Ivan Bock

@ivanbock.bsky.social

669 Followers 783 Following

PhD (Phil) student at Stellenbosch Uni. I blog infrequently. Interested in virtue ethics, moral psychology, pragmatism, existentialism, agnosticism, moral anti-realism, and skepticism. Life is luck! Be kind to all! Blog: https://ivanbock.substack.com/

An image containing some pink-ish succulents.
Selfie of the two dogs and myself in the car.
Post image with title: "Freedom Worth Having: A Compatibilist(ish) Theory of Human Freedom and Responsibility".
Just a notice to those interested, the next essay I want to post here will likely be on free will. Similar to how I gave an overview of my preferred approach to philosophy (moderate skepticism) that I can further defend as the blog grows, I want to provide and overview of what I call pragmatic freedom and responsibility, a sort of compatibilist view. Make sure to stay tuned! Also, just to build some anticipation, my draft backlog contains essays on moral psychology and virtue, free will, the problem of evil/indifference, defending moral anti-realism, and an argument against religious belief based on miracles. So be sure to subscribe so you can check these out!
Text from Epictetus' Discourses. It reads: "In our school, we picture the philosopher's goal more or less as follows: bring the will in line with events, so that nothing happens contrary to our wishes and, conversely, nothing fails to happen that we want to happen. Pursue it, and the reward is that neither desire nor aversion will fail in their aims; and we will fill all our roles in society - as son, father, brother, citizen, man, woman, neighbour, fellow voyager, ruler or ruled - without conflict, fear or rancour."
A picture of the Cape Town Waterfront, taken on Redbull's 2025 Flugtag event. There are some boats to the left, a large screen center left, and a blue runway on the right.
Picture of a bird-of-paradise flower (strelitziaceae).
A long passage from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.
A photo composed of two panels of a medium-sized dog lying on a bed. In the first panel, the dog is staring at a ball being held up before them, licking their lips in anticipation. In the second panel, the dog has launched toward the ball, and they are just about to bite the ball with a hugely stretched-out mouth.
An image of two different versions of books from Oxford's A Very Short Introduction series. One is on Hume by A.J. Ayer and the other on Locke by John Dunn.
A screenshot of section 5 in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Wisdom, which summarises the Deep Rationality Theory by Sharon Ryan as: S is wise iff: 1. S has a wide variety of epistemically justified beliefs on a wide variety of valuable academic subjects. 2. S has a wide variety of justified beliefs on how to live rationally (epistemically, morally, and practically). 3. S is committed to living rationally. 4. S has very few unjustified beliefs and is sensitive to her limitations.
A copy of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.
A copy of Frankfurt's On Bullshit.
A picture of a copy of Nietzsche's The Joyous Science to the left with a foamy coffee on the right, both resting on a light brown coffee table.
A picture of a colorful collection of Fyodor Dostoevsky novels that are part of a selected works boxset. The collection contains Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, The House Of The Dead, The Devils, and Notes From The Underground.
Picture of a copy of Plato's Republic. It has the famous School of Athens painting on the cover.
Comics trip of various philosophers iterating on Socrates' claim that the unexamined life is not worth living, with Wittgenstein finally challenging this by asking if it does not make sense that some people don't want to be/enjoy being huge nerds, and the rest expressing disbelief.
Front cover of the 4th volume of the Stellenbosch Socratic Journal.
A picture of the cover of the 4th volume of the Stellenbosch Socratic Journal.
A photo of the cover of the book Philosophers Take On The World.
A picture of the cover of Character and Moral Psychology by Christian B. Miller.
The cover of the Penguin Classics version of William James' Pragmatism and Other Writings.
A picture of an argument with the conclusion that we should all accept our freedom and make of life what we want.
Picture of the book cover for Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Picture of a copy of Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Steven Earnshaw.
A picture of a beautiful blue hardcover copy of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
A photo of the cover of Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism. It is a Penguin Classics edition sporting a colorful cover illustration of the main character, Candide, with a background consisting of some of the aweful events he encounters throughout the book.
A photo of the cover of Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism. It is a Penguin Classics edition sporting a colorful cover illustration of the main character, Candide, with a background consisting of some of the aweful events he encounters throughout the book.