Was it latrophobia or was it fear of myself? — It is said, or at least it used to be said, that guys are less inclined to go see a doctor. I’m not convinced that’s true, at least anymore, but I came to associate the sentiment with stoicism and the stiff upper lip and the determined effort not to give…

David Hume, the Enlightenment grandee, knew there would be days like these. — I wrote recently about the development of “Ethical Emotivism” in Twentieth Century philosophy; an approach which says our moral reasoning is constituted not by logic but by our attitudes and interests and feelings. In this article, I want to go back in time—all the way back to the eighteenth century—in…

Goals and ambitions are bourgeois. Think bigger! — There’s a bit of dialogue in the John Updike Rabbit series (1960–2001) which has really lodged itself into my cranium. “The only way to get somewhere, you know, is to figure out where you’re going before you go there.” “I don’t think so,” Rabbit replies. The Tedium of Targets There’s too much focus at…

There will always be people who love being told what to do. — Is there anything more annoying that someone who thinks they know what’s best for you? Someone who thinks they know you better than you know yourself? And yet, paternalism — the interference by the state in the life of its citizens — is once again on the rise in the…

If you’re not toned and taut, are you even a man anymore? — I write this on the island of Corsica where it is a balmy thirty-five degrees celsius and the dress code is beach casual. The women, in the French style, bare their breasts and flirt with the pool boys. Most of the men parade the soft, plump bellies of the well-nourished…

In increasingly authoritarian times, do we now value the idea of freedom more than the practice of it? — Life can be a lot easier when you’re told what to do, especially if you feel free. Freedom — what it looks like, its uses and its frustrations — is one of the great questions, and each era comes up with its own, slightly different answer. It is the cycle…

Lack of self-worth makes you vulnerable to exploitation. — I read an article the other day telling me “The X Factor” — the talent show which created One Direction and helped propel Harry Styles into music superstardom — is poised to return to terrestrial UK television. And it got me thinking about the qualities we look for in other…

I poured wine all over it and tossed it in the sink, then turned on the tap. — A workbook about cultivating compassion for ourself and others seems an eccentric choice of enemy. And tossing it in the sink, then turning on the tap — it was an egregious act. The destruction of books is strictly verboten as far as I’m concerned. …

Pop philosophy for the modern age? — It is the age of authenticity. Living one’s authentic truth is the zeitgeist of this new era, the truth of the heart and of the mind, composed of perspectives and partial understandings, palimpsestic. The stories we tell ourselves, at peace with our own versions of the past. Each mind pulsates…