David O'Hara

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Jan 19, 2025: Wise words Today in church we read the story of the Wedding in Cana. It’s a fun and surprising story: Jesus, in his first miracle, turns water to wine for people …

Jan 19, 2025: When credentials matter more than knowledge and wisdom I recently met a biologist who is one of the world’s experts in his subject area. I found him to be a brilliant resource and a good teacher, and he is …

Jan 18, 2025: Morning reading.

Jan 16, 2025: If you still read physical books, let me recommend this book weight — and the St John’s College bookstore where I bought it. My favorite college …

Jan 13, 2025: Really enjoying micro.blog. Thanks to @jthingelstad for getting me started, and to @manton for building and keeping the machine oiled! Working on …

Jan 11, 2025: I Still Believe In an earlier post I wrote about this question people often ask me: “Why are you still here?" And I mentioned that there are three main …

Jan 11, 2025: Thinking of making a game I’m thinking of making a game that my students can play over a monthlong course in Spain and Morocco. They study lots of systems: culture, …

Jan 10, 2025: Word of the Day: Huachicolero/huachicoleo Huachicoleo is modern Mexican slang for fuel theft. A huachicolero is a fuel thief. The words are also related to the making and selling of cheap …

Jan 8, 2025: What's a Mussel Worth? During my sabbatical I’ve been studying freshwater mussels. This is partly because I teach about mollusks like bivalves and cephalopods in my …

Jan 8, 2025: Word of the Day: Stammtisch. Word of the Day: Stammtisch. A Stammtisch is a table for regulars at a coffee shop or restaurant. It names not just the table but the idea. There’s …

Jan 7, 2025: Looking forward to a few weeks from now when there are fewer people at the gym.

Jan 7, 2025: Eagles and Swans on the Missouri River We saw a few birds along the Missouri River yesterday. This time of year the bald eagles are abundant below the dams, where they find fish in the open …

Jan 5, 2025: Nature journaling with zigzag books Hahnemüle pocket zig-zag books Last year I upped my nature-journaling game by doing daily sketches in a Moleskine sketchbook. You can see some of …

Jan 5, 2025: Sunrise hike along the river this weekend Sunrise hike along the river this weekend here in Sioux Falls. Too beautiful not to share a couple of images with you. I went out before sunrise, …

Jan 3, 2025: Leading with Authenticity - My latest appearance on John T Meyer’s Leadmore podcast. John has a lot of insightful guests on his podcast, which makes it a huge honor to appear now for the fourth time. This was one of our longest and …

Jan 2, 2025: Praying for others might be the best change you make in the new year If you want to change your life in the new year, I suggest taking a moment to pray for someone else who is struggling. Pray on your terms. But give it …

Dec 31, 2024: Plough: Schools for Philosopher-Carpenters A thought-provoking article in Plough Quarterly about schools that teach students how to work with their hands, and also teach the liberal–one …

Dec 31, 2024: My 4/40 Program Is Still Going Had breakfast with a dear alum this morning at M.B. Haskett, one of the world’s best third places. My alum studied “wicked problems” with me almost a …

Nov 26, 2024: Why Are You Still Here? Should you be here? (I like roads like this one.) Like my previous post, this one begins with a question others ask me fairly often: “Why are …

Nov 13, 2024: So, how’s the sabbatical going? This is the third time in my life that I have taken a sabbatical. On average, I’ve taken one about every eleven years. My first sabbatical was from a …

Nov 1, 2024: Time for a newsletter? (Note: posts here dated before 2025 are mostly from my old blogspot blog.) I've had this blog for a long time, and for all the years I've run it, it …

Nov 1, 2024: Why All Saints’ Day Matters To Me Here's a bit from a recent post I wrote and shared on Medium: Who knows? The student in my classroom, the driver in that other car, the man sleeping …

Apr 1, 2024: Poem: Visiting Rowan on Easter Sunday Rowan laughs and smiles, but he is plainly sad. Emma has been gone for a long time now. Beside him, an electric photo frame shuffles images of his …

Mar 15, 2024: Of Kings and Wars and Gardens Long ago there was a season for war. An ancient text about one of the kings of Israel tells us this: "It happened in the spring of the year, at the …

Jun 22, 2023: Ideas in progress: David O’Hara on interdisciplinary humanities, sustainability, and bees Ideas in progress: David O'Hara on interdisciplinary humanities, sustainability, and bees …

Feb 4, 2023: How to Make the Most of Studying Abroad A new short article I've published on Medium, about making the most of re-entry after you've studied abroad. It's the same advice I'd give anyone who …

Dec 23, 2022: How I Learned To Love Insects I've just posted this on Medium, with a handful of my favorite insect photos.  Crimson Patch Butterfly (chlosyne janais; Costa Rica). Insects …

Dec 5, 2022: Watching the Fish I've been publishing some short pieces on Medium lately. It's a way of doing some quick writing about things I've taught about for years. This latest …

Nov 27, 2022: On The Religious Architecture of Water One of my recent articles on Medium. Here's a sample: If you want to know what someone believes, don’t ask them what they believe. Ask them where they …

Nov 22, 2022: ArcGIS Storymap of Environmental Studies at Augustana Since all my Environmental Studies students learn GIS, I’ve been trying to gain some new skills, too. The ArcGIS Storymap tool is a lot of fun …

Jan 15, 2022: IBM Developer and Call For Code It was a delight to work on designing last year's Call For Code challenge with IBM Developer, and then to participate in judging the entries. But I …

Apr 6, 2021: IBM’s Call for Code 2021 IBM just released their latest "Call for Code." If you have a team with some coding skills and you want to put them to use helping others to tackle …

Jan 6, 2021: Peirce, Religion, and Communities of Inquiry: Jeffrey Howard interviews me for his latest podcast Recently I had the pleasure of talking with Jeffey Howard on his Damn The Absolute! podcast. We mostly talked about Charles Sanders Peirce, pragmatism …

Jan 6, 2021: Catch Your Breath: A Winter Meditation on Trout - My latest article, in Hothouse My latest publication, a winter meditation on the beauty of brook trout, in Hothouse // Solutions. This is my first publication in collaboration with …

Dec 15, 2020: My Father's Stories Dear Dad, We recently had a conversation about what kind of wisdom comes with age. We’ve both known some old people who seem unwise, and some young …

Nov 21, 2020: Of Fish and Forests When people ask me what I do I sometimes reply “I study the relationships between fish and forests.” A more precise way to describe my job might be to …

Sep 19, 2020: One Word One Word One word to the finches Who perch on my towering sunflowers, Who fling golden petals,  Who drop a thousand husks On the garden below. Who …

Sep 14, 2020: On Teaching Outdoors

Aug 15, 2020: John T. Meyer Interviews Me On His Leadmore Podcast John T. Meyer, CEO of Lemonly, is one of the best interviewers I've known. In his Leadmore podcast he has interviewed immigration lawyer Taneeza …

May 22, 2020: Environmental Studies At Augustana - My recent interview with Lori Walsh on SD Public Radio We have just launched a new major in Environmental Studies here at Augustana University. This week I had a chance to talk with Lori Walsh about this …

