Ego often gets in the way of learning because learning involves acquiring new skills and insights by opening yourself to the world. But ego is a form attachment to the world you have been used to, and so learning must involve a way of giving up the ego so that one's being can be enlarged to achieve a certain type of agreement with world. This does not mean that ego is not important. It means one should not be attached to it to the point of arrogance that makes one incapable of learning and enjoying the world as it is. Hence, the mark of a true master is the same as the mark of the...

Moral dilemmas do not tell us that moral principles/rules are useless. On the contrary, they give us the opportunity to clarify what the rule means. Rules or principles are also given content by the agents who apply them and the activities to which they are applied. The indeterminacy that remains once the rule has been made clear to us is a natural and inescapable component of all types of rule following and norm-based human action. Regardless of how rigid a rule is, following a rule according to the rule does not preclude judgment and decision. Hence, it always entails commitment...