The Philosophical Optimist

In the last few decades, few aspects of the practice of medicine have been more debated than the topic of abortion. Often, the very terms used by one side of the debate differ from the terms used by the other side, to the point that clear communication is almost impossible. What is needed now is someone to clarify the terms of the debate—someone like Gilbert Keith Chesterton, whose brilliant, sometimes paradoxical observations were often based on careful attention to the very words people use in everyday speech. Presented here are a number of reflections, in the spirit of Chesterton, on some of the terms central to the abortion debate: 1. Abortion The very word “abortion” is a point not sufficiently heeded in the debate that centers on it. People speak of aborting a fetus, but a thing cannot be aborted, only a process. People abort missions, they abort computer operations, but they do not abort computers or cars. When one aborts a pregnancy, it is like aborting any operati...

Or, Just Kill Me Now “Trust, but verify.”—Ronald Reagan, 40 th President of the United States Because: “People are morons”—Phil Connors, Groundhog Day             Nobody knew how to turn a phrase like Gilbert Keith Chesterton.   The man is endlessly quotable.   Unfortunately—at least for someone trying to find a specific quote—he was also vastly prolific.   And so that’s how I found myself recently forced to use the internet in an attempt to at least narrow down my search for a quote I knew I had read in one of Chesterton’s many writings.             At first, it seemed, all was well.   I punched in the basic quote, as well as I could remember it—which was quite well—and up popped several sources telling me where to find the quote.   Among the sources I found was a presentation of the quote on Facebook and one on Goodreads.   The...

            It is a great pity when the editor of a great writer fails to understand that writer, and thus ends up committing the very error the writer is attacking; but, as Shakespeare said, "That 'tis true 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true."             Recently, I was reading the collection, G.K. Chesterton: Essential Writings , edited and introduced by one Mr. William Griffin.   Mr. Griffin, in this fine volume ("fine" in the double sense of being both excellent and small), has gathered selections from Mr. Chesterton's various writings, both short and long, which contain elements of the author's spiritual wisdom (the book being part of the Modern Spiritual Masters Series).   In addition to headnotes and endnotes to each selection, Mr. Griffin also composed an introduction for the volume, dealing with various aspects of Chesterton, the man and the writer. ...