Mar 28, 2020: Philosophy of Liturgy, and Climate Grief One reason I chose to teach a course in the Philosophy of Liturgy this year was the mounting grief I saw among climate activists. I've never taught …

Jan 14, 2020: On Religion And Robots As we use machines to care for other people, we should also care about the principles that guide the way we make our machines. My latest article on …

Dec 7, 2019: Gracias, señora Orza Estimada Sra. Orza, One day when I was in middle school in New York you said to me “You’re good at languages. You should go to Middlebury.” I hadn’t …

Nov 26, 2019: On Paying Attention To Bear Poop - My recent TEDx talk in Fargo My TEDx talk in Fargo, summer 2019. It's about bear poop, and other things you don't need to know. The allegedly unnecessary things - like bear poop, …

Nov 16, 2019: Commerce, Environmental Attention, and the Liturgical Calendar Bighorn sheep in the Badlands National Park. The animals move together, responding to the land. Lately I've been reflecting on liturgy, and …

Nov 14, 2019: On Living Imitably Today I hope to spend a little time with a friend, talking over coffee. We're both busy, and we both have big aspirations. And we both have wonderful …

Sep 29, 2019: Perennial Thinking in Education, Ag, and Culture - Lori Walsh interviews Bill Vitek and me on SDPB Last week I had the pleasure of hosting Bill Vitek at Augustana University. Together we taught a philosophy class and a biology class, he spoke in our …

Sep 20, 2019: Could a Robot Have a Mystical Experience? My latest article, and my first on Medium:Can a Robot Have a Mystical Experience? This is something I've been contemplating for a while, for a variety …

Aug 18, 2019: Ants and Grasshoppers, Wasps and Cicadas When the summer reaches its middle stretch and the temperatures rise the cicadas start to sing their mating songs. High in the trees they buzz and …

Jun 16, 2019: Books Worth Reading OccasionallyI post on this blog a list of books I’ve been reading. It’s a way of sharing what I’ve learned, and that process of reviewing what I’ve …

Jun 13, 2019: My Interview With Lori Walsh on South Dakota Public Radio Lori Walsh is a great interviewer, and I'm always glad to be on her "In The Moment" show on SDPB. You can listen to my conversation with her today …

May 18, 2019: On Telling Stories Posted for your consideration; words from two authors whose writing I find helpful, followed by a little commentary from me. “Knowing on some …

Mar 10, 2019: Reason For Hope Nearly every spring term I teach a class called “Theology and Philosophy in Dialogue.” I inherited the title and the course description when I started …

Nov 11, 2018: A Short Story: Mercy For several years friends have been urging me to write a novel during the month of November as part of the NaNoWriMo movement, but I rarely have the …

Oct 2, 2018: How I Write - A Quick Reply To A Young Writer This morning I came to the office to find an email from a student at another college. They were writing to ask advice for a young writer. In my own …

Aug 25, 2018: A Professor's Environmental Humanities Summer Dear Students, Do you know how your professors spend their summers? In a few days I will shift from my summer work to the work you're more familiar …

Mar 22, 2018: Bristol Bay and Pebble Mine: Mutual Flourishing or Midas' Touch My latest article on salmon and mining was just published in Ethics, Policy, & Environment. A proposed gold mine in Alaska offers a lot of …

Jan 27, 2018: Contemplation, Conversation, Commentary Education is not one thing. It is not mere memorization, for instance. And it isn’t just training in the use of tools or the impartation of skills, …

Dec 21, 2017: Teaching Tropical Ecology in Belize and Guatemala Two out of every three January terms my colleague Craig Spencer and I teach a course on tropical ecology in Central America. Right now I'm in the …

Nov 7, 2017: Butterflies In My Stomach This week I’ve been helping a student with a lepidoptera project. The project is hers, and she's not in one of my classes, though she did take the …

Oct 29, 2017: Wicked Problems in Environmental Policy When I first started teaching environmental philosophy courses I used anthologies of helpful articles for my core readings. These included articles …

Oct 20, 2017: The Ethics of Automation: Poetry and Robot Priests Philosophy professor Evan Selinger posted a question on Twitter yesterday about whether there are jobs that it would be unethical to automate. As I …

Oct 12, 2017: The Trace I Left Behind This summer I spent several weeks in and around Lake Clark National Park doing research on trout, salmon, and char. Sometimes I get quizzical looks …

Jul 4, 2017: The Sentiment That Invites Us To Pray - Peirce on Prayer and Inquiry "One of Peirce’s ongoing aims was to reconcile religious life with the practice and spirit of science. Given the great differences between religion …

Jun 1, 2017: Bluejay Linings "Well, look at the silver lining!" An accident two years ago left me with some injuries that occasionally keep me from doing what I would like to do. …

Mar 3, 2017: What's In A Name? Almanzo Wilder and El Manzoor In her novel Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder tells why her husband was named Almanzo. It's a story that she learned in De Smet, South …

Dec 16, 2016: SPUnK: The Society for the Preservation of Unnecessary Knowledge My brilliant and curious student James Jennings was interviewed by the brilliant and curious Hugh Weber on South Dakota Public Broadcasting's Dakota …

Oct 18, 2016: I Want My Religion To Be A Garden Today my ecology advisee and I met while walking across our campus. Walking and talking, we ignored the formalities of her writing, and attended to …

Sep 10, 2016: An Examined Life Today is the anniversary of an accident in which I was pretty badly hurt. As I said in a previous post, soon I'll write more about that injury and …

Sep 1, 2016: Babel, in Paraphrase Recently I have been wandering my city with a camera and sketchbook, looking at the ways our use and design of spaces speak about what we value. …

Aug 25, 2016: How Twitter Helps Me Learn And Teach A colleague asked me recently how I use social media to reach out to current undergraduates. It seemed fitting to answer such a question online. …

Aug 6, 2016: A Pretty Good Year Last year was a pretty good year. Or at least, what I remember of it was pretty good. As my regular readers know, I'm a professor of philosophy and …

Jun 14, 2016: Poem - "Sage Creek" One of my poems was published in the latest issue of Written River: A Journal of Eco-Poetics. It's a beautiful journal. I hope you'll consider buying …

May 14, 2016: Good Education Should Lead To Good Questions "If we treat the contemplation of the best life as a luxury we cannot afford, seemingly urgent matters will crowd out the truly important ones." …

Mar 23, 2016: Martin Luther on Liberal Education "Therefore, I pray you all, my dear sirs and friends, for God’s sake and the poor youths’, not to treat this subject as lightly as some do, who are …

Mar 2, 2016: Thoreau on Liberal Education, Wealth, and Freedom “We seem to have forgotten that the expression "a liberal education" originally meant among the Romans one worthy of free men; while the learning of …

Feb 27, 2016: Giving Thanks In The “‘What a damned country,’ he said. Watching the river, he had not noticed the movement at the far corner of the garden below him, …

