humility
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Thoughtlets. LVI. Philosophy Folded in My Right Hip Pocket
There’s a couple of lines of a passage in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations that’ve been bothering me, “Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready, too — ready to understand heaven and earth.” I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to lose one’s philosophical acumen after graduating if it’s Continue reading
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Thoughtlets . xxxviii.
Lately I’ve been troubled by laughing-at-stupid-people infotainment, especially in partisan news media, and on both sides of the political spectrum. I’d like to watch a broadcast that doesn’t devolve into some version of nanny-nanny-poo-poo-you-have-stinky-pants. That the frowning anchor wears a suit and tie, or a presentable dress, makes the content no less childish and vitriolic. But Continue reading
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Plato’s Legacy: Intellectual Curmudgeonry
Try this. When you step out of bed in the morning, open the curtains, take a big breath, and exclaim: What a wonderful day! I can’t believe how rational people are! It’s because somebody, like Plato, opened the curtains one morning, looked out at the world and said Oh… My… Gawd! What’s wrong with people?! Can’t Continue reading
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On Judging Facts. Three Quotes Worth Comparing: Hobbes, Mill, Lippmann.
“And as in arithmetic, unpracticed men must, and professors themselves may often err and cast up false, so also in any other subject of reasoning, the ablest, most attentive, and most practised men may deceive themselves and infer false conclusions, not but that reason itself is always right reason, as well as arithmetic is a Continue reading
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