Category Archives: Philosophy

Jordan Peterson and the Rise of the New Chautauqua

Posted on 9 May, 2018 by

The Return of Public Lectures Useful to the Public Back in late 19th and early 20th century America, “Chautauqua circuits” of public lectures swept across the states. This was long before radio and television — and a hundred years before … Continue reading →

Posted in Groupthink, Ideology, Jordan Peterson, Online Education, Philosophy | Tagged , | 11 Comments

First Blood: Sam Harris Confronts the Echo Choir

Posted on 6 April, 2018 by

First Blood: In Which Sam Harris Offends Ezra Klein As long as author and provocateur Sam Harris only attacked Christians, violent Muslims, and Donald Trump, he was mostly left alone by the curtained overlords of politically correct public discourse. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Genetics and Gene Expression, IQ, Philosophy | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Maximum Impact: How One Man Could Change the World

Posted on 27 March, 2018 by

Global Change via Religion/Philosophy Looking at Moses, Jesus, the Buddha, Mohamed, and the Hindu legacies, one sees many long-term impacts of a global and quasi-global nature. Religion represents a deep and archetypal philosophy, which acts on multiple layers of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Jordan Peterson, Philosophy, Politics, Ritual and Tradition | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Brazil Has Strong Gun Control — And Sky High Murder Rates

Posted on 21 March, 2018 by

For Criminals, Guns Come Easy Thanks to strict gun control laws, the ability of the average Brazilian to defend himself from more bloody-minded countrymen is limited. By absolute numbers of homicides, Brazil leads all other nations. 60,000 Brazilians were sent … Continue reading →

Posted in Competence, Crime, Philosophy, Weapons | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Tragic Misconstruction of the Human Life Cycle

Posted on 6 January, 2018 by

Modern humans have somehow come to believe that the human life cycle stops in young adulthood. Choosing to forego the critical step of procreation — and spending almost all their resources trying to maintain themselves at the young adult stage … Continue reading →

Posted in Longevity, Philosophy | Tagged

Mind the Brain

Posted on 20 October, 2017 by

The better you can understand your brain, the better you can understand your own mind. And understanding your own mind is an open door to self-liberation and freedom. Short of that, every human being is a slave to mindless habits, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Human Brain, Learning Theory, Optimism, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Delusions, Obsessions, and Ideologies in the Age of Trump

Posted on 18 February, 2017 by

Delusions are unfounded but tightly held beliefs. Everyone is prone to forming delusions — in fact it can be said that human life is built upon systems of delusions, depending upon one’s upbringing. Ordinary delusions, as opposed to pathological delusions, … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything You Think You Know Just Ain't So, Groupthink, Ideology, Knowledge, Philosophy | Tagged

The Government Is Not the Country

Posted on 11 November, 2016 by

My kind of loyalty was to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal … Continue reading →

Posted in Government, Groupthink, Ideology, Philosophy, Politics | Tagged , ,

How to Find Happiness in an Unhappy World

Posted on 6 November, 2016 by

Dimensions of Happiness Happiness is almost never where you think you will find it. If you become too impatient — if you never learn how to set the table and allow happiness to come to dinner — you may set … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Economics, Human Brain, Optimism, Philosophy | Tagged | 5 Comments

Is Your Life NOT a Journey?

Posted on 6 September, 2016 by

Longer and longer lives for fewer and fewer people born in the civilised world. What is it all about? Is it possible that our “metaphor” for life — a journey from birth to death — prevents us from living the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Pram | Tagged ,

Bypassing the Overlords: Building a New World Without Asking Permission

Posted on 24 July, 2016 by

A Neocameral Future from The Anti-Puritan Axel McKibben has begun work on a series of articles describing how a brighter, braver, and more honest sort of thinker and actor might set about creating a better world — without arguing with … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Enlightenment, Philosophy, Politics | Tagged

Ideology and the Dangerous Child

Posted on 14 July, 2016 by

A child is born with innate reflexes, instincts, predispositions, aptitudes, and limitations. When confronted with the outside world, the child begins to assimilate experiences of the world into his internal milieu — and he is permanently changed, every single day. … Continue reading →

Posted in Dangerous Child, Ideology, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Happiness Deconstructed