Jan 21, 2016: National Park Law - Knopf and Stegner “Those who would protect the Parks and Monuments must rest their case always on the organic law that created the National Park Service. Any attempt to …

Jan 2, 2016: The Slow, Important Work Of Poetry At the time it seemed like chance that brought me to minor in comparative poetry in college. Without having a master plan, over four years I wound up …

Dec 14, 2015: Gifts From My Father My father spent his career as an engineer working for IBM and NASA. Growing up with an engineer is an education in itself. As a boy, I felt like …

Nov 30, 2015: Racism, Samaritans, and Saints As I've read news about recent protests on campuses across the country I've often wondered how I could respond helpfully if I were an administrator at …

Nov 22, 2015: The Lesser Feast of C.S. Lewis On this day in 1963, Clive Staples Lewis died. Some of us now observe November 22nd as the Lesser Feast of C.S. Lewis. Here is one of my favorite …

Aug 4, 2015: South Fork, Eagle River After breakfast we put sack lunches in the cooler and threw our backpacks in the fifteen-passenger van. Half an hour later we were piling out at the …

Jul 9, 2015: Steinbeck on Overfishing "In about an hour we came to the Japanese fishing fleet. There were six ships doing the actual dredging while a large mother ship of at least 10,000 …

May 14, 2015: What Thucydides Can Teach Us About Imperial Overreach My latest article, co-authored with John Kaag. Here's a sample: "As we dwell in our golden, Athenian age of military and economic might, perhaps we …

May 11, 2015: Is Thinking Real? Peirce On Neuro-Determinism "Tell me, upon sufficient authority, that all cerebration depends upon movements of neurites that strictly obey certain physical laws, and that thus …

May 11, 2015: A Commercial Company Becomes A Church...And Then A Nation “When the king and High Church party under Archbishop Laud became masters of the Church of England, many Puritan leaders wished to emigrate. They had …

Apr 28, 2015: On Church Organs and Church Music Recently I had the good fortune to hear an organ concert in Westminster Abbey. Not long afterwards I heard someone asking whether churches should get …

Apr 26, 2015: Made In The Image Those who think the mind is only a calculating machine, or that thought is alien to willing and feeling - do they not wind up creating themselves in …

Mar 31, 2015: Liberal Education And Freedom "We seem to have forgotten that the expression "a liberal education" originally meant among the Romans one worthy of free men; while the learning of …

Mar 28, 2015: Palm Sunday and the Vocation of a Church Mercy Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota  Palm Sunday, 2015 It is often helpful to have a sense, at the beginning of a lecture or a sermon, of where …

Feb 2, 2015: Professors of Trout In the course of writing Downstream (my book on brook trout) I did a lot of research about trout and fly-fishing. Thankfully, it turns out I'm not the …

Jan 24, 2015: Nature As A Classroom For the last two weeks my students and I have been in Petén, Guatemala, studying the ecology of the region. For half that time we stayed with local …

Jan 1, 2015: Recommended Reading: Fly-Fishing and Trout I'm preparing to teach a course on ecology and nature writing this summer in Alaska. One of the keys to becoming a good writer is to read good …

Dec 25, 2014: A Visible Sign This morning my wife, my kids, and I sat around the Christmas tree and opened the gifts we gave one another. Just as we were finishing, my wife's …

Dec 22, 2014: The Best Break-Up Ever Last week my oncologist broke up with me. It was the best break-up ever. Fifteen years ago I got a call from my doctor.  He asked me, "Are you sitting …

Dec 11, 2014: When The Court Will Not Give Justice “They suppressed their consciences and turned away their eyes from looking to Heaven or remembering their duty to administer justice.” -- The Book of …

Dec 10, 2014: Of Men and of Angels "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, then I have become a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." That's from one of …

Nov 19, 2014: Desmond Tutu On Descartes' Radical Individualism "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human....[If you have Ubuntu] then you are …

Nov 17, 2014: The Trivium And The Quadrivium The Seven Liberal Arts (and their aims) At some point in the Middle Ages, through a slow process of growth and refinement, educators came to identify …

Nov 9, 2014: Books Downstream: Reflections on Brook Trout, Fly Fishing, and the Waters of Appalachia. (On brook trout, ecology, and love. Wipf and Stock, (Cascade …

Nov 7, 2014: Entertaining Angels Here's my latest contribution to the Sojourners blog, a reflection on a beggar I met in Paris 25 years ago, and on what that might mean for me today. …

Nov 3, 2014: Camping With My Students: Stargazing in the Badlands Around two in the morning I awoke to the song of coyotes. I opened my eyes and looked up just in time to see a green meteor arc across the sky.  I was …

Oct 22, 2014: How To Write Term Papers Some thoughts while grading essays: 1) Write simply. 2) Delete any unnecessary words that you don't need. 3) Use short words. This isn't the SAT or …

Oct 6, 2014: An Early Christian Philosopher on Civil Disobedience "There is never an obligation to be obedient to orders which it would be pernicious to obey." -- St. Augustine, _Confessions_, I.vii. (Henry Chadwick …

Sep 19, 2014: Socratic Pragmatism: On Our Attitude Towards Inquiry "I do not insist that my argument is right in all other respects, but I would contend at all costs in both word and deed as far as I could that we …

Sep 18, 2014: Wendell Berry: Past A Certain Scale, There Is No Dissent From Technological Choice “But past a certain scale, as C.S. Lewis wrote, the person who makes a technological choice does not choose for himself alone, but for others; past a …

Sep 15, 2014: Interview on SD Public Radio Karl Gehrke interviewed me on SD Public Radio today about my new book. We talk about the book, brook trout, fly-fishing, hunting, raising children, …

Aug 28, 2014: Giving Our Prayers Feet The American scientist and philosopher Charles Peirce described belief as an idea you are prepared to act on. If you say you believe something but you …

Aug 25, 2014: From My New Book: Brook Trout In The Tellico River Brook trout Dave Tabler has posted an excerpt from my new book (co-authored with Matthew Dickerson), Downstream, on his site, AppalachianHistory.net. …

Aug 15, 2014: Why Does A Philosophy Professor Write About Trout? My most recent book, Downstream, is about brook trout. People sometimes wonder: why on earth would a professor of philosophy and classics write about …

Aug 14, 2014: The Tools That Hold Us If you equip your police with military tools, it should not surprise you to find that the police begin to regard the problems they face as problems …

Aug 11, 2014: More Books Worth Reading One of the great pleasures of being a teacher is reading. To do my job well, I have to read. If I don't read a lot, I won't keep up with my field and …

Aug 6, 2014: Downstream: My New Book On Brook Trout and Appalachian Ecology You can find it here, on the publisher's website, for a very reasonable price. It is now listed on Amazon as well, though not yet in stock there. I'm …

Jul 14, 2014: Arachno-Drama In My Backyard (WARNING: Contains spider images) Two long-jawed orb-weavers in my garden. This week I was privileged to watch a small drama acted out in my bee balm. The flowers grow close together, …

Jul 7, 2014: Protecting Borders, Loving Neighbors, And The Economics Of Child Migration Time Magazine reported last week that President Obama is seeking 2 billion dollars to reduce the flow of young illegal immigrants across the …

