philosophy

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion..

  Albert Camus 

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Philosophy was my first love as an undergraduate, and after taking a range of first year courses, including statistics, economics, philosophy and sociology, I chose philosophy and graduated with a first from Reading University in 1978. I continued all the way through Oxford, taking the prestigious B.Phil. I didn't take to Oxford philosophy though; seeing it as dry, dull and unoriginal; so I took my Ph.D. in Warwick. Thereafter, there were hardly any career opportunities in philosophy, so I switched to computing in the mid 80s. I think this was a very good move.

First Return in Midlife: the Conversations

I returned in later life to the subject, but the philosophy that I wrote was very different from that in which I had been educated. The first return was in 2004, when I wrote Conversations of Taoist Master Fu Hsiang. This was a short philosophical treatise, written as a dialogue in the manner of Plato, designed to teach Taoism. Actually, the Conversations held strong elements of gnostic Christianity and neo-Platonism that crept upon me unawares. The Conversations is therefore a bridge between the Eastern and the Western mind. You can purchase this book over Amazon.

Second Return in Later Life: Bending the Wyrd

I've had an unusual life, in that the spirit world has intruded upon me much more so that with many others. During a fifteen year period, I had to battle adepts of the Left Hand Path, who belong to what is referred to in popular culture as the Dark Side. The attentions of the Dark Side changed the way I viewed the universe.

Subsequently when I came to write my autobiography, Bending the Wyrd, in 2024, much was written on the psychosphere and the darker aspects of it. Bending the Wyrd is full of esoteric philosophy. At the time of writing, it is being considered for publication by John Hunt publishers. You can learn more about it here. Watch this space to learn more.

I also opened a philosophy channel on Youtube, but have been engaged in other matters and have not pursued it. There is a book of philosophical essays of which the video on Youtube is the first, but the book has not yet been released.

copyright (c) Mark Tarver 2025