Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Aphorisms and Observations

  • The Pelosi Argument for Limited Government

    Limit the government and thereby limit the number of idiots in government.

  • Time’s Alchemy

    Nietzsche is more for his present admirers than he ever could have been for Rohde, Deussen, or Overbeck. Time transforms the merely superior into heroes. Some idols are born posthumously.

  • The Past Present

    The past is gone, you say? But it has brought you to this fullness of life, this level of accomplishment, this richness of memory, and this wealth of experience. Thus is the past present.

  • The Power of Love

    Ways and foibles that once annoyed are now cherished reasons to love her more. Love makes of the merely particular, the unique and precious.

  • Of MInd and its Agitation

    When the mind is agitated, meditate on its agitation to quiet it. When the mind is quiescent, do not analyze its quiescence lest one agitate it.

  • They Have No Views

    My cats eat, sleep, play, and sleep some more. They have no views. But the value of being adoxastos is lost on them.  I do not envy them.  I am glad that I am a man. Man alone among the animals is more than an animal.  Man's distinction consists both in his having views and in…

  • Suicide

    One problem with suicide is that it is a permanent solution to what is often a merely temporary problem. 

  • Not Malleable Unto Perfection

    The malleability of man has definite limits, and he is surely not malleable unto perfection.  The perfectibility of man is a dangerous leftist illusion.

  • Mixed Metaphor

    Civilization is thin ice. Stomp around on it in your Antifa thug boots and all hell may break loose.

  • The Professional Politician

    The inner compass of the professional politician is a weather vane.

  • Seeking a Mate?

    Better a loving heart than super smart.

  • Chess and Philosophy

    In a chess game as in a philosophical debate, the outcome remains uncertain until the end is reached. What distinguishes the philosophical debate  is that the outcome remains uncertain even when the end is reached.

  • Another Reason to Distinguish Sentences from Propositions

    The ratio of sentences to thoughts in Kierkegaard's writing is quite poor. Compare the title of Concluding Scientific Postscript with the monstrous 'postscript' itself.

  • Nietzsche

    It is ironic that Nietzsche, an ascetic of sorts, died of the disease of a libertine.

  • Suffering and Evil

    All gratuitous suffering is evil, but not all evil involves suffering.  The wanton destruction of an anaesthetized healthy but ownerless cat or dog is evil but causes no suffering.