What is a Good Life? #5 - Building a personal life philosophy with James Cussen

On the fifth episode of the “What is a Good Life?” podcast, I am joined by James Cussen, the Creator at The Living Philosophy.

I discovered James’ work through his well-received YouTube channel of the same name, The Living Philosophy. I’d strongly recommend this to anyone with a curiosity for philosophy or a desire to broaden their thinking.

Since devouring a copy of Albert Camus’s The Outsider as a teenager, philosophy has taken James on a journey from despair to immense purpose. His content, guidance, and ideas, have a strong emphasis on the importance of embodying the wisdom of philosophy and learning the art of the good life, so naturally I felt he’d be an ideal guest for this podcast. 

In this podcast we discuss discovering purpose, focussing on the collective’s well-being as well as our own, building your own personal philosophy, the role of curiosity in James’ personal philosophy, and the considerable significance of family and close relationships in experiencing a good life.

Running Order: 

00:01 Introduction

01:50 How James discovered philosophy

04:55 Finding purpose

06:52 Focus on the collective

11:26 Balancing self-work and helping society

14:13 Preconventional, conventional, postconventional morality

18:10 Using my work to bring everyone to the table

21:20 Processes for self-development

23:20 Ayahuasca

28:10 Acknowledging what could be beyond the material

32:30 Racing to enlightenment!

35:15 Anthony DeMello

37:50 Simple doesn’t mean easy

42:40 Simplicity or complexity

45:35 Deeper understanding

48:35 Building your own philosophy

53:30 A tool for cataloguing ideas / thoughts / dreams

55:58 Gardening my thoughts

58:53 Curiosity is a golden virtue

1:01:30 The more I know, the less sure I am

1:05:12 Well-being and truth

1:09:00 What is a Good Life for James?
1:11:44 The importance of relationships

For further content and information check out the following: 

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- The Living Philosophy YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLivingPhilosophy

- The Living Philosophy Website: https://www.thelivingphilosophy.com/

- The Living Philosophy newsletter: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel for daily clips and weekly reflections.