This lecture looks at the concepts of God and divine love through the lens of critical thinking and rational understanding. The question is, do these concepts keep some manner of sense and legitimacy from this exacting perspective?

This lecture takes a theoretical stance on the topic of universal determinism, wherein the natural order is viewed as the product of soft determinism, blending necessity and randomness in the form of a determinate field of indeterminate possibilities.

This lecture aims at finding a happy medium between extreme detachment toward the objects of our desires and excessive attachment to them. Both are unsuited to our nature, which can neither be reduced to its dark side of suffering and death, nor can be viewed exclusively as a bright side that is forever blissful.

This lecture delves into the many different forms of human happiness, from the one we find in a peaceful conscience and the one we experience when our efforts meet with success, to the one we may fantasize about in some hypothetical afterlife.

This lecture highlights our human difference in the evolution of species, as our brain’s superior plasticity affords us a great ability to learn, that proportionally increases our adaptability and chances of survival in a wide variety of environments.

This lecture promotes acceptance to achieve harmony with nature and virtue in society, as the necessary condition for peace and happiness. It also encourages critical thinking to avoid lapsing into laxness and servility, which are perverse forms of naturalness and sociability.

This lecture opposes, on the one hand, the traditional reliance on great religions for understanding the world and guiding our conscience and, on the other hand, the modern trust in science and political philosophy for developing a credible and sensible worldview, together with rules of conduct that follow naturally from the demands of social organization.

This lecture aims at striking the right balance between commitment to things that we love and can or must do, and detachment toward everything else.

This lecture is all about adaptation, or the capacity to constantly realign our purpose with life, that is always changing. Misery, from this perspective, amounts to clinging to things that have become impossible or impractical, versus letting go and moving on, toward things that are both desirable and feasible.

This lecture calls our attention to the process of habituation, which renders us insensitive to beneficial things that have become familiar and predictable. We need to avoid taking these things for granted and losing our ability to be thankful for them, insofar as they help us live and thrive.