Truth and certainty. These two words come up time and time again in my conversations. It's not that I intentionally find ways to bring them into the discussion, it is more a testament to how fundamental they are to forming any belief or value system. We need some objective grounding that we can rely on to develop an approach for life. But therein lies the problem. What is this truth we speak of? How can truth exist without certainty? How can certainty exist given our limited perspective and capacity as humans?

It is always fun to find a guest who enjoys these types of questions as much as I do; and Douglas was exactly that type of guest. He is a professor of philosophy, an author (“What Left and Right Mean: Clarifying the Political Spectrum"), a podcast host, and someone dedicated to using philosophy to help alleviate injustices in the world. Douglas started with authenticity as his most important value and that launched us right into the "truth/certainty" discussion. His perspective is that our goal should be to gain honesty and clarity on ourselves and those around us. But how do we ever have confidence that we understand the true, authentic nature of a person to actually make use of his value?

Throughout the discussion Douglas shared a ton of interesting insights and perspectives from historic philosophers. There was one idea he brought forth though, which truly fascinated me. He said that "the subjective thoughts and interactions we have everyday, ultimately create an objective reality that we then live in." Take a moment to process that. This illusive concept I've been chasing for years, objectivity, is actually right in front of us--hiding in a place we'd never think to look for it. It is our subjective minds that create the objective reality we need to live within. I could never do this concept justice in a brief write up, but we explored all of the implications of this; how it impacts our daily lives, what role nature plays in our reality, and we even dabbled into some of Nietzsche's work on the "will to power." A huge thanks to Douglas for having an insatiable curiosity for life and for spending some time with me.