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”
Tag Archives: Thinking
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”
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”
On the Problem of Abstractions
A prominent public intellectual, who happens to be a fellow countryman, has pursued a line of reasoning that I find – truthfully – rather problematic. Jordan B. Peterson has often defended various works of both mythology and fiction on the grounds that they (when “great”) reveal truths that are more ‘real’ than ‘life’ itself. AnContinue reading “On the Problem of Abstractions”
Hume, Miracles, and the Importance of Epistemology
Fresh ink need not always be spilled upon fresh ideas, and I am of the persuasion that revivified thinking may spring from echoes of old debates. For today, I take my task as such a reinvigoration of our thoughts: I want to discuss David Hume’s rejection of miracles – a subject that has perhaps hadContinue reading “Hume, Miracles, and the Importance of Epistemology”
Love in the Search
For Ian, my profoundest teacher of this disposition To seek answers that may himself explain,Outward his eyes first gazed upon the world;He looked for indications to sustainA sense of self – which Being had unfurled. And yet, with Phaedrus, questioning the pow’rContained in this approach – the kósmon, whole,Ever beyond the grasp of men’s control.Continue reading “Love in the Search”
Poems & Poetry
The nature of beauty and its reality as something ‘objective’ or ‘real’ has, as far as I can tell, been utterly corroded in recent centuries. As someone who loves poetry, I have found that many people resist my preference for formalized poetry and my tendency toward lofty themes. When I argue that poetry should helpContinue reading “Poems & Poetry”
A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force
In what is, in my view, one of the most audacious works of political theory written in the twentieth century, The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt formulates a distinction between two ways in which human beings relate to one another: power & force. This pairing is specified by her to have a meaning that is notContinue reading “A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force”
Hoping for Clarity 