It is a common misconception that sadness and emotional loss, if severe enough, result in depression. But what is depression? What is sadness? There are in fact two different words for them, and, in fact, they are completely separate concepts.
Sadness vs. Depression
August 24th, 2009I’ll Take Missing the Mark for $1 billion, Alex
June 9th, 2009Recently, Pete Peterson, founder of Blackstone Group and former cabinet member under Nixon, sold his company and received over $1 billion in the sale. Claiming a philanthropic goal of saving the world, he set up a foundation and gave it $1 billion to do just that. And what does this foundation do? It is set up to provide grants and ‘operational activities’ to ‘promote responsibility and accountability.’ In Mr. Peterson’s eyes, the current economic crisis is caused by people not saving enough and not living within their means. He think we are addicted to debt and that in itself is the fundamental issue. If only we could be more responsible individuals, he thinks, everything will come up smelling roses in the future.
He’s dead wrong. We need more than a tweak here or adjustment there, we need an overhaul. We need to figure out what didn’t work and why, and fix that. It is the principles themselves that have failed, not the details of their application.
To Race or Not to Race
January 20th, 2008I’m driving on the freeway and a Subaru WRX comes along side, the driver gives me the thumbs up, and starts gunning his 220+ horsepower turbo-charged engine, causing his car to lurch forward repeatedly. He wants me to race him on the freeway. Before I take any action, I consider all my alternatives and sum up the pros and cons of each in the span of a few seconds. The first option is that I could take him up on it and race him. What could I gain? What might it cost me? Alternatively, I could refrain from racing him, which negates the answers to both of those questions. There are other things I could do, such as call the police or gesture back at him in some manner, but all such things presuppose that I’ve decided whether to race him or not.
The Relationship Between Philosophy and Science
August 18th, 2005There is a relationship between “is” and “ought” — that what is, determines what one ought to do. Because people think that science identifies the “is” and philosophy says what we “ought” to do, that science (the “is”) determines philosophy (the “ought”). This is an error because science can only identify what “is” in terms defined by philosophy, and for reasons defined by philosophy. Science is a tool for man to accomplish goals, and is preceeded by philosophic conclusions.