Follow Me Online

Making Change Podcast

Facebook

Twitter

Gopin Associates, LLC

YouTube

Month: August 2025

  • Compassionate Reasoning and Ethical Decision-Making: An Integrative Method

     

    For centuries, philosophers have wrestled with the question of how human beings ought to act. Should we maximize happiness? Should we obey universal duties? Should we cultivate virtues? Or should we trust our moral sentiments? Each of these schools of ethics—utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and moral sense theory—offers important insights, but each on its own leaves gaps.

    The method of Compassionate Reasoning begins with the conviction that no single ethical school is sufficient for the complex challenges of modern life. A framework is needed that can integrate the strengths of each tradition without being paralyzed by their rivalries. That framework is compassion, understood not simply as a fleeting feeling, but as a disciplined practice of reasoning, imagination, and action. Compassion functions as the universal constant, the ethical north star, while reasoning supplies the tools of analysis, judgment, and foresight.

    Compassionate Reasoning thus draws upon the wisdom of the great traditions, …

  • All young men need radically new educational programs to reduce mass violence

     

    Mass shootings and mass killings in the United States have become a central subject of public debate, not only because of their horror and visibility, but also because they raise profound questions about who commits them, why, and how society might best respond. One of the most contentious aspects of this debate has been the role of race and gender, particularly the figure of the white male shooter. Media narratives often focus heavily on this profile, sometimes suggesting that white males overwhelmingly dominate mass killings. A closer look at the evidence from reputable databases shows a more complex picture. White men are overrepresented in certain kinds of mass shootings, particularly the public rampage shootings that dominate headlines, but they are not the sole or even majority perpetrators across all categories of mass killings. Understanding these distinctions is crucial if any educational or policy response is to be effective.

    The first …

  • Straightness & Curvature: Pi & the Majestic Mystery of Ratio

    For most of us, π is little more than a Greek letter encountered in school. We are told that it equals 3.14159… and that it is “the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.” But this definition, repeated in classrooms for centuries, risks leaving the phenomenon itself untouched. It does not ask the deeper question: What does this ratio mean? Why should it matter that this relationship holds true for every circle, large or small? And why did thinkers like Pythagoras and his followers find such truths worthy of reverence, even worship?

    Straightness and Curvature

    At its heart, π is not about Greek letters or obscure formulas. It is about the relationship between straightness and curvature.

    Draw a straight line across a circle, its diameter. Then trace the curved path around the circle, its circumference. When you compare the two, you find that the curved path is …

Categories