Philosophilo

One passage a day from a philosopher's own words, a page to think it through, and the philosopher to ask.

Philosophilo is a quiet place to study philosophy the old way: one idea a day, in the philosopher's own words, with a page to think it through.

Choose a mentor. Aristotle, Socrates, Confucius, Mengzi, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Lao Tzu, Camus or Musashi. Each has a course of about thirty sessions, arranged in chapters, that walks through what they actually argued.

Every day brings one passage. It is quoted word for word from a named translation, never paraphrased and never invented. Under it sits a short reading that explains what the passage says, what it means, and why it still bites, and one question about your own day. Write your answer in the journal, or ask the mentor directly.

Ask about this. Every passage and every reading opens a dialogue with the mentor, who answers in their own voice from their own ideas. Push back, ask for an example, ask what they'd say to a friend in your situation.

Keep a journal. Your reflections stay with the passage that prompted them. Read them back a month later and see what has changed.

Earn your standing. Progress is not points. It is where you stand with each mentor, from Listener to Master, and how many days in a row you have read.

A home screen widget shows today's passage and your place in the course.

Sources. Passages come from public-domain translations on Project Gutenberg and Wikisource (Jowett, Legge, Long, Abbott, Zimmern, Saunders and others), each checked against the original text. Camus and Musashi, who have no public-domain English translation, are quoted in short attributed excerpts. The full list is in Settings.

No feeds, no streaks that shame you, no confetti. One passage, one page, one conversation, every day.