Posted on 12 July, 2016 by

What is Happiness? First, a few things that happiness IS NOT: bitter hostility, helpless loneliness, a despairing dearth of choices, a lack of personal confidence based upon genuine personal incompetence, the absence of any meaningful purpose. The Happiness of Pleasure … Continue reading →

Posted in Biomedicine, Dangerous Child, Longevity, Philosophy | Tagged , , ,

Building a Positive Future Instead of Tearing it Down

Posted on 11 June, 2016 by

We have discovered through hard trial and error that a society without a sense of larger purpose drifts into nihilism and despair. __ ColonyofCommodus To build a future, people must have a sense of purpose — “a larger purpose” than … Continue reading →

Posted in Disruptive Technologies, Economics, expansive future, Future, Media, Philosophy, Propaganda, Space Future | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Learning to Transcend Failure is a Necessary Part of Growing Up

Posted on 29 April, 2016 by

The following article is adapted from a posting published earlier on The Dangerous Child blog How Can Children Master Financial Skills by Age 18? Humans learn best by trying — by going out on the limb for something. Early tries … Continue reading →

Posted in careers, Competence, Dangerous Child, Everything You Think You Know Just Ain't So, Groupthink, Philosophy, University | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Complex Evolving Systems

Posted on 3 April, 2016 by

More on Why Everything You Think You Know Just Ain’t So The idea of complex evolving systems grew out of the somewhat simpler concept of “complex adaptive systems.” The difference is that the evolving systems not only adapt and survive … Continue reading →

Posted in Complexity, Philosophy, Self Organisation | Tagged | 3 Comments

The Deep Insight at the Moment of Death

Posted on 18 March, 2016 by

insight ‎(plural insights) A sight or view of the interior of anything; a deep inspection or view; introspection; frequently used with into. Power of acute observation and deduction; penetration; discernment; perception. … Intuitive apprehension of the inner nature of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged

Is the Dark Enlightenment in Danger of Becoming Another Ideology?

Posted on 14 September, 2015 by

In a very real sense, a philosophy is a way of life which may incorporate but does not embody a political agenda. On the other hand, ideology is usually based in theory, the precepts of which often have little or … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Enlightenment, Dysgenics, Ideology, Idiocracy, Philosophy, Propaganda, Utopia | Tagged | 7 Comments

Distinctions that Make a Difference

Posted on 1 April, 2015 by

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” -Kurt Vonnegut Almost everyone wants to be strong and independent, free from external manipulation and indoctrination. Part of the process of shielding ourselves … Continue reading →

Posted in Ideology, Knowledge, Philosophy | Tagged | 5 Comments

You Are Deluded

Posted on 3 March, 2015 by

Commentary on excerpts from Dr. Bruce Charlton’s online e-book “Addicted to Distraction” Mass Media is a system like no other – it has no function of its own, so it can just keep growing. It has no positive aim for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cognition, Competence, Everything You Think You Know Just Ain't So, Knowledge, Philosophy, Propaganda | Tagged , | 2 Comments

We Are Marching to Utopia . . . We Will Soon Be There! 2015 Reprise

Posted on 3 January, 2015 by

First published on the original Al Fin blog …optimists and idealists — with their ignorance about the truths of human nature and human society, and their naive hopes about what can be changed — have wrought havoc for centuries….instead of … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Utopia | Tagged | 9 Comments

A World Full of Simplistic Logic

Posted on 7 October, 2014 by

Humans base much of their lives on the flimsiest of logic. Most human brains are lazy, if not lazy and stupid. They will take a simple idea “that they just know is true,” then build wildly ambitious ideologies and belief … Continue reading →

Posted in Groupthink, Knowledge, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Signs of an Educated Person: Falsifiability

Posted on 11 September, 2014 by

How do you know whether a claim is true or false? One of the first things to consider is whether or not the claim can ever be proven true, or proven false — and if so, how? The ability to … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged | 6 Comments

Contradiction and Consistency

Posted on 9 September, 2014 by

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.F. Scott Fitzgerald, “ One of the keys to clear and fertile thinking … Continue reading →

Posted in Groupthink, Philosophy | Tagged ,

Past, Present, Future: Our Hidden Puppet Strings

Posted on 5 August, 2014 by

We move through our present lives largely unaware of how strongly we are affected and controlled by our subconscious images of past and future. Imaginations of the future and memories of the past can affect us in the present in … Continue reading →

Posted in Future, History, Philosophy | 1 Comment