Alan Shepherd examines Bergson’s view of intuition as a key to metaphysical knowledge. Unlike Kant, Bergson believes we can directly access reality through our experience of time, or “duration.” Intuition expands through memory, evolution, and mystical insight, revealing a creative, loving force behind life. More than intellect, it offers deep, spiritual truths and reclaims metaphysics as a meaningful, ethical, and experiential pursuit.

"Contradiction is a problem for knowing, a problem for doing things together, and a problem for living and feeling." 

"if philosophical pessimism is to be seen as something more than a 'mere' temperament or attitude, what might this be?"

"Before anything can be, there must be made nothing; prior to this contraction, nothing is not – where, after all, would it be?"

Amie L. Thomasson examines the role of philosophy in shaping concepts rather than making scientific discoveries. She proposes that philosophy can focus on conceptual engineering—improving, refining, and constructing concepts to better serve social, legal, and scientific purposes. This approach avoids rivalry with the natural sciences and emphasizes the importance of how we think and talk about the world, showing how conceptual change can transform practices and perspectives i

"Humanity is an errant species; perhaps this is why it is a planetary species, dreaming of becoming interplanetary."

"To leave the cave is to abandon something that matters deeply: politics, the material world, art and poetry and beauty."