Adding philosophical depth to anything and everything
William James (1842-1910), brother of novelist Henry James (1843-1916), was a medical doctor turned philosopher. William James literally wrote the book on psychology—The Principles of Psychology (1890)—establishing the field as a bona fide science. On philosophy, he was a pragmatist who followed Peirce and built on his work, bringing pragmatism […]
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An example of changing one’s orientation The Backstory I am not a fan of corporations. It’s their unaccountable greed that irks me. Case in point: here in Central Europe, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the wholesale price of natural gas doubled in early winter 2022. Energy corporations responded […]
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Seriously . . . It’s Monday night. I’ve finished teaching my ethics class. We covered Kant this week - he who said that acts of kindness performed because one finds an inner satisfaction in spreading joy have no true moral worth. No, Kant said, the only acts that have genuine moral worth are those […]
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How many activities do we perform in life mainly because at a young age we were told to? We are socialized into a variety of routine behaviors and learn what is expected of us. So we habitually conform to social conventions. How often do we examine these routines and habits? […]
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Epistemology is the philosophical study of what knowledge is and how we can come to have knowledge. It is a field of philosophy as old as philosophy itself, and epistemology underpins everything in philosophy, and not just philosophy, but everything that human beings do. Thomas Hobbes and John Locke […]
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People are smart. We call ourselves Homo sapiens for a reason. People are smart enough to figure out how to go to the moon. So why do a small minority of people choose to believe we didn’t go to the moon, or stupid things like that the Earth is flat, […]
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Monty Python showed us how not to have an argument. An argument is more than the automatic nay-saying of what the other person said. Beyond that, however, there is a considerable amount of subtlety and complexity in conducting an argument. First off, I should make clear that in talking about […]
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One of my favorite historical stories is that of miasma theory. It is also known as the theory that bad air causes disease. The scientific word “miasma” comes from ancient Greek and means “pollution.” More common usage adopted the medieval Italian word “malaria,” meaning “bad air.” As you probably have […]
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My most popular Medium article, at least for now, is “Buddhism Is Wrong.” It was inspired by my spouse who sent to me a video of a lecture from a Hollywood celebrity. The article received many great, thoughtful, and supportive comments. It also received some rude and insulting comments. The […]
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I recently edited a long article on Buddhist canonical history by a junior scholar. It is an interesting study on how the early Buddhists debated the meaning of the earliest Buddhist writings and what texts should belong in the canon. Common among all of those involved in the debates was […]
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