My Medium Stories By Topic

A Businessman Reminded Me about the Essence of Philosophy. — Join Medium and read great independent writing As a Medium member, a portion of your membership fee goes to writers you read, and you get full access to every story…dgilesphilosopher.medium.com Philosopher for Hire Every now and then I am contacted by someone who wants to hire me to help them write a paper or book. I’ve had rewarding collaborations over the years, helping people form their ideas and polish their writing, and it’s been a nice income supplement (being a philosophy professor pays…

I’m an intellectual, not an academic; let me explain. — I have a friend who teaches languages. She is very, very good at it; so good that the government contracts her to teach some of their people. She could have a job at any number of prestigious universities. Instead, she teaches at a community college because, she says, she wants…

Not Absolutely Nothin’, but . . . — The last Thursday in November means something to some people. Why should it? It’s fine if it does, that’s not my question. Why do we do what we do when we do it and how we do it? That’s my question. Why perform these rituals of life? Philosopher David Hume…

How technology is enhancing an age old human habit, the difference between one-way and two-way communication, and how social media plays into these issues. — Note: This is a transcript of a recent podcast episode, moving the content from that one-way medium to this more two-way Medium. Any irony is intentional. Twitter, TikTok, and Siloization - Insert Philosophy Here Siloization - ˈsī-lō-ə-ˈzā-shən : the process of isolating a group apart from others especially in ways that hinder…pod.co

Philosophy is at its best when it deals directly with issues that confront human beings in their everyday lives. — Join Medium with my referral link - Douglas Giles, PhD Read every article from Douglas Giles, PhD (and thousands of other writers on Medium). Your membership fee directly…dgilesphilosopher.medium.com Some people believe that philosophy is detached from the real world and has no practical application to our lives. That’s ignorance, but it’s understandable because of the long tradition of rationalist and now analytic philosophy that seems to be really spending a lot of time and energy on things…

Yes, I love sincere questions and discussing ideas. — A reader sent an e-mail to me yesterday asking for help understanding a question related to my article on George Berkeley’s philosophy. Some people prefer a private e-mail to a public comment on Medium, which is okay. The reader raises a very good question about something many of my students…

and I doubt he wants to. — An essay in the form of a Tweet thread. Elon Musk says he wants to make Twitter a platform “where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” Even if he was sincere, he lacks that power. People self-segregate in their own silos, afraid of different…

A ahort snippet from my textbook, due to be released in December. — Race is a manufactured concept. Biologically, there is only one human “race,” the species homo sapiens to which all people belong. The idea of race as a biological distinction emerged in the 1700s, most notably with Carl Linnaeus who established much of the taxonomy of organisms in use today. He…