New Publication: The Redemption of Thinking

The Redemption of Thinking: A Study in Truth, Meaning, and the Evolution of Consciousness, 2020. Truth and meaning: what is their relation? Shall ever the twain be one? This dissertation attempts to show how the ascendancy of a particular method of inquiry since the seventeenth century has forfeit meaning in the pursuit of truth. At…

New publication: Scattered Leaves

I have published a collection of poetry called Scattered Leaves that is now available in Kindle and in print. “Anthology” means “collection of flowers” or “bouquet” in Greek and this is how I saw this volume. Together with my philosophical work, I have always written poetry as another mode of striving to articulate the truth…

Miscellany: (1) lying, (2) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, (3) Corona lockdowns, (4) “a house divided,” (5) the concept a health

Thank you for placing the issue of lying before us. In order to properly consider it, we would have to establish what exactly we mean by “the truth” and what this has to do with the propositions and grammars by which it is communicated, on the one hand, and with the speaker’s intention on the…

Miscellany: on conscience and community

I appreciated that you brought up consciousness in counterdistinction to conscience. I think that achieving clarity on their relation and their difference can help in understanding the nature of each of them. I have come to think of conscience as “diachronic consciousness,” which is to say, “a continuity of consciousness that persists through time.” Inversely,…

Miscellany: on community

I think you made some important observations but I would like you to develop your thoughts a bit further. You wrote that the desire for security is what impels individuals to form communities. This was the view of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who is among the philosophical patriarchs of the political tradition out of which…

Correspondences: on conscience and the inner law

Dear F. Thank you for presenting us with this lucid argument for a basic moral law and lawgiver in the cosmos. I think you did an exemplary job depicting the way in which many people’s basic intuitions—even people who, when asked, would profess to believe in no such thing—betray a tacit faith in an objective…

Miscellany: on freedom and scientific determinism

I agree about the American dream; it puts us to sleep in a way. Maybe we should strive to rebrand ourselves as the culture of “American wakefulness.” *** I very much appreciated this “second look” at the issue. I think there is an “aha” moment to be had in this. It will be akin to…

Miscellany: Equality, equity, inalienable rights

…As I have understood these terms, equality is associated with the just dessert of equal opportunity. But as many people have pointed out, there are a thousand sources of difficulty in interpreting and implementing this notion. Not the least of these difficulties is that if everyone is given equal opportunity it will result in colossal…

Video: Conversation with Debbie Elliott on Rudolf Steiner and how to see with our spiritual eyes in these interesting times

Miscellany: theory, evidence, and observation and commentaries on various issues and parables

On theory, evidence, and observation: You noted that many people were skeptical of the heliocentric theory at the beginning. This is partly true but it can tend to obscure the historical facts through an over-simplification. Aristarchus was a Greek philosopher living in the third century B.C. who had advocated a heliocentric theory but it was…