After Skool The Benefit of Living With No Purpose - Alan Watts | After Skool
Nov 15, 2025
Alan Watts, a renowned British philosopher, dives deep into the idea of living without a predetermined purpose. He contrasts the dangers of totalitarian control with trusting nature and discusses how modern education often stifles genuine learning. Watts promotes the appreciation of beauty for its own sake, presenting purposelessness as a compliment in Eastern thinking. He provocatively suggests that life's value lies in the experience itself, advocating for a playful approach to existence, free from rigid religious constraints.
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Trust Nature Over Bureaucracy
- Trusting nature reduces the need for excessive control and surveillance.
- Overemphasis on records and administration can undermine a university's true purpose of scholarship.
Leisure Is Core To Scholarship
- Scholarship originally meant leisure to study what's unnecessary for survival.
- Valuing playful, purposeless study nourishes health and humane behavior.
Play Without Instrumental Goals
- Don't make play a means to an end; play for its own sake.
- Cultivate attitudes that let you enjoy simple things without extracting usefulness.
