Tada

“Nietzsche said ‘amor fati’ is how he’s going to live his life henceforth. Everything he’s going to say yes to. He will be a yes-sayer, is what he says. This is an affirmative stance towards reality where, even if things are bad or uncomfortable or horrible, we’re going to affirm reality as it is and not idealize it into something that it’s not. It’s very common for people to do, even when they’re not religious, to think of reality as though it owes you something. But to affirm reality fully is to accept the good, the bad. It’s not to rationalize about it and try to make excuses for it or frame your suffering in a way where it makes it go away. To truly affirm life and reality is just to be in it and to have life itself be enough, truly.”
— Stephen West

Stephen West (@iamstephenwest) is a father, husband, and host of the Philosophize This! podcast. He attempts to explain, translate, and humanize philosophy in a way that doesn’t ever aim to tell people what to think but to invite them to better understand their own thoughts by exploring alternatives.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

This episode is brought to you by Gusto simple and easy payroll, HR, and benefits platform used by 400,000+ businesses; Momentous high-quality supplements; and Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating.

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Want to hear another podcast episode focusing on philosophy and the nature of reality? Listen to my conversation with Galileo’s Error author Philip Goff, in which we discussed panpsychism, quantum consciousness, Integrated Information Theory, mystical traditions within Christianity and Islam, psychedelics and numinous experiences, the matter of matter, and much more.