Kieran Setiya

Magnificent writing about pain by William Giraldi @thebaffler.com

How to Be a Dissident by Gal Beckerman: 9798217089215 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An invigorating guide to fighting back—part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift How do we push back in a world where...

A book I very much need (and want) to read: HOW TO BE A DISSIDENT, by @galbeckerman.bsky.social, coming April 21

I regret posting the piece and will stop engaging at this point, but I think she answers that question in the essay, and her answer is parallel to what she says about reading and writing.

That is not her presumption. A major thrust of the piece is that there are ethical reasons to care about process (in writing, reading, and relationships) that are missed if we focus on products or outcomes.

I don’t generally engage on Bluesky but this does not seem like an accurate representation of her piece

You don't have to use AI stop it right now

“I would honestly prefer for a sentient AI to kill every last human being on the planet in some hideously gruesome way than for even one more of us to become the kind of amoral, thoughtless person-shaped vacancy that AI threatens to turn us all into.” — a sober assessment by Becca Rothfeld

“Faustus, after all, was an academic who set out subversively to stretch the boundaries of human knowledge, but wound up squandering his talents … performing feats of necromancy in order to divert successive potentates even wealthier than the families of Greenblatt’s … Harvard students.”

“Given [his] ‘desire to speak with the dead’ … it’s a shame that [Greenblatt] didn’t recognise more of himself in Faustus.”

It’s been a while since I read a review like this: Michael Dobson on Stephen Greenblatt on Christopher Marlowe @lrb.co.uk

Midlife and the Moral Pressure of Limited Time | Kieran Setiya Podcast Episode · The Midlife Chrysalis · February 27 · 1h 2m

I talked to Chip Conley about moral philosophy and midlife

What Does it Mean to Live a Good, Meaningful Life? Despite the (really) Hard Stuff. With Kieran Setiya. Podcast Episode · Untangle · 01/06/2026 · 56m

For the new year: I talked to Patricia Karpas (Untangle) about how to find meaning when life is hard

Tractatus Logico-Calceatus 1. The world is the totality of socks, not shoes. 1.1. “I remember one time when Wittgenstein was mentioning Nietzsche’s remark: ‘We—i. e., philosophers—want to be learnt by heart.’ … he said that he ...

I wrote about Wittgenstein’s socks: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/tractatus-...

Tractatus Logico-Calceatus 1. The world is the totality of socks, not shoes. 1.1. “I remember one time when Wittgenstein was mentioning Nietzsche’s remark: ‘We—i. e., philosophers—want to be learnt by heart.’ … he said that he ...

I wrote about Wittgenstein’s socks: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/tractatus-...

Reader's Digest: Best Books I did more reading than writing this year—at least, so I’m tempted to say; but as I realize mid-sentence, I don’t know what that means. What common metric could make sense of the comparison? Still, it...

I wrote about the best books I read in 2025
ksetiya.substack.com/p/readers-di...

Reader's Digest: Best Books I did more reading than writing this year—at least, so I’m tempted to say; but as I realize mid-sentence, I don’t know what that means. What common metric could make sense of the comparison? Still, it...

I wrote about the best books I read in 2025
ksetiya.substack.com/p/readers-di...

Yes, and… This post is the third in an accidental mini-series on creativity, which started out derivative, took a turn through the need for a certain stupidity, and now goes slightly mad.

I wrote about impro: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/yes-and

Yes, and… This post is the third in an accidental mini-series on creativity, which started out derivative, took a turn through the need for a certain stupidity, and now goes slightly mad.

I wrote about impro: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/yes-and

The Soundtrack of a Generation | Andrew O’Hagan The Oasis reunion tour was a series of football stadium nostalgia-fests, with the fans the unmistakable stars of the show.

‘The biggest rock bands not only make the best noise but talk the most nonsense…’: the opening of a glorious, clear-eyed celebration of Oasis by Andrew O’Hagan in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

‘Their biographers love to describe them as the last of the great rock and roll bands, but actually they were the first of the great karaoke bands…’

‘Oasis is lovable and tuneful and ballsy and hilarious, which is all true. The fact that it is as toxic as glue sniffing doesn’t really matter when the feeling is so good.’

‘the Gallaghers [come] across like a couple of cut-price Descartes with egos the size of England.
“Fuck trees, man,” offered Noel one time. “Dogs piss on them.”
“Fuck the sea,” reasoned Liam.’

The Soundtrack of a Generation | Andrew O’Hagan The Oasis reunion tour was a series of football stadium nostalgia-fests, with the fans the unmistakable stars of the show.

‘The biggest rock bands not only make the best noise but talk the most nonsense…’: the opening of a glorious, clear-eyed celebration of Oasis by Andrew O’Hagan in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.

I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

An Essential Stupidity I discovered William Kentridge by erroneous inference and epistemic luck. Memory said: “This name has come up more than once in recent weeks, in venues that review art exhibitions.” Reason listened, a...

I wrote about William Kentridge: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/an-essenti...

An Essential Stupidity I discovered William Kentridge by erroneous inference and epistemic luck. Memory said: “This name has come up more than once in recent weeks, in venues that review art exhibitions.” Reason listened, a...

I wrote about William Kentridge: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/an-essenti...

Playing a game to tell the truth Two poems by Murdoch are published below Miles Leeson’s essay During her lifetime, only one collection of poems by Iris Murdoch was made widely available: A Year of Birds, first published in 1978. A s...

Newly discovered poetry by Iris Mudoch, introduced by Miles Leeson in the TLS!
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...

‘it is a person’s privilege to go to hell’ Until recently, I knew exactly one story about Alice Ambrose, to whom (along with Francis Skinner), Ludwig Wittgenstein dictated what would come to be known as the “Brown Book” in 1934-35.

I wrote about Alice Ambrose: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/it-is-a-pe...

‘it is a person’s privilege to go to hell’ Until recently, I knew exactly one story about Alice Ambrose, to whom (along with Francis Skinner), Ludwig Wittgenstein dictated what would come to be known as the “Brown Book” in 1934-35.

I wrote about Alice Ambrose: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/it-is-a-pe...

Joy in the Morning A mantra to repeat in the philosophy of self-help: being happy is not the same as living well. Philosophers make the case with “experience machines” that offer streams of blissful, meaningless illusio...

I wrote about the rituals of mourning: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/joy-in-the...

Joy in the Morning A mantra to repeat in the philosophy of self-help: being happy is not the same as living well. Philosophers make the case with “experience machines” that offer streams of blissful, meaningless illusio...

I wrote about the rituals of mourning: Under the Net
ksetiya.substack.com/p/joy-in-the...