The New Ideas Blog

I have been criticized for using extreme examples in making a point, but it is a very useful way to explore the real nature of things. I have two examples of this that follow. The imagined extreme of a language with only twelve words in it shows us the possible limitations of “moral systems,” and the extreme action of stealing from your neighbor to buy food and art points out the potential ethical problems of government programs.

The Language of Morality

Have we made a false idol of language? Whether religious or not, most of us like to think (more…)

A friend sent me the following story/explanation of our tax system and tax cuts, and I thought I should pass it along. It makes several insightful observations and a strong point about “beating up” the wealthy (always a bad thing to do). I like it, but I have two contradictory points to make once you have read the story. Here it is:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes (more…)

Which is worth more; an orange or an apple? At the moment an apple costs more at the grocery store, but the question isn’t really identical to “which costs more?” After all, one or the other has more value to you even if they both were free. Or to use another example, if the price of a pen was higher than that of a computer, you would still probably consider the computer to be “worth” more than the pen - unless you were selling them. Clearly what we think of as value is not identical with “price,” nor is it always closely related.

So what is a thing worth? How do we (more…)

Many years ago when I lived in Michigan, the state started a campaign to convince residents to “Buy Michigan,” meaning, of course, to buy products made in the state. Of course, if we residents were to take this to its extreme, we would have had a pretty limited diet, since most foods are grown in other states (Michigan is the second largest producer of cherries, so we could have eaten a lot of those). We also would have had to give up television and the many other products that are not made in the state.

Of course, nobody takes it to this extreme, but doing so mentally is a useful way to show the flaw in the reasoning which claims we are better off when we buy only local products or when we (more…)

(Stories From The Cabin - Part Six)

Creativity is natural in children, but rather than encourage it, adults often discourage it. They do so by teaching kids to judge the results of their efforts too soon, to compare too much, and to avoid any mistakes as though they are terrible things. They also watch too closely and offer advice too readily, trying to control what their children are doing. Fortunately, my four brothers and I had a mother who tended to allow us our freedom, especially during our long summers at the cabin.

I was probably nine years old when one day we were playing on the beach and (more…)

Language is a slippery thing. Although many people have the idea that words have “official” meanings that are somehow set in stone, this obviously isn’t true. A word means whatever a culture takes it to mean, and that changes continually. Consider how different the meaning of the word “gay” is now from when it meant just “happy.” And apart from radical new meanings like that, the connotations of words change continually. “Justice,” for example, while having nominally the same meaning over the last two hundred years, certainly has a different “flavor” now.

What got me thinking about this was yet another “improvement” to my Hotmail email account. My immediate reaction was (more…)

(Stories From The Cabin - Part Five)

As mentioned in the last one of these “stories from the cabin,” I liked to play with kites. I also liked to look at ways to harness the wind in general. As children we were amazed at the strength of the wind on the beach. Two of us would each hold corners of a blanket in each hand and see if we could then stand against the force of the wind. I think we even tried a “blanket sail” on a bicycle, to propel us down the gravel road in front of the beach.

Later in life I lived alone in the cabin, and I wanted a way to expend less energy than usual getting around in the old (more…)