Marriage Tactics

I suppose it must be theoretically possible to create an ethic without God or a god, but historically in the west it’s been a problem. When Machiavelli developed the first utilitarian handbook on politics, that is to say, a book on politics that approached them without religion (except considered as a tool), he laid the [...]

The Wizard of Oz and the Removal of Chests

The Wizard of Oz seems to be a fine movie from all I can tell, but the book strikes me as exactly the sort of thing that CS Lewis was talking about when he spoke of making “men without chests.” Chapter XXI is called “The Lion Becomes the King of the Beasts.” After seeing the [...]

On Proving the Existence of God

The great argument of the “new atheism,” as of most atheisms of the old stripe, seems to be that “you can’t prove the existence of God.” In other words, using the tools of science, you can’t prove the existence of something that transcends science. To think more clearly on the matter, it might be helpful [...]

Bad Theory and the Practice of College Composition

RV Young on changes in Freshman composition over the past 40 years. HT Martin at Vital Remnants

Two Kinds of Freedom

Human history and the human psyche reveal two conditions that we describe using the word freedom. They are, however, very different conditions. The first is what I will call, borrowing the word from Kierkegaard, “aesthetic freedom.” This is the freedom of the adolescent and is characterized by the right to avoid making choices. For example, [...]

On the Soul – or Whatever

Do you think a school should teach psychology? I believe it should not just as I believe that it should not base its teaching techniques on psychology. That might sound as mad as everything else I write, so I’d better explain. It’s simple, though. Psychology, as approached today, is false, wrong, in error, harmful, etc. [...]

Why we think and how we can do it better

We think to determine three things: whether something is true, whether something should be done, and whether something commands our appreciation. In other words, we think to know truth, goodness, and beauty. In each case, a judgment is made. A judgment is embodied in a decision and expressed in a proposition. When we know the truth, we [...]

Marks of The Post-Human World

I might need to add one of those “signs of the apocalypse” features to this blog. It would focus on developments and events that demonstrate the rejection of nature and the impact of that rejection on normal people – who become rapidly abnormal living in the vacuum so abhorred by nature. This would be the [...]

The Lost Tools of Birthing

Between Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales who died in 1400, and Edmund Spenser, who published The Sheapherd’s Calendar in 1576, you will scan your anthologies of English verse in vain for a renowned poet. Why did English literature blossom in the 14th century only to enter an aesthetic dark age until Spenser? [...]

Could William Faulkner Write?

I don’t like to travel without an interesting compelling time-filling book, and I’m driving up to PA tomorrow in what is still called a car because that is what the people over at Hertz call it – a bright cool air-conditioned chamber with the windows all closed because as a man I realize that hot [...]