Writing fiction is like making bread. You need to know when to knead it, and when to just let it rise. — The other day, I took a break from my writing desk and went into the kitchen to make bread. There’s something therapeutic about the process of mixing flour and yeast and water, combining it, then turning it out onto the table to knead it into shape. When I write, sometimes…

In a world obsessed with conversation, physical books bring us solitude and freedom. — Several years ago, I attended a talk by the Canadian poet Erín Moure. She talked about poetry and translation and writing. It was a talk so full of brilliant insights that, as I jotted things down in my notebook, I struggled to keep up. …

Myanmar helped me come to terms with grief. Now I am grieving for Myanmar. — I arrived in Yangon for the first time in January 2017, my life broken into pieces. The previous year had been punishing. In August, Elee, my partner of thirteen years, died of breast cancer. Before her death, we talked about what I would do after. I said I didn’t know…

The philosopher Carneades advocated giving up on ideas of truth and the good life, arguing that we should focus instead on what is plausible. Obsession and self-medication The philosopher Carneades was born in Cyrene, home of the Cyrenaic philosophers, sometime around 214 BCE. …

Why so serious? On philosophy, mood, and why seriousness is overrated. — This post is one of a seven-part series on how to read philosophy, published first on LookingforWisdom.com When we moved the Looking for Wisdom HQ up to Scotland a year ago, we packed away all our philosophy books into boxes. There were lots of boxes. So on the outside, with…

For the philosophers of the Nyāya school, the role of knowledge was to make effective action possible. — Texts and Woven Threads The tradition of Nyāya philosophy in India goes back to a text called the Nyāya-sūtra. It is one of the most extensive treatments of the art of reasoning to be found in early Indian philosophy. The Nyāya-sūtra is a fascinating text, one that explores the relationship between knowing, practical action…

Literature, pattern and what we can learn from an obscure medieval Chinese writing manual — On Bell Mountain with Liu Xie It is still early in the morning, but Purple Mountain on the outskirts of Nanjing is already busy with visitors. Troops of schoolchildren are heading up the hill to pay homage at the Mausoleum of the father of modern China, Sun Yat-sen. They laugh and joke as they climb. Families…

The ancient Indian treatise on rulership, and the pragmatics of maintaining power — There is perhaps no headache greater than that of being a head of state. Or, in fact, being the head of anything. From the ancient world to the present day, it has been recognised that to be a ruler is to be condemned to a life of constant vigilance. You…

Comics artist Barbara Stok talks about her brilliant reimagining of the life of the Cynic philosopher Hipparchia. Looking for Wisdom Interview: Comics artist and writer Barbara Stok talks about dogs, Cynics, philosophers, and the art of living. Here at Looking for Wisdom, we’ve long been fascinated by the Cynic philosopher Hipparchia. …