The Socrates Express

Index

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Page numbers beginning with 289 refer to endnotes.

Absurdism, 264–66

acceptance, 110–11, 224, 231, 236, 264, 265

of aging, 245, 255–56, 258

of death, 279–80

accidental philosopher, 274

Adagio for Strings (Barber), 91

Adams, John, 224

adversity, 225, 234–35, 239–42

Aeschylus, 275

aesthetic moment, perception and, 83–84

aesthetics, 83–84, 87, 222

author’s view of, 197–98

Schopenhauer’s hierarchy of, 87–88, 94

senses in, 192–94

affective synesthesia, 212

afterlife, 172, 274

aging, 243–67, 272

collision with, 243–46, 280–81

as cultural, 254

fear and denial of, 243–47, 258

top ten ways of, 258–67

agrégation exam, 252

ahimsa (nonviolence), 157

air pollution, 145, 147, 162, 167–68

Alcibiades, 18

Alcott, Amos Bronson, 57

“Allegory of the Cave, The” (Plato), 77–78

All Men Are Mortal (Beauvoir), 281

Allport, Alan, 124

All Said and Done (Beauvoir), 260

altruism, 146, 226–27

Amato, Joseph, 49

amor fati (love of fate), 212

amour-propre (self-love), 44–45

Analects of Confucius, The, 57, 170, 173–74, 177, 297

anger, 46–47, 226, 230–31

answers, 31–32

anthropology, 253

anti-Semitism, 218

anxiety, 86, 226

aplastic anemia, 240–41

appreciation, 183–99

appropriateness, perfection vs., 189

archaeology, 34–35

Archimedes, 46

Aristotle, 7, 184, 223

Armstrong, Karen, 33

Arnold, Edwin, 154

artificial intelligence, 224

arts, 217, 287

commerce and, 127

as liberation, 83–84

as reprieve from pessimism, 87

truth and, 213

asceticism, 83, 97, 217

Asclepius, 37

ashrams, 143, 152, 153, 158, 166

ataraxia (lack of disturbance), 107, 115, 116, 140

Athens, 17, 19–21, 34–35, 102–5, 112, 225

attention, 189–90

in acknowledgment, 126

to details, 195–99

existence and, 122–23

morality of, 125

speed and, 183

Weil and, 119–42

authenticity, 53, 257–58

autonomy, 229–32

Baars, Jan, 247

Barber, Samuel, 91

Barkhordian, Elias, 18, 27, 104

b’ezrat hashem (with God’s help), 236

beauty, 62, 183, 287

in Beauvoir’s eyes, 244

creation of, 74

death as, 278

as ephemeral, 190

Gandhi on, 147

Heian cult of, 192–93, 197

of imperfection, 72–73

morality of, 70, 193

in nature, 72–73, 237–38

opinion and, 188

sadness and, 91

seeing vs. understanding of, 66–67

suffering and, 272

unexpected, 186

Beauvoir, Simone de, xvii, 5, 125, 177, 243–67, 272, 279, 281

Beck, Harry, 133

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 90

Berlin Wisdom Project, 224

Bhagavad Gita, 57, 92, 135, 154–55

Bienne, Lake, 49

Big Idea, 131, 195, 252

Birla House, 148, 151, 162

Birth of Tragedy, The (Nietzsche), 210

Blake, William, 74

Book of Rites, The, 173

Borges, Jorge Luis, 94

Bracciolini, Poggio, 111

Bradley, Francis, 123

brahmodya, 33

Brahms, Johannes, 88, 90

British Empire, 152, 154, 158–59

Broadbent, Donald, 123–24

Buddha, 83, 93, 112, 148

Buddhism, 18, 90, 92–93, 112, 190

Café de Flore, 256–57

Cain, William, 301

calligraphy, 192–93

Camus, Albert, 6, 10, 128, 265–66

caste system, 149–50

Castor (the Beaver), 252–53, 256

catastrophe, 225, 235

Categorical Imperative, 249, 251

Catholics, 272

cell phones, dependence on, 65–66

certainty, 218–19

Chabris, Christopher, 295

Chaerephon, 19

change, 224, 229–30

Chenoweth, Erica, 160

childhood mortality, 272

China, xvii, 125, 171–72

Chinese farmer, parable of, 91–92

Chinese philosophy, 57–58, 93

Chinese restaurants, rituals of, 176

choice, 194, 231, 251, 264, 267, 287

conscious, 257

in existentialism, 250

fear in, 114

inevitability of, 258

old age and, 254

paths not taken in, 260

perception as, 285

Christianity, 18, 154

Epicureanism eschewed by, 111

theology of, 214

Christian mysticism, 90

chronos (chronological time), 247

Churchill, Winston, 124, 160

Cicero, 20, 230, 246, 253, 254

civil disobedience, 157

civil rights movement, 159–60

clean thought, 162

Clinton, Bill, 224

Cogito ergo sum, 61

cognitive behavioral therapy, 300

