Being committed to some truth, some decided upon way of life, limits us to think about things from a certain fixed perspective that is demonstrably at odds with our experience of things. Doing this all but guarantees a limit to our understanding and is thereby not a very philosophical way of life.
Read MoreEach of us must make the decision whether to forgive and thus serve as an exemplar of the way of Heaven, Nirvana, epistemic humility. This is centrally a decision about whether to seek greater understanding than we currently possess. We begin by recognizing the limits of our own thinking and proceed by deepening that recognition, not obviating it, nor even seeking to.
Read MoreWe must be prepared to submit all of our own ideas to the same scrutiny as any other ideas. But in order to even know what our own ideas are, we must continually explore our world’s philosophical terrain. This means the only thing we can rely on as stable is the activity of critical inquiry itself, since employing it today could always lead us away from a position it led to yesterday.
Read MorePracticing thinking well keeps our opinions from getting rigid, unreasonable, and stale. It helps us appreciate that our perspective ultimately determines the quality of our life; we may not have control over all, or even any, of the circumstances, but we do have a fair amount of freedom in how we work with them—namely, we can choose what methods we’re using to guide us and engage life with.
Read More