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About Me

I grew up happy, active in music and sports, and enjoying school. I loved to go camping and fishing in the mountains. A favorite memory is hiking seven miles into a wilderness area with my dad and sister and catching and releasing fish for hours. My greatest success as an athlete was winning the county JV wrestling tournament. Unfortunately, I was prevented from ever wrestling on varsity because the three guys at the weight classes I could have wrestled in came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in state in their respective weight divisions. My bad luck to go to probably the only high school in world where I would have been shut out by three state contenders. In retrospect, I understand now that the reason I could not beat the guy above me was that he spent all his time in the weight room whereas I spent a lot of time with music and theatre. The lesson learned: We generalists don't always rise to the very top in an allstar culture, but in the end, we often live happier, more useful, wiser lives. The main things that bothered me as a child was fear of nuclear holochaust, prejudice against people who find it impossible to believe that God exists, and the lack of social justice. I studied Philosophy at Haverford College, took two years at Rutgers (Livingston College) for Pre-med, but then returned to Philosophy at the University of Chicogo. My primary interest was in Ethics, but I love all of philosophy. My goal was to either become a philosophy professor, or become a judge. Later I went to law school at Ohio State. Although I did not become a judge or philosophy professor, I have come close since I prepare legal decisions for a judge. As a Philsophy student, I became very intrigued by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. After one emerges from the cave, one is able to see by the light of the sun. Plato indicated that the sun represents The Good. Since the whole allegory was meant to be a metaphore for how we obtain knowledge, I wanted to understand why Plato thought The Good had such an important role in our knowledge of everything. I have gradually worked out more and more details of an answer to the question as to how The Good plays such an important role in the acquisition of knowledge. The Philosophers that I have found most helpful are Sartre, Kant, Descartes, Plato, and Habermas. As I have combined Philosophy and Law, I have also put a lot of thought into Philosophy of Law. I married my College sweetheart and, as older parents now in our fifties, we have two beautiful children. I put in a good many hours as homework helper. Here is a post I wrote about the kind of place where I would most like to live. I'd most like to live where you could count upon people to care for one another; where patience was the norm; where no one was excluded; where children would be provided the education they needed, at the pace they needed, and bond levies would not be defeated, where the sun shines warm, except when it is misty or drizzly, or when the rain pours in sheets and the thunder shakes your feets, or when the snow dazzles and sparkles under the street light; where the breeze blows just hard enough to make the aspen leaves shimmer; where fast food joints encourage me to be more vegitarian by serving great vegitarian meals; where retaliation is unheard of, where forgiveness is ready at hand; where the bible is one interesing thought filled book among many other human creations; where children are treasured and their future is protected; where people get to play baseball or soccer whenever they want even when they are over 20 (and those over 50, too); Where no school ever permits anyone to be cut from a team or not make the tryout; where people always have friendly philosophical discussions going on, where the tv teaches you interestinbg things every time you turn it on; where the beach is around the corner, and you can hike for miles through mountain wildernesses and stlll come upon beaver bonds and see the brook trout rising for flies; where you can still go to the stock car races to see 32 Fords racing on a 1/3 mile oval; where public transportation means I can read, write, or tallk with neighbors instead of drive; where my family is nearby; where people enjoy the kind of person I am, etc., etc., etc,.....

Location:
United States, Arvada, CO
Gender:
Male
I am:
Change Agent, Environmentalist, Global soul, Idea generator, Lawyer, Parent, Policy maker, Public servant, Web guru
My website links:
Love's Reason
Universities:
Haverford College, University of Chicago, Moritz College of Law (Ohio State)
Member Picture

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Social justice for all. Saving our planetary home, ourselves, and our civilization from the consequences of unsustainable living. Spreading the Gospel of the Golden Rule. Love of wisdom.

An idea worth spreading

The
Good,
The ground of reason,
Defines our one and only path
To wisdom, knowledge, truth, perpetual peace, and life.
The good is known provisionally, and only very partially,
Through all our careful applications of The Golden Rule
To our so very incomplete experience of being spirit.
But, this is our only knowledge of what is right,
And so this best but partial knowledge should
Determine what should count for now,
Both generally and in specific cases,
As reason or the methods of science
And of reason’s other progeny,
Or what a word should mean,
(Generally or in a context)
Like “justice”, “truth”,
“Equality”, or “know”
Or “I” or even “is”.

Talk to me about

Philosophy, Ethics, God, Law, Justice

People don't know that I'm good at

I like to write philosophical poetry. (not necessariy good). Example: A
Dream
That Truth’s
Bud will bloom
Again and again
In you, and in me.
I am responsible.
Therefore,
I am.

My TED Story

I have read several Karen Armstrong books. The Great Transformation and also The Case for God are among my favorite books. I somehow came across her TED talk promoting the Charter for Compassion. From there, I noticed TED conversations. I enjoy the tone and quality of the discussions here.

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +7.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A reply on Talk: Jean-Baptiste Michel: The mathematics of history

    May 21 2012: Interesting connection. To see how the idea plays out on a grander scale than this talk, see Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature. Pinker uses math to quantitatively compare the consequences of the philosophical perspective of the enlightenment and various counter enligthenment philosophies like Conservatism (opposition to any attempts to modify established cultures and institutions) or Utopian idealogies like Marxism, Facism, Religious fundamentalisms of various kinds. I am about a third of the way through the book and the argument is very powerful that the enlightenment really has been much better for us significantly reducing violence of many variaties: war, murder, and genocide.

  • A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 24 2012: Joanne, How are you going to get people to support permaculture if people do not buy in to dietary values that are compatible with the foods produced by the permaculture?

    You do not seem to be thinking about the ways that different elements of food production and consumption systems effect each other.

