Is a simpler life a better life?
There is an ambiguity in the very notion of a simple life. There is the zealous desire for a life[…]
ReadTag: Ethics
What’s the problem with introversion?
Introversion is to engagement as digestion is to ingestion. We need to feed our minds with good ideas and accurate information, and that requires an attentiveness to the world and others incompatible with pathological navel-gazing. But having done so, none of that helps us to grow mentally unless we can chew it over, digest what is nutritious and expel the waste.
ReadTrue crime and evil
In the latest microphilosophy podcast I talk to Richard Lloyd Parry, author of People Who Eat Darkness, and Tobias Jones, author of Blood on the Altar about how the experience of writing about true, gruesome crimes has affected their understanding of evil and human nature.
ReadCan you avoid a broken heart?
Death and taxes may well be the only inevitable facts of life, but a broken heart is almost as universal and often seems equally beyond our control. Still, even if we can’t determine whether we suffer or not, sometimes we can choose exactly how we do so.
ReadWhat should we expect of others?
Morality is built on aspirations not expectations. Treating someone well is not conditional on the assumption that they would reciprocate if the roles were reversed, simply on the belief that it would be good if they did. If this were not the case, morality as we know it would not exist.
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