Philosophy

John Stevens Sensei, a Buddhist priest, and 7th Dan visited our dojo, Bay Marin Aikido for a weekend of training. Stevens, a  foremost authority on Aikido has penned more than thirty books on Buddhism, Aikido and Asian culture. The experience brought new dimensions to our taijutsu, body skills or body arts. Read More

One's life philosophy is not an abstract matter; it has to serve one's daily life. Joseph Campbell, whose guiding idea was expressed as "the commonality of themes in world myths," was once asked by the interviewer Bill Moyers, "You're talking about a search for the meaning of life?" "No, no, no," he replied. "For the experience of being alive." Read More

The latest fad in motivation is the Law of Attraction or more popularly The Secret after the motion picture and book by Rhonda Byrne. The Secret claims that the more intent you are in your wish for health, wealth, and friends, the faster the universe will act upon it. Is it real, or is it VooDoo science? Read More

Philosophers, some scientists, and many people have long held the assumption that human nature is antisocial and self interested. This does not make sense, because people are deeply connected with each other, and self interest is often social. This blog will detail the ways in which people are fundamentally social, and what that could mean for our sense of who we are. Read More

It sounds so true. People seem to take such comfort from that phrase's wisdom. There's something proudly accepting and resolved in their tone when they declare it, as though they're sharing a hard-earned profound lesson.

What it means though is very much up in the air. And therein lies a tale of our era's confusion regarding causality, or what we mean by "a reason."
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 It is often assumed that a reduction in inequality would lead to a drop in the level of envy. I believe that this assumption is incorrect and that, on the contrary, when inequalities are decreased the level of envy increases. Read More

We are all vulnerable, partly because we are totally exposed. As John O'Donohue says, although this very exposure allows us to have positive experiences, such as smelling the roses, seeing the waves and stars, and reading the hieroglyphics of the human condition, it also makes us feel unsheltered. His cosmic view is that one is surrounded by infinite space without physical shelter. Read More

Evolutionary psychology generally focuses on the ways in which life's age old pursuit of biological reproductive success shapes our mind's activities. Evolution and behavior are related in another way as well.  Evolutionary epistemologists like me are interested in how the minds activities are evolution by other means. Read More

David Chalmers is a philosopher of mind, best known for his argument about the difficulty of what he termed the “hard problem” of consciousness, which he typically discusses by way of a thought experiment featuring zombies who act and talk exactly like humans, and yet have no conscious thought (I explained clearly what I think of that sort of thing in my essay on “The Zombification of Philosophy”). Read More