Cohen, Leonard, 91

coincidences, 259

collateral beauty, 287

Colter, Rob, 223, 226, 227–28, 231, 236, 237, 238

daughter of, 240–41

Coming of Age, The (Beauvoir), 253–54, 258

compassion, 80, 180

compromise, 163–64

concentration, attention vs., 128–29

Concord, Mass., 56–58, 63–64, 73–75

Confessions, The (Rousseau), 41

confrontations, 152–53, 158–59, 162

Confucius, Confucianism, 297

death of, 172

five cardinal virtues of, 173, 176

kindness and, 169–81

ritual in, 173–76

statue of, 170–71

Constructive Disengagement, 266

consumer culture, 109–10

control, 229, 241, 256, 286

choice and, 232–33

of one’s destiny, 227

in Stoicism, 236–37

conversation, 80, 281, 287

internal, 63

paying attention in, 130–31

philosophic value of, 21

seeing as, 61

for Socrates, 29–31

Copernican Moment, 261

coping, Stoics on, 221–42

corporal punishment, 58

cowardice, 152, 162

Cramer, Jeff, 73–74

Crates, 225

Crazy Wisdom, 18, 102, 290

Crystal Palace Exhibition, 126–27

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 122

cultural influence, 44

curiosity, 23, 262

Cynics, Cynicism, 10, 17, 223, 225

daemon (voice), 17

Damrosch, Leo, 41, 52

dancers, dance, 212–13, 220

Darkness Visible (Styron), 88

death, dying, 114

of author’s father-in-law, 279

avoidance of topic, 270–71, 275

in cycle of life, 277

early, 27–28

Epicurus on, 106

fear of, 33–34, 245, 271, 276, 279, 281

of friends, 272

good, 279, 280

as loss, 239–40

Montaigne on, 269–83

“practice” for, 278

of Socrates, 36–37, 63, 274

Stoicism on, 239–40

Death of Ivan Ilyich, The (Tolstoy), 33–34

decreation, 132

deep questioning, 31

Delphi, oracle at, 19

Democritus, 19, 102, 112

depression, 88

Descartes, René, 46, 52, 61, 123

desire, 236

and attention, 140

Epicurus’s taxonomy of, 108–10

freedom from, 229

necessary vs. unnecessary, 109

objects vs. subjects of, 140

suffering and, 87, 122

desirelessness, 155

despair, 79, 140, 167

details, attention to, 195–97, 199, 287

determinism, 236–37

dialectic, 21

Dialogues (Plato), 28–31, 36

Diderot, Denis, 45

digital technology, xv–xvi

dining:

rules of, 173

in train travel, 101–2

Diogenes, 17, 224

Dionysian way, 217

Dipylon (Double Gate), 103–4

discomfort, physical, 109

Discourse on Inequality (Rousseau), 44

disengagement, 266

disinterest, 90, 97

disputes, multiple perceptions in, 131

Domitian, Emperor of Rome, 229

Doppler effect, 77

doubt, 252, 261–62, 274

Durant, Will, xiv

Dutch messiah, 130–31

duty, obligation vs., 12

Eco, Umberto, 184

Einstein, Albert, 52

elenchus, 21

email, 96, 193

emergencies, 179–80

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 57, 66, 211

Emile (Rousseau), 43

emotions, 212

corporeal seat of, 46–47

negative, 226

rational thought and, 230–31

empathy, 175, 177–78, 181

Empiricists, 61, 105

Enchiridion (Handbook; Epictetus), 227, 230, 235, 237, 241

enjoyment, pursuit of, 101–17

enlightened kibitzing, 21, 31

enlightenment, 148

environmentalism, 53

Epictetus, xvii, 111–12, 221–42

death and legacy of, 300

slavery of, 227, 229, 300

Socrates’s influence on, 229

Epicureanism, 10, 101–17, 225–26, 238

epicureanism (culinary indulgence), 112

Epicurus, xvii, 93, 166, 188, 223, 233, 260, 286

on death, 271

death of, 111

enjoyment and, 101–17

garden of, 103–5, 111, 112

misinterpretation of, 105

essays, development of, 274–76

Essays (Montaigne), 272

essential suffering, 217

eternal damnation, 214

Eternal Recurrence of the Same, 207–8, 209, 213–19, 235

eternity, 218

ethics, 6–7, 106

Euclid’s Line, 161, 297

eudaimonia (happiness), 35, 106, 286

Evelyn, John, 103

evil, 82

evolution, human, 48–49

examined life, 35–36, 63

Existentialism, 223, 243–67

extreme attention, 122

extroverts, 273

facticity, 250

failure, embracing, 219

false beliefs, 31–32

fame, 134

family, in Confucianism, 174–75

fatalism, 236

fate, 242

acceptance of, 218, 265

in Stoicism, 235–36

fatherhood:

