best with the episode :)