Philosophy

The Value of Silence: 3 Thoughts from Proverbs 4
- Philosophy
- April 13, 2023
These last few weeks have attacked me with musings on silence. It started with an anonymous quote I couldn’t shake off (“Never miss an opportunity to remain silent”) and threaded its way through my intellectual and social life. I began to see my unwarranted eagerness to speak in classroom discussions, group conversations, and even social
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How to Debate: What Lieutenant Columbo Teaches About Arguing 2
- Philosophy
- April 10, 2023
At age 14, I was introduced to a debate tactic I never forgot. Called the “Columbo Tactic,” this strategy allowed me to challenge any view I found even remotely illogical, all the while keeping me from having to meticulously, painstakingly articulate my own position. I first heard about this debate method in Gregory Koukl’s Tactics:
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Identifying the Liars and Living by Truth 2
- Politics, Philosophy
- April 5, 2023
Among our elites—those in government, corporations, universities, the mainstream media, and the culture at large—are many who fall into three categories: the liars, the muddlers, and the dreamers of the day. The liars look straight into a camera or the eyes of an audience and boldly proclaim as truth what many listeners know to be
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How To Navigate Suffering With Wisdom 3
- Philosophy
- March 29, 2023
I have always been enamored by the book of Ecclesiastes. It is difficult to pin down precisely why this is, but it has something to do with how seemingly averse it is to the contemporary thesis that happiness is, or ought to be, the highest aspiration of the human experience. I do not subscribe to
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Verbicide: The Language of Politics and the Politics of Language 2
- Politics, Philosophy
- March 23, 2023
On his blog A Pilgrim in Narnia, Brenton Dickieson tells us that C.S. Lewis in his Studies in Words defined “verbicide” as the “murder of words.” Dickieson adds that “Lewis has some similar concerns as George Orwell in his ‘Politics and the English Language.’ Words can be politicized or bent into the service of those
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Love Is Not Affirmation 5
- Philosophy
- March 16, 2023
As I’ve navigated social life in Gen Z, I’ve realized how much contemporary “love” centers on personal affirmation. We “love” others, modern thinking says, by affirming their desires and actions—by submitting ourselves to their perceptions of what is helpful and good. The social expectation today, especially in the younger generations, is to always validate others’
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