Michael W. Austin's Blog, page 18
May 1, 2012
Morality, Science, and Religion
It is clearly true that atheists, theists, deists, agnostics, and people of all different schools of thought commit moral, compassionate, and kind acts. But this doesn’t show that morality is independent of religion in its metaethical or normative aspects.
April 30, 2012
Plato, Temperance, and Sports
Whether or not you are taking a temperate approach to sport and physical exercise will not only depend upon the physical impact, but upon your other commitments in life as well. Some phases of life or forms of life allow us more freedom than others.
April 13, 2012
Do We Really Have Any Character Traits?
Our best chance at being deeply fulfilled as human beings is to acquire and practice the intellectual and moral virtues. We need practical wisdom, honesty, courage, generosity, and other virtues to flourish. This assumes that humans do in fact have virtues, and this view has come under challenge in recent years.
March 26, 2012
Virtue and the Environment
If temperance were a virtue prized in our society, we would take better care of the natural world. We would be less prone to inflict damage upon it for self-indulgent reasons.
March 15, 2012
Want a Better Life? Read a Book
Making a habit of reading books is useful for training the mind for critical thought. For this to occur, one must learn how to read well, or skillfully.
March 8, 2012
The Need for Patience
One reason that patience is a virtue is that it is a means of connecting members of a family and community together in deeper ways.
February 27, 2012
Why Does God Allow Evil?
The existence of evil and suffering is a philosophical and existential problem for those who believe in God. In this post, I discuss some responses that have been given by those who maintain faith in the midst of evil and suffering.
February 20, 2012
Facebook Addiction?
Those who engage in social media would do well to limit their time, perhaps to 15-30 minutes per day, just as the wise person will limit the number of drinks he or she has on any given day.
February 12, 2012
Parents, Children, and Biological Ties
There are many adoptive children who never seek nor do they have the desire to seek out their biological parents. However, others do, and many of them describe the need to know their biological parents as deep and unrelenting. Whatever the future of the family holds, we need to give proper weight to the needs and interests of all children.
February 6, 2012
Authentic Love, Kierkegaard, and U2
Why commit to one person, when a variety of self-gratifying pleasurable experiences can be had with many different people? Those who have truly integrated erotic love and divine love understand that committed married love is valuable for human existence in ways that the person who merely seeks personal pleasure cannot experience or understand.
