It’s said that we live in the Information Age. Yet what is the purpose of information? I see at least three possibilities… First, information can make our decision more effective, especially regarding threats and opportunities. Is that sound in the forest a predator from which I should flee? Is this fruit edible? Does this potentialContinue reading “Information is Overrated”
Category Archives: Thinking
Counter-Cultural Contemplation
We live in a culture that glorifies action, busy-ness, and constant activity. “Don’t just stand there, do something.” “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” “Pull your head out of the clouds.” “Get real.” “Think globally, act locally.” “Knowledge is power.” This attitude has even bled into philosophy, that most abstract of humanistic disciplines. It wasContinue reading “Counter-Cultural Contemplation”
Best Friend Books
It occurs to me that, just as we have circles of friendship, so also we sometimes have circles of influence and affection in the books we read. Certain books and authors are like best friends that we revisit again and again: think of those who cherish the novels of Jane Austen, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the Confessions ofContinue reading “Best Friend Books”
The Emergency Disaster Crisis
One reason I don’t pay much attention to the news is that just about everything being reported on is an emergency, a disaster, a crisis! I like to run them all together and say that we’re in the midst of an Emergency Disaster Crisis. Naturally, what you consider part of the Emergency Disaster Crisis is aContinue reading “The Emergency Disaster Crisis”
What Is the Job of a News Story?
Over the last few months I’ve blatantly but deliberately gone off my low-information diet – not because I suddenly feel a need to be highly informed, but because I’m advising Otherweb, a startup that aims to fix the world’s information ecosystem by presenting only those news stories that are provably lacking in sensationalistic language, partisanContinue reading “What Is the Job of a News Story?”
Political Moderation
Here in America we’ve survived another national election (yet again the most momentous in our history!), so following up on my post last week about moderation it seems timely to offer a few reflections on political and ideological moderation. Having been a dogmatic libertarian earlier in my life, I well understand the allure of politicalContinue reading “Political Moderation”
Agreement Is Overrated
How many times has a friend sent you a link to an essay with the proviso “I don’t agree with everything this person says, but it’s worth reading”? I used to do that, too, but then I reflected on whether intellectual agreement is truly important, and I concluded that it’s not. Part of the storyContinue reading “Agreement Is Overrated”
Thinking Forward
Much of what makes human beings distinctive is what Jacob Bronowski called “a sense of the future” (in addition to his old book by that name, see also more recently Homo Prospectus by Seligman, Railton, Baumeister, and Sripada). Certainly most animals can think at least a few minutes or maybe hours in advance, but they’reContinue reading “Thinking Forward”
There’s No Such Thing as the Mind
Not long ago, a friend recommended that I check out the work of Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris, so I promptly ordered his book Manifesto of New Realism via interlibrary loan. Overall it is a valiant attempt to dig out of the hole of postmodernism – valuable, at the very least, for those who have fallen into thatContinue reading “There’s No Such Thing as the Mind”
Controversies
While reading the autobiography of Charles Darwin a few weeks ago, I came across the following passage: I rejoice that I have avoided controversies, and this I owe to [Charles] Lyell, who many years ago, in reference to my geological works, strongly advised me never to get entangled in a controversy, as it rarely didContinue reading “Controversies”
Peter Saint-Andre, Philosopher-Coach 