Philosophy in the real world.

An Introduction to Philosophy Book for Everyone

  I began teaching philosophy in 1998, and I love talking with students and helping them discover new ideas. Several years ago, I gave up on the mass produced introduction to philosophy textbooks. The offerings from the Big Four corporate educational publishers (Cengage, McGraw Hill, Pearson, and Oxford) are overpriced […]

Read more

William James’s Argument for Free Will

It’s a simple hypothesis: I have the ability to choose freely what actions I will take. Whether that hypothesis is correct — or its opposite is correct, that our choices are determined by external forces — is impossible to prove by reason. Or is it? William James observed that generating […]

Read more
silos

Twitter, TikTok, and Siloization

Note: This is a transcript of a recent podcast episode, moving the content from that one-way medium to this more two-way Medium. Any irony is intentional. Siloization – ˈsī-lō-ə-ˈzā-shən : the process of isolating a group apart from others especially in ways that hinder… Hello, how are you today? Even […]

Read more

Jean-François Lyotard

A positive answer to the postmodern condition? French philosopher and sociologist Lyotard (1924–1998) was a fierce critic of universalizing theories and “metanarratives” (narratives about narratives). In his book, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979), he proclaimed that we have outgrown our need for metanarratives or grand narratives. Metanarratives […]

Read more

The Fake Left (Book Excerpt)

A sure sign of intellectual and emotional maturity is the ability and willingness to think beyond simplistic binaries. Alas, it is something that political extremists are unable or unwilling to do. How could people who claim to be anti-war and anti-imperialist end up supporting an imperialist war? Simple: when their […]

Read more

Book: What Left and Right Mean

What Left and Right Mean: Clarifying the Political Spectrum Understanding the political spectrum and what motivates political actions have never been so vital. Politics is complex, and many political conflicts have considerable effects on our lives. We are all so used to the terms “left,” “right,” “liberal,” and “conservative” that […]

Read more
1 2 3 4 5 12