About Modern Philosophy
Philosophy is ‘the love of wisdom’, but practically ‘the search for wisdom’, as we always seek the things we love. ‘Wisdom’ is understanding how the world works so that we can live intelligently and to the fullest extent.
Understanding how the world works is the role of science and philosophy; science, through observation and experiment, critically tested; and philosophy, which is a way of actively thinking about profound questions. I use the term Modern Philosophy to simply mean our best attempts to answer those questions made accessible to a general audience. This requires quality writing as much as quality thinking, and demands that our philosophy is understandable, forthright, and as useful as possible.
Philosophers have to use their intellect without denying their intuition; they have to stand on the solid foundation of science while straining to see from as high a vantage-point as possible; they have to look objectively, while acknowledging their subjectivity; and they have to be discriminating and open-minded at the same time. Above all, philosophy, like science, is about finding the truth, whether we like it or not.
This site was published because philosophy matters. When we get our philosophy right we can take great steps forward, personally and collectively, but when we get our philosophy wrong the consequences can be dire. It is our responsibility to learn the principles at work in the world and keep them at the forefront of human consciousness.
Acknowledgements
The content of this site derives from observation, thought and study in a range of fields, including science, philosophy and psychology.
I like to find the essence of things and gravitate to things that are useful. It is this criteria that informs much of what I choose to take in, chew, digest, and excrete (there are many analogies between learning and eating, by the way), and in that spirit I have found particular nourishment in the works of the following people:
I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the biologists Rupert Sheldrake, E.L. Grant Watson, N.J. Berrill, Joan Roughgarden and Charles Birch; the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead; the psychologist Edward de Bono; the philosophers Christian De Quincey, Jamie Whyte, Nigel Warburton, Stephen Law and Julian Baggini; the scientist and philosopher Richard Dawkins; the scholar and neuroscientist Sam Harris; the journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens; the Bulgarian philosopher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvenhov; the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater; the biblical scholars Gary Greenberg, Hector Avalos, and Bart E. Ehrman; the researcher and writer Helen Ellerbe; the psychologist David Mills; and the quantum physicist David Bohm.