Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Aphorisms and Observations

  • The Right to an Opinion

    The right to express an opinion does not absolve one of the obligation to do one's level best to form correct opinions.  Note however that the legal (and moral) right to free speech guaranteed  to the American citizen by the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution remains even if one shirks one's moral (but…

  • Righteous Anger

    There is righteous anger. But how much of what is called 'righteous anger' is righteousness and how much anger?  The righteous know; the merely angry fool themselves.

  • ‘On His Watch”

    What happens on a person's watch may or may not be his responsibility.  Or will you maintain that a Republican president is responsible for the arson and looting tolerated by Democrat mayors?

  • Like a Bolt of Lightning

    An aphorism is like a bolt of lightning: it does not explain itself.

  • The Purgatory of Memory

    Vexing memories are an earthly purgatory which the purgation of memory, if it could be achieved, would eliminate.

  • A Dawning at Dusk

    Only those near the end of it can sufficiently fathom this life's insufficiency.

  • Why Write?

    I write to know my own mind, to actualize my own mind, and to attract a few like-minded and contrary-minded people.  The like-minded lend support, and the contrary-minded – assuming that their criticisms are rationally based – allow me to test my ideas.  Dialectic is to the philosopher what experiment is to the scientist.

  • A Reason to Blog

    Chary of embalming in printer's ink ideas that may be unworthy of such preservation, due perhaps to underdevelopment, or lack of originality, or some more egregious defect, the blogger satisfies his urge to scribble and publish without burdening referees and editors and typesetters, and without contributing to the devastation of forests. He publishes all right,…

  • Among the Riddles of Existence

    Among the riddles of existence are the riddles that are artifacts of the attempts of thinkers to unravel the riddle of existence. F. H. Bradley got his problems from the world. G. E. Moore got his problems from what  F. H. Bradley said about the world.

  • In a Philosophical Discussion . . .

    . . . three's a crowd and four's a cross-conversation.  One-on-one, back-and-forth, defining and refining, pursuing the point, focusing like a laser, driven by eros for truth but free of polemos under the aegis of philia.  But also under the aegis of  Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. And with no illusions about achieving agreement.…

  • Policy and Personality

    The first trumps the second.

  • Happiness and Contentment

    He who is content with his lot, is happy a lot, much more than those who are not.  (A sorry sing-song stab at a saying?)

  • Pearls before Swine

    Beware of casting them. Beware also of the conceit that one has them to cast.

  • Prayer

    Because we are spiritual beings, we pray. Because we cannot be lamps unto ourselves, we need to. 

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thomas Merton

    An activist judge wants to play the legislator. An activist monk wants to play the worldling.  Neither quite understands the nature of his 'job.'