Creatively Advancing into Novelty
“The point, for Hilary Putnam (HP), is that neither James, nor pragmatism generally speaking, is committed to anti-realism, if that means a rejection of a reality that is external to agents, or committed to truth as subjective or mere expediency (or “whatever works”). Rather, for HP (and James), truth is not a dyadic relation between…
Episode 2 of Increased Capacity is here! Dan and I are back talking about all things that have to do with beauty, truth and goodness. In this episode we talk about cilantro, quantum theory, and web comics (among other things…). Enjoy! This week’s picks: Jesse’s Beauty pick Jesse’s Truth pick Jesse’s Goodness pick Dan’s…
So I’m doing a new podcsast and the first episode is now out! The show is a talk-show format and, full disclosure: I’ve never done a talk show before. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been, plus I was nervous because we were broadcasting live, so It’s a little shaky in places,…
Recently I was attempting to discern the differences between a generic panentheism and a Whiteheadian, process-relational panentheism (as I understand it). I kept coming across little diagrams online and I quickly realized that the panentheism diagram I kept seeing did not come close to the process-relational type I was familiar with. So, I created my…
“When I ask my students, ‘What is the opposite of beauty?’ they very quickly respond, ‘ugly.’ That’s what society tells us. But what if I say it’s glamour? We start seeing that glamour is the most dangerous thing because it disguises itself as beautiful, attracts us to it, ensnares us in false hopes and superficiality,…
“The Johannine narrative betrays traces of a way beyond the mirror-play of absolutism and relativism. It wells up from within, it flows between, it blows from without. But this truth is not to be had. To own the truth is to lose it. The flow of truth is in this text the movement of the…
I remember sitting with my wise old Rabbi once and hearing a baby scream. He looked at me and said, “Did you ever notice how babies come into the world with their tiny fists clenched?” “Yes,” I said. “Do you know how our sages explain that? They say that babies, not knowing any better, clench…
Q: You mentioned that a lot of people write and tell you how much they’ve been impacted by your work. What do you think touches people so profoundly? A: I don’t know. I got a message from someone this morning telling me he liked the way I told the truth. Q: How do you think…
“The Odyssey, from Greek mythology, is the classic Western saga, so much so that now we use the word “odyssey” to describe all significant human journeys. A religious myth is not something that is not true. Although it may not be true in particular, it is overwhelmingly true in general. Even the ancients knew…
“Truth and trust are closely related words, as displayed in the archaic form of the word for truth, “troth,” as in “to pledge your troth.” “Truth” at its root signifies a covenant of trustworthiness, in a marriage contract. To be true to another means to be trusty! This root meaning is not peculiar to European…