attempts to define, 25–27

critical, 85

Stoicism in, 240–41

Faustina, 8

fear, 114, 226

of aging, 245, 258

of death, 33–34, 245, 271, 279, 281

objects of, 106

feminism, 261

fighting, Gandhi’s approach to, 143–68

filial devotion, 174–75

filter model (bottleneck model), 123–24

Fischer, Louis, 152

flow, 122–23, 138, 212

flute, of Schopenhauer, 86–87

flutterings, 274

flux, 48, 49

foamers (train enthusiasts), xiv–xv

focus, paying attention vs., 133

forced victory, 163

forgetfulness, 9, 139, 259

Foucault, Michel, 71

Founding Fathers, 224, 238

Four Noble Truths, 112

Four-Part Cure, 294

France:

author and Sonya’s trip to, 247–52, 254–56, 275, 283

Nazi occupation of, 134–35

Franciscans, 164

freedom:

condemned to, 250

forfeiting of, 257

walking and, 40, 45

Free French movement, 134–38

French Enlightenment, 103

Freud, Sigmund, 85

friendship, 116, 260

Frith, William, 127–28

fugitive moments, 287

Full Gandhi maneuver, 160–61

Galen, 9

Gandhi, Mohandas K., xviii, 188, 276, 277, 282, 297

appearance and personal style of, 148, 152

author’s fascination with, 143, 148, 150–51, 153, 166, 168

death of, 148, 150, 165–66, 168, 297

eleven vows of, 166

father of, 162–63

India’s future envisioned by, 145, 167

influences on, 157, 228

pivotal moment for, 146–47

resistance of, 143–68

shortcomings of, 153–54, 162–63, 166

Gandhi, Rajmohan, 153, 157

gardens, 103–5, 110–12, 198

Gay Science, The (The Joyful Wisdom) (Nietzsche), 211

geeks, 198–99

generosity, 35–36

Genghis Khan, 178

genius, 250

German philosophy, 89, 93

germophobes, 124

glancing, 72, 75

goals, internal vs. external, 230

God:

Nietzsche on, 207, 209

philosophical questions about, 18–19

gods, 106, 114

Golden Rule, 173

good death, 279, 280

good enough, 233–34, 287

good questions, 33

Gorgias, 21, 246

Gorgias (Plato), 30

Gould, Stephen Jay, 178

gratitude, 80, 110–11, 116, 217

Great Asymmetry, 178

Great Bed Question, 6–7, 10–13

Great Harmony, 175

Great Summing Up, 259

grief, 239–40, 272

Groundhog Day (film), 204–5, 207–8, 209, 215, 219–20

guilt, 259

habit, value of, 263–64

Hadot, Pierre, 10

Hadrian, 8, 229

Handbook (Epictetus), 227, 230, 235, 237, 241

handwriting, attention to, 129–30

happiness, 35–36, 84, 90, 105, 242

attention and, 138

friendship and, 260

personal responsibility for, 238

Rousseau’s achievement of, 52

hatred, 262

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 59

Hays, Gregory, 10

hearing, 66, 74

Heart of Philosophy, The (Needleman), 16

hedonic treadmill, 116

Hegel, Friedrich, 91

Heian period, 192–93, 197

Heidegger, Martin, 93

Hemingway, Ernest, 141, 211, 296

Heraclitus, 10, 48, 102

heroin addiction, 140

Heschel, Abraham, 53

Hesse, Hermann, 194

Hinduism, 58, 92, 154

Historical and Descriptive Account of British India, The, 58

Hitler, Adolf, 132, 160, 178, 218

Hobbes, Thomas, 46, 177

Holocaust, 160

Homer, 66

hope, 258

Horace, 281

“how” questions, 20

“how to” questions, xvii, xviii, 60

Hugo, Victor, 39

human nature, 177, 180

cruelty and kindness in, 178

social habit vs., 44–45

Hume, David, 6–7

humility, 165

Hussein, Saddam, 233–34

I Ching (Book of Changes), 171

Idealists, Idealism, 81–82

idleness, 264, 280

ignorance, 19, 26, 30, 32, 229

illness, as preparation for death, 280

illumination, questioning for, 30–31, 34

illusion, 77–78, 80

imagination, 52, 175

“Imagine” (Lennon song), 175–76

immortality, 281

impatience, 120, 129–31, 221–22

imperfection, fondness for, 191

Imperial Palace (Kyoto), 187, 191

impermanence, 190, 198, 239, 242, 286

inattentional blindness, 295

inconsistency, 276

India, xvii, 112, 143, 185

British Empire in, 152, 154, 158–59

cultural navigation in, 143–45, 148, 149, 155–56, 164, 168

Gandhi’s vision for future of, 145, 155, 165, 167

independence movement in, 143, 155, 167

social inequality in, 149–50

Indian philosophy, 33, 57–58, 82, 92–93

indifferents, 227–28, 242

inductive reasoning, 21

industrialization, in India, 145

inertia, 7

information:

