Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Aphorisms and Observations

  • Are Any Christians in the Middle East Safe?

    Yes, the ones in Israel. ………………………….. UPDATE 4/15:  J. S. writes: I happen to live in Beirut and feel safe enough in the Christian area, which is the eastern quarter of the city along with big chunks of Mt. Lebanon and the coastal area as far north asTripoli, which is a Sunni hotbed. I've asked…

  • The Religion of Archeological Preservation

    If Islam is the religion of peace, then it is also the religion of archeological preservation.  Modus tollens or modus ponens?

  • Chess and Philosophy

    In chess, the object of the game is clear, the rules are fixed and indisputable, and there is always a definite outcome (win, lose, or draw) about which no controversy can arise.  In philosophy, the object and the rules are themselves part of what is in play, and there is never an incontrovertible result.  So I…

  • Cause and Occasion

    He who knocks on a locked door cannot cause it to open; but he can occasion its opening.

  • Best to be Neither Poor Nor Rich

    To be neither poor nor rich is best for the truth seeker.  The poor can think only of their poverty and its alleviation, the rich of their wealth and its preservation.  The few exceptions 'prove' the rule.

  • On Desire and Aversion: Two Perspectives

    When we master desire and aversion in the present we mortify what will soon be dead in any case. "That may be appropriate wisdom for you, old man, but I'm in the full flood of my youth and vigor.  I love, hate, and live passionately.  Why should I mortify what will be dead?  I should…

  • The Leftist

    A leftist is a person who can justify unspeakably evil deeds to advance a worldview according to which people are basically good and evil does not exist.

  • Speech

    The existence of this god-like power elevates us above the rest of the animal kingdom. Would that the same could be said of our use of it.

  • Passing Strange

    As dubious as are the fleeting items of this world, we yet cling to them.  We even cling to the claim checks of memory's lost baggage such as the faded photographs of forgotten friends.

  • The Conservative is a Realist About Human Nature

    Most people are basically decent.  Just don't put them under too much moral pressure.

  • Magnificent but Miserable

    As magnificent a subject as philosophy is, grappling as it does with the ultimate concerns of human existence, and thus surpassing in nobility all other human pursuits, it is also miserable in that nothing goes uncontested, and nothing ever gets established to the satisfaction of all competent practitioners.  The magnificence and misery of philosophy reflect…

  • Pedantry and Precision

    The philosopher's precision is pedantry to the plebeians. (Am I obsessively alliterative to the detriment of good style?) Related articles Robert Paul Wolff on Netanyahu Why has the Left 'Gone Ballistic' over Hobby Lobby?

  • Central Planning

    You say you're for it?  Would you still be for it if I could show you that it is virtually certain that you will end up among the centrally planned and not among the central planners?

  • On ‘Making It’

    One reason to try to 'make it' is to come to appreciate, by succeeding, that worldly success cannot  be a final goal of legitimate human striving. 'Making it' frees one psychologically and allows one to turn one's attention to worthier matters.  He who fails is dogged by a sense of failure whereas he who succeeds…

  • Vita Brevis

    This mess we are in, this predicament, the fall into time . . . leaves us no time for its solution.