by Dr. Norris Frederick As you think about the coming year, or your life in general, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Is it better to be one rather than the other? Or…
painting by Neville Herbert-Reynolds By Norris Frederick “I love my life, Dad. “I love your life too, Dad. “I’m just curious about life, not death, I just like thinking about life.” It’s a late May…
Photo by Marek Szturc on Unsplash by Dr. Norris Frederick Knowledge is Power “Knowledge is power.” We’ve heard that many times, and the statement carries a good deal of truth. To know through the scientific…
By Dr. Norris Frederick Have you ever wondered who you are? Have you had the experience, like the ones I’ve recently had, of looking at old photos of yourself or reading old letters from yourself…
by Dr. Norris Frederick Bottle Trees We took a trip to visit our friend Flo recently. She still lives independently, at age ninety-four, in her house, with the help of a community of friends and…
“Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions–in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not…
by Dr. Norris Frederick Our friend David McKnight died almost three years ago, but he is not forgotten. A year ago I concluded a three-part series on David and his journey from being voted “Most…
By Dr. Norris Frederick First in a series Thanks to those of you who responded to my most recent post about an assignment from my “Philosophy for Life” course, based on Nozick’s thought-experiment, “The Experience…
By Dr. Norris Frederick This semester I’m teaching my course “Philosophy for Life: What do Great Philosophers and Current Science Have to Say about True Happiness and a Good Life?” [i] The course raises and…
By Dr. Norris Frederick Second in a series My thanks to you for the many thoughtful responses, both on my website and on Facebook, about my first post on death. A couple of you wrote…