bombardment with, 124

data vs., 96

meaning vs., 22

wisdom vs., xiii–xiv

inner voice, 97

innocent ignorance, 19

inshallah (God willing), 236

insight, information vs., 96

insomnia, 9

instinct, 212

intellectual impatience, 131

intelligence:

of the heart, 51

noise tolerance and, 95

rational, 238

Intermittent Luxury, 233, 234

Internet, clamor of, 95–97

interpersonal relationships, 11–12

introverts, 273

intuition, 80

invisible-gorilla study, 295

Ionesco, Eugène, 262

Irvine, William, 226

Islam, 154, 236

Isocrates, 246

isolation, 68

Thoreau’s experiment in, 57, 59, 71

Itoya (stationery store), 191

Jain religion, 157

James, Henry, 57, 59

James, Henry, Sr., 59

James, William, 59, 93, 122–23, 129

Japan, xviii, 103, 183–84, 185, 187, 191, 197–98, 239

Jaspers, Karl, 19

jealousy, 226

Jefferson, Thomas, 111–12

Jennifer (author’s friend), 32–34, 218

Jerusalem Syndrome, 130

Jesus Christ, 173

Jews, Judaism, 160, 236

John of the Cross, Saint, 135

Journal of Happiness Studies, 107

joy, 248

retrospective, 259

in Stoicism, 160, 226, 235

Joyful Wisdom, The (Nietzsche), 211

judgments, 90, 172, 230–31

Junko (author’s friend), 198–99

junzi (superior person), 176

Just-a-Bit-More-ism, 116

just-so-ism, 189

Kailash (author’s friend), 143–52, 162, 164–68

kairos (appropriate time), 247–48, 264, 266

Kalyanam, Venkita, 297

kami (spirit), 190

Kant, Immanuel, 5, 46, 82, 91, 113, 174, 189, 249, 251

Karen (author’s friend), 226–27

Karr, Mary, 139

Kenkō, Yoshida, 190

Kepos (The Garden), 103–8

Keyserling, Hermann von, 275–76

kindness, 134, 169–81

kinetic pleasure, 109

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 159–60

Kington, Miles, xiii

Klein, Daniel, xvii

knowledge:

imagination vs., 52

information vs., 96

limitations of, 19

old age and, 255

senses in, 269

suffering and, 217–18

vision vs., 61

wisdom and, xiii–xiv, 19

Kreeft, Peter, 17, 30

Krishna, 154

La Boétie, Étienne de, 272, 273

Lao-Tzu, 174

Larkin, Philip, 49

Lascaux caves, 66

Lathe Biosas (Live in obscurity), 105

Lawrence of Arabia (film), 232

Lawrence, T. E., 141, 211, 232

Le Bon, Sylvie, 260–61, 301

Lenin, Vladimir I., 158

Lennon, John, 175–76

li (proper ritual conduct), 173–75, 176

life, reliving of, 207–8, 213–19, 287

life-span contextualism, 224

life stages, xviii–xix

listening, 77–97, 104

Lister, John, 89–90

list making, 184–85

by author, 195, 197–98

of Shōnagon, 187

logos (rational order), 226, 238

London Underground map, 132–33

Long, A. A., 230

losers, 139

loss, 138–42, 160, 184, 211, 224

adversity and, 239–42

love, 250

attention as, 125

family as basis of, 175

Gandhi on, 162–63, 167

luxury, 110

Macaulay, Thomas, 93

Magee, Bryan, 84, 93

Mahavira, 157

Mahler, Gustav, 90

Majer, Friedrich, 92

Makura no Sōshi, see Pillow Book, The

Manu (Gandhi’s grandniece), 148, 153, 165–66

Marcus Aurelius, 3–13, 17, 48, 50, 57, 78, 121, 214, 224, 235, 237, 239, 246, 271, 290