    You cannot have small scale production unless you have small numbers of people consuming food. If you have large numbers of food consumers, you are going to have to have large scale production .

    If you want us to move toward a permaculture that will feed large numbers of people, you have to accept that you cannot just do anything you want. You have to get rational. You have to do what is necessary to acheive your purpose.

    Those who are vegetarians for ethical reasons understand that their purchasing decisions effect the way food is produced. If you want permaculture, vegetarians are your allies, not your enemy. The current level of consumption of meat is not sustainable.
  • +1

    A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 24 2012: Peter, I was intrigued by your description of Australian cattle farming so I did a little research. While it is true that Australian cattle farming is unique in that it is the last region to make the change from range fed cattle to breeder operations that sell calfs to feedlots, that transition is now well underway in Australia. Basically, the way it is going to work is that the pasture land will be used to keep cows who will be used as breeders. The weaned calfs will then be sold to feedlot opperations that will feed them with grain or corn until they reach slaughtering weight. The beef you eat on your table will be grain fed steers for the most part. Much of the nutrients present in the grain the steers eat will never make it to your table. The feed lots waste grain producing land that could have been used to feed peple or animals living more fulfilling, natural lives. Vegetarians avoid encouraging that waste of farm land.

  • A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 24 2012: Just because absolute accuracy is unacheivable does not mean that a reasonable estimate is also unacheivable. Furthermore, just because a reasonable estimate is difficult to acheive does not mean it is impossible.

    Your hatred of the desert will be one of umpteen trillion factors that matter in determining what is best. It is not any more or any less important in the initial analysis than the cares and concerns of any other sentient being.

    Your hatred of the desert is not entirely insignificant beause you count as much as anyone else. But, it is also not an overriding consideration because everyone else counts, too.

    Value only exists because there are beings who have evolved that have cares and concerns. Value just is the relation of reality to our cares and concerns. It is the degree of conformity of reality to the preferences of our cares and concerns..

    The objective truth about value is what you have when you take all cares and concerns that have ever existed and that will ever exist into the account.

    The selfish "I" cannot objectively estimate value because it refuses to accept the fundamental gound of objectivity: that everyone matters, and therefore every perspective has to be incorporated into the determination of what is true.

  • A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 23 2012: I guess I am confused. I would think that weaning ourselves from high consumption of meat is a very important step toward establishing a permanently sustainable agriculture if that is what you mean by "permaculture". Working toward establishing a permanently sustainable agriculture, better health, and preventing the cruelty to animals on factory farms seems to be the three main arguments for becoming more vegetarian.

    As to whether small scale will get you permaculture when there are going to be 9 billion people on this planet, I doubt it. Small scale would work with small populations. Are you planning on famine, war, etc. to get us there? I hope we could find a sustainable agriculture solution that does not involve mass death and the end of civilization.

  • A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 22 2012: We have the choice between acting in a way that leads to (1) a world where those who live will suffer less, or (2) a world where a different group of persons and animals will live, but they will suffer more (and where there will ultimately be fewer of them because of unsustainable practices that will eventually curtail their numbers signficantly).

    The "idea" is to leave the world better for our co-inhabitants of this planet, now and in the future.

    The mere fact that most of us would not be alive except that Hitler started World War two does not make Hitler a good person who made the world a better place. Hitler's presence on this planet changed almost everyone's activities at the time and thus radically changed which sperm and eggs would get together. The fact that you and I would not exist except for his heinous behavior does not make him a hero. He's still the villian.

    He is the villian because he caused more suffering than happiness.

    That is how we measure good and evil.
  • +3

    A comment on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 22 2012: No. It is meat that is the fetish of the rich. Meat is a small part of the diet among the poor because feeding animals is an inefficient way of getting nutrients to humans. Much of the energy is used up by the animal before it is slaughtered rather than passed on to those who feed upon the animals.

    So, even if you are not a pure vegatarian, every time you replace meat with beans or other high protien plant matter, you are reducing your part of our agricultural foot print on the planet, leaving room and nutrients for other sentient beings (animals and people) and for future generations.

  • A reply on Conversation: Are the western vegetarian and vegan movements food fetishes for the rich?

    Apr 22 2012: It means treating them in a way that shows absolutely no empathy for their suffering.

  • A comment on Conversation: Do you think people are natually good or evil?

    Apr 22 2012: There are two answers.

    It is an acheivement to increase empathy. It is an acheivement to increase wisdom. It is an acheivement to increase rationality. It is an acheivement to increase self control. Thus, it appears that goodness is something we acheive through the expansion of culture.

    But, it is in our nature to develop along these lines.

    In the beginning we are an arrow pointed more or less at a target. We could be pointed away from the target, but we are not. That is good. But we are not yet an arrow that has reached it target. Thus, we also lack goodness.
  • +1

    A reply on Conversation: how has a belief in an afterlife affected the quality of life on earth?

    Mar 29 2012: The problem with the rhetoric about the will of God is that it is most frequently used to avoid the will of God. Jesus put it this way: Treat others the way you want to be treated, that is the whole of the Law and the Prophets. All those who spend their time finding biblical reasons for being mean and selfish or trying to undo science did not listen and have not submitted to God.

    The Bible lends itself to this behavior if one does not approach it with a critical eye guided by the benevolent spirit defined by the Golden Rule.

    There is nothing "revealed" that should not be subject to this critical eye. Jesus put it something like this: when others claim to be prophets, test them by their fruits. The truly good tree only bears good fruit.

    The Bible clearly does not only bear good fruit. We should be in search of that which does.

    The Bible can help only to the exent we read it critically, looking for that which only bears good fruit.

    Religion is good when it grows out of and does not conflict with the best fruits of our "reason" defined as our search for the cause of good fruit.
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