About & FAQs
I'm Philosopher and Happiness Coach Santi Sanchez.
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I'm 33 years old and originally from Mexico City. I got my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Arizona, and I currently live in Chicago,
After getting into some trouble when I was a teenager, I was sent to boarding school in New England. There, I first encountered many of the great works of philosophy that continue to inspire me today. They helped me successfully get my act together, and I eventually graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts. My passion for philosophy has taken me all over the world, and eventually, to my doctoral program.
I travel frequently and have lived in five different countries. Bilingual in Spanish and English, and I’m also fluent in German and French. I’m passionate about social justice and equality, and I love experiencing new places, people, and ideas. I love to bake artisan bread, and I’m a big fan of anime, video games (not first-person shooters thought), and TV and movies of all kinds.
Why Philosophy?
I firmly believe that that philosophical thinking and appreciation cultivates an intelligent and empowering resourcefulness that helps enrich our experience of the every day and make better use of all this magnificent world has to offer. Through philosophical appreciation, we can live our best lives– benefiting from everything in the world as we give back and help others benefit in turn.
But don’t just take my word for it. I firmly believe that you need to decide for yourself if you should take any of what I say seriously. The essence of philosophy is, as Immanuel Kant and Socrates taught, to think for oneself. I would much rather you think critically about what I have to say and hate it than to have you like it simply because it sounds kinda deep. I invite you to really think through what I have to say. See if you agree. Let me know if you don’t.
You may have heard some of these ideas before in some form or another. The unique approach to synthesizing and implementing ideas, however, allow me to share philosophical concepts and lessons in a way that is not only informed and systematic, but that really resonates with the many complexities and challenges of modern life.
This approach equips you to fully internalize these transformative ideas and tools so you can change your life by changing how you think. If you implement it in your life, this approach will empower you to use the tools and techniques I have to offer to achieve new levels of joy, meaning, and success. It takes what might seem empty, fancy words and transforms them into weapons for slaying your demons, conquering your obstacles, and taking advantage of your opportunities.
Why do you write about all this stuff?
To be totally honest, thinking about this stuff through is a key part of what gives meaning to my life. I draw meaning from existence by asking the really big questions and seeing what answers could work. I am always trying to figure out how it all fits together. How developing a philosophically sophisticated and scientifically informed view of the world empowers people to find happiness and meaning in life.
I really want to figure it out, and I talk and write about it in order to do so. By putting my thoughts into words coherent enough to share with others, I am able to form my views. I then share with others so that they might find them informative and benefit from them – and so that I might benefit from others’ scrutiny.
Philosophy is inherently a conversation. So, you should not take anything I say as absolute truth. Everything I say is always something to consider – of many things you should look to in making up your own mind. I invite you to charitably yet critically engage with my thoughts.
I hope you find what I have to say informative and illuminating even if you think it is ultimately wrong or misguided. If you think I’m wrong, please, let me know. If you can show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective, I’ll gladly change my mind. For as the great Roman philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius reminds us, it is the truth we are after, and what really harms us is persisting in ignorance – or worse – self-deceit.
What's Your Personal Philosophy?
How would you summarize your philosophy?
Many people think of philosophy as a purely abstract discipline, as a mere academic exercise for the intellectual elite. Something that old white men do with each other to feel smart.
True, when academic philosophy devolves into empty utterances that have no effect on the world, it is impractical.
However, for most of its history, philosophy has not been an academic discipline. It has been a way of life. The Greek term for philosophy, ‘philosophia’ literally means love of wisdom. At its core, philosophy is the love and lifelong pursuit of wisdom.
At its best, philosophy does not deal merely with technical arguments and confusing concepts. It is a tool that empowers us to intelligently and rationally shape of our view of the world and of the way we live our lives.
Philosophy is a tool that can liberate us from problematic, oppressive, and limiting ideologies and beliefs. A tool that can help us form empowering, fulfilling ones that are conceptually sophisticated and scientifically informed.
My own philosophy is that humans are unique kinds of beings in this world. The natural and social sciences reveal that we are beings that navigate the world by not only passively receiving sensory information from disparate sensory organs, like our eyes and ears, but also actively synthesize the information from these different senses into a global model of our environment.
We represent ourselves and other humans with whom we can communicate and interact in this model and use it to navigate our common natural and social environment.
This unique capacity to govern our behavior through the way we see ourselves in the world allows us to play a unique role. Our self-consciousness and reason allow us to know and understand ourselves. They allow us to know and understand other facets of the world and existence. In a word, we humans are the pivot of the world. Humans can understand the world and thereby change the world. This is the power to shape the world according to our thoughts and feelings.
This power allows us to control what we focus on, what we think about, and how we think about it.
I firmly believe that, in part because of this power, the value of our lives depends not so much on what we have in life, but on the place we give things in life. It is always within our power to make the best of anything the world throws at us. Nothing in this world is really to be feared. For anything that happens, we can ultimately turn to our advantage.
Everything in this world is waiting to be made good.
Everything is waiting to be benefitted from.
All that’s needed is the wisdom to relate to it all in the right way. In my philosophy, I seek this wisdom. The wisdom to make everything good. And, to the extent that I manage to get some of it, I seek to share it with all others who wish to improve their life better by improving their thinking.
Do you have a degree in Philosophy?
Do I need a degree to understand this website?
I have a B.A. and an M.A. in Philosophy, and I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy. I’ll finish my Doctorate in 2021.
While my academic expertise equips me to distill these complex ideas into actionable tools for change, you certainly don’t need a degree to understand and benefit from philosophy. Prior familiarity with philosophical positions and arguments is helpful for orienting yourself to the ideas offered here, but it’s not necessary.
What else do you offer besides articles?
How can I get notified when you update?
I offer several strategies, tools, and services for people who want to take philosophy-based life transformation to the next level: easy-to-use tools and templates for systematic change, learning modules with video discussions, live online events, and custom life coaching.
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Why did you start this website?
Because I want my philosophy to reach more people than it does through formal, academic philosophy that only other philosophy professors read.
Because the world needs philosophy and the promise it offers now more than ever.
The promise of philosophy is, that by using your reason to change your thoughts, you can come to radically transform and improve your life and the world.
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By changing your thoughts, you can change your life. By changing your thoughts, you can change your world.
Now more than ever, in this incredible yet endangered world, we all need to change our thoughts and come alive into our best selves. Philosophy is a powerful tool that can inspire us to live in a way that realizes our full potential. To live in a way that allows us to draw meaning and joy from all that we do as we help others grow.
If you’ve ever looked in the mirror as an adult and thought to yourself that life has less meaningful than you thought it would be as a child…
If you’ve ever felt that there has to be more to life than what you’re currently experiencing…
If you’ve ever felt that you’re doing everything you’re supposed to be doing and yet you’re somehow bored and miserable…
If you've ever looked at your life at the end of a workday and wondered, "Is this really all there is to life?"
Then know that you’re not alone. I'm here to help! And I made this website for you.
I made it so that you and others might see the promise of philosophy in your life fulfilled as I have in mine. I made it so that you can use philosophy to find more meaning, more joy, and success in life than you ever thought possible.
You Can Start Creating Your Good Life with Philosophy Right Now