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On Akrasia

  Our ability to want things, sometimes, can be overwhelming. Some may point to addiction or obsession when confronting our talking about desire. Its pull is like a magnet upon a piece of steel or iron. Simply put, we, in these certain situations, cannot act otherwise. But what about the converse? Perhaps that isn’t mentioned enough or even talked about at all. The paralysis of desire can be much more debilitating and consequential than its more popular counterpart. Akrasia literally means “weakness of will” in Greek. In larger part, it represents a school of thought in philosophy that deals with autonomy. Notoriously undervalued questions like: are we free; is fatalism true; and is agency possible with the existence of God, dominate these conversations. That said, I’d like to focus on the psychological conditions at play when it comes to freedom of the will and that abominable weakness that each and every person deals with on a daily basis. Will, in large part, is our ability ...
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On Ownership

  It’s perhaps time now that we need a new definition for ownership. We can go all the way back to John Locke and Thomas Hobbes on this topic. In fact, let’s just take a quick look at the debate: Locke (really, should be called a founding father of America) felt that, because of our abundances, we need to do a better job of sharing. Part of his ethics were primarily about keeping what we own from predators, thieves, wars and the like. This was important for having a good life, which is part of every philosophy.   Simply put, we should feel good about what we earn and work for and not have to worry about it being taken away.             Then, there was Hobbes, and in his work, “The Leviathan” he goes on to explain that the state of nature is one given to the wild, anarchic. There really is no order except in our attempt to employ it, which is always futile. Property, thus, would only be relegated to those who have immed...
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On Criticism

      In a peculiar sense, criticism has taken quite an intellectual decline since the years of yore and is now attributed to bullishness, provocativeness, and raucous behavior. Before, this word was once held by elites and used by scholars. Its casting off is, how shall it be put, plainly unnecessary. That is, unless those who have some interest in doing away with criticism altogether or find its activity a waste of time. Nevertheless, no matter how much the definition is modified, nor how much its true intention is averted, it will always be something of a fine human trait. Many today, and most perhaps, in media outlets and other forms of information services, look to criticism as something like a sword: a weapon which much be sheathed; for when not, it dangers those in the way of its blade. To simplify matters, criticism harms only those who are delicate enough to spoil at the mere presence of it and may not be of a sound, moral mind. Those spirits, as found in m...
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On Idealism

  Humanity has always been obsessed with perfection.   Maybe it was the Renaissance that did us in. The Age of Enlightenment maybe? Perhaps this is just another experiment of western culture. We should all want to get better, but is the ideal really worth it? That’s a question worth examining because what do we lose if the universal is never attained? It’s been a core attitude in philosophy since ancient times to take on this concept and try to explain the exactness of what it encompasses in the scope of man. In all seriousness: idealism is the conversation of the gods. Historically, idealism has been placed right alongside mathematics, music, geometry, and most importantly, metaphysics. The ideal is properly defined as that which never changes, is objective, and its only access is through the faculties of the human mind. Immanuel Kant referred to it as “noumenon”; Plato recognized it as “forms”, Schopenhauer as “will”, and Nietzsche as “nihilism” … that last one takes som...
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