How badly has it been compromised in our time? — I’ll start with what will doubtless sound a stupid question: are we, or are we not, better off knowing what is true, or at least part of the truth? Of course we are! No one needs a “theory of truth” to see this and understand it. Not even philosophers! Acting…

They miss the biggest threat to civilized living, and so can’t see the way out. — There are numerous writers on Medium I call doomers-gloomers. I won’t name names. I’ve no desire to embarrass anyone, or start a pointless war of words. You’ve surely seen them, though. Maybe you read them regularly — although I’ve had to unfollow all but a couple. Most publish far more…

Use all three branches of Stoic philosophy to improve your life and then the world. — Stoicism counsels distinguishing what we can control from what we can’t control, and focusing our energy on the former. This begs us to ask: can we increase the range of what we control, and if so, how? The early Stoics divided philosophy into three branches: physics, logic, and ethics. It…

Is the information glut at your fingertips from the world serving your world? Or is it harming you? Here’s what to do. At first blush, the world is a pretty complicated place. …

If you don’t master this, the rest of the philosophy won’t help you. — Stoicism is all over Medium. There must be hundreds of articles on the philosophy on this site. With that quantity, I wondered if there was any more to be said on the subject, or if I was the one to say it. The competition seems fierce, after all, and who…

America’s last historically important philosopher on the American Left — and where it went disastrously wrong. — Introductory Notes. Richard Rorty (1931–2007) might be the last historically important American philosopher — if only because given the way American academia is presently going, there aren’t likely to be any more philosophers of historical importance. A Yale PhD (1956), Rorty produced numerous well-received articles in the philosophy of mind…

They’re far from perfect, but they are successful. That said, you have other options if you hunt around. — This article turned up in my feed the other day and targeted Amazon Prime as the embodiment of corporate evil. Here were the two core paragraph: Prime Day is a singular and strange artifact, but then again, so is Prime, Amazon’s $119-a-year membership service, which buys subscribers free one-day shipping…

What’s really behind the intractability of so many angry public debates these days? — Have you ever listened to (or been in) an argument that went something like: “The Bible says __________” [readers can fill in the blank] “The Bible was written by men who lived thousands of years ago!” “The Bible is God’s Word, and God’s Word is eternal. …

Thinking about the world can be a messy affair. You can do it with the right tools, which come with a warning. — Neats and Scruffies. The history of philosophy shows us two broad kinds of thinkers. And a few of a third. There are those who, like Plato, liked things neat, tidy, pristine. A place for everything, and everything in its place. And everyone, as becomes clear from his Republic. These philosophers’ ideal is mathematics…