Archive for December 2020
What is love?
You have heard it said that the Ancient Greeks had a dozen words for love, capturing all of its subtle dimensions—the implicit contrast being that we intellectually impoverished modern English speakers lack the linguistic and philosophical nuance of the Ancient Greeks. In truth, we have all the same words they have, or at least phrases…
Read MoreWhat is the purpose of argument?
The purpose of argument is to convince the audience. That is all. That is the only purpose. It is never, ever the purpose of argument to convince your counterpart/opponent (i.e. the person with whom you are arguing. To argue is to adopt a partisan position. The function of the brain is not to identify truth,…
Read MoreWhat is the purpose of intellect?
Why do human beings have brains and minds capable of reason? It is not, as one might think, to pursue truth. The brain can be coopted to that purpose, but the brain is an organ, and like all organs it comes about naturally for its contribution to the survival of the individual animal. Human beings—homo…
Read MoreOutsiders, a novel
A special forces team, on what should have been a simple, uncontested operation to extract an unimportant source from neutral territory, is ambushed during exfil and nearly wiped out. A graduate student of machine learning and AI discovers an artificial neural network operating on the Internet, the likes of which no one has ever conceived.…
Read MoreWhat is a warrior, and is it good to be one?
What is the difference between a warrior and a soldier or ruffian or other type of fighter? Briefly: a warrior is one who can explain why he fights, beyond simply, “I was so ordered.” A warrior can speak to his own motivation from principle. Philosophy is a necessary ingredient of warriorship. To be a warrior,…
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