insight

Twenty years ago, when I replied to the standard question, ‘what do you do?’ with ‘I do philosophy,’ I was met with blank stares. Now everyone but Marco Rubio and…

Here’s an interesting thought experiment, inadvertently posed by the paleontologist Scott D. Sampson. It points to the core questions and insights of the evolution of consciousness in the universe.

When cultures were intact and geographically distinct, human relationship was defined in terms of cohesive tradition, group identification, and shared language and custom. Now the world over, affiliations are becoming…

Whenever you hear the word “wired” applied to human behavior, pause and question the premises and assumptions. For example: “Human nature is wired toward creating meaning out of meaninglessness.”

If the events of recent days have demonstrated anything, it is that the Enlightenment ideals of human reason and rationality, which originated in France, cannot hold sway over the chaos…

There was a time when truth-telling meant something, even on TV’s nightly news. But “speaking truth to power” has become a hollow cliché. After all, challenging readers to think and…

One of the greatest confusions of our age is the conflation of scientific knowledge and truth. Indeed, scientific knowledge is now seen by most people as the only way to…

Swallows are playing on the air and skimming the surface of the water. Quail cavort in the bushes along the stream, and I hear pheasant squawking in the fields. Though…