I have written a lot in the past about what I called "The Zen of Value". The "Zen" idea refers to the concept of sitting back, clearing your mind of preconceptions and seeing things as they really are. Another title that occurs to me is "Dimensions of Value". It turns out that this metaphor is quite fruitful and worth exploring. It grows out of a previous post: " Human Welfare And the Four Economies ". Upon thinking of it, there are more than four and the mental picture of "dimensions" is helpful. The "dimensional" aspect promises to add some rigor to the underlying subject. The "royal road" to the "Zen" view of this subject is the realization that "money" is a poor measure of "value".  You already know in your bones that this is wrong but you have never wondered how, in detail, it's wrong and how, specifically you could see things better in a way to make better decisions for yourse...

I want to make a brief note of the concept of "Animus". I'm almost pulling this term out of thin air to refer to an idea that is still crystallizing. The word does already have meanings and connotations which I will comment on when the  opportunity presents itself. At the core of the idea is recognition of a "system" that shows intentional behavour. Lately I have been using "system" in preference to "thing" because I recognize that nothing really exists in isolation. We recognize a system by (somewhat arbitrarily) drawing a line around all the forms and relationships that determine the dynamic behavour of those forms and relationships (i.e., how they change with time). Animus refers (or does it?) to the property of a system's behavour that cannot easily be described without reference to the future state of the system. The system is behaving in a way that tends to bring about some future states of affairs rather than others. One might say ...

It's worthwhile to base our understanding of the human condition on the brute and obvious fact that we are living things.  "Being alive" involves participation in a vastly complex environment - sharing that environment with all living things. This is where to start - not the illusion of individuality.  In this way, we cannot escape the most fundamental form of assimilation: participation in the drama of all life. Since Darwin, our idea about what it means to be alive has changed beyond recognition. It is fair to say that the old myths, based on simple stories about the human condition, have not kept up with what we now understand our situation to be. Especially in the West and the Abrahamic religions that are base on the fate of the individual "soul", the simple fact of our interdependence has been forgotten. The discipline of mathematics and physics can be applied to the science of life (biology) but few biologists, let alone the lay public, have been exposed t...