Jun 19, 2014: Who Are You Calling A "Hero"? Most common uses of the word "hero" fall into one of two categories: we either use it to refer to someone ordinary who does something extraordinary - …

Jun 18, 2014: The Twenty-Year Plan: Pick A Star To Steer By Often, when my students ask me what they should write their term papers about, I ask them to take the long view. What have they been studying that …

Jun 17, 2014: How to Help Ukraine: Solar Foreign Policy In today's newspaper it was announced that Russia has once again cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine. This will, no doubt, be a huge economic blow …

Jun 17, 2014: Charles Peirce on Transcendentalism, and the Common Good From one of Charles S. Peirce's college writings, dated 1859. At the time he was a student at Harvard College. "The devotion to fair learning is not …

Jun 16, 2014: Theodicy and Phenomenal Curiosity I have, right now, a terrific headache. It is a long, spidery headache whose bulging, raspy abdomen sits over my eyes and whose long forelegs reach …

Jun 13, 2014: College Athletics: Cui Bono? This Strange Marriage of Athletics and Academics This week I've been considering the place of sports on American university and college campuses. (See …

Jun 11, 2014: College Football and Moral Education Lately I've been pondering the significance of college sports.  In the United States, nearly every college or university devotes significant resources …

Jun 9, 2014: Melville on Religion Offered without comment: “As Queequeg’s Ramadan, or Fasting and Humiliation, was to continue all day, I did not choose to disturb him till towards …

Jun 9, 2014: Newspapers, Sports, and Healthy Societies Everywhere I've lived I've subscribed to the local newspaper. I do so because I think it's important to be informed about what's happening in my …

Mar 20, 2014: A Lenten Meditation from Merold Westphal “If Christianity is Platonism for the masses, scientific objectivity is Platonism for the enlightened elites of modernity.” Merold Westphal, Suspicion …

Mar 1, 2014: Hope And The Future: An Open Letter To The President Dear President Obama, I know you've got a lot on your mind right now, and I don't envy you the burdens of your office. I pray for you often, asking …

Feb 20, 2014: "Hit The Road, Philosophy" My latest article, written with John Kaag, at Times Higher Education. Here's a sample: "If philosophy is, as the name suggests, about loving wisdom, …

Feb 17, 2014: "Don't Be Afraid To Hire Someone Better Than You." My latest article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, about the best hiring advice I've ever received.

Jan 30, 2014: Minnesota Canvas I just returned from teaching a monthlong tropical ecology class in Belize and Guatemala. As I flew from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, I saw this view …

Jan 30, 2014: The Place Where I Live - In Orion Magazine Here is a short piece I wrote for Orion Magazine, along with a few of my photos from around Sioux Falls. It will appear in the print edition later …

Dec 29, 2013: The Music of the Spheres: The Sun Is A Morning Star Students in my Ancient and Medieval Philosophy class are required to spend at least four hours outdoors, gazing at the skies.  The Morning Star, Good …

Dec 1, 2013: Searching For Winter Strawberries A late October strawberry in my garden I spent my twentieth year of life in Madrid, Spain, studying Spanish philology. Studying abroad is like …

Nov 29, 2013: Walking In Nature - In Sioux Falls Cardinal in Tuthill Park, Sioux Falls Thoreau writes that not many people know the art of Walking. I am trying to learn it, and I think part of it …

Nov 13, 2013: My Backyard Ark Augustine once said that a key to his conversion was when he met St Ambrose. Augustine had regarded the Bible as full of flawed and problematic texts. …

Nov 8, 2013: What Are Philosophy's Flaws? Last week I suggested to one of my students that she would make a good philosophy major. A few days later she came to my office and asked me, "What …

Oct 15, 2013: 20,000: Two Stories Of Water Pollution In The Dakotas Two stories in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in the past week have caught my attention. Coincidentally, both have to do with pollution of groundwater …

Oct 10, 2013: In Defense of Insects Cloudless Sulphur in my asters. I'm reviewing David Clough's On Animals and I just came across a gem in its pages. The "gem" is from Edward Payson …

Oct 6, 2013: Demosthenes' "Against Meidias" Tonight I am reading Demosthenes' Against Meidias. Why? Because nothing prevents me from doing so, and books like this repay the reader many times …

Oct 2, 2013: The Best Watchmen Of Our Thoughts "And, finally, I suppose they took the acropolis of the young man's soul, perceiving that it was empty of fair studies and practices and true …

Sep 30, 2013: Pragmatic Stoic Theology In preparing a class on later Stoicism, I came across a passage from Cicero's De Natura Deorum, or On The Nature Of The Gods. Cicero himself is not …

Sep 26, 2013: Trained By Trains - Thoreau on Technology I'm teaching Thoreau's Walden this semester, and tomorrow my class will discuss the chapter entitled "Sounds." While re-reading it tonight I was …

Sep 24, 2013: Not The Weapons But What They Defend My latest post at Sojourners' "God's Politics" blog: "My grandfather was a career military officer, and I admired him deeply for it. As a child, I …

Sep 23, 2013: "What We Need Right Now" From my latest contribution to the "God's Politics" blog at Sojourners: "Any right-thinking stranger on our shores must read our daily news and think …

Sep 10, 2013: Advice To My Son: Play, Rest, and Sing I had nineteen years to say what I wanted to say to my kids, but before the first two left for college, I wrote them letters in which I tried to say a …

Sep 8, 2013: Can I Ask Questions In Church? Today I heard a thoughtful, thought-provoking sermon about St Paul's Epistle to Philemon. The heart of it was this: Paul urged Philemon not to claim …

Aug 29, 2013: The Importance of Struggling to Understand In his speech when he was awarded the Emerson-Thoreau Medal, Robert Frost made this poignant aside about his years of struggling with one of Emerson's …

Aug 27, 2013: Animal Sacrifice And Factory Farming I'm reading David Clough's On Animals, and this line reminds me that I was once taught that animal sacrifice is barbaric. It may be so, but I don't …

Aug 23, 2013: Thoreau: We Still Have Choices “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation….When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the true end of man, and what are the …

Aug 22, 2013: Leopold On Sport And Ethics “Voluntary adherence to an ethical code elevates the self-respect of the sportsman, but it should not be forgotten that voluntary disregard for the …

Aug 22, 2013: Telling The Story Of Our Common Wealth In his essay "Common Wealth," Scott Russell Sanders quotes Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of …

Aug 20, 2013: Teaching Outdoors As September approaches, people keep asking me, "Are you ready to get back in the classroom?"  As early as middle school I knew I wanted to become a …

Aug 15, 2013: Back To Work Restful Work I've been on sabbatical for the last academic year, andit has been a gift. I've done a lot of writing (I think I've averaged about 750 …

Aug 12, 2013: The Day Picasso Made Me Fall Down My latest at the Chronicle of Higher Education'sChronicle Review. The main content is behind a subscribers-only paywall for now, but here's the …

