Something strange happens in the minds of many men as they go about their work, whether that of research in particle physics or removing cancerous tumors or running a machine milling a component of a jet-engine or, maybe especially, in those who’ve studied the evolution of human beings, individuals and species and cultures. Having established … [Read more…]
E.O. Wilson is often a fount of common-sense bordering on wisdom; I don’t have to fully agree with a thinker to consider him sane and insightful. Wilson is a bit of a biological Calvinist but Jean Calvin and Jonathon Edwards were certainly sane if, in my opinion, quite wrong about some important matters. Oddly enough, … [Read more…]
Man and Community In recent years, I’ve been dealing a lot with the issue of man’s true nature, as an individual and as a community member. There has been a lot of groundwork to do before I make an effort to provide a more `scientific’ or more `exact’ description of human moral narratives including those … [Read more…]
I read somewhere, in a far distant spacetime, that Medieval theologians had a one-line joke: Heaven and Hell are the same place. An inch-millisecond ago by cosmological standards, circa 1900, Albert Jay Nock left the Episcopal priesthood and later said it was partly because he couldn’t see that many human beings had much in the … [Read more…]
Freedom as we idealize it is not at all an instrument or an agent to achieve our desires, good or bad. The lesser freedom of the tiger or the grazing deer can do that for us. Freedom as we idealize it is an aspect of the state of personhood, a state in which we are … [Read more…]
Some readers might access this blog in ways that don’t display the main page and might not be aware that I have a variety of books, nonfiction and fiction, available for free download. I’m planning to put this message up every month or sometimes every 2 months or so until I can determine if it’s … [Read more…]