philosophy

Philosophers tend not to argue about their views, either in the quarrelsome or the lawyerly sense of the word. We strive, and usually succeed, at giving each other “a fair…

I’ve long wondered why the question that seized me as a young man didn’t register with the vast majority of philosophers. Given that nature unfolds in seamless wholeness, I asked,…

“Manshape, that shone sheer off, disseveral, a star, death blots black out; Nor mark is any of him at all so stark but vastness blurs and time beats level. Away…

Kites are most gracile and graceful of falcons. They hover for 30 seconds or more, scanning the field for prey before tucking their long, slender wings into a ‘V’ and…

‘Higher thought’ is an extremely powerful evolutionary adaptation, allowing humans to create and build all the things in the world. But we idolize it and project it onto the universe,…

To most Americans, metaphysics, if they give any thought to the subject at all, appears as it did to the first pragmatist philosopher, William James: “As in the night all…

Philosophers cannot operate in the same mode of fragmentation (that is, specialization) that has made man such a menace on the earth and expect to offer any insight, much less…

Once again the New York Times has outdone itself in philosophical foolishness with its weekly op-ed, “The [Philosopher’s] Stone.” Op-eds are often narrow and shallow, but this piece, “Would Human…