Aug 9, 2013: Against Grading One of the best things to happen in my education was when I attended a school - a graduate school - that refused to give grades. "How is that …

Aug 7, 2013: Because "Liberal" in "Liberal Arts" Means "Free" “The student’s freedom of mind is dangerous if what is wanted is a group of technically trained obedient workers to carry out the plans of elites who …

Aug 7, 2013: Rebel Without A Camera: Museums, Images, and Memory No Flash! My old Brownie. No flash! My job as a college professor brings me to a lot of museums and archives, and this summer has been especially …

Aug 5, 2013: Bless You! What should you say when someone sneezes? I've been pondering this for years. Here are my reflections on that, by way of thinking about …

Aug 2, 2013: Green Mountain Creek Matt and I stand thigh-deep in one of the small streams that tumble down the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains. Many of those streams, including …

Jul 23, 2013: Three Words About Writing: Plato, Emerson, Bugbee Last weekend I was at a small writing conference in Vermont, where I was asked to give a meditation on writing with a love of wisdom. Although I'm a …

Jul 17, 2013: "Life Is Our Dictionary" "Authors we have in numbers, who have written out their vein, and who, moved by a commendable prudence, set sail for Greece or Palestine, follow the …

Jul 16, 2013: A Republic Without Education “In a republic education is indispensable. A republic without education is like the creature of imagination, a human being without a soul, living and …

Jul 16, 2013: Armed in Anxiety My article on guns, fear, and virtue ethics, now accessible at The Chronicle of Higher Education: What do guns do for us? Many opponents of new gun …

Jul 13, 2013: What I Wish Penn State Would Do Today Penn State, where I did some of my graduate studies, announced that they would begin making settlement offers to the victims of Jerry Sandusky's …

Jul 12, 2013: Newspapers in 1854 "[The reading and thinking] class has immensely increased. Owing to the silent revolution which the newspaper has wrought, this class has come in this …

Jun 25, 2013: Co-authorship in the Humanities My friend and co-author John Kaag has just published this piece in today's New York Times. I think John is right on the money: there aren't firm rules …

May 29, 2013: Spring Lilacs I'm posting these photos in preparation for a summer course I'll be teaching abroad, testing how easily I can make posts through my phone.

May 28, 2013: Friends With Benefits: On Collaboration In The Humanities John Kaag and I wrote this article together. Which is what the article is about: collaboration in the humanities. A brief excerpt: "Collaboration in …

May 27, 2013: Popper On The Gift Of Wonder “My first thesis is that every philosophy, and especially every philosophical ‘school,’ is liable to degenerate in such a way that its problems become …

May 19, 2013: Free Stone One spring after heavy rains had come and gone, my father and I walked the banks of the Sawkill Creek. It was newly scrubbed by floodwaters that had …

May 16, 2013: Mersenne, Education, and Intellectual "Property" French cleric Marin Mersenne was the academic journal of his day. I have heard it said that in the seventeenth century the saying was "If you want to …

May 15, 2013: Light Perpetual My friend Michael Foster died last night. We knew it was coming. We saw it a long way off. It still hurts like hell. That's what this bereavement …

May 14, 2013: Hunting, Fishing, and Climate Change Trout angling in the Black Hills of South Dakota I've been saying it to my students for years: more than just about any other group of …

May 9, 2013: Visual Art and the Sacred: On The Importance Of Museums I just finished writing an essay about the day Picasso made me fall down. I'm sending it off to my favorite editor, and if it's accepted, I'll post a …

May 6, 2013: What Jesus Didn't Say My latest contribution to Sojourners' "God's Politics" blog. Some reflections on the surprising encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman he …

May 6, 2013: Pornography and Prayer A recent Wall Street Journal article talks about the way online pornography quickly develops new neural pathways that are difficult to undo. As the …

May 3, 2013: Spammer, Think Of Your Soul I am barraged by spam and robocalls. Most of the email I get is spam, and similarly most of the calls I get are from machines that have been …

May 2, 2013: Unwritten Some of my favorite passages in any texts are about texts that cannot be read. Take the story of a man writing on the ground with his finger thousands …

May 1, 2013: Plato and Aristotle on Wonder Aristotle is famously acknowledged as the author of the claim that "philosophy begins in wonder." I'm not the first to point this out, but it bears …

May 1, 2013: Bicycles Belong On The Road Road Rage As I've shared yesterday's story about the Sioux Falls driver who assaulted a bicyclist, other bicyclists I know have shared similar …

Apr 30, 2013: Bicycles, Handguns, and Cameras Get Off My Hood! I just read a post on Facebook about a bicyclist in my town who was struck by someone driving a pickup truck. The driver then yelled …

Apr 27, 2013: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants After writing my previous post about tattoos in ancient languages, a former student reminded me that I also helped her track down a Latin text she …

Apr 26, 2013: Written On The Skin One of the peculiar things about teaching Greek and knowing several other ancient languages is that people often come to me seeking help with tattoos. …

Apr 22, 2013: Joy Run Yesterday we ran for joy. About eighty people showed up to join me to run one-tenth of a marathon around the Augustana College campus. It started as a …

Apr 22, 2013: Don't Worship The Monsters On the God's Politics Blog at Sojourners, my latest attempt to answer the question of what to do when we are confronted with senseless violence. My …

Apr 20, 2013: Better Walls? It happens every time. First the violence and the national non-stop news coverage, then the calls for increased security. We need better walls! …

Apr 19, 2013: Run For Joy As I mentioned in a recent blog post, and as the Sioux Falls Argus Leader has reported, I am going for a run for the sake of joy this weekend, and …

Apr 17, 2013: I Am Afraid I am afraid. Not very afraid, just a little. Mostly, I am afraid of using my days poorly. But I'm not really afraid of death. I'm not really afraid …

Apr 17, 2013: Run For My Life Yesterday I went for a run. I'm not much of a runner, but it seemed like a good response to the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is a huge …

Apr 15, 2013: My Two-bit Prayers Today I sent a a picture of a quarter to my daughter's mobile phone. Since she went off to college two years ago, I have saved for her every …

Apr 14, 2013: Scripture's Trajectory: You Are Known; Be Holy Everybody interprets texts. Interpreting texts means, among other things, determining the trajectory of the texts. Where are they coming from, and …

Apr 13, 2013: Vertical Art An article in the BBC today reports that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt wants greater regulation of civilian drones. If I were more cynical I would imagine …

Apr 10, 2013: Hid In My Heart Before my friend's father died, he had a stroke that left him mostly without words for a few weeks. His near-total aphasia left little intact, but …

Apr 10, 2013: Surveillance and Virtue The recent news that a no-fly zone was enacted over the site of the Exxon tar sands pipeline spill in Arkansas is in line with the movement in state …

Apr 8, 2013: All The Mountains Are Underground Here Sunset over the Yellowstone River Perpetual Motion As the sun sets it sends its last rays shooting up from below the horizon to illuminate the …

Apr 8, 2013: Scientia Cordis Bear with me for a moment while I speak in Latin. This is a passage Charles Peirce cites in several places: "Maximi plane cordis est, per omnia ad …

Apr 7, 2013: Should I Go To Grad School In The Humanities? I have a great job. But it's not one I encourage others to pursue. While I'm not getting rich (humanities jobs at small liberal arts colleges are like …

Apr 4, 2013: NEH Summer Institute on Transcendentalism How I'll be spending part of my summer.

