No evil can come to a good man either in life or after death, and God does not neglect him. –Plato, Apology 41d A friend of mine passed away a week ago, on February 28, 2018. When I received the news, the first thing that came to mind was the above saying of Socrates. It is fitting to remember her on International Women’s Day, for she was one of the […]
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The Federalist Papers I
The Federal Constitution The Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal government. The two great points of difference between […]
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“The Pathway Of Life II” by Leo Tolstoy
What is Time Time is merely a device by means of which we gradually see that which is in reality and which is ever the same. In order that the eye may see the entire globe, the latter must turn before the observing eye. Even the world revolves before the eyes of men in time. Time and space is the disintegration of the infinite for the convenience of finite creatures. […]
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Tolstoy on False Science
When men accept as indubitable truths that which is offered to them as such by others, without stopping to examine it by the exercise of their reason, they fall into superstition. Such is our modern superstition of science, namely recognition as indubitable truths of what is passed as truth by professors, academicians and men calling themselves scientists in general…people who in a given period usurp the right of determining what […]
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“Three Dialogues Between Hylas And Philonous” by George Berkeley
Connexion of the Sensible and the Abstract Some things are perceived by the senses immediately, some mediately, with the intervention of others. The latter may be signified and suggested to the mind by sensible marks, with which they have an arbitrary connexion. For instance, in reading a book, what I immediately perceive are the letters; but mediately, or by means of these, the notions of justice, virtue, truth, etc. Philosophers […]
Read moreTolstoy on Faith and Violence
“Only he who does not believe in God can believe that men, who are of his own kind, may order his life so as to make it better.” “Men see that there is something wrong with their life and endeavor in some way to improve it…But to improve oneself, one must first admit that one lacks goodness, and this is annoying. And they turn all their attention away from that […]
Read moreIncarnation: III. Why Tolstoy is Wrong about Christ
A story of Tolstoy was related by Prof. Irwin Weil [1]: A young Jewish man wrote to Tolstoy a few months before the latter died, and asked how a Jew could believe his teachings which were based on the words of Jesus Christ. Tolstoy replied, “The words of Christ are not important and applicable because they were said by Christ, on the contrary, they were said by Christ because they […]
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