Tag Archives: Tolerance

Can You Feel the Love?

Posted on January 30, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Can you feel the love? It’s kind of a cliché, sometimes said as a joke. But it points to a real problem. For any society to survive, its people need to cooperate. That requires at least a minimum level of … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged Diversity, Empathy, Homogeneous societies, Kipling, love, Mutual understanding, Social Conflict, Social harmony, The Stranger, Tolerance | Leave a comment

They’re Not Lying

Posted on December 21, 2018 by N.S. Palmer

Do you have friends who say things that are obviously wrong? Maybe it’s politics, religion, gender, or some other touchy subject. This might help: Your friends aren’t lying. And they’re not evil, either, unless you have very bad judgment about … Continue reading →

Posted in Epistemology, Human Relations, Life, Psychology, Society | Tagged Beliefs, Debate, Error, Evolutionary Legacy Principle, Evolutionary Psychology, Fallible, Human judgment, Infallible, Knowledge, Lying, Mistake, Tolerance | Leave a comment

Solve the Right Problem

Posted on September 6, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jewish Journal: Define the problem right, and you’re halfway to a solution. Define the problem wrong, and you’ll probably never solve it. You’ll waste all your time looking for a solution that doesn’t exist. … Continue reading →

Posted in Judaism, Philosophy, The Jewish Journal | Tagged Faith benefits, Garbage in garbage out, GIGO, Moral reasoning, Morality, Nonviolence, Problem solving, Religion, Religious extremism, Tolerance | 1 Comment

What Tolerance Requires

Posted on June 19, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: My father had a lot of favorite adages. One was: ”Smart people learn from their mistakes. Smarter people learn from other people’s mistakes.” Learning from other people’s mistakes is easier said than … Continue reading →

Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, The Jerusalem Post | Tagged Hillel, Jewish Values, Neusner, Open-minded, Pluralism, Rawls, Shammai, Talmud, Telushkin, Tolerance, Toleration | Leave a comment

Peace Depends on Truth

Posted on June 3, 2016 by N.S. Palmer

My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Truth can be a matter of life and death. That’s no surprise, since it’s happened many times in history. But I want to make a much more difficult argument: A theory of … Continue reading →