Mar 29, 2013: Secular Liturgy Last night I attended the Maundy Thursday service at our church. I admit I'm not a fan of sitting still, of pews in general, or of listening to …

Mar 27, 2013: My Dad Is So Cool Between 1959 and 1962 my dad worked for NASA. He was an engineer at IBM, who contracted him out to work on our fledgling space program. How cool is …

Mar 27, 2013: Is Philosophy Useful? What can you do with a philosophy major?  William James quipped that philosophy "bakes no bread." That is, it is not a discipline one studies in order …

Mar 26, 2013: The Pastoral And The Personal In Theodicy Theodicies, like some virtue ethics and certain ontological arguments, are easy targets for refutation, but much depends on the way they are used. A …

Mar 21, 2013: A Gift Of A Sponge My father bundled us into our hats and coats and then into his little red VW and drove us to the Caldor store in Kingston. The first Christmas I can …

Mar 20, 2013: Love One Another: Prisons and Devotion to Enemies In his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, Dr. King wrote "We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself." …

Mar 19, 2013: Do Birds Need Ornithologists? Cooper's hawk in my backyard. A number of times in the last few years I've read statements by prominent scientists about the irrelevance of …

Mar 18, 2013: Drones and Virtue My latest article, on UAV (drone) warfare and virtue ethics, co-authored with John Kaag. It's behind a paywall, but your local library might have a …

Mar 18, 2013: So, How's The Sabbatical Going? That's a question I've been hearing a lot this year, and understandably so. Most of my friends and my students have never experienced one. I hope that …

Mar 4, 2013: The Purpose of Profits Today I spoke with a young entrepreneur I know. He has built a thriving business that provides income for half a dozen people, and now he is thinking …

Mar 2, 2013: Empire and Total War I just read an article that asks why there is a rise in suicides among members of the U.S. military in recent years. Of course I don't know, but it …

Mar 1, 2013: Guns and Aesthetics A number of times in the last few months the issue of aesthetics and firearms has arisen, notably in connection with therecently proposed ban on what …

Feb 27, 2013: Proofs of God's Existence Every time we encounter a proof of God's existence or non-existence, we should use it as an opportunity to ask: why is this proof being offered? Too …

Feb 21, 2013: C.S. Lewis On Astro-Ethics The field of ethics in astrobiology and space exploration is small but growing. Does anyone own the rights to the moon? Who may profit from resources …

Feb 21, 2013: The Other Drones Problem: The Tragedy of the Unexplored Commons John Brennan's nomination hearings brought about a slew of articles about drone warfare. On the one side, people like William Saletan in Slate argue …

Feb 21, 2013: Happy Praise I recently read this line in the Book of Common Prayer, in the BCP's translation of the Phos Hilaron prayer. The Phos Hilaron is one of the oldest …

Feb 18, 2013: Have We Met? This weekend I found myself standing next to an older woman I've met a number of times before. For a moment, I struggled to remember where we'd met, …

Feb 15, 2013: Pragmatist Scripture: Peirce and The Book of Acts A few months ago a friend who is interested in both scripture and philosophy asked me which scripture mattered most to Charles Peirce. One obvious …

Feb 12, 2013: The Cost of War What is the true cost of war? It is not the cost of the materiel, training, salaries, and post-war reconstruction. It is not factored in costs of …

Feb 12, 2013: All Your Deeds I just readthe seventy-third psalm. I don't understand much of it, but it begins with a complaint about injustice, and I certainly feel like I get …

Feb 8, 2013: Worries Incompatible With Wisdom Here is a thought-provoking perspective on the value and aims of studying the liberal arts. Imagine a university promoting itself in this way today, …

Feb 7, 2013: Steinbeck and Greene On Respect For Enemies These two passages seem like they ought to be put together somehow. The first is from Steinbeck, the second is from Greene. Although the first is …

Feb 6, 2013: Epimenides, Or Religion Without Metaphysics This week I've been reading and re-reading Howard Wettstein's The Significance of Religious Experience and, at the same time, talking with my friend …

Feb 5, 2013: An Ounce Of Prevention An old Chinese legend tells about a man who was searching for the world's greatest physician.* He learns of a man who can heal any illness, and he …

Feb 4, 2013: The Howler Monkeys of Petén, Guatemala Each year I co-teach a January-term class on tropical ecology in Guatemala and Belize. One of the wonders of the Mayan Biosphere Reserve One of my …

Jan 31, 2013: Re-entry: Bringing It Home After Studying Abroad In one of my last posts, I talked about what you should do when you come home from study abroad. We often refer to this as "re-entry," which makes me …

Jan 30, 2013: Try To Understand One Another “Try to understand one another. You can’t hate men if you know them.”  John Steinbeck, From his journal, and written about his fiction writing. Quoted …

Jan 30, 2013: When You Come Home From Studying Abroad It being the end of our January term, Augustana College students have just returned from studying abroad in Thailand, Cuba, India, New Zealand, …

Jan 30, 2013: Wettstein on Narrative Theology I have occasionally written about theology and theomythy in this blog. And in my book From Homer To Harry Potter my coauthor and I attempted a longer …

Jan 30, 2013: On Creeds "Creeds are better sung than signed.”  -- F.F. Bruce, quoted by Robert Gundry, his doctoral student, in Books& Culture, January/February 2013, p. …

Jan 29, 2013: Scholia, Essays, and Education Over the years several of my Jewish teachers have reminded me that the most important part of the page is neither the text, nor the commentaries, but …

Jan 29, 2013: Librarians: Saving The Past, Saving The Future This week in Timbuktu terrorists fleeing French forces torched an ancient library, destroying invaluable manuscripts. The good news is that somelocals …

Jan 26, 2013: Drawing Outside The Lines: Marginalia and E-Books I was an early adopter of the Kindle, but I stopped using it several years ago. The books I most wanted weren't (and many still aren't) available for …

Jan 25, 2013: Locking Up The Neighbors This week the South Dakota Senate made a good decision for a bad reason. The Senate approved a welcome set of changes to the way the state treats …

Jan 24, 2013: Finding One's Way: Three Questions About Vocation My students often ask me, "What should I do with my life after I graduate?" The simple answer I usually give is this: you should pursue your vocation. …

Jan 22, 2013: Rejoice! When I was an undergraduate studying Classical Greek, one of the first Greek words I learned from Professor Eve Adler was chaire! It's the common …

Jan 17, 2013: Suspicion And Society "If the officers and soldiers are suspicious of each other, warriors will not join up."* ***** * Zhuge Liang, quoted by Thomas Clearyin his …

Jan 16, 2013: The Virtue of Virtue Virtue ethics is problematic. It certainly is helpful at times, but it is not helpful when it names virtues that others cannot relate to; or when we …

