Morality vs. Tolerance

Nassim Taleb writes in Skin in the Game that morality is best understood as the set of norms that bind you to your tribe (kind of like a code of conduct at a country club). Obey the rules in exchange for the benefits that come from belonging; disobey, get kicked out. You can always…

What’s Wrong With Mindfulness?

Preserving Mystery in a Demystified World

A Pox on Both Their Houses

Martin Heidegger writes in Dialogue on Language, “To those who are superficial and in a hurry, no less than to those who are…

As Above, So Below?

Carl Schmitt writes in Political Theology, that all political concepts have their derivation in theology; the “state of exception” or “state of emergency,” in political life, he claims, corresponds to the miracle in theology. If Schmitt is correct, then one cannot avoid having a theology…

Is Silence Universal?

Obviously, everyone has the ability to be silent, and I’m sure most languages have a word for “silence.” Still, the question is if the flavor and even the meaning of silence is tied to the language in which it occurs?

Why is Beauty (Sometimes) Painful to Behold?

Nietzsche writes, "A promise made is a debt unpaid.”

Stendhal writes, “Beauty is a promise of happiness.”

Alexander Nehemas elucidates, “Beauty is only a promise of happiness,” meaning it is a promise…

What Are The Theological Implications of Scale?

Geoffrey West writes that the world is composed of fractals: every entity is a scaled up or scaled down version of another entity — a city is a kind of super-organism; a cell network is a kind of micro-city.

A Phenomenological Challenge to AI and VR

One of Heidegger’s arguments in Being and Time is that we relate to objects, particularly tools, in terms of their function. Thus a hammer appears to us as something we can use for hammering. Our ordinary perception of the hammer is intrinsically connected…

Is there anything that unites all people who put flags outside their houses as distinct from those who don’t?

Are we more likely to find flags in places where the flag represents something controversial (or conventional)?

What is the psychological profile of someone who places a flag outside their…

A Product of Your Time?

Leo Strauss says, in Persecution and the Art of Writing, that philosophers have more in common with each other than they have with other members of their society or culture, even when they disagree fundamentally about the most basic questions.