The arguments for the principles of the natural duty

In an earlier chapter (§§18–19) I described briefly the principles of natural duty and obligation that apply to individuals. We must now c...

The role of justice

Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rej...

Finite or infinite?

C ompared to the eternal cosmos envisaged by the ancients, our own universe is something of a Johnny-come-lately. It seems to have been a...

The great rejections

T he letter bearing the news that “there is no mystery of existence,” though unexpected, did not exactly come out of the blue. A week earl...

Prejudices of Philosophers

The Will to Truth, which is to tempt us to many a hazardous enterprise, the famous Truthfulness of which all philosophers have hitherto sp...

What is Noble?

EVERY elevation of the type ‘man,’ has hitherto been the work of an aristocratic society and so it will always be—a society believing i...

The Religious Mood

The human soul and its limits, the range of man’s inner experiences hitherto attained, the heights, depths, and distances of these experi...

ARCHILOCHUS JONES, “Metaphysics Explained for You”

What is nothing? Macbeth answered this question with admirable concinnity: “Nothing is, but what is not.” My dictionary puts it somewhat m...

The Arithmetic of Nothingness

M athematics has a name for nothing, and that is “zero.” It is notable that the root of zero is a Hindu word: sunya , meaning “void” or “...

Why Does the World Exist

MOLLY’S SOLILOQUY, in James Joyce’s Ulysses I vividly remember when the mystery of existence first swam into my ken. It was in the early ...