on death, 271

Thoreau compared to, 63, 64

Marriage Test, 216

masculinity, 152

masochism, 42

“massacre,” use of term, 301

mass executions, 158

masturbation, 17–18

Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 224

maybe-ism, 92

McKinney, Meredith, 187

McLynn, Frank, 9

medicine, philosophy compared to, 106

Meditations (Marcus Aurelius), 4, 9–10, 63, 224

melancholy, 15, 91

memories, 47, 122, 255, 258, 259

Mencius, 177, 180

mental noise, 95–97

Mercure de France, 45

Merle, Tom, 112–16

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, xvi, 46

“metaphor,” origin of term, 34

Michelangelo, 262

Michinoku (paper type), 198

Mighty Pause (Socratic pause), 231, 232, 286

Mill, John Stuart, 36

Miller, Henry, 275–76

Miller, Webb, 158–59

minimalism, 141

misanthropism, 86

misdeeds, ignorance and, 26

misliving, xiv, xviii

Miss Oliver, 4, 11, 12–13, 101

mistakes, 216, 274

Monet, Claude, 262

Montaigne, Michel de, 75, 269–83

Montaigne’s tower, 273, 275, 282–83

morals, morality:

art and science and, 45

study and cultivation of, 177–78

mornings, 5–7, 9–13

Morris, Ivan, 192

motherhood, dysfunctional, 85

Môtiers, Rousseau’s aversion to, 43, 47, 50

Mott, John, 147

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 87

mujo (impermanence), 190

multitasking, 123–24

Murdoch, Iris, 132

music, 86–91

Myrmecia (Australian bulldog ant), 83

Nambikwara people, 253

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 124

narcissists, 132

nature:

author’s discomfort with, 42

author’s evolving appreciation of, 53–54

beauty of, 72–73, 237–38

death as part of, 278–79

health benefits of, 110

laws of, 287

living in accord with, 222–23, 233, 237–38

as mercurial, 278

Rousseau’s advocacy for, 42, 44, 53

Thoreau’s attention to, 67

near-death experience, 278, 281

Needleman, Jacob, 16–19, 27–28, 31–32, 104

negative effort, 129

Nero, Emperor of Rome, 229

news media, negative emphasis of, 178

New York City subway, 169, 173, 175–76, 179–81

nice, use of word, 203–4

Nicias, 29

Nietzsche, Friedrich, xvii, xviii, 29, 46, 87, 93, 188, 194, 203–20, 223, 235, 236, 264, 287

appearance and personal style of, 206

death of, 218

health issues of, 206–8, 209–10

insanity of, 218

pivotal moments for, 209–11

as walker, 46

writing style of, 211–13

noise pollution, 94–96

nonexistence, 106, 138

nonresistance, 158–59

nonviolence, 151, 155

of author, 152–53

origin of concept, 157

nonviolent resistance, 159, 160–61, 297

as active, 157–60

in everyday interactions, 163–65

Gandhi’s innovations in, 147

notebooks, author’s, 138–40, 184–85, 239

nothingness, 271

noumenon, 82, 213

NPR, 89, 130, 149, 185, 233

Nussbaum, Martha, 254

obligation, duty vs., 12

obstacles, 11

okashii (delightful), 188, 199

“On Authorship” (Schopenhauer), 95–96

“On Din and Noise” (Schopenhauer), 94

On Foot (Amato), 49

“On Old Age” (Cicero), 253

“On Suicide” (Schopenhauer), 79

On the Nature of Things (Lucretius), 111

“On the Shortness of Life” (Seneca), 120

“On the Suffering of the World” (Schopenhauer), 79

opinions, 31

de-caring about, 261–62

Shōnagon on, 188–89

optimism, 9

oracles, 19

otaku (geek), 198–99

overexamined life, 36

overthinking, 51

ownership, 239

pain, 278

balancing pleasure and, 114–16

empathy for, 124–25

endurance of, 228–29

Stoic acceptance of, 232

pain relief, 107–8

pallium, 8

panic attacks, 9, 86

paper, 190–91

beauty and quality of, 193, 197, 198

Paradise Lost (Milton), 272

paranoia, 52

Paris, author’s father-daughter trip to, 247–52, 254–56, 283

Parkinson’s disease, xv, 280

Parmenides, 19

Pascal, Blaise, 121

passion, 263

passionate heroism, 266

passive resistance, 152, 157

passivity, 129

past, embracing and owning of, 258–60

pathe (emotion), 226

patience, 120, 129–30, 142

Paul VI, Pope, 128

pausing, value of, 24

peace of mind, 107

peace, sense of, 66

Pensées (Pascal), 121

perception:

as choice, 285

reality as, 81–82

senses in, 189–90

as subjective, 234

persistence, 30, 156, 206, 209, 213

perspectivism, 187–88

pessimism, 9, 217, 226

of Schopenhauer, 78–84, 87, 91, 93–94, 96

Pétrement, Simone, 129, 135

Phaedo (Plato), 36

philosopher-king, 8, 184

philosophers:

