Shortly after launching this blog, I summarized my views on philosophy as a way of life in an essay for Three Quarks Daily entitled The Scandal of Philosophy. The short version of the essay is that philosophy has become an academic discipline existing almost exclusively in academic institutions. As a result, it has sacrificed itsContinue reading “The Scandal of Philosophy”
Author Archives: Dwight Furrow
Norms, Critique, and the Double Mind
When faced with questions about how one should live, most people begin by exploring answers within the settled norms and conventions that already frame their lives. The conventions we live by are familiar and thus seem right even when life throws curveballs at us, even when we swing and miss. To look for answers outsideContinue reading “Norms, Critique, and the Double Mind”
One Incoherent Defense of Vegetarianism
It had been many years since I attended a party for philosophy conference participants and graduate students. My patience for what passes for social life in academia has been withering for years, but alas I found myself in such company before the pandemic shut down these gatherings. Many guests were vocal vegetarians and their justificationContinue reading “One Incoherent Defense of Vegetarianism”
How Not to Solve an Existential Crisis
How should we deal with an existential crisis (otherwise known as the feeling that one’s life is an endlessly tedious, worthless slog through a muddy salt marsh on the coast of Maine)? Heidegger was one of the few philosophers to write about this. (Although he never visited the coast of Maine.) According to him, mostContinue reading “How Not to Solve an Existential Crisis”
Is Western Civilization Based on Pious Hope?
“Irrespective of whether we are believers or agnostics, whether we believe in God or karma, moral ethics is a code which everyone is able to pursue.” – Dalai Lama This quotation from 1400 Lessons of the 14th Dalai Lama is the great hope on which modern civilization is based. But I wonder whether it isContinue reading “Is Western Civilization Based on Pious Hope?”
The Art of Gastronomy
Some forms of art, such as painting and sculpture, are relatively fixed and static anchored by the stability of vision and the persistence of visual objects. Other more musical works unfold in time or, like performances and environmental art, change with the passage of time. Where does gastronomy fit? With the temporal arts, I think.Continue reading “The Art of Gastronomy”
What Does it Mean to Lead a Philosophical Life?
To lead a philosophical life is to live a life devoted to reason—to live in accordance with one’s own deep and comprehensive understanding of how one’s life can be most fully lived. This is not about accepting a text or set of principles as authoritative. One must be committed to one’s own process of reasoningContinue reading “What Does it Mean to Lead a Philosophical Life?”
The Most Important Virtue
“He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.” – Miguel De Cervantes Cervantes is right. Of all the qualities of moral character, courage is the most important. Courage requires suppressing or not reacting to excessive or irrational fear. Irrational fears are deeplyContinue reading “The Most Important Virtue”
Wholeheartedness is Over-rated
“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” – Walt Disney. On matters of importance perhaps we shouldn’t treat the creator of Mickey Mouse as an authority. True believers are invariably intellectually lazy never bothering to become informed and lacking the humility to change their minds.
A Short History of Ethics and a Possible Future
Ancient philosophers concerned with ethical matters were preoccupied with the question of how one should live. Their answers to that question required the existence of a cosmological order to which a good life must conform—an ideal of human nature built into the very structure of reality or advanced via God’s word. Among philosophers, belief inContinue reading “A Short History of Ethics and a Possible Future”
Changing Minds and Fluid Identities
There is a good deal of public discussion, prompted by our political situation and challenges surrounding Covid19, about whether citing facts is effective at getting people to change their minds. Many people argue that facts aren’t sufficient—one must appeal to emotions in order to be persuasive. But I think this isn’t quite true. Facts canContinue reading “Changing Minds and Fluid Identities”
Socrates the Unwise
Socrates famously argued that we achieve the good life only through the rigorous practice of philosophy. Most of the premises in Socrates’ argument have proven to be false or at least highly contentious. Through philosophical reflection and dialogue, he came to believe that the soul survives death. Thus, we should be deeply concerned with its’Continue reading “Socrates the Unwise”
The Laughter of Gods
Should we fear the morning sun since it has spent so much time in the dark? We pray for its arrival, but it can be fierce, insistent, searing. Better to shelter in thick fog, with eyes unburdened, snugly unaware. Einstein wrote “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge isContinue reading “The Laughter of Gods”
What Do You Really Desire?
Experts in the media (both genuine and self-appointed) stream terabytes of self-help advice on how to get what you want out of life. But how do we know what we want? What sort of epistemic access do we have to our real desires? Of course, we know what our impulses drive us to do. WeContinue reading “What Do You Really Desire?”
Attunement and Living Well
I am interested in developing a concept that I think will be particularly useful in thinking about philosophy as a way of life. I call the concept “attunement,” with apologies to Heidegger for commandeering his terminology although not his concept. The idea is that we, as well as the situations in which we find ourselves,Continue reading “Attunement and Living Well”
Philosophy: A Way of Life 