Much intellectual ink and effort has been spilled upon the concept of morality and what is right and wrong in human conduct. We may go so far as to say that the central concerns of human life all fall under this category, especially if morality is taken to be that general conception that suggests whatContinue reading “Moralizing & Moral Theorizing”
Tag Archives: reflection
Out of the Mouths of Babes
For A. J. S. In his Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo articulates his well-known though questionable understanding of babies: he attributes to them a sinfulness and malice that has caused many readers to accuse the African Bishop of lacking compassion and sensitivity for human infancy. A friend of mine has, however, tried to persuade meContinue reading “Out of the Mouths of Babes”
A Note on Subjectivity
A colleague of mine often playfully chides me for being too analytical about what words mean – assuming that one can ever ascertain this. What my friend is also commenting on is the manner in which I am liable to presume that I do not understand what a given word means when speaking to variousContinue reading “A Note on Subjectivity”
Friendship and Its Contexts
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the nature of friendship and its profound (and perhaps near primary) importance in a fulfilling human life. This claim in itself could and has been the subject of much discourse, but his development of this topic provides many other ideas that are worth pursuing in their own right. OneContinue reading “Friendship and Its Contexts”
A Call to Remember
Oh Be’uty, ever mysterious Muse!With each passing day, do You fade away;In thinking to use, did we so abuseAll the wisdom You have tried to convey? As the pride of mankind evermore swelled,An errant view of You did we abide;But if we release this prejudice held,Perhaps again You may be a sure guide? But isContinue reading “A Call to Remember”
On Being For & Against the Idealization of the Past
Recent developments in the realm of Artificial Intelligence tend to make me a bit apprehensive, but this hardly means that I simply avoid such innovations. Of late, this has led me to play around a little with the ChatGPT Open AI system. The program often provides decent overviews of nearly any topic and can provideContinue reading “On Being For & Against the Idealization of the Past”
The “Past” of History
Certainly in English, though I presume this to be similar in other languages, we have a peculiar word that is used in several senses: the “past.” This can be understood as a generic term under which ‘yesterday’ is a specific instance; though, in this sense, it is also a mere placeholder for whatever occurred priorContinue reading “The “Past” of History”
Unknowns
There the mysteries lie waiting:In science of a cosmic whole,Numerous ideas, creatingAnswers for an erratic soul. In science of a cosmic whole,The Void threatens with her gallows;Answers for an erratic soulRequiring thought not so shallow. The Void threatens with her gallows –Numerous ideas, creating –Requiring thought not so shallow:There the mysteries lie waiting.
Social Statistics & Moral Inferences
Last week, I wrote about the problem of understanding what the social sciences provide. My intention was to theorize the thinking involved in social science research and reflect on what this means for its outputs. While somewhat critical, my overall position is not that the social sciences are vapid but merely misunderstood – people misinterpretContinue reading “Social Statistics & Moral Inferences”
Social Sciences: Misapprehensions and Misapplications
Now and again, one comes across people who are dismissive of what have frequently been termed the ‘soft sciences’: sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, and (for some, though there is more debate on this) economics. The main problem in these fields is that their findings are typically subject to human responses performed in whatever mannerContinue reading “Social Sciences: Misapprehensions and Misapplications”
Hoping for Clarity 