...where the Two become the One
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 personal benefit. In the New Testament, agape is elevated as the highest form of love, exemplified by God’s empathetic love for humanity and Jesus’ teachings, such as loving one’s enemies […] Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
*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 »
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 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 »
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 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, and refined or discarded in repeated loops. It […] Read more »
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 »
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 »
The Roots of Pain and the Power of Reflection Emotional pain often feels like an assault on our very being, a visceral signal that something is wrong with us or the world around us. But what if this pain arises not just from the event itself, but from how we identify with it? Consider the possibility that people—whether children, narcissists, or anyone in a prerational state—see their pain as a […] Read more »
In the biblical narrative, duality emerges as a consequence of humanity’s choice to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, an act framed by me as providing the necessary “opt-out” from a higher harmony and morality, to ensure free will. Eating the “forbidden fruit” plunges existence into a polarized state, where good and evil are no longer integrated within a unified moral framework but are instead […] Read more »
Isaiah 1:18 presents a divine invitation with profound implications: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (KJV). This suggests that reasoning—whether to purify one’s Self, resolve conflict, or negotiate preferences—holds a redemptive quality, capable of transforming sins and mistakes. The process implies a […] Read more »
Below is a Socratic like dialogue that I had with Grok today, exploring various forms of reasoning, which led to thoughts about using abductive reasoning to explore the nature of reality, including the possibility that we are in a simulated reality, much like is posited in the Matrix trilogy. Then discussing the necessity for opt-outs for transforming our current simulated reality into a “new earth” that’s inherently moral, including offering […] Read more »