Maverick Philosopher

Care of Soul, Care of Body

A Sunday Substack sermon.

In Praise of the Useless

A Substack short.

Servility Will Cower to Force

How ovine are you? Substack latest.

So Long, Nancy

I bid Madame Speaker a fond adieu on Substack.

Relativism and Dogmatism

Substack latest

My Substack snowball is getting bigger and bigger. Time to monetize? Well, it's a labor of love and I've got enough loot to last me my sublunary tenure, assuming the Dementocrat destruction of the economy is kept within certain bounds. 

I believe that Enough is Enough when it comes to material stuff. Whatever we are here for, we are not here to pile up loot and land. You have heard it said that in the end a man needs only six feet. And not even that if the crematorium is his body's last stop.

On the other hand, as foibled as we are psychologically, people tend to value more what they pay for. And if they are paying, then they may pay closer attention 'to get their money's worth.'

Or maybe they think like this: "This guy gives away his content for free; he must not think it is worth much."

On the third hand, If I sell a product, then I am in thrall to my customers and must cater to their wants and desires. This thrall thwarts my independence. I'm big on the latter. 

So you can expect my articles to stay free, free for me and free for thee.

Free Speech, Censorship, Toleration, and a Lame Libertarian Argument

Substack latest. 

Regular programming to resume when Typepad gets its act together

Meanwhile, Happy Halloween from Screamin Jay Hawkins.

Substack latest is about zombies and the value of being conscious.

Third Parties as Discussion Societies in Political Drag

Substack latest.

 

 

Einstein, Relativity, and Relativism

Substack latest.

Slavery, Abortion, and 'Skin in the Game'

Substack latest.

Negativity: The Spirit of the Left

Substack latest.

The spirit of the Left is the spirit of negativity. Any intellectually honest person following current events can see that the tendency of leftists is mindlessly to destroy for the sake of destruction what it has taken centuries to build. Transgressive of tradition and its wisdom, these 'progressives' are both hobbled and enabled by their presentism. Hobbled, because they know nothing of the past. Enabled, because their ignorance allows them to imagine themselves to be free of the moral limitations of humanity. Punks and know-nothings for the most part, they are unwitting agents of the demonic.

Work, Money, Living, and Livelihood

Substack latest.

Paul, Baruch, and Henry had the right idea.

Technical Philosophy, Compartmentalization, and Worldview

In memory of Saul Kripke (1940-2022)

Substack latest.

"I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."

Really? I call 'bullshit' on this saying misattributed to Voltaire.

Substack latest.

"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"

Material bread or spiritual bread?

Substack latest.

A Minimum of Metaphysics for Meditation

Substack latest, on this, the feast day of St Monica.

The Pig, the Fool, and Socrates

Substack latest.

Why are Women 'Over-Represented' among Realtors?

Here is my Substack answer to the title question together with a healthy serving of conceptual analysis as part of  my ongoing quest to disembarrass sad wokeheads and Dementocrats of their fatuities, fallacies, and overall intellectual feculence. ('Feculence' as you may know is from feces.)  I am being polite. I am showing some 'class.' 

But here is something very important for you to know.

In the political sphere, and not just there, the ability to kick ass is far more important than class. The first value clearly trumps the second. It is a mark of a RINO not to understand this.

So I predict that, even if the Republicans gain control of both the House and the Senate come November, they will not deploy their majorities in an effective way against their political enemies. Little will get done to reverse the assault on the Republic. And that is because they, as a group and because of the large number of RINOs, do not have the civil courage to punch back in the manner in which they are punched at. 

Trump tried to teach them how to fight, but they ignored his clear message, or, more likely, they simply lack the civil courage to implement it.  Of the four cardinal virtues, courage is the most difficult to display. For it, unlike the other three, exacts a high cost.  I myself lack the courage, not to mention the social skills, to enter the political arena. I'm Italian, a lover not a fighter -- until pushed to the wall.

In any case, no true philosopher could consider the political the locus of ultimate reality.

Generic Statements

Substack latest.

Can 'Birds fly' be fit into the Square of Opposition?  Is it an A, an I, an E, or an O?

Which Side Are You On?

Substack latest.

Pete Seeger was a commie populist. I prefer the anti-commie variety.

Word of the Day: Cack-Handed

Substack latest.

Short. Entertaining. Makes important points about language and male-female relations.  Improve your vocabulary. Read it!

Leftists, especially those of the 'woke'-Orwellian stripe, do not want you to have a large vocabulary. They do not want you to be able to think in a nuanced manner. 

