Blog
When philosophy stumbles
August 29, 2015
Incan brain surgery When one part of the brain is damaged, sometimes another part eventually takes over its function. I think something analogous can happen in a person’s philosophy. Here are two paragraphs that I just cut out of my book manuscript, partly because they seemed too difficult, but mostly because I went out on a limb and then decided that I was wrong. An example of the beauty of philosophical truth is less clear,… Read More
The Compassionate Life
August 22, 2015
Various people become my spiritual teachers for different lengths of time, from minutes to years. One of them recently sent me The Compassionate Life by Marc Ian Barasch. As I read, I found that the book added a strong layer of awakening to my motivation to serve. It is simply the best book I know on the golden-rule practice of empathetically putting yourself in the position of others. It brings together neuroscience, ethology, psychology, humble… 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
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