After reading philosophers’ ideas of morality and ethics from Plato up to Camus, I remain convinced that Aristotle’s core idea – virtue is the mean between two vices – is the most insightful, and the most useful, standard of ethical behavior we as humanity have.
Optimal Illusions Review
As the saying goes, “when you have a hammer, everything’s a nail.” In Krumme’s Optimal Illusions, we contemplate what happens when the hammer decides it is no longer content being a hammer, and would prefer to be a rock, instead.
Age Old, Old Age
My concern is not with longevity, but with making longevity a goal in and of itself. We are maximizing the time we have, rather than maximizing what we do with our time.
Hume’s Essays Review
To say that Hume’s essays are not worth reading would be untrue. There is a reason that they endure, and, as is evident from this review, there are insights to be gained. Perhaps it is unfair of me to compare a collection of essays to some of the most influential works of political thought in the past thousand years.
Wisdom Sits in Places Review
I was left pondering this idea of perception and the environment, too nebulous as yet for me to fully express it myself. Wisdom Sits in Places is the answer for which I did not realize I was looking.
A Psalm for the Wild Built Review
I can’t tell if my lingering dissatisfaction with it is because it really wasn’t as good as it could have been, or because it didn’t match what I had in my head for the concept.
Individualism, Time Travel, and Shoes
They weren’t remarkable shoes, which is both my point, and my mostly forgotten, pseudo-time-travelling alien debater’s.
Ethics Review
Spinoza attempted to create a philosophical version of that fundamental geometry text, employing reasoning techniques parallel to those contained in geometric proofs.
Critique of Pure Reason Review
Written and published in the context of the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason reads, to me, like the philosophical predecessor to Einstein’s Relativity.
Sacks’ Haggadah Review
Written approachably, so that even someone (like me) who has only a limited background in Judaism can follow the arguments and assertions he makes, many of the essays offer unique insights that are applicable regardless of your religious faith.
