Maverick Philosopher

On Exaggeration

Why do people exaggerate in serious contexts? The logically prior question is: What is exaggeration, and how does it differ from lying, bullshitting, and metaphorical uses of language? A physician in a radio broadcast the other morning s...

The Conservative Disadvantage

We conservatives are at a certain disadvantage as compared to our leftist brethren. We don’t seek the meaning of our lives in the political sphere but in the private arena: in hobbies, sports, our jobs and professions, in ourselves, our ...

What Some of Us Conservatives Have in Common with Some Muslims

A neo-reactionary I was arguing with a while back claimed in effect that I have more in common with Muslims than I do with contemporary liberals. This entry will begin an exploration of this theme. A reader the other day referred me to...

'Expressive Individualism' is Becoming a Buzz Word

Or rather a buzz phrase. What does it mean, and where is it from? Where [Alasdair] MacIntyre used the term emotivism to name our moral predicament, in their classic 1985 study of American society, Habits of the Heart, the sociolog...

Unbelievable if True: Illiteracy and Innumeracy

David K. Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), p. 139: Some 37 percent of American adults cannot figure a 10 percent discount on a price, even using a calculator. (Emphasis added....

Happiness Maxims (2013 Version)

These maxims work for me; they may work for you. Experiment. The art of living can only learned by living and trying and failing. 0. Make it a goal of your life to be as happy as circumstances permit. Think of it as a moral obligat...

On Continental Philosophy: Response to a German Reader

The following from a German sociologist (my comments are in blue): Perhaps you know the old joke: Analytic philosophers think that continental philosophy is not sufficiently clear; continental philosophers think that analytic philosophy...

Alain on Keeping to the Present

Emile-Auguste Chartier (1868-1951) was a French professor of philosophy among whose students were Raymond Aron and Simone Weil. Chartier's sunny disposition, however, did not rub off on the brooding Weil. Under the pseudonym 'Alain,' Ch...

More on Texts and Translations

A regular reader responds to On Reading Philosophical Texts in Their Original Languages: Nice piece on the necessity of studying texts in their original languages. The very question puzzles me. Why would someone assume he knows w...

Is Death Evil?

So is death evil or not? What is my answer? The answer depends on metaphysics. 1. If we are natural beings only, nothing but complex physical systems, continuous with the rest of nature and susceptible in principle of complete explana...