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Certainty as a Substitute for Truth

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Deductive rigidity refers to the strict application of fixed premises to reach conclusions, often stifling inquiry by treating those premises as unchallengeable, leading to inflexible and potentially flawed outcomes. In contrast, abductive reasoning offers flexibility by inferring the best explanation from observed facts, adapting to new evidence and context to align further with truth. The maxim “You can be dead sure and dead wrong” exposes a fundamental flaw in human cognition: the tendency to […] Read more »

Abductive Reasoning and the Pursuit of a Moral Life

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A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest – but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of […] Read more »

The Transcendence of Law & the Path to a Non-Transactional Agape-Based Existence

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Law is the shadow of reason; whereas children require rules from their parents to navigate life, adults instead use reason to guide their morality and decision making. ~Nathan Martin Laws are only meant to be an age appropriate way to communicate reason, and what is reasonable, to small children. Spiritually and psychologically mature adults do not need laws then, as they have reason to guide their morality and ethical decision […] Read more »

Law as a Type and Shadow of Reason

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John Locke’s “law of reason” refers to the natural capacity of human beings to use rational thought to discern moral and ethical principles that govern just interactions, independent of external authority. It is an internal guide, accessible through reflection, that aligns individual actions with objective truths about reality and human rights. Law, at its core, represents a fundamental failure to trust in individual reason. While proponents often frame it as […] Read more »

The Crucifixion of Jesus: How Innocence Defeats Power

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Agape love, in traditional Greek usage, refers to a form of love that prioritizes the well-being of others without expecting anything in return, often associated with divine or universal compassion, and is distinctly non-transactional as it seeks no reciprocation or zoomed in personal benefit, deferring instead to a zoomed out “bigger picture” personal benefit. In the New Testament, agape is elevated as the highest form of love, exemplified by God’s […] Read more »

My Favorite Ayn Rand Quotes

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Individualism and Independence Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it—that no substitute can do your thinking—that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as […] Read more »

Prometheus, Epimetheus, Stolen Fire, & Pandora’s Box

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The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many […] Read more »

The Interplay of Deduction, Abduction, and the Metaphor of Jesus as the Inner King

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Deductive rigidity refers to the strict application of fixed premises to reach conclusions, often stifling inquiry by treating those premises as unchallengeable, leading to inflexible and potentially flawed outcomes. In contrast, abductive reasoning offers flexibility by inferring the best explanation from observed facts, adapting to new evidence and context to align further with truth. Human reasoning shapes our worldviews, moral frameworks, and spiritual lives through two primary modes: deductive and […] Read more »

Creativity vs. Productivity: The Role of Reasoning in Creating and Producing Value

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*Note: the examples in this article aren’t necessarily based in our experience with CPS and ex-partner, but they’re there to help understand and clarify the problems and patterns that I am exploring here. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and refining new ideas or creative solutions to address needs or problems, often relying on imaginative thinking to envision possibilities. In personal relationships and family law, the interplay between creativity […] Read more »

Breaking the Matrix: How Abductive Reasoning Unites Reality and Truth

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Deductive reasoning, defined as starting with general premises assumed true and deriving specific conclusions—like “all dissenters disrupt order, so Jane, a dissenter, is disruptive”—often shapes how people perceive reality, mistaking their subjective lens for universal truth. This process can create a thought matrix, a rigid mental framework where premises from culture, authority, or personal experience dictate thought’s boundaries, defended dogmatically as reality itself. For example, someone shaped by childhood trauma […] Read more »

The Straw Man Fallacy: Reducing Depth to Shallowness

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The straw man logical fallacy—where an argument or character is distorted into a weaker, oversimplified version to be easily attacked—serves as a potent tool for misrepresenting individuals of depth and complexity. A person of depth, marked by nuanced ideas, emotional richness, and intricate reasoning, becomes a target for those with agendas or those too biased or dimwitted to grasp such complexity. Whether driven by malice or ignorance, these critics erect […] Read more »

Shallowness, Depth, Truth, and the Purpose of Force

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The angry mob, fueled by ignorance and prejudice, stormed the castle, their shallow understanding of the world reduced to simplistic labels and stereotypes, as they sought to destroy the monster, which they called “Depth” – a symbol of complexity and nuance that threatened to shatter their comfortable illusions. With each blow, they struck not at the monster’s heart, but at their own limitations, attempting to silence the whispers of doubt […] Read more »

Abductive Reasoning and the Pursuit of Truth Through Imperfection

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Abductive reasoning is a form of logical inference that starts with observations and seeks the simplest, most likely explanation, embracing uncertainty and iteration. It thrives on generating and refining hypotheses, often leading to surprising yet plausible conclusions, as seen in Sherlock Holmes’ investigative approach. Abductive iteration is the cyclical process within abductive reasoning where initial imperfect hypotheses are proposed, tested against evidence with deductive reasoning, and refined or discarded in […] Read more »

The Matrix Trilogy as a Metaphor for the Trivium Method

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The Matrix trilogy, comprising “The Matrix” (1999), “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003), and “The Matrix Revolutions” (2003), serves not only as an engaging science fiction narrative but also as a profound metaphor for the process of knowledge acquisition through the Trivium method. The Trivium, one of the foundational components of classical education, consists of three stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These stages correspond directly to the trilogy’s progression from initial revelation […] Read more »

Connecting the Character Traits of Pride, Humility, and Dignity Together

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Pride, humility, and dignity emerge as authentic virtues when they arise from an internal locus of identity, shaped by self-awareness and rational integrity. These internalized traits stand in sharp contrast to their externalized distortions—arrogance, pretentiousness, and a superficial mimicry of dignity—which depend on an external locus of control or identity for validation. Ayn Rand, the creator of Objectivism, extolled pride as a moral summit, while rejecting humility as a flaw. […] Read more »