Alfred Lord Tennyson is one of my favorite poets. I think that “Tears, Idle Tears” is his most moving poem about longing for a past that we can’t recapture, and the melancholy this elicits.

 We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live. ~ Socrates In Plato’s Republic 

(This essay was reprinted in Critical Perspectives on Abortion (Analyzing the Issues), Anne C. Cunningham, ed., Enslow Publishing 2017, and first appeared on this blog some years ago.) Abortion continues to make political news, but a question rarely asked by politicians or other interlocutors is: what do professional ethicists think about abortion? If ethicists have reached a consensus about the morality … Continue reading The Forthcoming Abortion Decision →

(Humphrey Bogart): A man takes a drop too much once in a while, it’s only human nature.  (Katherine Hepburn): Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above. ~ The African Queen (1951) Which is more natural for human beings, monogamy1 or polygamy? If one is more natural, does that … Continue reading Monogamy or Polygamy? →

Bertrand Russell won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.”(What a prescient speech regarding today’s politics.)