In the recent discussion on causation, I noted: KF, 72: >>As I think about cause, I am led to ponder a current discussion that echoes Plato on the self-moved, ensouled agent with genuine freedom. Without endorsing wider context, John C Wright draws out a key point that we may ponder as a nugget drawn from a stream-bed: Men have souls [–> that which gives us self-moved, responsible, rational freedom]. Once one accepts that premise, one must accept the conclusions that follow from it: creatures with souls are not evolved from slime, since spirit, being simple and eternal, cannot be brought into being by matter, which is compound, subject to change and decay, nor brought into being by any blind natural Read More ›

Some years ago I spent a couple of weeks in Malindi, Kenya.  Early the first morning of my stay, I walked down to the shore to watch the sun rise over the Indian Ocean.  As I stood on the beach taking in the breathtaking beauty, a steady stream of men, most barefoot, ran by.  They ran and ran and ran and kept on running until they disappeared over the horizon.  I asked a member of the hotel staff what was going on, and she told me nothing special was going on.  The men were running that day for the same reason they ran every day – for the sheer joy of running.  It is no wonder to me that Kenyans Read More ›