Adding philosophical depth to anything and everything
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 […]
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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 […]
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Transcript: Welcome to the insert philosophy here podcast. Inserting the principles of philosophy into real life. The last week of August and the first week of September is when students across the United States, Canada, and most European countries go back to school. There’s no overestimating the importance […]
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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 […]
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Peirce (1839-1914) developed the basic idea of pragmatism as a method for improving the accuracy of science in its search for truth. His father was a mathematician on faculty at Harvard University. This enabled the younger Peirce to get his own education at Harvard and to meet a number of […]
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Okay, that headline is unfair because “Buddhism” is not a discrete entity but has many forms. However, that is part of my point. Read on, please. I saw a video address using a Hollywood celebrity to promote a particular school of Buddhism. “I realized all my thoughts are illusions,” said […]
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The idea of travel has a romantic mystique. Travel is something out of the ordinary, beyond the mundane. We don’t say we travel to work, we say we commute. Travel appeals to a deeper sense that many of us have for something more—to experience something more and hopefully better. People […]
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Video Lecture. Click to watch. Text Transcript below: What is Political Philosophy? The point I’m trying to make here is that when we talk about political philosophy is that we strangely aren’t talking about Politics. Politics we all have a certain sense of what that means, and it tends to […]
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What IS America? What does it mean to be American? I ask these questions on July Fourth, a day when the United States commemorates its independence. That date and commemoration in itself is significant in it not being entirely true. The United States did not become independent on July 4th, […]
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Philosopher for Hire Every now and then I am contacted by someone who wants to hire me to help them write a paper or book. I’ve had rewarding collaborations over the years, helping people form their ideas and polish their writing, and it’s been a nice income supplement (being a […]
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