Aristotle claimed that democracy depended on a secure middle class in a society without a great gap between rich and poor. In other words, Aristotle would have told us our democracy is on the ropes. I didn’t learn this by reading the Greek philosopher himself, but from an insightful paper written by William Galston, a…Read More

Studies have examined the brains of advanced meditators, defined as those with more than 10,000 hours of meditation experience, as well as novices, and even those who undergo intensive but short-term meditation training and practice. The results may be astonishing to some, though they simply confirm what I’ve always believed, that meditation is one of…Read More

Entitled Opinons is a gem of a podcast. It began almost a decade ago, offering intelligent and informed discussion about a variety of subjects: art, literature, music, philosophy and science. It’s hosted by Robert Harrison, a professor at Stanford University, my alma mater. In April, Harrison spoke with a philosopher from Boston College, Richard Kearney,…Read More

B.F. Skinner, the father of behaviorism, titled his seminal work, Beyond Freedom and Dignity. The title gave away his central thesis, that we are utterly determined to behave in certain ways by our previous “conditioning.” We have no free will, and thus no dignity. We are essentially automatons, and if we want to improve our…Read More

When Boeing merged with McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, there ensued a cultural power struggle between Boeing engineers and McDonnell-Douglas bean counters. If I say Wall Street won this battle, will that tell you who came out on top? In the end, Boeing went against the grain of its deepest cultural values by outsourcing nearly two-thirds of…Read More