Pandora trying to close the box that she had opened out of curiosity. At left, the evils of the world taunt her as they escape. The engraving is based on a painting by F. S. Church.

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of men. Continue reading The Case Against Hope →

There are two ideas in Marcel’s philosophy, in addition to those considered in my last post, that I would like to discuss briefly—the importance of creative fidelity and of hope. Continue reading Marcel on Creativity and Hope →

Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973), who was born and died in Paris, was one of the leading existentialists of the twentieth century. Two of his ideas that I find fascinating are his notion of the broken world, and the distinction between a problem and a mystery. Continue reading Marcel on the broken world, problems, and mysteries →

When I was about 18 years old I read the following words by the Lebanese artist, poet, and author Kahlil Gibran in a short collection of his writing entitled The Voice of the Master.

Life is an island in an ocean of loneliness, an island whose rocks are hopes, whose trees are dreams, whose flowers are solitude, and whose brooks are thirst. Continue reading Gibran on Loneliness →

Truth, holding a mirror and a serpent (1896). Olin Levi Warner, Library of Congress

As a follow-up to my recent post about truth, I would like to clarify what I see as the grave danger of being certain that one possesses the truth. Continue reading A Monopoly on Truth →