One of the nice, slightly creepy, features of my Apple Books app is that it keeps track of everything I read. …

<<>> Warning: this essay is about suicide. If you are depressed or suffering from a mental condition that leads you to entertain suicidal thoughts, this article is not for you. Instead, call the suicide prevention hotline at 800–273–8255, or visit their web site. <<>> A Brave Man Once Requested Me To…

I write a lot. And I read a lot more. The two go together, and my experience is that they should be practiced at the very least in the proportion of 1 to 10. 1 to 100 would be preferable, but I don’t have that much time or patience. Once…

Virtue ethics is, arguably, the most effective general framework for moral decision making. This is because it isn’t in the business of providing universal rules of behavior, since the real world is too complicated for that. And, perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t focus on judging actions (is X moral?) …

Dante Alighieri’s Comedy is one of the masterpieces of human civilization. He started working on it in 1308 and completed it in 1320, shortly before he died. This year being the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, several commemorative events have taken place throughout the world and especially in Italy. A…

I am, of course, getting older. By the minute. This is not only inevitable, it is a good thing. As my father used to say, the alternative to getting old is not a palatable one… But am I also getting wiser? That, I’m afraid, is up for others to decide…

What is good? What is evil? These twin questions have probably been asked by human beings as soon as our ancestors were capable of posing questions to themselves. In the Greco-Roman tradition they are most famously tackled by Marcus Tullius Cicero in a book entitled De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum…

Philosophy, contra popular opinion (even among some philosophers) makes progress. I have written a whole (free!) book (summarized here) about how that works. …

Carla: Hi Matt! Is this a good place for our cappuccino break? Matt: Splendid! I’ve never been here before, looking forward to chatting over drinks. No to mention those delicious pastries they have here. What do they call them? Carla: Cornetti. The French call them croissants. It sounds better, but…