Thought

Using Your Ingenuity To Accomplish Your Goals

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Those who are resourceful will find ways of carrying out their purposes.  They will not be deterred by momentary setbacks or obstacles.  The lazy man or the dullard will take refuge behind the natural obstructions that life places in his path and, using such problems as excuses to avoid work, take comfort in his failures.  In his mind, failure was inevitable.  This way of thinking can be found in many people; they never advance far in life because they are not willing to hunt for creative solutions to problems.  Obstacles must be bypassed, smashed through, vaulted over, or avoided altogether.

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On Forming Our Own Judgments

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When we need to form our own estimates of others, we should learn to trust our own judgments, and not be swayed by the criticisms or slanders of others.  Behavior is better verified by observation, rather than by the rumors and innuendos of others.

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Limits Must Be Imposed On Our Desires

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Among the many problems that we are faced with today is the lack of restraint, the lack of moderation, that is actively supported and encouraged by our culture.  If you have something, you are told that you deserve more.  If you want something, you are told that you deserve to have it.  If something stands in the way of your getting something you think you deserve, you are told how to obtain that thing you desire.  Few people pause to think that what they crave may carry a heavy burden in the long run.

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Why We Study Great Exemplars Of History

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You may ask yourself why we study the lives and experiences of great exemplars.  When I say “exemplar” I mean a person of substance and distinction, a person of notoriety in some field of endeavor.  There are many reasons for this; I will attempt to give a few of them here.

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Nature Or Nurture?

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In this podcast, a reader has a question about nature and nurture.  Which one, he wonders, has the most influence in forming our identities?  The answer is complicated, of course.  But some general points can be stated.  We close with a reading of the Epilogue to my book Thirty-Seven.

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Machiavelli’s Principles Of Conspiracies

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Machiavelli, in book III, chapter 6 of his Discourses, enunciates the principles of political conspiracies. He considers an understanding of them to be of primary importance.  I intend to paraphrase his relevant points here, so that readers without access to the original text may have a better understanding of them.  He begins with a point he considers self-evident:

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The Memory Of Benefits, And The Forgetting Of Offenses

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Some weeks ago I sought to make contact with two old friends I had known in the early 1990s.  I had not spoken to either one since about 1993.  This kind of thing is always an uncertain proposition, as you can never really be sure how a person has changed over the years.  Sometimes you may find that the person has little enthusiasm for reconnecting; in some cases old friends may have changed beyond all recognition.  But in spite of this I was not deterred:  my experiences in doing this sort of thing have always been very good.

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The Hedonistic Philosophy Of Yang Zhu

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It is an unhappy fate for a philosopher to be known to posterity only through his enemies.  Quotes may be taken out of context, writings may be warped or obfuscated, and conclusions may be cherry-picked to present a picture far out of accord from the writer’s original intention.  We do not know if this is precisely the fate of the Chinese philosopher Yang Zhu (440-360 B.C.), but one suspects that if more of his writings had come down to us, we might have a more favorable view of his doctrines.  But we have what we have, and this does not exactly inspire man’s noblest sentiments.  Or does it?  Each reader will have to judge for himself.  It would be wrong to ignore him, even if we disagree with his doctrines.

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The Wisdom Of Mercy From Ibn Hazm Al-Zahiri

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We turn now to those founts of wisdom who have lessons to teach us.  Abu Muhammad Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Sa’id Ibn Hazm (أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم) is known to history as Ibn Hazm Al-Zahiri.  Born in Cordoba, Andalusia (Spain) in 994, he achieved enduring fame for his incredible intellectual achievements in a number of disciplines, including jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, and poetry.  He even composed a manual on love known as The Ring of the Dove (طوق الحمامة).  Here was a man of substance, a man who could appreciate the virtues of the passions as well as those of the mind.

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The Lazarus Taxon: Something “Raised From The Dead”

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There is a concept in biology called the Lazarus taxon.  The word taxon (plural taxa) means a taxonomic category, as a species or genus.  The term is used to describe animals or plants that vanish from the fossil record for long periods of time, only to “reappear” at a different point in history.  Organisms long thought to be extinct suddenly appear on the scene.  Why does this happen?  The biologists tell us it can be for many reasons:  the fossil record is sporadic, and not all species are preserved in it.  Some are; and some are not.  The reason why the word Lazarus is used is because it refers to the New Testament story of Lazarus being “raised from the dead.”

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