Lucifer's Question

by T.K. Van Allen

This book is a collection of essays on society, culture, biology, psychology and philosophy. Most were written during 2021-2023. They are tied together by the following themes: Philosophical questions of value/purpose.The implications of evolution for human nature and society.The problems of modern civilization.The implications of being a reproducing machine.The implications of being a brain in a skull.Rationality and irrationality.Culture and how it emerges from human psychology and social interaction.The main theme is value/purpose. The first essay, The Ghost of Adam Lanza, takes us down a dark rabbit-hole, where we find eulavism, the philosophical rejection of value. In later essays, I explore other philosophical positions with regard to value: humanism, sentientism and efilism. I explain why I reject hedonism and altruism. At the end of the book, the walrus and the carpenter discuss the abyss and the purpose of life.