W. H. Drake, “Then Rikki-Tikki was battered to and fro as a rat is shaken by a dog,” from The Jungle Book, 1895.
1,479 words
Allow me to share a deep character flaw of mine that it took nearly six decades to realize but only moments to rectify.
Despite outward appearances and an intensely unsavory public reputation, the sad truth is that I’m way too nice — all the way to the point where I’m not. (more…)
4,969 words
Jeffrey: I’m seeing something that was always hidden. I’m involved in a mystery. And it’s all secret.
Sandy: You like mysteries that much?
Jeffrey: Yeah. You’re a mystery. I like you. Very much.
Jonathan Haidt
4,946 words
Part 2 of 2; part 1 here
Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind: How Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
New York: Pantheon Books, 2012
In Part One of this review I discussed Jonathan Haidt’s argument that morality has evolved in response to a number of “adaptive challenges.” (more…)
4,101 words
Part 1 of 2
Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind: How Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
New York: Pantheon Books, 2012
Jonathan Haidt is a former liberal who is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. (more…)
2,344 words
Thomas Sowell
A Conflict of Visions
New York: W. Morrow, 1987
An individual’s stance on one particular political issue doesn’t necessarily indicate anything else about them, but it’s a reasonably reliable predictor of their stances on other issues, in other words their overall ideology. (more…)
Man as microcosm
4,063 words
Part 6 of 7 (other parts here)
6. All and Nothing
In my account of ekstasis, I have drawn principally on two philosophers: Heidegger and Schopenhauer. And Hegel has been peeping out at certain points in my discussion (he will have a much bigger role to play very soon). But the truth is that the ideas I have been expounding in this essay have deep roots in the Western tradition, and are much older even than Hegel.