Due Process
Due process is the boundary that separates lawful authority from arbitrary power.
Philosophy
Natural philosophy includes dividing ideas into empirical, rational, and irrational as well as understanding their philosophical context. Philosophical context includes understanding the timing of discoveries and rediscoveries as well as the philosophers behind them and their publications.
Natural Rights
30 Phil, Chapter 24, Locke, Touchstone 64: Natural Rights. Natural Rights are the inherent rights in our nature that all people have simply by being human. They are not externally granted.
Liberalism
30 Phil, Chapter 23, Roger Williams, Touchstone 58: Liberalism. Liberalism emphasizes personal freedom for all, individual rights, equality before the law, and limited government intervention. A suitable guiding statement is: “Social progress through individual autonomy, political freedom, civil liberties, and equality for all.” Emerging from the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment, liberalism offered a radical departure
Separation of Church and State
30 Phil, Chapter 23, Roger Williams, Touchstone 57: Separation of Church and State. More than a historical or religious treatise, the Bloody Tenet by Roger Williams is a seminal work. It launched a full-throttle assault on the prevailing norms of religious and political intolerance that plagued both Old and New England. In it, he passionately
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Idea Modeling
30 Phil, Chapter 22, Descartes, Touchstone 54: Idea Modeling. Idea Modeling is a new look at the process of creating new ideas. It is the dynamic interplay of various cognitive functions, but especially pattern recognition and conceptual blending. For this discussion let’s add in curiosity, gap-filling, and information bias. The whole thing is guided by
Mind-Body Dualism
30 Phil, Chapter 22, Descartes, Touchstone 56: Mind-Body Dualism. This concept splits the universe into two different substances. Cartesian Dualism splits the mind and body into separate entities that interact with each other. It fundamentally challenged the Aristotelian view that the mind and body are inseparable, laying the groundwork for modern explorations of the unknown
Modern Cosmology
30 Phil, Chapter 21, Galileo, Touchstone 54: Modern Cosmology. The story of Galileo is also the story of Copernicus, and the story of modern cosmology. To properly tell the story of Copernicus, we need to mention Aristarchus of Samos, a Greek astronomer and mathematician born around 310 BCE. Aristarchus put forth a heliocentric model, proposing
Infinitesimal
30 Phil, Chapter 21, Galileo, Touchstone 53: Infinitesimal. The infinitesimal is a form of infinity representing a theoretical value that is infinitely close to zero but not zero itself. Galileo Galilei discussed concepts related to the infinitesimal in his work “Two New Sciences”. In this work, he explored the foundations of kinematics and the strength
The Scientific Method
30 Phil, Chapter 20, Francis Bacon, Touchstone 51: The Scientific Method. Science is the ongoing study of nature through observation. It’s that simple. If you see something new in nature, that’s science. Many definitions of science tend to intertwine the “how,” but the “how” is perpetually evolving, just like science itself remains a continual journey, never settling
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Absolute Truth
If you embrace that absolute truth exists only in objective reality, then our human claims can remain provisional and always open to refinement, correction, and falsification.
The Five Thieves
30 Phil, Chapter 19, Guru Nanak, Touchstone 48: The Five Thieves. Central to Sikh philosophy is the concept of the Five Thieves. The Five Thieves assert that the path to happiness is achieved by managing or removing the negative forces in your life including lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. The Five Thieves provide ethical guideposts,
The Idea of Ideas
When encountering new information, first ask: is it empirical, rational, or irrational? Then think about how much you believe it.
Pattern Recognition
30 Phil, Chapter 18, Peter Abelard, Touchstone 46: Pattern Recognition. Humans possess an extraordinary ability to identify patterns both in nature as well as in our minds. It is fundamental to how we understand the world, and at the core of the universals debate. Building on pattern recognition, our minds also engage in pattern ranking.
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Object-Oriented Nature
30 Phil, Chapter 18, Peter Abelard, Touchstone 45: Object-Oriented Nature. Our minds naturally categorize the world into objects, properties, and their interactions. We mentally reduce the complexities of reality into objects. For instance, when we interact with a battery, we use its interface, the positive and negative terminals unconcerned about the details. In this somewhat
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Intent
30 Phil, Chapter 18, Peter Abelard, Touchstone 44: Intent. The concept of intent has deep roots. Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, argued that voluntary actions guided by intention were essential for moral responsibility and virtue. Similarly, Roman law incorporated the concept of “mens rea,” a guilty mind, as a vital element in determining guilt. In
Touchstone: Perception
30 Phil, Chapter 17, Alhazen, Touchstone 43: Perception. Perception is the process by which your brain interprets sensory information. While senses give you direct information, your perception gives you indirect understanding.
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Essence and Existence
Existence grounds essence; identity is not discovered in a metaphysical realm but formed within structured reality.
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Intellect
30 Phil, Chapter 16, Al-Farabi, Touchstone 40: Intellect. Intellect refers to the ability to reason and understand objectively, particularly with regard to abstract or academic matters. Al-Farabi delineated human understanding into three phases: the potential, actual, and acquired. His insights laid the groundwork for today’s understanding, a roadmap for how our thinking grows over time.