On 'Stuff' and 'Ass'

A Substack language rant. Excerpt:

'Ass' is another word gaining a currency that is already excessive. One wonders how far it will go. Will 'ass' become an all-purpose synecdoche? Run your ass off, work your ass to the bone, get your ass out of here . . . ask a girl's father for her ass in marriage? In the expression, 'piece of ass' the reference is not to the buttocks proper, but to an adjoining area. 'Ass' appears subject to a peculiar semantic spread. It can come to mean almost anything, as in 'haul ass,' which means to travel at a high rate of speed. I don't imagine that if one were hauling donkeys one could make very good time. So how on earth did this expression arise? (I had teenage friends who could not refer to a U-Haul trailer except as a U-Haul-Ass trailer.)

When Politics Comes to be Like Philosophy

Trouble is on the way.

Substack latest. Short, incisive, 'on target.' To the range tomorrow!

For the Left, the Issue is Never the Issue

I unpack the saying in my latest Substack article.

Rand and Peikoff on God and Existence

Substack latest.

Wherein I analyze the Objectivist battle cry, "Existence exists!"

Ayn Rand is worth reading, mainly on political and economic topics: she is a corrective to the destructive lunacy of the collectivists. I am not suggesting that she is wholly correct, but that she is useful as a corrective, especially now, to the extremism of the clowns in control of the pathocratic Biden (mal)administration.

Free Speech Absolutism?

Substack latest.

The Long and the Short of it

Long views or short? Substack latest.

Why be Consistent?

Three types of consistency distinguished: logical, pragmatic, and Emersonian.

Substack latest.

'Infra Dig'

Can you dig it? Substack latest.

The Consolations of Philosophy

Substack latest. A Boethian-Hegelian rumination.

The Question of the Reality of God: Wittgensteinian Fideism No Answer

Substack latest.

Ratzinger on the Resurrection of the Body

Substack latest.

You will note that in my writings I use the gender-neutral 'man' and 'he.'  It is important to stand in defense of the mother tongue. She is under vicious assault these days. You owe a lot to your mother; show her some respect. On Easter Sunday and on every day. Anyone who takes offense at standard English takes offense inappropriately.

Wittgenstein on Christianity

A Good Friday meditation.

Substack latest.

Last year's Good Friday Substack meditation.

The Philosopher and the Christian

Substack latest.

Husserl, Thomas, and Sister Adelgundis

Substack latest. A meditation on Husserl's birthday.

'Equity' and Merit

Substack latest.

Lecturer on Personal Identity Denied Honorarium

Substack latest.

Be Positive!

Substack latest

Nietzsche, Salvation, and the Question of the Value of Life

Substack latest.

On Reverence

Substack latest.

Death as the Muse of Morality Limits our Immorality

Substack latest.

The No True Scotsman or No True Muslim Fallacy

Substack latest.

In logic a fallacy is not a false belief but a pattern of reasoning that is both typical and in some way specious. Specious reasoning, by the very etymology of the term, appears correct but is not. Thus a logical fallacy is not just any old mistake in reasoning, but a typical or recurrent mistake that has some tendency to seduce or mislead our thinking. A taxonomy of fallacies is useful insofar as it helps prevent one from seducing oneself or being seduced by others.

By the way, the study of logic won't get you very far, but it is fun and of some use, especially at a time when shockingly mendacious and dimwitted people have taken over the government of the greatest nation on Earth.  Examples are legion from the top down. You know their names.

Critical Race Theory Attracts the Uncritical

People are suckers for Critical Race Theory (CRT) because they cannot think critically.

Substack latest.

Quietism versus Activism

Substack latest.

The Worst Thing about Poverty

Substack latest. A quotation from Theodor Haecker with a bit of commentary.

Use it or Lose it?

Substack latest.

If you want to maintain your physical fitness, you must exercise regularly. Use it or lose it!  Not so long ago  I thought that the same principle had a political application: if you want to maintain your freedoms, you must exercise them.  Use 'em or lose 'em! But times have changed.  And when times change, the wise re-evaluate. I'll give two examples.

Civil Liability for Gun Manufacturers?

Of course not! Substack latest.

Louis Lavelle on the Stoic Wisdom

Substack latest.

I am a lover of the Stoics. Why waste time on New Age hucksters when one can read Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius? But while the Stoics can take us a good stretch down the road to wisdom, they cannot bring us to the end — a fact long appreciated by first-rate minds. In late antiquity, Aurelius Augustinus offered a critique of the Stoics in Book XIX, Chapter 4 of The City of God, a critique worthy of being called classical. We will have to examine that critique one of these days. But today I want to draw your attention to some passages from Chapter 10, Section 4 of Louis Lavelle's The Dilemma of Narcissus (Allen & Unwin, 1973, tr. Gairdner):

Read the rest.

On Acquiring a Large Vocabulary

But how useful in a society of semi-literates?

Substack latest.

A Part-Time Monk's Solution to Suggestibility

Substack latest.