Again, the circle of friends settled in at Barnes & Noble, provoked to consider, to attempt a response to several challenges to conventional thought. Since antiquity, here in Europe and lately in America we have relied upon the assumption that each of us has a defined, stable identity, a “self” which we aim to…
How much or how little danger there is to the community or to equality in an opinion, in a condition or affect, in a will, in a talent, this is now the moral perspective: and fear is once again the mother of morality. When the highest and strongest drives erupt in passion, driving…
The question of whether, with respect to the value of things, the instincts deserve more authority than reason (reason wants some ground or “what for?”, some purpose or utility behind our values and actions) – this is the same old moral problem that first emerged in the person of Socrates and divided opinions long…
Monday. This is a week of celebration. The key event will be Thursday, the 4th of July birthday celebration for the country. It is impossible to ignore signs of America in dotage. The two candidates for the Presidency are 81 and 78. Face to face for 90 minutes of debate they traded insults, the…
There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, and, of its many rungs, three are the most important. People used to make human sacrifices to their god, perhaps even sacrificing those they loved the best – this sort of phenomenon can be found in the sacrifice of the firstborn (a practice shared by all…
Why atheism today? God “the Father” has been thoroughly refuted; and so has “the Judge” and “the Reward-giver.” The same for God’s “free will”: he doesn’t listen, – and even if he did, he wouldn’t know how to help anyway. The worst part of it is: he seems unable to communicate in an intelligible…
This weekend I am in Louisville, Kentucky. I like Louisville. On the Ohio River the city draws from the past and reaches for a future. I am reminded of the story of Daniel Boone, that he was a Kentuckian. There is a regional pride here, a linkage to what is owed to the past. …
“My judgment is my judgment: other people don’t have an obvious right to it too” – perhaps this is what such a philosopher of the future will say. We must do away with the bad taste of wanting to be in agreement with the majority. “Good” is no longer good when it comes from…
We have to test ourselves to see whether we are destined for independence and command, and we have to do it at the right time. We should not sidestep our tests, even though they may well be the most dangerous game we can play, and, in the last analysis, can be witnessed by no…
Assuming that our world of desires and passions is the only thing “given” as real, that we cannot get down or up to any “reality” except the reality of our drives (since thinking is only a relation between these drives) – aren’t we allowed to make the attempt and pose the question as to…
