Kieran Setiya
@ksetiya.bsky.social
MIT philosopher; would-be self-help guru; master of the semi-colon; substack: http://bit.ly/-ksetiya; podcast: http://bit.ly/-five-q; home: http://bit.ly/-ks-home
“we cannot simply pick up where Maimonides left off, optimizing our bathroom habits so as to devote ourselves to the intellectual love of God”: from an illuminating essay by Carlos Fraenkel @thetls.bsky.social
Everything in moderation
How should we live? Socrates famously claimed that this is the question we must take “more seriously” than any other. We all want to live a successful,
the-tls.com
“My insomnia had no cause but its effects were everywhere, which is one of Aristotle’s definitions of God“: @vincenzo.bsky.social on terminal insomnia @yalereview.bsky.social
Vincenzo Latronico's Object of Desire: A Night's Sleep
My insomnia had no cause but its effects were everywhere, which is one of Aristotle's definitions of God. Vincenzo Latronico on four decades of…
yalereview.org
“My insomnia had no cause but its effects were everywhere, which is one of Aristotle’s definitions of God“: @vincenzo.bsky.social on terminal insomnia @yalereview.bsky.social
Vincenzo Latronico's Object of Desire: A Night's Sleep
My insomnia had no cause but its effects were everywhere, which is one of Aristotle's definitions of God. Vincenzo Latronico on four decades of…
yalereview.org
Magnificent writing about pain by William Giraldi @thebaffler.com
The Baffler@thebaffler.com · 5mo agoWith “This is the Door,” Darcey Steinke looks for words to communicate the infinite depths of pain, whether mental breakdown or physical torment. William Giraldi also wonders what lies beneath the suffering, beyond more suffering.
A book I very much need (and want) to read: HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT, by @galbeckerman.bsky.social, coming April 21
How to Be a Dissident by Gal Beckerman: 9798217089215 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
An invigorating guide to fighting back—part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift How do we push back in a world where...
penguinrandomhouse.com
“I would honestly prefer for a sentient AI to kill every last human being on the planet in some hideously gruesome way than for even one more of us to become the kind of amoral, thoughtless person-shaped vacancy that AI threatens to turn us all into.” — a sober assessment by Becca Rothfeld
You don't have to use AI
stop it right now
afeteworsethandeath.substack.com
It’s been a while since I read a review like this: Michael Dobson on Stephen Greenblatt on Christopher Marlowe @lrb.co.uk
I talked to Chip Conley about moral philosophy and midlife
Midlife and the Moral Pressure of Limited Time | Kieran Setiya
Podcast Episode · The Midlife Chrysalis · February 27 · 1h 2m
podcasts.apple.com
For the new year: I talked to Patricia Karpas (Untangle) about how to find meaning when life is hard
What Does it Mean to Live a Good, Meaningful Life? Despite the (really) Hard Stuff. With Kieran Setiya.
Podcast Episode · Untangle · 01/06/2026 · 56m
podcasts.apple.com
I wrote about Wittgenstein’s socks: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/tractatus-...
Tractatus Logico-Calceatus
1. The world is the totality of socks, not shoes. 1.1. “I remember one time when Wittgenstein was mentioning Nietzsche’s remark: ‘We—i. e., philosophers—want to be learnt by heart.’ … he said that he ...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about Wittgenstein’s socks: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/tractatus-...
Tractatus Logico-Calceatus
1. The world is the totality of socks, not shoes. 1.1. “I remember one time when Wittgenstein was mentioning Nietzsche’s remark: ‘We—i. e., philosophers—want to be learnt by heart.’ … he said that he ...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about the best books I read in 2025 ksetiya.substack.com/p/readers-di...
Reader's Digest: Best Books
I did more reading than writing this year—at least, so I’m tempted to say; but as I realize mid-sentence, I don’t know what that means. What common metric could make sense of the comparison? Still, it...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about the best books I read in 2025 ksetiya.substack.com/p/readers-di...
