Blog
ISIS and us
August 15, 2015
I chose this photo because it represents the quality of happiness that reflects the values experienced and cherished by the Muslims that I know. I have been privileged to know many such brothers and sisters for decades, and these bonds insulate me from stereotypes. However, at a certain point, I could no longer teach my world religions class by highlighting only the beautiful and true and good that I found in the traditions we were… Read More
ISIS and us
August 15, 2015
I chose this photo because it represents the quality of happiness that reflects the values experienced and cherished by the Muslims that I know. I have been privileged to know many such brothers and sisters for decades, and these bonds insulate me from stereotypes. However, at a certain point, I could no longer teach my world religions class by highlighting only the beautiful and true and good that I found in the traditions we were… Read More
Chipotle, Judd Apatow, and cultivating a quality of thinking
August 8, 2015
I went to Chipotle for a burrito and they gave it to me in a bag that had a short essay printed on it. I was captivated by it as I read. The title was “Two Minutes of Rambling Wisdom,” and it was by Judd Apatow, a successful writer, director, and producer of comedy films and TV shows. The on the bag was also a web address: chipotle.com/cultivatingthought. As a nation-wide restaurant chain, they would… Read More
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
August 3, 2015
When I read this quotation attributed to Maya Angelou on the stamps I just bought, I wept with emotion. And then I thought about it a little more, and came up with a more complex response. The contrast between an answer and a song is stark. An answer–in this context–comes from the isolated intellect, is possibly dogmatic, and is surely limited: proposing closure that discourages further inquiry. How often have I proclaimed answers tinged with… Read More
Transgender? Gender equality and complementarity
July 25, 2015
A majority of philosophers today criticize “essentialism” in gender theory as an error that uses traditional cultural stereotypes to define men and women in ways that are needlessly narrow and harmful in their application. I believe that there are many examples of gender stereotypes that merit the critique. I have a new theory of gender, with added complexity as a result of my thinking about transgender questions. Philosophy has struggled to do justice to two… Read More
On being seventy: Confucius, Jesus, and righteousness
July 18, 2015
Confucius set the bar high. The autobiography in his Analects is a six-line classic. At fifteen, I set my heart upon learning. At thirty I established my resolve. At forty I became free of doubts. At fifty I understood the Mandate of Heaven. At sixty, I ceased to resist it. At seventy, I could follow the inclinations of my heart-and-mind, for I no longer transgressed the boundaries of righteousness. (II.4) I have cobbled this translation… Read More
How to defend “brotherhood” from ethicism in the form of languagism
July 11, 2015
Scientism reduces spiritual truths to lower level facts. Ethicism in the form of languageism handicaps spiritual truths by unbalanced devotion to worthy social and political values–for example, suppressing talk of the brotherhood of man by linking the phrase with sexism. I feel sad to see the language that expresses this grand concept be put down. To be sure, there are other ways of getting the message across. But still. The brotherhood of man is all-inclusive…. Read More
How far can this philosophy of living go with Buddhism?
July 4, 2015
I just realized a new rapprochement with Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. That might seem surprising, since this philosophy of living—this way of living—has a spiritual core of faith that leads to the realization of the indwelling presence of the spirit of God, friendship with God, and prayer and worship. Here’s how it goes. The first noble truth has to do with dukkha, usually translated as “pain” or “suffering,” though it is understood… Read More
A secular view of life as art: the strongest alternative I’ve seen to my philosophy of living
June 27, 2015
The best alternative I have read to my philosophy of living takes a contemporary and secular turn which stimulates us to think anew. I believe I serve you best here by simply setting forth the position rather than by adding my replies. John Kekes, in The Art of Life (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2002), writes about the good life and gives several overlapping reasons why it is to be regarded as an… Read More