Epistemology is that branch of philosophy that inquires into the problem of how we know what we know. Can some of what we think we know be illusions or errors? How could that be? Can Truth be known? Reality?
The first point here is that most people seem to buy into the idea that truth exists, […]
Everyone generates a meaning system. Most often it is an unconscious set of assumptions that help you make sense out of things. Alfred Adler (a physician who was an earlier associate of Freud but then dropped away because of his own independent ideas) observed that children around the age of five begin to have provisional […]
Responding to a NY Times article about science and discovery in December, 2009, the article speaks about how our consciousness continues to grow as we discover new horizons in astronomy, sub-atomic physics, and so forth. This brings up an interesting epistemological issue! (Epistemology is that branch of philosophy that asks, “How do we know what […]
America is going through an interesting developmental phase, akin to the early teen years. The era of the cost of living being cheap and easy is drawing to a close, because (1) natural resources are less plentiful and cheap; (2) the expectations of the people have gone up significantly; (3) services (especially health) are more […]
Sometimes I’m rather unsure as to which position to take. There are good arguments on both sides of so many things. (Indeed, on my webpage on ethics I list over 30 current policy issues that I haven’t come to any conclusion.)
Someone suggested I join some of the social media, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and […]
Hating is a mixed bag. Sometimes it can even be experienced as fun, or mixed with humor. Usually, though, it vaguely hurts the heart. The illusion is that it may seem better to hate than to feel powerless, to feel as if one is a victim, or even vulnerable to being victimized (or that those […]
I use this term to name the category not of ordinary thought, problem-solving, or linear communication, but rather of those types of thinking, intuition, imagination (including aspects of music and other senses) that transcend the kind of thinking that is required for most mundane tasks. This realm is far vaster, including myths, stories, poetry, nonsense, […]
My dear wife Allee said that everyone had a philosophy of life, either implicit or explicit. I disagreed, saying that the word was appropriate only when there was some effort to rationally coordinate the different elements (to draw a phrase from Whitehead near the end of his book, Modes of Thought). I’ve come to see […]
I’m dismayed at the sheer volume of spam email about “genuine” diplomas for sale—cheap! On one hand, I playfully want to join the bandwagon: I’m allied with The Wizard of Oz who created a Diploma for the Scarecrow because of his “cleverness” in rescuing Dorothy. Hey, why not? I can make up one for you […]
A friend of mine is interested in the frontiers of consciousness development—as am I—and had recently attended the national conference of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). One theme he noted was the growing confidence that appreciation for the not-entirely- materialistic way of viewing the world was growing. I asked him (as I am wont […]
