Evolutionary Pragmatism

A Discourse on a Modern Philosophy For the 21^stCentury

By Stuart A.  Burns

Welcome to my Home Page!

The essays attached to this Home Page are the results of my contemplations.   They are offered here on the Web for your entertainment.   And in the hope that I might generate some interesting, educational, and entertaining discussions.   Please feel free to send me your comments, questions, or suggestions at – [email protected]   For more about me, please see my Personal page.

The Main Text

• Introduction

  • What Is Philosophy?
  • An Introduction to Axiom Systems
  • Paradigm Shifts & The Role of Faith
  • One-Page Summary                                – A brief one-page summary of Evolutionary Pragmatism

• Metaphysics (Non-Naive Realism)
  • The Nature of Reality
  • The Metaphysical Challenge of Solipsism

  • A Discussion of Causation
  • Some Comments on Human Behaviour
  • The Nature of Mind
  • Free Will versus Determinism
  • A Contribution from the Theory of Hierarchies
  • Summary – Metaphysics

• Epistemology (Pragmatism)

  • Introduction to Epistemology
  • The Nature of Propositions
  • Conceptualism
  • The Nature of Knowledge
  • The Nature of “Truth”
  • Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth
  • Defeating the Sceptic

• Ethics (Evolutionary Ethics)
  • Introduction to Ethics
  • Moral Judgments
  • The Meaning of Good
  • Why Be Moral?
  • Different Kinds of Ethics

  • Evolutionary Pragmatist Ethics
  • The Definition of Value
  • Genetic Utilitarianism?
  • Some Moral Dilemmas

• Political Philosophy (Classical Liberalism)

  • Introduction to Political Philosophy
  • A Note on the Nature of Governance
  • A Definition of Rights
  • The Make-It or Take-It Alternatives
  • A Modest Proposal
  • Economics 101  –  A Brief Introduction to the Principles of Economics
  • Universal Basic Income
  • Some Economic Reforms 
  • Reforming the Educational System
  • Reforming the Health Care System
  • Thinking Beyond the 10 Second Sound-Bite  – A Presentation
  • Modern Monetary Theory  –  A Brief Introduction (A Presentation)

Supporting Material from Other Thinkers

I have found that it does not usually lead to optimal results when making decisions in the “heat of battle”, under stress, time pressures, and mental confusion.  Better decisions are made when one can take the time to think about things, weight the consequences, and explore all the options.  Any athlete will confirm that fast reflexes is a matter of practice and rehearsal of pre-thought-out options.  One of the main reasons I have discovered for the study of Philosophy, is to discover “rules of thumb” that seem to work more often than not.  Over the many years I have spent studying Philosophy, I have stumbled across the writings of others whose thoughts resonate with my own and whose “rules” I have learned from experience, provide reasonably good guides to better decision making.  To bolster the case that I have constructed in these pages for the Philosophy of Evolutionary Pragmatism, I offer here the words of some like-minded individuals. These works of others offer some good “rules-of-thumb” to help you make better decisions when you haven’t the luxury of the time and resources to do a proper job of thinking through the issues.

A List of 25 books (and some Honourable Mentions) that I recommend everyone should read.

A Selection of Rules-of-Thumb for Leading a Good Life.

 

Question and Answer Time

• Essays from my University of London – BA Honours Philosophy Courses

  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy of Logic
  • Methodology
  • Metaphysics
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Ancient Greek Philosophy 
  • Descartes, Locke and Hume 
  • Ethics, Historical Perspectives      (The Ethics of Aristotle, Hume and Mill)
  • Ethics, Contemporary Perspectives

• Answers Submitted to the “Ask A Philosopher” Web Service

  • Questions and Answers

• Essays from my “Pathways to Philosophy” Course Materials

  • Questions and Answers 

Some Essays on Related Topics

• On Economic Value – An analysis of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value. 
• Abortion                  – A Discussion of the Evolutionary Pragmatist Position. 

Some Shorter Essays

• Count Your Blessings       – A Nice Thought to Brighten Your Day
• A Science Fiction Yarn     – A Not-so-Fictional Yarn

Disclaimer

I make no claim to any monopoly on good ideas.  I don’t even claim that the ideas contained in these essays are uniquely my own.  At best, what creativity I have contributed has been the concatenation of good ideas borrowed from others.  The Bibliography contains many of the reference works from which I have borrowed some of these ideas.  And the Footnotes scattered throughout will point the interested to specific sources I have employed for specific essays.

In this modern age of Internet access, vast amounts of material written by other authors is readily available for cut-and-paste use.  Throughout this work, I have borrowed heavily from materials I have found on the net.  I have tried to give credit to the authors, where I have been able to determine the author.  But I have not always been successful.  So, I will apologize in advance to anyone who might find here, material of his or her own creation without suitable credit.  I will be more than happy to correct such oversights, when so advised.

Appendix

• Bibliography
• Links to Related Sites

This web-site was last updated June 2024.

The keywords used to index this page are:- Evolutionary Pragmatism, philosophy, objectivism, pragmatism, objectivist, ethics, morals, evolutionary ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, truth, correspondence theory, knowledge, conceptualism, conceptualist, metaphysics, realism, realist, Ayn Rand, David Kelley, Aristotle, William James, Daniel C.  Dennett, Libertarian, Classical Liberalism, materialism, determinism, free will.