I have a friend named Laurence, who literally knows everything about everything. He’s not just one of those types who thinks he knows it all; he actually does. Laurence is a good guy to learn from. One day he was telling me… Continue Reading (2 pages, 1106 words): Worse than the First (PDF)
Deep in the Missouri woods past Cedar Gap and smack dab right between the highest ridges of both Winona and Flippin Mountains lies a county with three and a half towns. Most of the people of Upton County adhere to self professed simple beliefs, such as the supremacy of religion, family, and work. Killing animals… Continue reading The Crutches of Upton County (Short Fiction)
A possible way of measuring the value of one’s life is by simply answering the question, “Have I given more good than I’ve received?” It’s simple, and I think most people could provide a definitive answer. If the answer is negative, or even inconclusive, the fact that you’re able to even ask the question means… Continue reading Have I Given More Good Than I’ve Received?
Buddhism’s Noble Eightfold Path may be one of the most often revered and referred to concepts to ever come out of any religion. Buddhist tradition ascribes it as the fourth of the four noble truths, taught by the original Buddha, Gautama Buddha, as the way of overcoming life’s inevitable suffering. While many may see the four… Continue reading Buddhism’s Eightfold Path
Should Batman kill the Joker? While there is no objectively definitive answer, like there is say for “What is the capital of Australia?” the two main possibilities just so happen to be two main opposing forms of moral philosophy: utilitarianism vs. deontology. Utilitarianism advocates judging actions by their consequences. The consequences of killing the Joker… Continue reading Utilitarianism
The Self – Hume subtracted anything supernaturally special from the concept of the self, arguing that there is no coherent self or “I.” Instead, each of us is nothing but a bundle of perceptions. “When I enter most intimately into what I call myself,” he wrote, “I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of… Continue reading Hume’s Best
In keeping with my attempt to cull the best stuff from what I’ve read of some important philosophers and philosophies, here are some highlights of John Rawls. He was an American philosopher who lived from 1921 to 2002. Rawls reconciled liberty and equality in one way by saying that each citizen has the right to… Continue reading John Rawls – Philosophical Highlights
Where I live everybody goes to church, or if not, at least intends to start soon, because that’s just what good people do. And everybody with any values or morals most definitely sends their kids to church. So when someone, like me, doesn’t, it sticks out. There’s no shortage of people kindly wanting to take… Continue reading Responding To: Why Don’t You At Least Send Your Kids To Church?
No. This may seem like it should be obvious. But yet, with one world view an adherent just can’t get past the fact that since Somebody else is pulling the strings, when something bad happens, that Somebody has either caused it, or allowed it to happen. This cognitive dissonance causes inevitable consternation. How can the… Continue reading Is it Better to Not Know Why Bad Things Happen?
Here’s a super short synopsis of some key features of Aristotle’s thought: Virtue Theory His definition of virtues divided them into two types: moral, which are shaped through early training and reinforced to become matter of habit, and intellectual, which can be rationally taught. All virtues have the common structure of falling between two extremes… Continue reading Aristotle – Some Highlights
Reason Matters 