Modern skirmishes in the ancient cold war between deep thinkers and the unreflective masses — What’s the status of the old cold war between intellectual elites and the less reflective masses? Which side has the advantage in the modern period? There’s reason to think that the masses have the intellectuals on the run, especially on four fronts, owing to the political and economic predominance of…

Contrasting the animality of family bonds with the unnaturalness of the moral perspective — Romantic love, as in the hormonal and social bond between life partners has arguably been the most important thing in people’s lives since the dawn of time. Even before the cultural celebration of romance, which is relatively recent in history, the exclusive, intimate kind of love between sexual partners and…

How a Catholic apologist attempts to defend the indefensible — Even in the twenty-first century, there are conservative Christian apologists defending the archaic notion that God will punish all non-Christians for eternity in hellfire after they die. Let’s sort through the obnoxious evasions and rationalizations which this kind of apologist is liable to resort to in defense of the indefensible. The standard Christian defense of Hell

Modern equality and the ambivalence of thought leaders — There have been at least two ancient cold wars, the one between the powerful and the powerless (which typically amounts to a conflict between the rich and the poor), and the one between intellectuals and the relatively unreflective masses. The first conflict, which I’ve discussed elsewhere, is as old as…

A simple analogy that bypasses the pretentious existential jargon — One of the clichés in modern philosophy is that life is absurd. As to what that cliché means, you’re supposed to wade through some of the most pretentious prose, by Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, to understand it in much depth. But to clarify that declaration of life’s absurdity, consider…

The fiasco of that salesman’s attempt to be philosophical — Ominously, the audio-only presentation of Ben Shapiro’s “debunking” of atheism begins with him reading two and a half minutes of some tacky ads for his Daily Wire website, a gas app, and a crypto trading service. Imagine a slick salesman who specializes in the kind of sophistry that’s standard in…

Love’s biological function and the loftier, moral enterprise — Original Philosophy A space on Medium for serious philosophers to post their research and thinking for a broader audience.medium.com I know, the title is blasphemous. There’s perhaps nothing more recommended than love. A loveless life is a rotten waste, as we’re told endlessly, and as we tell ourselves. But while serial monogamy is thousands of years old, so is polygamy, and the romantic idolizing of love is only several…

How to preserve morality after nature’s re-enchantment — Original Philosophy A space on Medium for serious philosophers to post their research and thinking for a broader audience.medium.com Could the Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammad have imagined that they were founding religions that would flourish for centuries? Suppose Jesus was an historical person who delivered something like the sermon on the Mount of Olives. …

And how theists mythologize the self’s internal divisions — Dan Foster, the liberal Christian and editor of Backyard Church, suspects that some Christians are fooling themselves into thinking they’re dealing with God whereas they’re interacting only with a mental projection of themselves. He asks, “How do you know you’ve found God,” and he challenges Christians to test their so-called…