author’s choice of, xvii–xix

brotherhood of, 5

defined, xiv

early, 19–20

imperfections of, xviii

imprisonment of, 45

old age of, 246

as outliers, 17–18

overreaching by, 252

as practical, xviii

walking pursued by, 46

philosophy, 210, 251

academic perspective of, xvi–xvii

ambivalence and, 7

as corporeal pursuit, 46–47

“doing” of, 251

historical perspective of, xvi

practical results of, 35–36

problematic nature of, 36

schools of, 106

slow pace of, 24

stereotypes of, 225–26

themes of, 194, 205

train travel and, xiv–xvi

uses of, xvi, 57, 78, 219

in various life stages, 223–24

Philosophy Now, xv, 5

Pillow Book, The (Shōnagon), 185–91, 195

plague, 272

Plato, 10, 20, 36, 77–78, 82, 135, 170, 184, 223, 243, 246, 251

Academy of, 104, 114

pleasure, 286, 300

freegoing, 233

“good enough” in, 115–17

primacy of, 107

pursuit of, 101–57

taxonomy of, 188–89

willingness to relive, 215, 216

pleasure decoys, 109–10

Pleasure Paradox (Paradox of Hedonism), 36

poetry:

of habit, 263–64

Heian rituals of, 192–93

philosophy as, xvii

politeness, kindness vs., 169–70

Pompeii, 35

“Pond Scum” (Schulz), 56–57, 59

porcupines, 86, 164, 285

Porcupine’s Dilemma, 86

pornography, 87

positive affect, 107

possibility, 283

Potidaea, battle of, 24, 30

pre-emotions (proto-passions), 231, 287

premeditatio malorum (premeditated adversity), 234–35, 241, 286

Principal Doctrines (Epicurus), 105–6

procedural knowledge, 224

progress:

change vs., 96

illusion of, 265

projects, 248, 250, 256, 267

existential, 250

passion for, 263

Protestants, 272, 301

prudence, 114

Pullman, George, 101

Pyrrho, 112

Pythagoras, 19, 213–14

questions, questioning, 15–37, 63, 78, 212, 267, 283

Quiet Car, 55–56, 75, 77

Rabin, Yitzhak, 301

racial discrimination, 146–47

Railway Station, The (Frith), 127–28

Rajdhani Express, 156, 167

Rationalists, 61

Reagan, Ronald, 5, 262

reality:

flow in perception of, 122–23

as mental construct, 81–82

misperception of, 77–78

for Thoreau, 63

reclusiveness, 105

recollection, 259–60

“Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God” (Weil), 128

regrets, 203–20, 259, 264

reincarnation, 208

rejuvenation, 262

relabeling, 231, 242

relationships, 86

relativism of values, 224

Rembrandt, 262

ren (human-heartedness), 173–75, 176

rescue archaeology, 34–35

reserve clauses, 241–42

resignation, acceptance vs., 256

results, process vs., 155

retention, 259

retirement, 257–58

Revaluation of All Values, The (Nietzsche), 218

Reveries of the Solitary Walker (Rousseau), 47–48, 50

Revolutionary War, 57, 292

revolutions, violent vs. nonviolent, 158

Richardson, Hadley, 141

Ring des Nibelungen (Wagner), 211

Riseling, Maurice, ix, xix

ritual, 173–76, 181

Rob (psychologist), 110–11

Roeper, Stephen, 84–86, 96

Romanticism, 43

room tone, 66

Roosevelt, Franklin, 224

Rossini, Gioachino, 87, 97

Rousseau, Isaac, 41

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, xviii, 78, 85, 104, 124, 158, 177, 192, 203, 209, 211, 212, 285

