Nietzsche’s criticisms were directed against what he reckons as the progressive ‘moral’ disintegration of late 19 century Germany. He described morality as “the doctrine of the relations of supremacy (Herrschafts-Verhältnissen) under which the phenomenon of ‘life’ comes to be.” This definition, however, is broad and mired in ambiguity, and as will be pointed out later, escapes multitudinous ‘mo...

We argue for a naturalistic account for appraising scientific methods that carries non-trivial normative force. We develop our approach by comparison with Laudan’s (American Philosophical Quarterly 24:19–31, 1987, Philosophy of Science 57:20–33, 1990) “normative naturalism” based on correlating means (various scientific methods) with ends (e.g., reliability). We argue that such a meta-methodolo...

C.W. Churchman (19132004) is probably the most influential philosopher of systems thinking thus far. A founding father of operations research and management science and NASA research philosopher, he never allowed himself to become absorbed by the mainstream of the fields he pioneered. Two outstanding qualities distinguish his academic life: intellectual honesty, and moral outrage.

Irrational Emotions "A human being is a bundle of useless passions." John-Paul Sartre, Philosopher " Show me a guy who has feelings, and I'll show you a sucker. " Frank Sinatra, Singer and Movie Star Emotional Wisdom "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of." Blaise Pascal, Philosopher "Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you."

In this article, I suggest that the character of Beatrice in Dante’s Commedia should be understood as a theologian, even though her claim to such status relies not on an established historical authority – written treatises, sermons, works, or reputation but rather nature particular person which Dante constructed over his poetic career. The article accordingly reads through two major theologians...