Reader's Digest: Best Books
I did more reading than writing this year—at least, so I’m tempted to say; but as I realize mid-sentence, I don’t know what that means. What common metric could make sense of the comparison? Still, it...
ksetiya.substack.com
‘The biggest rock bands not only make the best noise but talk the most nonsense…’: the opening of a glorious, clear-eyed celebration of Oasis by Andrew O’Hagan in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Soundtrack of a Generation | Andrew O’Hagan
The Oasis reunion tour was a series of football stadium nostalgia-fests, with the fans the unmistakable stars of the show.
nybooks.com
‘The biggest rock bands not only make the best noise but talk the most nonsense…’: the opening of a glorious, clear-eyed celebration of Oasis by Andrew O’Hagan in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
The Soundtrack of a Generation | Andrew O’Hagan
The Oasis reunion tour was a series of football stadium nostalgia-fests, with the fans the unmistakable stars of the show.
nybooks.com
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
bostonreview.net
I wrote about William Kentridge: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/an-essenti...
An Essential Stupidity
I discovered William Kentridge by erroneous inference and epistemic luck. Memory said: “This name has come up more than once in recent weeks, in venues that review art exhibitions.” Reason listened, a...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about William Kentridge: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/an-essenti...
An Essential Stupidity
I discovered William Kentridge by erroneous inference and epistemic luck. Memory said: “This name has come up more than once in recent weeks, in venues that review art exhibitions.” Reason listened, a...
ksetiya.substack.com
Newly discovered poetry by Iris Mudoch, introduced by Miles Leeson in the TLS! www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
Playing a game to tell the truth
Two poems by Murdoch are published below Miles Leeson’s essay During her lifetime, only one collection of poems by Iris Murdoch was made widely available: A Year of Birds, first published in 1978. A s...
the-tls.com
I wrote about Alice Ambrose: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/it-is-a-pe...
‘it is a person’s privilege to go to hell’
Until recently, I knew exactly one story about Alice Ambrose, to whom (along with Francis Skinner), Ludwig Wittgenstein dictated what would come to be known as the “Brown Book” in 1934-35.
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about Alice Ambrose: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/it-is-a-pe...
‘it is a person’s privilege to go to hell’
Until recently, I knew exactly one story about Alice Ambrose, to whom (along with Francis Skinner), Ludwig Wittgenstein dictated what would come to be known as the “Brown Book” in 1934-35.
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about the rituals of mourning: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/joy-in-the...
Joy in the Morning
A mantra to repeat in the philosophy of self-help: being happy is not the same as living well. Philosophers make the case with “experience machines” that offer streams of blissful, meaningless illusio...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about the rituals of mourning: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/joy-in-the...
Joy in the Morning
A mantra to repeat in the philosophy of self-help: being happy is not the same as living well. Philosophers make the case with “experience machines” that offer streams of blissful, meaningless illusio...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about Jonathan Lear on the virtue of irony: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/becoming-h...
Becoming human is not that easy
“In what did Socrates’ irony really lie?”, Søren Kierkegaard asked, and answered rhetorically: "In expressions and turns of speech, etc.? No, such trivialities, even his virtuosity in talking ironical...
ksetiya.substack.com
I wrote about Jonathan Lear on the virtue of irony: Under the Net ksetiya.substack.com/p/becoming-h...
Becoming human is not that easy
“In what did Socrates’ irony really lie?”, Søren Kierkegaard asked, and answered rhetorically: "In expressions and turns of speech, etc.? No, such trivialities, even his virtuosity in talking ironical...
ksetiya.substack.com
Zadie Smith writes about a secret breakthrough in non-fiction: the SIX paragraph essay! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
The Art of the Impersonal Essay, by Zadie Smith
In my experience, every kind of writing requires some kind of self-soothing Jedi mind trick, and, when it comes to essay composition, the rectangle is mine.
newyorker.com
