Philosophical Exercises

by Pierrick Simon (1 255 words) Napoleon's Death Mask  (black and white) A hound startled by its own prey. This was Hamlet’s countenance upon passing through the secret doorway. In stupor, he forgot where he was off to and, in that place, what he was meaning to do. There was no discretion in the way he stumbled into the chamber; with a long noble sword by his side and shaky hands. So, looking at himself in the mirror as if at a stranger, how was he to know the lengths he was ready to go to? But there, silent, in the dark, was another man. Perhaps not who Hamlet was meant to meet now, but certainly he who had occupied the prince’s every unsleeping thought for a while – and dismantled his sense of space – and dismantled his sense of time – and who by chance, providence, or something darker, had found himself there without guards. King Claudius had killed Hamlet’s father. Of that Hamlet was nearly absolutely sure. King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, had hidden the deed under a shro...

In February 2026, I did my best to learn the True Names of all manner of things. With this admittedly strange phrase, I am referring to an exercise inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. In this story, a master wizard shows the main character a humble little plant and says: “ When you know the fourfoil in all its seasons root and leaf and flower, by sight and scent and seed, then you may learn its true name ”. This is how it’s done: you begin by learning the (conventional) name of something, before perfecting your attunement to it through careful observation across different contexts. Birds, insects, plants, and even the local electrical grid: I did my utmost to come to know what I was looking at . Two illustrations from Erbario,  a 15th-century Herbal from Northern Italy I feel as though my life has undergone a sharp and deep transformation. On paper, much is the same, I still go on those long daily walks that one might call mental health walks . But the expe...