as antisocial, 41–44, 47, 50

death of, 52

moment of revelation for, 45

as outlier, 43, 47, 254

walking for, 39–54, 65

Rousseau museum, 43

routine, 205

Roy, Mr., 156

Ruskin, John, 39–40

Russell, Bertrand, 263, 266

saccades, 72

sadness, 90–91, 198

Sagan, Carl, 20

Saint-Pierre, 47, 49–50, 53

sakura (cherry blossoms), 190

Salomé, Lou, 206

Salt March, 143, 158

sannyasi (Hindu ascetic), 58

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 46, 245, 249, 250

Beauvoir and, 253, 256–57, 260–61, 264, 301

death of, 261

on other people, 11

satyagraha, 157, 297

see also nonviolent resistance

sauntering, 65, 72

savage man, 44

savlanut (patience), 130, 185

savoring, 67

scanning, 72, 75

Schopenhauer Archives, 78, 84–85, 91, 96

Schopenhauer, Arthur, xviii, 104, 147, 164, 210, 211, 217, 226, 285

belated recognition for, 84–85, 91, 293

collected essays of, 78–79

on death, 271

early years of, 79, 85–86

Eastern influence on, 92–93

hearing loss of, 294

influence of, 94

on listening, 77–97

music loved by, 86–91, 94

personal peculiarities of, 86

as philosopher of pessimism, 78–84, 87, 91, 93–94, 96

on philosophical writing, 294

Schopenhauer, Johanna, 85

Schulz, Kathryn, 56

Schuman, Michael, 171–72

science, philosophy vs., xvi–xvii

Scruton, Roger, 62

seeing, 55, 78

as deliberate act, 69–70, 74–75

process of, 61–62

slowly, 67

Thoreau on, 58–75

self-acceptance, 279–80

self-compassion, 12

self-help books, 10

self-inspection, 63

self-interrogation, 33

selfishness, 12, 132

self-knowledge, 21

self-loathing, 12, 163

self-pity, 52

self-reliance, 238

self, search for, 73–74

Seneca, 120, 225, 233, 234, 240, 241

senescence, 254

senses, 269

in perception, 105, 189–90

pleasure of, 107

Thoreau’s acuteness of, 60–61, 69

serendipities, 259

setbacks, 285–87

Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence), 141

Sextus Empiricus, 283

sexual pleasure, 107

Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor, 272

Shakespeare, William, 250–51, 300

Shaw, Charles, 115

shinkansen (bullet train), 183–84, 197–98

Shōnagon, Sei, xviii, 183–99, 205, 222, 274, 286, 287

Silvaplana, Lake, 207, 209

Simons, Daniel, 295

simplicity, 71, 205

Siri, 22–23

Sisyphus, 218, 265, 267

skepticism, 206

Skeptics, 273–74

sleep, 3–4, 9

smartphones, xiii, 285–87

smell, sense of, 189

Social Contract, The (Rousseau), 43

social habit, 53

social inequality, 149–50, 192

social media, 95–96

Socrates, xvi, xvii, xviii, 10, 15–37, 50, 63, 66, 78, 80, 102, 132, 170, 172, 211, 212, 225, 229, 247, 248, 252, 286

Confucius compared to, 172

death of, 36–37, 63, 274

idiosyncracies of, 17–18, 30–31

methods of, 21, 24, 33

philosophy influenced by, 17–18, 19–20

Thoreau and, 63

trial of, 17, 36

as walker, 46

on wondering, 15–37

Socratic pause (Mighty Pause), 231, 232, 286

Socratic thinking, 20–21

solipsism, 81

Solnit, Rebecca, 47, 51

Solomon, Robert, 21, 35, 212, 214–15

Sontag, Susan, 184

sophists, 21

Southern Medical Journal, 95

spanking, 42

speed, 129, 133–34

attention and, 183

connectivity and, 286

kindness and, 179–80

relativity of, 39

Spielberg, Steven, 141

Spinoza, Baruch, 91, 113

Spock, Benjamin, 263

starvation, 135–36

static pleasure, 109

Stephan, Maria, 160

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 40

stoa poikile (painted porch), 225

Stockdale, James, 228

Stoic Camp, 221–24, 225, 227, 230, 232, 234, 235–37, 240, 241

Stoicism, Stoics, 10, 12, 104, 111, 144, 221–42, 256, 286

reserve clause in, 236

Story of Philosophy, The (Durant), xiv

storytelling, oral, 88–89

stress, physiological response to, 95

studying, purpose of, 177

Styron, William, 88

subjectivity, in seeing, 62

success, attempts to define, 32–34

suffering, 83

altruistic response to, 226–27

attention to, 125–26

beauty and, 272

discomfort with, 180–81

value of, 204, 217–18

suicide, 88, 136, 301

Camus on, 6, 10

summer solstice, 64–69

superficiality, 71–72

Symposium (Plato), 24

syphilis, 218

tactile sense, 191

Taj Mahal, 272

Take Your Child to Work Day, 26–27

Tastee diner, 26–27

technology:

death and, 279

philosophy dismissed by, xv–xvi

Teenager Test, 216

Teishi, Empress, 191, 197

tetrapharmakos (Four-Part Cure), 106, 112

Thales, 19–20

“That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die” (Montaigne), 276

Themista, 104–5

Theory of Forms, 251

Theosophists, 154

therapeutic philosophy, 106

therapists, 24

therapy, music as, 88

theriac, 9

thinking:

as celebration of life, 213

reading vs., 96

walking and, 46

Thoreau, Henry David, 78, 92–93, 103, 113, 147, 157, 189–90, 213, 223, 262, 274, 285, 286, 287, 292

