Counter the Happiness Assumption

It may be rather clear that life is not all about being happy.

Post from April 16, 2019, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Free Thought and Official Propaganda (Bertrand Russell)

“Our system of education turns young people out of the schools able to read, but for the most part unable to weigh evidence or to form an independent opinion.”

Post from March 15, 2019, filed under Philosophy.

What Happened on Google+, the Philosophy Archives

Google+ is shutting down, pulling everything with it. I’ve used Google+. And although I’ve changed and would put a few things differently now, I decided to archive a few of the somewhat philosophical Google+ posts.

Post from March 8, 2019, filed under Philosophy and Everything Else.

Highlights from Flatland (Edwin Abbott Abbott)

“Yet I exist in the hope that these memoirs, in some manner, I know not how, may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality.”

Post from November 19, 2018, filed under Philosophy and Art and Design.

The One Thing We May Really Want to Research

My back-burner philosophical work revolves around one idea: that what creates and makes for our reality, in quite practical terms, is what we believe. That idea is profound and requires more: research.

Post from October 4, 2018, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels)

“This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves.”

Post from October 1, 2018, filed under Philosophy.

What We Know

On some days, if you asked me about what we know, with absolute certainty, I’d respond with “only that something exists.” And if you asked me what that meant, then I’d add “to appreciate and work with what exists.”

Post from December 24, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

The Scientific Irony

There’s no proof that life has meaning; therefore, life is meaningless. Wait, what?

Post from October 31, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Freedom = ƒ(Money)?

No, this question is not new. However it’s one I want to ponder with you because it much seems like something truly terrible has happened over the centuries.

Post from September 25, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Destroying Is Not Arguing, or: Why It Would Be Bad If Jesus Was Here

Arguing is something we have to learn. I observed this again in recent years when I started studying philosophy and went through courses for logic and argumentation theory. These courses…

Post from September 20, 2017, filed under Philosophy and Everything Else.

In Defense of Bad Luck

There seems to be something to luck, and bad luck.

Post from September 6, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Dewey’s How We Think

“The very importance of thought for life makes necessary its control by education because of its natural tendency to go astray, and because social influences exist that tend to form habits of thought leading to inadequate and erroneous beliefs.”

Post from June 24, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Regarding the Fermi Paradox

When not finding signs of extraterrestrial intelligence says more about us than them.

Post from June 7, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Wattles’s The Science of Getting Rich

“Man is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought; he cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing.”

Post from April 4, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

On Socialization

Several months back, to myself, I noted how we may have all already been what we’ve later wished to be: for example, authentically curious, interested, open, unbiased, worry-free, joyful, happy, confident, loving. Then, I thought, came socialization.

Post from March 8, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Thoughts Are Things (William Walker Atkinson)

“Thoughts strive to take form in action. Thoughts strive ever to materialize themselves in objective material form.”

Post from January 25, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Emerson’s Nature

“Each creature is only a modification of the other; the likeness in them is more than the difference, and their radical law is one and the same.”

Post from January 24, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

The Constructivist Preference

When we are presented with conflicting beliefs and ideas, which ones are we to support or assume? That question, in our age of scientism, is usually answered with “those that are true,” or “those that are more realistic”…

Post from January 18, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Contradictions: a Problem of Logic, a Feature of Reality?

On my list of research topics and article drafts is one that covers root assumptions: assumptions at the core of what we assume about our two realities, psychical and physical reality. One of these root assumptions covers logic…

Post from December 9, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Myer’s Oldest Books in the World

“Study on a subject before giving an opinion” and other truly old realizations.

Post from November 24, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Scovel Shinn’s Your Word is Your Wand

Short excerpts that convey a rather unconventional view on our realities. “Happiness and health must be earned by absolute control of the emotional nature.”

Post from November 22, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Living and Mistakes

We can’t make a mistake living our own lives. A counter to the fear of doing wrong, the harmful idea of guilt, as well as unhelpful doubt, the statement’s power lies in the realization that it’s impossible for us to live our lives “incorrectly.”

Post from November 7, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Why Philosophy Matters

Philosophy is a field that once combined all the sciences and had considerable influence. Over time that influence waned, to an extent that philosophy is now simply one of the humanities, a “second order” discipline that some people wonder what it’s useful for…

Post from October 31, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Paine’s Common Sense

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”

Post from September 8, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Highlights from Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience

Launching a new series of highlights and factoids from public domain books, classic or not, that had piqued my interest, and perhaps excite yours. Here from American polymath Henry David Thoreau.

Post from August 27, 2016, filed under Philosophy.