Philosophy

‘Good Enough’: 2023 Year in Review

Amidst a year filled with literary essays, the recent passing of philosopher John Lachs enables us to reflect deeply on mortality and why we should…

The Opposable Thumb at the End of the Imagination

Literary intellectuals investigate the power imagination gives us to pose unending questions about our world—viewing religion, philosophy, and science as literary genres full of metaphors.

Tender-Minded vs. Tough-Minded Thinkers

Philosopher William James‘ concept of tender-minded vs. tough-minded thinkers helps us better understand what most informs our personal beliefs.

An Ironist Must Learn to Listen Poetically

While the poet’s goal is to put imaginative notions into another person’s head, ironists instead seek to change themselves.

On the Something There Is

Poets, like pragmatists, possess a unique ability to sit with uncertainties and doubts. For them, neither walls nor metaphors are ever complete.

Give Me Beta-Modernism, Instead

If metamodernism means a future without tragic conflicts, maybe we’re better off with beta-modernism, instead.

Why We Won’t Ever Arrive at Truth

A defense of Charles Sanders Peirce and William James against the charge that their asymptotic approaches to truth and hope are juvenile.

Truth as Pragmatism’s Only Hope

Although some pragmatists argue truth is malleable and constantly changing, logician Charles Sanders Peirce asserts it is our knowledge of truth that is variable, not…