author’s attempted emulation of, 64–69

birth of, 57

death of, 301

journals of, 60, 62–63

misanthropic bent of, 56–57, 59

persistence of, 301

philosophical influence on, 57–58

physical prowess of, 63

on seeing, 58–75

visual acumen of, 60–61, 65

as walker, 46

Thought Leaders, 131

thought, train of, 15–16

Tibetan Buddhism, 18

time, 247–48

attention and, 136

Tokyo, population density of, 185–86

tolerance, 130

Tolstoy, Leo, 33–34, 94, 157, 258

Top Ten Ways to Grow Old, 258

torpedo fish (electric ray), 29, 33

torture, 228, 229

tourists, 68

train geeks, 199

train travel, xiv–xvi, xvii, xviii, 3–4, 9, 12, 29, 34, 47–48, 77–78, 119–20, 132–34, 136, 141, 143–45, 152, 156, 167–68, 169–70, 173, 175–76, 179, 183–85, 203–4, 211, 221–22, 243–44, 269, 285

dining in, 101–2

evolution of, 39–40

Gandhi’s ambivalence about, 146

happiness and, 199

illusion in, 77–78

list-making in, 197–98

reading and, 295

speed in, 183–84

thought process compared to, 15–16

waiting in, 119–20, 221–22

tranquility, 112

Transcendentalism, 57, 61

transportation, evolution of, 40–41

trust in oneself, 282

truth, 274–75

tuberculosis, 135

Übermensch (overman), 209

uncertainty, 218–19, 224

unfinished business, 266–67

unrealizables, 245

unselfing, 132

Upanishads, 92, 93

urban nomads, 40

urgency, xviii–xix

Valéry, Paul, 266

Vedas, 64, 70, 214

vegetarianism, 157

Verdi, Giuseppe, 262

Vietnam War, 228, 263

View from Above, 238–39, 241

violence:

in Bhagavad Gita, 154–55

escalation of, 159

Gandhi on, 144, 147, 154, 162

iconic sites of, 148

unclean, 163

vision:

physiology of, 72

Thoreau’s acuteness of, 60–61, 69–70

Voltaire, 22, 103

Voluntary Deprivation, 233, 234, 235

wabi (imperfect), 191

Wagner, Richard, 90, 94, 211

waiting, 119–20, 142, 221

Walden, 92

finding one’s own, 73–75

Walden (Thoreau), 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 68, 72–73, 74

Walden Pond, 58, 69, 74

author’s trek to, 65–69, 70–72

Thoreau’s cabin at, 68, 70–71, 73, 292

Walden Woods, 113

Walden Woods Project, 73

walking, 39–54, 134, 192, 207, 219

for Gandhi, 158

in human evolution, 48–49

for Nietzsche, 209

physiology of, 49

in primates, 291

for Rousseau, 39–54, 78

uses of, 51

“Walking” (Thoreau), 58–59, 74

Warburton, Nigel, 81

war protests, 263

Washington, George, 224

Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, A (Thoreau), 60

Weil, André, 124

Weil, Simone, 119–42, 193, 221, 252

appearance and personal style of, 121, 137–38

death and burial site of, 132, 136–38

early years of, 124–25

health issues of, 124, 130, 135, 138

Weiner, Sonya, xviii, 11, 25–27, 29, 42, 88, 139, 141, 215, 216, 235, 239, 240, 257, 269, 272, 282

author’s advice to, 267

author’s Paris trip with, 247–52, 254–56, 275, 283

Weiss, John, 65

wildness, 58

Will:

Internet as digital manifestation of, 97

Schopenhauer on, 82–84, 286

Williams, Robin, 183

will-to-power, 209, 213

Wilson, Leslie, 58–60, 62, 65, 70

wine, 113–15

wisdom:

of Eastern philosophy, 92–93

five criteria for, 224

hunger for, xiii–xiv, 57, 214, 241

knowledge and, 19, 96

of Montaigne, 273

need for, xviii

as portable, 34

transcendence of, xvii

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 24, 127

Woman Destroyed, The (Beauvoir), 262

wonder, wondering, 15–37, 63, 262, 286

wood, 190–91, 194

Wordsworth, William, 51

work, for Beauvoir, 253, 266

World as Will and Representation, The (Schopenhauer), 81, 210

World War I, 124

World War II, 132, 160

worst-case scenarios, 234–35

written word, limitations of, 28–29

wu wei (non-doing), 174

Yoga Express, 143–45, 155, 156, 167

youth, 243, 262

Zarathustra, 207, 209, 211, 212

Zeno, 225, 237

zero, concept of, 296

zoology, Schopenhauer’s interest in, 80, 83, 86, 95

zuihitsu (following the brush), 187, 274

Zweig, Stefan, 210