Just googling for some related ideas I found:

1) The Axel age, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_Age, 2) The concept of liminarity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality

I think Hume ideas, http://www.iep.utm.edu/hume/, for example about utilitarity, and his idea that there is no permanent self. Obvious, is your dynamic self is shaped by rituals then you can apply practice makes perfect techniques. A recent comment about good study habits suggested small time habits better than a strict but non-real schedule that in the end you are not going to adhere to. Also there is a very old book, whose name I cannot recall now, about Chinese culture and the art of living, in which the main insight is that Chinese culture is not about a formal system of rules, but about embracing nature and learning practical skills, that is you learn to live your life by living (repl) read (sensor model) eval (action model) print (show off yourself in society and take liability of your acts) and loop (think about how to improve). In the interview the interviewer notes that the author use the words great, good question, ...

So my takeaway is that a professor of 101 philosophy should motivate (positively) students to question their assumptions , that's the role of philosophy, and that is good to sell books. On the other hand, a bad cop is needed to say students that they know nothing and that perhaps this book, beyond motivating them to think about philosophy, is null. But the ultimate role of philosophy is to make you think by yourself, so a null thing can be a good think, the media is the message.

Edit: Recalled the book name: Author Lin Yutang, China - The Art of Living. Don't follow if you need a pay check.

user:	KCFforecast
created:	March 20, 2017
karma:	5