Jan 14, 2013: Evolution and Education Sometimes I meet students who are afraid that evolutionary science poses a threat to their belief in God. I think it is helpful for them to ask …

Jan 14, 2013: Safe and Sound: Guns, Fear, and Virtue What do guns do for us? Do guns make our lives better, or do they just make us feel stronger and safer? I know those aren't the only two options, but …

Jan 9, 2013: The Moral Issue Of Land In my daily readings a while back I came upon this: "[The prince] is to give his sons their inheritance out of his own property so that none of my …

Jan 8, 2013: Secret Poison South Dakota's Attorney General announced today that he wants the state legislature to protect the names of the manufacturers of the poisons used to …

Jan 7, 2013: What Philosophers Do Sometimes, when people ask me what I do, I am a little hesitant to tell them that I am a philosophy professor. I'm afraid to answer largely because I …

Jan 7, 2013: One Reason I Love Winter Morning frost

Jan 5, 2013: Writing, Law, and Memory in Ancient Gortyn In the ruins of Gortyn, in central Crete, some of the famous ancient laws of Crete are preserved in stone. Archaeologists uncovered them in 1884, and …

Jan 2, 2013: Books Worth Reading After my recent post about great books, pedagogy and hope I've had some queries about what I'm reading and what I recommend. I'm reluctant to make …

Dec 31, 2012: Shakespeare's Sonnets, And Rieden's "Sonnet Number Six" Back in the late '90s my classmate Charles Rieden complained to our Dean at St John's College that he didn't want to have to read Shakespeare's …

Dec 26, 2012: Great Books, Pedagogy, and Hope Great Books and the Great Conversation About fifteen years ago I enrolled in the "Great Books" M.A. program at St John's College in Santa Fe, New …

Dec 24, 2012: The Idolatry of Fear Let me start with some rough definitions: by worship I mean ascribing worth to something, to the point of making it a guide for one's actions. By an …

Dec 22, 2012: The Last Time I Saw Mingus The Last Time I Saw Mingus The last time I saw Mingus He stood in his driveway, across from ours Talking with my mother. His dark dashiki Made him …

Dec 15, 2012: A Poem As I Approach Gaudete Sunday Advent Consider the angels. Because maybe the broken men get too much attention. Drunk with power and impotent with the kind of blind rage That …

Dec 13, 2012: Charles Peirce on Criminal Justice I have posted briefly about Peirce's interest in criminal justice before. I haven't time to comment on it extensively now, so for now I will post this …

Dec 12, 2012: Prayer and Forgiveness Years ago I was wronged by someone I worked with. The details don't matter, because as Viktor Frankl says, pain is like a gas, expanding to fill the …

Dec 11, 2012: The Course Of Nature and Laws of Nature As part of the sabbatical leave I am currently enjoying I am spending a lot of time reading ancient and medieval texts, mostly on science and …

Dec 7, 2012: Charles Peirce's Version Of The "Lord's Prayer" Charles Peirce's writings frequently touch on religious topics. As Douglas Anderson, Michael Raposa, Hermann Deuser and others (myself included) have …

Nov 24, 2012: Look Up! Just saw this over at Slate and had to post it here. It's a beautiful animation of a full year of the phases of the moon, done by NASA. If you like …

Nov 23, 2012: Social Media As Lessons In Writing I sometimes suspect that when my colleagues find out that I am on Twitter (@davoh) they decide to take me just a little less seriously. They don't …

Nov 23, 2012: Is It Time For A New Transcendentalism? For the last few weeks I have found myself returning to this question: Is it time for a new Transcendentalism? I normally try to write simple blog …

Oct 17, 2012: If I had another daughter I think I would like to name her Malala.

Oct 17, 2012: Watching Out For One Another Something that has struck me lately, a new way (for me, at least) to think of some ancient religious texts: "You are to do the same [sacrifices] for …

Oct 10, 2012: Reluctant Prayer I do not like to pray, but I think prayer is important. Of course, "prayer" can mean many different things, and I do not mean all of them. But - …

Oct 2, 2012: Home and Hospitality A friend asked me today to explain what I mean by "home" in a sentence or two. This is too tall an order for someone as wordy as me. I think of Du …

Sep 5, 2012: Boredom and Curiosity - My Talk To The Class of 2016 This year I had the rare privilege of giving the Convocation Address to our new students. Here's a bit of what I said, with a link to the full text: …

Feb 20, 2012: Future Hopes, Present Experience, and the Wisdom of the Past A reflection on Henry Bugbee's Inward Morning, his entry dated Friday, September 5. Bugbee writes: "Of experience...we may hope for understanding in …

Feb 13, 2012: Sorcery and Pollution In the Apocalypse of St John on Patmos, he writes that some will be excluded from heaven by their wickednesses. [1] He describes them with florid …

Feb 13, 2012: Philosophy Begins in Wonder Aristotle famously remarked that the love of wisdom - philosophy - begins in wonder. This is correct. It has since been noted that philosophy aims at …

Dec 21, 2011: Faith, Hope, and Certainty “Certainty may be quite compatible with being at a loss to say what one is certain of. Indeed I seriously doubt if the notion of ‘certainty of,’ or …

Dec 6, 2011: The Comfort of Certainty "Only once, as far as I remember, in all my lifetime have I experienced the pleasure of praise--not for what it might bring but in itself. That …

Dec 6, 2011: Bugbee and the Tillage of the Soul In the opening entry of The Inward Morning, Henry Bugbee writes “I have yet to discover how to say what moves me to the endless search and research, …

Nov 17, 2011: "Come, Let Us Reason Together": Thinking About God A student in my philosophy of religion class recently asked me, "Do we really need to put this much thought into God? Is it not okay for me to believe …

Sep 29, 2011: "To have more is not to be more" In Lewis's novel Out of the Silent Planet, the antagonist Weston attempts to explain why his civilization is superior to another. He says, "Your …

Sep 22, 2011: Crime, Punishment, and the Great Community How should we treat criminals? "The reply is: Treat them as if you loved them." -- Charles S. Peirce, 4 May, 1892

Sep 22, 2011: Peirce's Parable of the Puritan Peirce once wrote a school-essay responding to a prompt that asked whether there was any valid excuse for the intolerance of the "Pilgrim Fathers." …

Sep 14, 2011: Puritans and Vaccinations In light of recent political debates in the United States, this seems worth noting: the Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards died of smallpox on March 22, …

Sep 14, 2011: Scientia Cordis "Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts." -- Charles Peirce, "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," (1868).

