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YOLKS OF WISDOM FROM DWIGHT GOODYEAR

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234. A few thoughts about MLK’s non-violence

I found this interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. very helpful in critically exploring his pacifism or commitment to non-violence. There are two distinctions King makes which I found particularly illuminating and thought-provoking. The first is between non-violence and organized… Read more ›

August 17, 2023 1 Comment
Dwight Goodyear
Morality, Political Theory
Little Rock Nine, MLK, non-violence, pacifism

233. Schiller’s argument for free will from the experience of the sublime

Kant Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), offered the most influential and interesting theory of delightful terror or the sublime. He discusses two forms of the sublime in sections 25-28 of his book, namely, the mathematical and… Read more ›

July 2, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Aesthetics, Morality, The Soul
Essays on the Sublime, Kant, Schiller, The Critique of Judgment, the dynamic sublime

232. Kant, Sartre, and Sadomasochism

Kant According to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the moral evaluation of our actions has nothing to do with our feelings, inclinations, and selfish preferences. It also has nothing to do with the actual consequences of our acts. Rather, it is a… Read more ›

July 2, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Morality
contradictions of the will, Kantian morality, sadomasochism, Sartre

231. Peter Simpson’s critique of Mill’s harm principle

J.S. Mill (1806-1873) John Stuart Mill, in his classic book On Liberty (1859), offers one of the most enduring principles in political philosophy. This principle has come to be known as the harm principle and it is a widely embraced principle in… Read more ›

June 28, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Morality, Political Theory, Uncategorized
Harm Principle, John Stuart Mill, Peter Simpson, Political Illiberalism, tyranny

230. A few notes on Ockham’s Razor

One of the more enduring and influential principles of explanation is associated with the medieval philosopher William of Ockham (c 1280-1349) and is widely known as “Ockham’s Razor.” This principle prescribes that, if we are confronted with competing explanations that… Read more ›

June 23, 2023 2 Comments
Dwight Goodyear
Truth
Ockham's Razor, principles of explanation

229. Is consent really everything when it comes to sexual morality?

When it comes to sexual morality many hold the liberal view that consent between adults is everything. Once we have consenting adults then sexual activity is moral. Violations of consent are immoral. This short and entertaining video presents a helpful… Read more ›

June 23, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Morality
Aquinas, perversion, Roger Scruton; sexual desire, sexual morality, Thomas Nagel

228. A dilemma for Kant and possible solutions

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that the phenomenal world we experience – the world of space and time with unified objects that are causally related – is the outcome of our minds giving form to sense data. Or, to use his… Read more ›

June 23, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Morality, The Soul
Kant's theory of knowledge

227. Suggestions for incorporating ethics into criminal justice curriculums

In the last few years the police have been under scrutiny like never before and many criminal justice reforms are currently underway. One of the many areas of such reform is ethical reform. Over the past year I served as… Read more ›

June 23, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Morality
Criminal justice reform

226. A practical use for syllogisms

Logic is the study of arguments. But in logic an argument is not a disagreement. Rather, it is a set of statements that are given in support of another statement. The supporting statements are called premises and the statement that… Read more ›

June 23, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Truth
arguments, logic, non-arguments, syllogisms

225. Plato and Holst on Beauty

Venus is the Roman name for the Greek Aphrodite, the Goddess of beauty. For Plato, the Beautiful Itself is transcendent, not itself in the physical world, and yet can be detected in the world. Our capacity to detect it reminds… Read more ›

June 18, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Aesthetics, Love, Metaphysics, The Soul
Beauty, Holst, Plato, The Planets, Venus Bringer of Peace

224. Clive Bell’s explanation for intrinsic value

Clive Bell (1881-1964) We all value things: people, places, animals, things, and so on. When we think about the nature of our valuing we discover that we value some things instrumentally – we see them as a means to an… Read more ›

June 12, 2023
Dwight Goodyear
Uncategorized
Bloomsbury Group, Clive Bell, formalism, intrinsic value

223. Nietzsche vs. Leibniz

Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), in section 109 of his book The Gay Science, observes that the world is, despite certain appearances to the contrary, complete chaos: “Let us be on our guard against supposing that anything so methodical as the cyclic… Read more ›

September 23, 2022 2 Comments
Dwight Goodyear
Metaphysics
chaos, Gay Science 109, Leibniz, Nietzsche

222. Plato on virtue and its connection to soul, beauty, and love

Plato (detail from Raphael’s The School of Athens) When we engage in the philosophical activity of ethics we ask questions like: what are right and wrong actions? What does it mean for something to be good or bad? What is… Read more ›

June 28, 2022 1 Comment
Dwight Goodyear
Aesthetics, Love, Morality, The Soul
Beauty, eros, moral theory, Plato, Plato's Symposium, the soul

221. Power and Freedom

I recently had a conversation with someone who maintained power and freedom are incompatible. He was thinking of power in the negative sense in which it is unfortunately all too often experienced, that is, as illegitimate, manipulative, immoral, and so… Read more ›

May 17, 2022
Dwight Goodyear
Metaphysics, Morality
freedom and power, Kierkegaard, power

220. One way to naturally account for natural rights

Rights, to quote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “are entitlements (not) to perform certain actions, or (not) to be in certain states; or entitlements that others (not) perform certain actions or (not) be in certain states.” Some rights are civil… Read more ›

May 16, 2022 2 Comments
Dwight Goodyear
Morality, Political Theory
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Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1618)

In alchemical lore, the philosophical egg represents a domain in which diverse materials undergo a fusion into something new, the philosopher’s stone, which can help one become wise. Heraclitus said: “Lovers of wisdom should be enquirers into many things”. My blog, full of long and short posts, is committed to this diversity and offers a domain in which various ideas come together in illuminating and often puzzling ways: they are like philosophical eggs. Cracking and digesting them should bring you some surprises and, hopefully, some nourishing wisdom.

 

 

Photo by Jackson Byrnes

My name is Dwight Goodyear and I am a philosopher who loves to teach. I am professor of philosophy at SUNY Westchester Community College in New York (although this site should not be taken to express the opinions of WCC). I teach a variety of courses every year including logic, ethics, ancient/medieval phil., modern phil., phil. of art, and phil. of love. I received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the NISOD Excellence Award for Teaching, the Abeles Endowed Chair for the WCC Honors Program, and the SUNY WCC Foundation Award for Scholarship. I received my Masters and Ph.D. in philosophy from the New School for Social Research in NYC and wrote my dissertation under Richard J. Bernstein. My main areas of interest are aesthetics, American pragmatism, existentialism, and metaphysics. I am also a musician who composes, performs, and records experimental works for piano and guitar that I refer to as musical gates or compositions that feature a strong sense of passing into a realm of mystery and revelation. I have ten recordings available on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, youtube, and elsewhere. My website is accessible at the top of this page. When not working on philosophy and music I am spending time with my wife and son.

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