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.

Web Development and Philosophy

When “eh?” is just a natural reaction.

Post from May 2, 2017, filed under Web Development and 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 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.

Life’s Golden Rules

From all my cheeky laws and a number of absolutistic posts you already know I have a thing for dramaturgy. The same here.

Post from August 4, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

The Bio Enhancement Paradox

Or, what if Donald Trump was Iron Man.

Post from August 2, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

The Dilemma of the Kind Person

Imagine a fine human being who has a laudable goal. She wants to become a genuinely, cordially, most truly kind person. So she sets on to work on her objective…

Post from July 4, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

On Rationality, and Love

Philosophy can be heart-breaking, or is it the other way around.

Post from July 2, 2016, filed under Misc and Philosophy.

On Consciousness

Speaking of which.

Post from June 9, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

New Book(let): How to Work on Oneself

Doubt led me to explore ways to grow, doubt now led me to ask my editor three times whether or not to publish under a pseudonym: I sketched, in what resembles a fluffy essay, how to learn, how to grow, or—“How to Work on Oneself.”

Post from June 2, 2016, filed under Philosophy.

Like what you see here? Check Jens’s light-weight e-book on personal growth and development: How to Work on Oneself.