Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Sage Advice

  • Parents

    Honor them for what was honorable in them. As for the rest, forgive and forget, or at least forgive. Honor the honorable; forgive the rest.

  • Mirror Meditation

    Neither admire the handsome face that looks back at you, nor be troubled by the inevitable signs of aging as the face gives way to a meatless, brainless skull.

  • Yes, I Repeat Myself

    Leftists constantly repeat their lies in the hope that they will be eventually taken for truths. So we of the Coalition of the Sane need to constantly repeat truths.  Not our truths, for there is  no such thing as 'our' truth or 'my' truth or 'your' truth.'  Truth is not subject to ownership. If you…

  • To Write Well, Read Well

    To write well, read well. Read good books, which are often, but not always, old books. If you carefully read, say, William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, you will learn something of the expository potential of the English language from a master of thought and expression. If time is short, study one of his popular essays…

  • Is the Philosophical Life the Best?

    This from a reader: I have a concern about the philosophical life. While I do think philosophy is intrinsically valuable, and while I do deny that one is obligated to "do the most good" with one's life (I'm not a consequentialist), I wonder if there are better ways to live than to devote one's life…

  • How to Grow Old and the Question of an Immortality Worth Wanting

    Sage advice from Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) who grew old indeed. The best part of his short essay follows: I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that…

  • More on Tipping: A Server Weighs in with Insights and Advice

    Long-time reader R. B. sends us his thoughts: I appreciated your post. I am on the other side of the coin: I am a server and I depend on tips to help get me through nursing school. So hopefully I can help bring some insight. I agree with your overall point that one ought to…

  • On Tipping

    Here, in no particular order, are my maxims concerning the practice of tipping. 1. He who is too cheap to leave a tip in a restaurant should cook for himself. That being said, there is no legal obligation to tip, nor should there be. Is there a moral obligation? Perhaps. Rather than argue that there…

  • Welcome to Finitude

    You are largely stuck with the guy you are and you have to make the most of it. There are things you don't like about him, but some of them just can't be helped. Change what can be changed; accept what can't. Neither god nor beast, a man is a being in-between. Our predicament is…

  • Word of the Day: Costive

    Merriam-Webster: 1a: affected with constipation b: causing constipation 2: slow in action or expression 3: not generous : STINGY Where did I find it? In a fine analysis of the concept of charm by Joseph Epstein.  Here is a taste that features the word under definition: Some people I talked with thought charm was synonymous with “cool.” In fact, the two,…

  • Some 19th Century Rules for Social Intercourse

    The wise man abstains from an excess of socializing as from an excess of whisky; but just as a little whisky at the right time and in the right place is a delightful adjunct to a civilized life, so too is a bit of socializing. But he who quits his solitude to sally forth among…

  • Vote. Confirm.

    A powerful statement by Malcolm Pollack, at once both personal and objective. I recommend in particular the penultimate paragraph: We who came of age in the latter half of the twentieth century have lived our whole lives in such ease and peace and prosperity that we have mostly forgotten, I think, how rare, and how…

  • Be Skeptical of Activists’ Claims

    Here's a tip for you.  When some activist or advocate makes a claim, be skeptical and run the numbers, especially when the advocate has a vested interest in promoting his cause.   Do you remember Mitch Snyder the advocate for the homeless who hanged himself in 1990?  I heard him make a wild claim sometime in the…

  • Twin Mistakes

    If something is good, more is better.  For example, there are people who think one cannot drink too much water.  False. Hyponatremia can be induced by excessive water consumption especially if the water is pure or near-pure.  You flush out your electrolytes and die.  If something is bad in large quantities, it is bad in…

  • The Young and the Reckless: The Cautionary Deaths of Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan

    To live well, one must take risks. To live long they must be calculated in a calculus informed by knowledge of self and knowledge of world. Let the romantic in one be tempered by the realist to avoid the fates of Christopher  McCandless, Timothy Treadwell, and Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan: Asked why they had…