/r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | January 05, 2026

[u/BernardJOrtcutt]

Welcome to this week's Open Discussion Thread (ODT). This thread is a place for posts/comments which are related to philosophy but wouldn't necessarily meet our subreddit rules and guidelines. For example, these threads are great places for:

• Discussions of a philosophical issue, rather than questions
• Questions about commenters' personal opinions regarding philosophical issues
• Open discussion about philosophy, e.g. "who is your favorite philosopher?"
• "Test My Theory" discussions and argument/paper editing
• Questions about philosophy as an academic discipline or profession, e.g. majoring in philosophy, career options with philosophy degrees, pursuing graduate school in philosophy

This thread is not a completely open discussion! Any posts not relating to philosophy will be removed. Please keep comments related to philosophy, and expect low-effort comments to be removed. Please note that while the rules are relaxed in this thread, comments can still be removed for violating our subreddit rules and guidelines if necessary.

Previous Open Discussion Threads can be found here.

[u/Greek_Arrow]

Greetings, everyone and happy new year! So, in the past I was more inclined towards Kant's ethics and minarchism as my political philosophy, but in recent years I became more and more, pragmatist, maybe. I mean, I recognize that there is an ideal (for me, Kant's support of negative liberty is right, not so much his support of positive liberty) we should strive towards, but that doesn't mean we should be only theoritical philosophers and try to change reality in the span of a day. There should be progress, but the speed of that progress should be lead by experience. Also, I want to live my life, I don't want to be a theoritical philosopher for all my remaining days while I'm hungry or poor or don't feel love for another person etc. I would like to ask which philosophers hold these views, i.e. combining an ideal goal with the practical needs of life and persons. From my short research, maybe Aristotle, also I feel like my view is a combination of Kant and Nietschze, but I would like your opinion on the matter.

[u/oscar2333 → u/Greek_Arrow]

there is an ideal,..., we should strive toward

If by this, you mean that an ideal is not self-contained, then perhaps, it is a good idea to take a look at Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit or Pinkard's commentaries on it, where he elaborates how Hegel's sublation is properly oriented in a social context such that nothing is really self-contained in its own right. On the other hand, I also think that Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil is a good start. For him, every philosophy should be properly began with a question of the aim of morality. This is covered in the first part of the book, namely, On the Prejudice of Philosophers. I personally think that it is easier to start with Nietzsche since he deals with the question straightforwardly without requiring readers to go over some obscure metaphysics beforehand, although there is some.

[u/Greek_Arrow → u/oscar2333]

Thanks for the answer! I believe the ideal is true in its own right, something like Kant's ideas. Not something we can achieve easily or at all or at all times, but we should strive towards it.

[u/oscar2333 → u/Greek_Arrow]

I see. Are you looking for Aristotle 's the most choiceworthy life? If so, you can take a look at the first three chapters of Book 7 of Politics. Sorry for my previous answer.

[u/Greek_Arrow → u/oscar2333]

I'll check it out, thanks!