Barefoot philosophy

1 Every thought is a seed and has consequences;
2 Every word is a gateway to thousands;
3 We see the world through the ideas we install, or allow to be installed, in our minds;
4 Connect the highest and most abstract ideas to their “lowest” and most concrete manifestation – this is practical philosophy;

5 Aphorisms are rules of thumb, not perfectly reliable formulae.

“Worked” examples:
1 Think the earth is in trouble because there are too many people? If we are honest with ourselves, we have to feel guilty about having children, or resent others for having children.

2 …

3 Do we buy into the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes or of John Locke? We have to vote for strong government in the first case; and carry the duty of control (via true democracy) over our government, in the second.

4 Love is… not treating the value created by our community as private gain. This means voting for land value taxation which recoups the cost of public investment from the increased land values it creates.

5 There are no substitutes for wisdom, no excuses for ignorance (but confusion and uncertainty can be a good thing).
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We all have philosophies, whether or not we are aware of this fact. Generally our philosophies are not worth very much but their impact upon our actions and our lives is often devastating. This makes it necessary to try to improve our philosophies through critical examination. (Karl R Popper)
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We are neurologically wired to classify our experiences and to transform the buzzing, booming confusion of sensation into some codified and dynamic representation of the world. (Mahoney 1982])