The Christian Vanguard

These last few weeks, my car has been making a really bad screeching noise. I kind of hoped it would go away, but it only got louder and louder as time went on. So I finally decided to drop it off at a mechanic. They told me they could find no noise. I went back, drove around with one of the mechanics in the passenger seat, and sure enough, my car made no noise. I'm sure this has happened to many of us before.  I'm going to force a metaphorical reading on this event, so I have something to write about. When we have issues, we tend to lash out. Sometimes it is a cry for help. And after a while, the screeching in our souls becomes so loud, we go see someone to help fix us, but really, we just need to vent and have someone hear us. We just need to release some things, just talk to someone, and then we're all good and dandy once again.  Some time ago, I wrote about feeling a need to cry, but being unable to do so. That it was building up pressure, and I didn't know when it ...

 Sir Roger Scruton presents an argument in his book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction against the transcendental nature of beauty. To be clear, he is only presenting it, not endorsing it. He writes, "Why believe p ? Because it it is true. Why want x ? Because it is good. Why look at y ? Because it is beautiful. In some way, philosophers have argued, those answers are on a par...Someone who asked 'why believe what is true' or 'why want what is good' has failed to understand the nature of reasoning...Does the same go for beauty?...To say as much is to overlook the subversive nature of beauty. Someone charmed by a myth may be tempted to believe it: and in this case beauty is the enemy of truth...A man attracted to a woman may be tempted to condone her vices: and in this case beauty is the enemy of goodness...Goodness and truth never compete...The pursuit of beauty, however, is far more questionable." The argument states that since transcendentals have this qualit...

In rationality and decision theory, we have the Maximin principle, which states that we look at the worst possible outcomes of every act, and choose the act which produces the least worst outcome. So, if I have to choose between two investments, say Apple and Google, and if the worst case scenario for my Apple investment is I lose $100 and the worst case scenario for my Google investment is that I lose $200, then under the Maximin principle, I should choose to invest in Apple over Google. That is, if course, if I want to minimize my losses.  There is something pessimistic about the Maximin principle. If for example, the best case scenario for my Google investment is that I profit 1 million dollars and the best case scenario for my Apple investment is I profit 5 thousand dollars, then we may be rational to choose Google over Apple. But I want to focus on the pessimism because I get the sense that many people are pessimistic about politics and the election these days. So, can the pes...