The Philosophical Optimist

              Rational thought, it has been said, is an acquired taste.   And where, one might ask, is one to go to acquire such a taste?   Well, the logical answer to that question is: one goes to the logical to acquire logic—and who is more logical than Mr. Spock himself?   But how does one learn from a fictional character?   Again, the answer is simple: listen to what he says.             But before we go to our teacher to learn how to be logical, we should ask, what is logic?   Well, logical or rational thinking is simply thinking clearly.   Speaking the truth, said Aristotle, means saying of what is, that it is, and of what is not, that it is not [1] —matching our words to reality.   Logical thought—which also benefitted a great deal from Aristotle—is simply thought which seeks to find “what is” and match our thoughts and our words ...

Or, Of Bruce Wayne, Batman, Buffy, & Redemptive Violence [1]             Poetry lurks everywhere, if you know how to find it.   Recently, over a long weekend, I came across an example of this in my reading of the fourth book of the Deluxe Edition of the recent adventures of Batman. [2]   There, in a scene set in a jury deliberation room, Bruce Wayne spoke two sentences which serve to encapsulate the difference between Batman, whom he feared some in Gotham were in danger of giving a sort of divine deference, and the only One to whom such deference truly belongs.   What struck me about those two sentences was that they rhymed; and that, and their rhythm, made me realize that Mr. Wayne, in his impassioned eloquence, had risen to the level of poetry in striving to get his point across.   The resulting couplet, I thought, deserved to be given a title, and its own separate presentation outside of the d...