Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated) - PaleoHacks.com

Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-09-30T21:38:33Z

I'm a philosophy nut. When I think of the joys of being paleo, I often think of a scene in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra where Zarathustra exits his cave, picks up an apple, smells it, and is overcome with joy. Later in the same scene he is enjoying the view from his cliff of the sky and earth, and feels very at home.

I could think of a few others too, but I think one example suffices. Can anyone recommend a good book or philosopher (from any era) that seems to embody some of the bigger principles behind eating Paleo?

Edit: What about mindfulness practices/philosophy?

EDIT: I discovered a book that some may like, called Free Play. It's mainly a book on improvisation, but says a lot of interesting things on following instincts, and what it means to strive for one's limits in the art of living.

Several people have also recommended reading The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris.

Peace, Caleb

Answer by none for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T00:01:33Z

i am partial to Oak0y, bless the organism's soul.

Answer by whakahekeheke for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T01:48:24Z

Walden by Thoreau

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

Self-Reliance by Emerson

All things real are so by so much virtue as they contain. Commerce, husbandry, hunting, whaling, war, eloquence, personal weight, are somewhat, and engage my respect as examples of its presence and impure action. I see the same law working in nature for conservation and growth. Power is in nature the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul...

Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, but he fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanac he has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his libraries overload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; and it may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have not lost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishments and forms, some vigor of wild virtue.

And their literary influencees, like Jack Kerouac:

I want to be left alone. I want to sit in the grass. I want to ride my horse. I want to lay a woman naked in the grass on the mountainside. I want to think. I want to pray. I want to sleep. I want to look at the stars. I want what I want. I want to get and prepare my own food, with my own hands, and live that way. I want to roll my own. I want to smoke some deer meat and pack it in my saddlebag, and go away over the bluff. I want to read books. I want to write books. I’ll write books in the woods. Thoreau was was right; Jesus was right. It’s all wrong and I denounce it and it can all go to hell. I don’t believe in this society, but I believe in man, like Mann. So roll your own bones, I say.

Answer by Paul Brin for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T01:52:34Z

Was it Nietzsche who said what doesn't kill you really hurts? But really, The righteous individual eats for the purpose of satiating the soul (Proverbs 13:25).

Answer by Scrubjay for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T02:50:51Z

Good question! I was initially thinking about the classics, but then, like the poster above, I considered contemporary thinkers. Oak0y, for sure! But he/she seems to have disappeared? I'm kind of new here, so a little confused. Like I said, great question, and hopefully Oak0y will will chime in!

Edit: Not the poster above: Like I said, new to posting here. The poster's comments, "Meredith" is what I referring to.

Answer by Chickenosaurus Rex for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T03:33:48Z

I like Plato's allegory of the cave.

Answer by Gordon for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T20:06:57Z

Ayn Rand, Rousseau, Aristotle, Aquinas, Spencer (in that order, though I'd also include Nietzsche). Each, by placing human nature at the forefront of their ethical theory, aligns themselves with whatever conclusions can be drawn from the science of nutrition.

Answer by Geoff for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2011-10-01T20:56:13Z

The Stoics. Their maxim was "live according to nature."

"Our individual natures are part of universal nature. Hence the chief good is life according to nature, that is, according to one's own and to universal nature." - Zeno of Cittium (founder of Stoicism)

Here is some more on the Stoics view of nature;

(2) The only harm that anything can experience devolves from resisting the law of nature. Inanimate matter and non-sentient life cannot resist those laws. Human beings can choose to oppose nature's plan, but such resistance is always futile and the only harm such resistance can exact is to deprive those actors from the peace, serenity and enlightenment that will come to those who live in accord with nature's design. But even in those cases, unhappy people will eventually die, and their substance will be reabsorbed back into the nature from which they came.

http://russellmcneil.blogspot.com/2009/05/nature-is-harmless-meditations-of.html

Answer by BaconHealsChic for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2012-01-30T18:08:18Z

I eat bacon. Therefore I am.

--Descarte

Answer by Allan for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2012-01-31T23:34:05Z

I think Paleo would make a ton of sense to Aristotle. Considering things according to their final cause is why both his philosophy and Paleo make sense to me.

Answer by thhq for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2012-02-01T00:33:56Z

A philosophy of paleo eating. Here are two ideas.

Robin Hanson's short essay is doggerel, but the main contention is that farm animals would not get to exist at all unless we ate them. [This is my stock answer to milk is for baby cows.]

http://hanson.gmu.edu/meat.html

Paleos didn't leave anything written behind, but they left visual records of their philosophy of eating. Stare at some paleo cave paintings and shell middens. Where are the vegetables, fruits and grains?

Answer by Energymonkey for Favorite Paleo-friendly philosophers/philosophy? (updated)

2012-08-10T10:52:38Z

Check out anything by Frank Forencich. "Exuberant Animal" and "Change your Body, Change the World" are two good books that I have read thus far. His blog is www.exuberantanimal.com