If another child on the playground takes your Oreos, or knocks over your stick fort, and that makes you angry, does that mean it is necessary for you to punch him in the nose?  Of course not.  You are taught early on that your anger does not justify lashing out, that you don’t get to…

An emotion is a holistic physiological reaction to a perception.  It is the sum total of your autonomic, visceral, and hormonal reactions to something you perceive to have occurred. I don’t say that emotions are only this, because it would be incorrect to describe something as “mere” which is not mere.  Your emotions are not…

You have heard it said that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again expecting the results to change.”  But, no.  That would be a symptom of insanity.  The definition of insanity is “a pathological delta (difference) between one’s perception of one’s environment and the objective reality of one’s environment.” …

It is incorrect to say that mind, emotion, and soul are merely a physical phenomenon, merely the sum of physiological and physical processes.  This is not incorrect because mind, emotion, and soul are more than the physical, but rather because the physical is never “mere.” Is a $100 bill merely a piece of paper?  Of…

What you actually want is serenity, and as long as you are seeking it, you will never find it.  Serenity is a unicorn. A young lady I know studies martial arts, has done both in the United States and in Japan.  Nor does she practice martial arts for show.  She practices those arts which leave…

Do you know what a unicorn is?  Yes, it is a one-horned horse-like creature of myth, but more importantly, it is that which you cannot acquire by hunting it.  If you hunt it, you will spend your life in vain obsession and never acquire it.  It only comes to those who do not seek it…

C. S. Lewis would argue that Pride is the opposite of Love, where Pride is defined as self-focus.  That is probably true.  However, love’s natural precursors (familial and tribal instincts) are weak motivators.  Most people never rise beyond instinct to genuine love.  Pride’s natural precursor, though, is fear, and fear is strong.  If Pride is…

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…

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,…

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…