Currently viewing the tag: "Philosophy"

The Origin of Elon Musk’s “First Principles”

By On May 3, 2019

Of the many articles and interviews that praise Elon Musk, few focus on the aspect of his thinking immediately applicable to our own lives.  That is, his method of problem solving.

Musk calls it “proceeding from first principles,” but for those of us who can’t grasp what he means by this, we need only look to the year 1637.

For long before there was a YouTube, transistors, or even Calculus, there was Descartes’ “Method,” and it’s one of the most powerful problem solving tools ever invented.

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Why High School Students Love to Read Philosophy

By On May 18, 2016

Duble_herma_of_Socrates_and_Seneca_Antikensammlung_Berlin_07Every age-group has its genius and the genius of the teenager is their love of speculation.  I don’t think this gets enough play in education circles.  Kids love to wonder:  Why are we here?  Who has authority and why? What the hell am I doing in school?  What are we learning?  And while the adult perspective often frames this as impractical, juvenile rebellion, I see it as a hunger for a better cut of meat: Philosophy.

So, here’s a brief summary of how I bring speculative thought into my classroom.

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The Uses of Literature

By On February 24, 2013

Here’s a great comment that made it to the front page of Reddit on the uses of literature.

The universe is huge. Time is impossibly vast. Trillions of creatures crawl and swim and fly through our planet. Billions of people live, billions came before us, and billions will come after. We cannot count, cannot even properly imagine, the number of perspectives and variety of experiences offered by existence.

We sip all of this richness through the very narrowest of straws: one lifetime, one consciousness, one perspective, one set of experiences. Of all the universe has, has had, and will have to offer, we can know only the tiniest fraction. We are alone and minuscule and our lives are over in a blink.

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The Urge of the Philosopher; the Whim of an Artist

By On November 20, 2011

Can there be said anything of Phillip Roth that has not already been said?  As a public figure he predicts the end of his own genre.   And yet, to read his work is to become intimate with the original thrust and power fiction has on the world of ideas.  Existence, the subjective reflection, the booger rolled in the fingers and felt for the thousandth time, is still a vital act.  Just because there are less readers does not mean it is unimportant.  This is to succumb to the fallacy of near-history.

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