Thinking – Page 2 – Peter Saint-Andre, Philosopher-Coach

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”

Mental Junk Food

These days every article, video, podcast, or tweet needs to scream for your attention. Even worse, much of what you’re shown online is determined by algorithms that put a premium on popularity, which is itself driven by the all-too-human feelings of greed for sensation and fear of disaster. In this brave new world of ours,Continue reading “Mental Junk Food”

Both Sides, Now

You hear it all the time: “this is a topic that both sides can agree on” … “both sides are to blame for this mess” … “she is one of those rare people who appeals to both sides” … and so on. No! The first mistake we make is in thinking that there are onlyContinue reading “Both Sides, Now”

Opinions, Expectations, and Emotions

Following up on my series of posts about the phenomenon of opinion, I’ve been pondering the relationship between opinions, expectations, and emotions. It’s well known that emotions are based on a conception of how things are or should be (as a simple example, one person might get excited by a Fourth of July fireworks displayContinue reading “Opinions, Expectations, and Emotions”