Blog

I, like so many others have suffered the painful loss of a loved one in my lifetime. The most painful were those who were young people with their whole life before them.

Probably the most disturbing, if not more painful than the others was the loss of a granddaughter who committed suicide.

I have given a good deal of thought to the topics of depression, despair and suicide.

I think the reasons are because of the losses I mentioned, and my own predilection to be happy and positive, no matter my...

I don't suppose there is any area of life where language is misused and weaponized more than in politics.

I am old enough to remember when the word 'liberal' actually meant liberal. Then the crafty left commandeered the term in order to cloak themselves in a fine word which they were undeserving of.

Classical liberalism or what might be considered small 'l' libertarianism today was a well rounded and principled philosophy for living.

Unlike what passes for Liberalism today, it embraced some...

Coercion is the use of force or threat of force to make someone do something against their wishes or prevent them doing something they wish to do.

There are basically three means for getting people to do what we want them to do.

Argumentation, where we attempt to convince them with our words.

Incentivization, where we attempt to convince them by providing a benefit or reward.

Coercion, where we use or threaten to use force.

The first two are perfectly acceptable while the third is not.

I believe...

The concept of fairness is one which is bandied about a good deal but is not really thought through sufficiently.

What does it mean for something to be fair?

In some cases it is quite obvious while in many others it is less so.

For example, if you and I are assigned a science project together and I do all of the work and you get all of the credit, that is obviously not fair.

On the other hand if we both work on the project equally and are credited equally that is just as obviously fair.

Different...

I wish to follow my previous piece on epistemology with a related one.

There is probably nothing more central to the way we view reality than the role faith and reason play. One’s viewpoint and decision regarding this matter determines almost completely how they will decide the critical issues in their life, personally, socially and politically.

‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

Consider that for moment. Evidence without evidence is essentially...

You can tell a good deal about a person by learning what they consider to be legitimate means of knowing anything.

If they indicate that anything other than observation and reason is a reliable means of knowing then you are dealing with a religious or mystical person.

Man's only means of knowing anything at all is through the use of his five senses to observe reality and then his faculty of reason to understand that which he has observed.

Almost all violence is committed by people who believe...

It was Frederick Hayek who first called my attention to the concept of 'Spontaneous Order'. He had concluded, and I believe his conclusion is irrefutable, that complex social systems such as language, money, rule of law, markets and boundaries come about spontaneously and without direction. There is no intent involved.

In other words no creator or any other central intentional figure is necessary for these complex systems to form and evolve. They come about as the result of the actions of many...

Frustration is that feeling we experience when our plans or goals are hindered, obstructed or derailed. It is not a pleasant feeling and is experienced differently by different people with different personalities. Some experience frustration as depression while others experience it as anger.

The key to avoiding frustration is to refuse to tie our happiness to outcomes per se, and instead focus on improving ourselves day by day.

Many people consider guilt and shame to be synonyms. That is not the case, This is just one more example of how our language has been corrupted.

Guilt is the fact that a person has done something wrong or committed a crime. It is a matter of fact.

Shame on the other hand is the feeling one experiences when they have done something they consider inappropriate.

People often mistakenly consider writers and authors as synonymous. They are not. They are closely related, and one might even suggest that the concept of writer is nested in the concept of author.

Many people are writers who are not authors while everyone who is an author is a writer.

A writer is anyone who engages in writing on a regular basis, either for their own personal enjoyment or as a profession. For example, a person who journals is a writer. So also is a newspaper or magazine...

People often deride competition while lauding cooperation. I consider this an error in judgment, and one with potentially serious consequences.

The reality is that competition and cooperation are the two sides of the same conceptual coin, and both are necessary to create and maintain the balance required for a healthy society and economy.

Competition is what accounts for the improvement of things as well as a reduction of the cost to produce and own them. Competition between rivals in any...

In order for a plant to take root, some reasonably fertile soil is required. Also, moisture and sunlight are needed. Something similar is the case in other areas of life. For example rebellions or uprisings of one sort or another are the result of pre-existing conditions which serve as a precursor to such events.

One such fertile soil which is a precursor of much human mischief and misery is boredom.

In a previous piece I discussed the topic of depression and why it is so prevalent in these...

I believe it was the late Andrew Breitbart who pointed out that politics is downstream from culture. I've always considered that an astute and important observation. It calls attention to the fact that politics doesn't create our culture but rather our culture forms the political landscape.

So that got me thinking about what was responsible for or upstream from our culture. It seems to me that the answer is morals. The moral values we hold determine the culture we consider acceptable and even...

One thing is certain for you and I; we are prone to error in our judgments and assessments of situations, events, and people. Since this is the case it is crucial that we have some mechanism available to correct these errors and get back on the right intellectual course.

All moving objects created by man have mechanisms for course correction. Radar and sonar are used for just such purposes as well as being useful for detecting and tracking other objects.

The mechanism for course or error...

There's hardly a hotter topic these days than that of AI or Artificial Intelligence. Everywhere a person turns they are confronted by advertisers and institutions touting there adoption and usage of AI. It almost seems as if only Neanderthals are reluctant to use AI for virtually everything.

I wanted to comment on the topic and thought I would approach it from a slightly different angle. That is, to speak about the value of human intelligence.

When I chose AI: Authentic Intelligence for my...

As I have pointed out on many occasions and in many places, people often use words which the seem to think they understand owing to the frequency with which they are used, when in fact they cannot articulates a coherent and accurate definition of the word.

The word 'Capitalism' is a perfect example. Neither the Socialists of the left nor the Conservatives of the right are able to offer an accurate definition of the words meaning and thus cannot effectively attack or defend the idea. You cannot...

In my book 'Are You Asking the Right Questions?' I explained that I thing the questions : 'What is the meaning of life?' and 'What is the purpose of life?] are meaningless.

It is my contention that life is itself void of all meaning and also has no purpose.

Life is a blank canvas which beckons us to provide a meaning of our own choosing and to select a purpose which we are willing and capable of pursuing.

Some apparently find this point of view unusual an perhaps even disturbing. I on the other...

I came across the term 'affective polarization' the other day. I think it sheds a good deal of light on the political situation of our time. Parties have always been polarized. Republican, Democrat, left and right, etc., but the type of polarization we are witnessing today has a more harmful if not sinister element to it.

It doesn't just involve differences of opinion on social and political issues, it becomes more of an attack on the very character of those with whom we disagree. Affective...

I must confess that the topic of morality is at the top of my list of interests along with the idea and art of asking questions. You may consider little if anything I have to say here even remotely controversial until we get to the chapter on the most rational and defensible foundation for morality. When I have shared my views on this topic with certain others in the past they haven’t known whether to consider me a heretic or a madman. Feel free to take your pick. LOL!

If asked to explain...

Perhaps the best way to begin to understand just exactly what Humanism is would be to simply refer to the most important Humanist document. That is the Humanist Manifesto III. I am quoting the document in its entirety because I think it is critical for an understanding of where Humanism is today. After the document I will add my comments on various components of the document and attempt to highlight their significance. I think it would be very difficult for any intelligent, reasonable and...