Where Disciplines Meet

The deepest truths often emerge where disciplines meet. I have written about a broad range of subjects, from Greek and Indian philosophy to wine. This page brings together some of the more original fusions and connexions, and exciting ideas, that have emerged along the way.

Thought & Knowledge

Some Insights Into Having Insights — Aha, Uh-Oh, and D’oh! The Psychology of Insight

The Problem with Critical Thinking — Why Are People No Wiser Than Before?

Why Metaphor Is a Sign of Genius — What the Logicians Have Missed

The Limits of Teaching — Can the Highest Forms of Human Excellence Be Taught?

Why the God Debate Is a Non-Debate — First, Tell Me What You Mean by God

How the Western Mind Nearly Took an Eastern Turn — The Surprising Affinities Between Greek and Indian Philosophy

Magic: What It Is, Whether It Works, and Why We Miss It — The History, Psychology, and Philosophy of Magic

Why Imagination Matters — The Psychology and Philosophy of Imagination

The Psychology and Philosophy of Wisdom — Ever Met a Clever Fool? Why Intelligence Alone Is Not Enough

Mind & Mental Health

What Is Hypersanity? — There’s More to Life than Mere Sanity

What Depression is For — My Philosophy of (Most) Depression

The Root of All Anxiety — The Deepest Cure for Fear and Anxiety—No Prescription Required

The Secret to Self-Esteem — Self-Esteem vs Self-Confidence: Why Confidence Isn’t Enough

Emotions and Feelings: What’s the Difference? — Pain Is a Feeling but not an Emotion. Love Can Be Both.

Socrates Questions Modern Psychiatry — A Socratic Dialogue to Unsettle an Entire Field… and the Foundations of Institutional Knowledge

Happiness

What Is Ataraxia? — And Why Ataraxia Is the Ultimate Cool

What If We’ve Got Happiness Wrong? —Why Eudaimonia Is Better Than Happiness

What Is the Meaning of Life? — Purpose, Freedom, and the Search for Meaning

What If My Life Is Not Mine? — Sartre, Bad Faith, and the Freedom We Deny

The Ambition Trap — The Psychology and Philosophy of Ambition

The Good Life

Why Wine Matters — What Wine Reveals About Being Human

Why We Garden — The Psychology and Philosophy of Gardening

Why Laughter Is Complicated — Every Theory of Laughter Explained—and Superseded

Why Wonder is the Beginning of Wisdom — The Psychology and Philosophy of Wonder

Yes, You Should be Afraid of Death — But You Mustn’t Be

Should You Want to Live Forever? — Odysseus, Calypso, and the Philosophy of Immortality

The Odyssey Is About Becoming Ourselves — Why Odysseus’ Journey Is Also Our Own

The Problem of Others

Can Romantic Love Save Us? — The History and Psychology of Love—and What It Reveals About Love Itself

Hungry for Skin: The Case for Touch — We Cannot Touch Without Being Touched

The Greek Dog and the Indian Dog | The Odyssey and the Mahabharata — What Homer Can Teach Us About Ghosting

The Joy of Being Alone — The Psychology and Philosophy of Solitude

A Third Way Between Family Life and Loneliness — Monasteries Are Dying: Time to Bring Them Back in Some New Form?

Freedom & Society

An Outline of the Problem of Free Will — With an Account of How Freedom Might Sometimes Be Possible for Some

The Most Beautiful Thing in the World — Diogenes, Free Speech, and the Freedom to Become

Inside a Tyrant’s Mind — Why the Tyrant Is the Unhappiest of People

The First European Union — How the Stoics Became Citizens of the World

Why So Many Gods Are Trans — Gender Fluidity in Gods and Heroes

More Essays

Explore more subjects in the Index Scriptorum.