insight

A friend from philosophy grad school wrote recently, “I’ve never understood this ‘inherently separative nature of thought,’ which you have consistently talked about, nor do I understand how one could…

“Humans are the pinnacle of creation.” That idea has long been discredited. But where do humans fit in the universe, and why we don’t we fit in nature on earth?

If the New Testament parable is true, Jesus didn’t understand what went wrong, and cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

A sculptor I’m corresponding with wrote and said, “There are no new ideas, just reassembled old ones to make something new.” It’s true that there are no new ideas, but…

For many years I’ve asked, what will it take to change the disastrous course of humankind? Clearly an explosion of insight is required. Just as clearly, no single group of…

Even the most brilliant and careful scientist is susceptible to bias. As philosopher Daniel Dennett has said, “Nobody is immune to wishful thinking.” Is there an approach other than the…

I’m a columnist for the most important newspaper in the world. That makes me very important. Only now I’m not so sure I’m anything but a fading echo of a…

If the events of recent weeks have demonstrated anything, it is that the Enlightenment ideals of reason and rationality cannot hold sway over the realities of belief and emotional irrationality.…