philosophy

Western philosophy, like Western civilization, is in crisis. What Plato called “the highest music” has been reduced to a discordant echo of science. Pouring salt in the wound, Stephen Hawking…

I’ve had occasion to speak with a number spiritual guides and life coaches lately. Though I haven’t sought them out as such, I keep encountering them, and they all seem…

The latest and worst craze in the Western mind’s attempt to understand the human mind is neuroscience in the hands of professional philosophers. These dubious twins are mounting a frontal…

Alfred Russel Wallace was the co-discoverer, with Charles Darwin, of natural selection. He wrote within a decade of the “Origin of Species” that the mystery of consciousness was proof that…

Instead of scaring up a couple of ducks as I coast down the dirt path to the creek, I surprise a man standing in the middle of the stream. He’s…

The word and work of consciousness have two very different meanings to me. They are so different the two states should have different names–conscious activity, and conscious awareness perhaps.

I’ve never been one for Zen koans. They’ve always seemed to me to be trick questions designed to produce insights that simple, undivided observation can engender. But here’s a kind…

Though the rain didn’t begin until nearly 10 this morning, by 3 pm the parkland had already returned to its creatures. A light drizzle, imperceptible in the wood, fell as…