The Partially Human Philosophy
We Are Part Human and Part Animals
Humans are just fancy monkeys wearing pants. Our brains still have all the same functionality as dinosaurs, dogs, and monkeys. Most of the time we are operating from that animal programming.
One small chunk of our brain (the pre-frontal cortex) is what makes us so fancy, separating us from animals that don’t have the awareness or intellect necessary to create advanced, sophisticated, civilized societies. But our brain is not fancy enough to make us fully rational, reasonable, objective, happy people. In fact, our default programming wires us for a buttload of delusion and suffering.
We Need to Befriend Our Animals
The only way out is through. Each of us fancy monkeys has a personal imperative to integrate the disparate factions in our brain by developing conscious awareness of our mind, learning to spot and disarm our inner animals.
We must train our minds to operate from a higher level of consciousness, quieting the animals’ voices when they are clouding our thinking, because our mind is both our greatest asset and our greatest liability in our pursuit of a good life. Indeed, our mind is all we really have, so there is nothing more important than using it wisely. This is the path to greater wholeness and contentment, less suffering, and more happiness.
We All Just Want to Be Happy
Fancy monkeys and the more primitive animals in our brains all have one thing in common: they want to be happy. The optimal happiness strategies take into account this complex cast of characters. We don’t blindly follow the urges of one sect if it hurts the others. Paying careful attention to our mind, feelings, and moment-to-moment experience is how we develop the ability to see the consequences of our thoughts and actions clearly. Without the ability to dispassionately see cause-and-effect we are doomed to act out destructive patterns that make our lives and the world worse. Unclear thinking leads to misery.
We deserve happiness. But we can’t pursue happiness directly. And no one else can hand happiness to us. And we certainly can’t obtain it by trying to satiate our cravings, desires, and urges with external things. Happiness is a byproduct of training your mind and living a good life.
We Must Live a Good Life
Why would you choose to do anything but lead a good life? It is the only logical pursuit. Figuring out how to implement that goal into our day-to-day activities and decisions is no small feat. Each of us fancy monkeys must take personal responsibility for doing what is within our control to be a good person, contribute meaningfully to the world, and live well. This is not easy. It takes time, effort, persistence, and insight.
We Iterate Our Way to Insight and a Good Life
There is no instruction manual for a good life. We know we can’t follow a step-by-step guide or believe dogma to gain wisdom. Instead, we pay careful attention. We get very curious about how our actions impact our lives. We experiment intelligently—finding our way by trial and error. We aim at making something better. We learn from that experience and then try to make something else better. And then another thing. And on and on we improve things for the rest of our days. Relying on that potent combination of insight and action, we live a happy, healthy, productive life filled with meaning and purpose.
Get Started
Follow the Partially Human Process to experiment your way to a good life. Click the link below to learn the steps.
The Process