Sep 8, 2011: Do You Know The Phase Of The Moon? I like to begin my class on ancient and medieval philosophy with two questions: (1) Do we know more about the moon than they knew five centuries ago? …

Aug 27, 2011: The Ethics of Hunting According to the myth, Actaeon the hunter was turned into a stag and torn to pieces by his own dogs. Many versions add that this was because Actaeon …

Aug 24, 2011: People Of The Waters That Are Never Still Generations ago, one of my European grandfathers and one of my Native American grandmothers married, fusing in their offspring two peoples who had …

Aug 22, 2011: Taxing Mileage Several recent news articles have mentioned the possibility of taxing miles driven rather than (or in addition to) taxing gasoline. On the one hand, …

Aug 22, 2011: Pay-to-Play and Democracy A South Dakota legislator has proposed that SD schools can save some money by introducing "pay-to-play" fees for students wishing to participate in …

May 26, 2011: Wittgenstein, contra Hawking Stephen Hawking recently said that philosophy is "dead" because it simply hasn't kept up with science in recent years. Hawking is not the first to …

Nov 28, 2010: No Room In The South Dakota Inn? An unjust and ironic law. Manny Steele and two other SD legislators are apparently proposing that we criminalize hospitality. Their proposed law would make it illegal to offer …

Nov 7, 2010: Reading and Writing and Gratitude It’s easy to get too busy to read, and too busy to write. My sporadic blog posting reflects the cycles of the academic year: some times …

Oct 23, 2010: On Writing Philosophy Essays Writing a philosophy paper? Here are a few phrases you should probably avoid: 1) “Socrates* feels that X is true." (We don’t know …

Oct 23, 2010: They Know It When They See It An inmate in the South Dakota State Penitentiary has been denied access to art-instruction books because they contain images of unclothed human …

Oct 6, 2010: St. Nicholas Society and "un-stealing" I just read an article about German Catholics wanting a Santa Claus-free Christmas this year. It reminds me of something I have often spoken to …

Sep 25, 2010: New Bio-Itzá Website! Check it out. The Asociación Bio Itzá does great, inexpensive Spanish-language immersion programs for individuals or groups in Petén, Guatemala. …

Sep 22, 2010: On Enemies Just heard a very thought-provoking talk by Augustana Professor Janet Blank-Libra on the story of Jonah. As she was talking, it occurred to me that in …

Sep 22, 2010: Sam Harris Needs A Mirror Sam Harris recently tweeted this column by Nicholas Kristof, adding this tag: “Found: the most sanctimonious person on earth.” 

Sep 16, 2010: Respect for laws and Respect for the Law I don’t tend to talk about politics - at least not about specific candidates - on my blog or in my classroom. One of my main reasons for this (I …

May 11, 2010: Is Prayer "Effective"? I recently read a short essay that described prayer as something that should best be studied by the physical sciences. This claim has been made for …

Apr 30, 2010: "I Know That I Don't Know"? If you stroll through the Plaka tourist district in Athens, you'll have ample opportunities to buy t-shirts and other items with the slogan "en oida …

Apr 29, 2010: Theology and Theomythy I was just reading Jamie Smith’s recent post on “Poetry and the End of Theology” over at his Fors Clavigera blog. His post reminded …

Apr 22, 2010: On Traveling and Journaling It's been too long since I've blogged. My excuse? I've been traveling a lot, including quite a bit with students. In the last few months I've been in …

Feb 1, 2010: Learn Spanish in Guatemala, Help Save the Rainforest I think the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. Read books in the language you want to learn, eat the food of its cultures, …

Dec 24, 2009: Come Along, Inspector Jesus? When my youngest son was still quite small, he loved the Advent hymn, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” We think he loved it in part …

Dec 20, 2009: More on Letters of Recommendation and Lying I’ve been busy this month with writing letters of recommendation for my students - more than I’ve ever written before, by a long shot. I …

Dec 19, 2009: Do Philosophy Classes Have "Labs"? When I was preparing to go to grad school I was torn between two choices: Ph.D. in marine/riparian biology, or Ph.D. in philosophy? I love fish, …

Dec 16, 2009: Mike Wanous, Great Professor! Augustana College Biology Professor Mike Wanous has once again lived up to Augie’s slogan “Great Professors." challenged his lab …

Dec 11, 2009: Google Wave and My Course in Greece Each year I teach a course in Greece, and I require my students to make presentations at a variety of archaeological and cultural sites. This year I …

Dec 11, 2009: IAPS meeting at APA in NYC, December 2009 In case you’re interested in the philosophy of sport: IAPS meeting at APA in NYC

Dec 9, 2009: John E. Smith, RIP I just heard the very sad news that John E. Smith, a past president of the Charles S. Peirce Society, died last night. The few times I corresponded …

Dec 2, 2009: I Cannot Tell A Lie American mythology tells us that Washington said that. Of course, if someone says "I never lie," you cannot tell from that statement whether it is …

Dec 2, 2009: Socrates and the Trees It's always dangerous to assume one knows what Plato thinks, since Plato goes out of his way not to tell us what he thinks. Nevertheless, inasmuch as …

Dec 2, 2009: Lying and Letters of Recommendation Each fall I write a lot of letters of recommendation for my students. This fall is no exception. In fact, I’m writing more this fall than ever …

Nov 27, 2009: More fun with logic Here’s another little bit of fun with logic for my students. What, if anything, is wrong with this argument? Nothing is better than good …

Nov 26, 2009: How can you know that someone is contrite? For the last few weeks my ethics students have been studying forgiveness. One of the persistent questions about forgiveness is whether, in order to be …

Nov 25, 2009: Gratitude It being Thanksgiving, I’m doing some reading about gratitude. Just read through part of Norman Wirzba’s Living the Sabbath: Discovering …

Nov 25, 2009: Reading the Holidays This Thanksgiving holiday I've just re-read Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation of Thanksgiving and I might read some of the Puritans this weekend as …

Nov 20, 2009: Love Is In The Air For my students, a little fun with logic. Consider the following syllogism. Does the conclusion (3) follow from the premises (1, 2)? Everyone loves a …

Nov 18, 2009: Two kinds of ducks Recently I was speaking with some students about environmental philosophy, and about the ethical dimensions of hunting and fishing. Most of those …

Nov 17, 2009: Desmond Tutu and The Most Subversive Thing Around “We were inspired not by political motives. No, we were fired by our biblical faith. The Bible turned out to be the most subversive thing around …

Nov 16, 2009: The Best Rule in Writing "The best maxim in writing, perhaps, is really to love your reader for his own sake." Charles S. Peirce, "Private Thoughts: Chiefly On The Conduct Of …

Nov 15, 2009: Every Time You Open A Prison... …you close a school." - Victor Hugo. “Why is it considered morally offensive and economically unwise in this country to give a poor …

Nov 15, 2009: Using God As A Weapon? Gandhi once wrote that “the Satyagrahi’s only weapon is God.” (A Satyagrahi is one who practices Satyagraha, Gandhi’s peaceful …

Nov 14, 2009: Russell Frank and the 4/40 Program One semester when I was in grad school at Penn State I was assigned to teach a course called "Media Ethics." I had no idea how to teach such a course, …

Nov 13, 2009: Philosophy and Empty Deceit From today’s Lectionary, a reading from Colossians 2: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, …

Nov 4, 2009: Latin American Philosophy Online Soon I hope to be able to point you to the online presence of the Inter-American Philosophic Review, edited by Gregorio Pappas at Texas A&M. For …