When we say something is true, what we usually mean is that the words that we are using or the idea that we are holding in our head corresponds to some actual event or thing …
The Evolving Truth of Pragmatism
In response to my last two posts a number of good points have been raised that I would like to start to address. Catherine has championed the idealism of Plato and Steiner against the Pragmatic …
The Integral Assumption of American Philosophy
Mind cannot exist without matter; matter cannot exist without mind. This is what I have come to see as perhaps the most essential theme that runs through American philosophy. In the modern western world it …
Integral Emergence vs. Co-evolution
Integral Emergence is a term you might hear used to describe how multiple aspects of reality arise simultaneously. This idea is important to any understanding of Pragmatism; and it is also central to Ken …
Nothing Exists Independently
One of the foundational insights of Pragmatism is that reality only exists in relationship. Nothing that is absolutely independent is real. Absolute Oneness is identical with absolute nothingness. Any concept of oneness that exists can …
The Self and the Social Organism
In my last post I explained that John Dewey believed that our self identity is a learned habit of identification that does not necessarily indicate the existence of any actually existing entity that could be …
The Illusion of Freedom and Thought
Inevitably if we start to talk about social conditioning the topic of human freewill comes into play. When you begin to recognize, as John Dewey did, that so much – if not all – of …
The Ego is Not the Cause of Action
The American philosopher John Dewey was against the notion that there is any entity that could be called an ego that is the cause of our choices and actions. Activity happens as a response to …
The Habits of John Dewey
The American philosopher John Dewey described social institutions, customs and norms as habits that develop in society over time. He is quick to point out that habits are not merely passive boundaries that limit activity …
Are We All Institutionalized?
We might be. I wanted to share some more thoughts as I read John Searle’s new book “Making the Social World“And one of the things that has struck me profoundly about social reality is the …
How do we know what things are worth?
How do we assign value to things? Why do we believe that one thing is better than another? As I continue here with our discussion of how social reality is constructed (after a brief interlude …
Movie Review: An Ecology of Mind
I recently had the pleasure to attend a special pre-screening of a new film entitled An Ecology of Mind. The film is an hour-long documentary about the anthropologist and philosopher Gregory Bateson that was created by …
Why is Barack Obama the President of the United States?
I want to continue the discussion of how the social world is created by posing the question, “Why is Barack Obama the President of the United States?” The most popular answer to that question would …
Reality or Social Reality
I am currently beginning to study the work of the philosopher John R. Searle especially his work on how social reality is created. He starts from the fact that there are many things that are …
Emerson & James in Defense of Individual Greatness
In 1850 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a book that he called Representative Men. In this book he explains that great individuals represent possibilities of higher ways of being. These extraordinary individuals have the power to …
Science and Nonduality Conference Final Report
I am posting an extra post this week so that I can give a final summation about the Science and Nonduality Conference that I just attended. On the last day of the conference I participated …
My First Report from the Science and Nonduality Conference
I am posting late this week because I wanted to write some thoughts from the conference I am attending and yesterday was the first day I spent here. The conference itself is a fascinating mix …
Charles Sanders Peirce’s Nonduality
Here are some final thougts about my topic for the science and nonduality conference next week. If anyone who reads this blog happens to come to that event please introduce yourself to me. Peirce’s inquiry …
The Evolutionary Design of Charles Sanders Peirce
On January 17, 1884 Charles Sanders Peirce presented a paper called “Design and Chance,” to the members of the Metaphysical Club, an organization that he had founded during the brief time that he taught at …
The Worldview of Worldviews
Recently some of my blog posts have been used by a teacher at St. John’s University to introduce the idea of “worldview” to one of her classes. Specifically her students have been reading and commenting …