David J. Frost’s recent writing focuses on topics about which we know the truth but cannot believe it, such as human mortality, climate change, and the unreality of free will.
David J. Frost writes about what we know but do not believe.
We know there’s a climate crisis, but we act as if we don’t believe there is. When we act against our better judgment, when we “know better”—as when we procrastinate or otherwise exhibit weakness of will—then, too, we are acting like we do not really believe what we know, our “better judgment.” We know we will die, but we do not believe it when we make our summer plans. Some of us know we don’t have free will, but we have a hard time believing we don’t.
A related essay on the psychological effects of denying free will is forthcoming in the Missouri Review in June 2026. Frost has published essays in SLAB literary magazine, Ruminate, The Smart Set, Philosophy Now, and As It Ought To Be magazine; and he wrote the first chapter in Girls and Philosophy, which is about Lena Dunham’s HBO show, Girls.
With an English B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. in Philosophy from University of California-Irvine and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Dr. Frost teaches online for Alamance College in North Carolina. He lives on the Oregon coast with his dogs Fritz and Lou Salomé, 3000 miles from Brooklyn.
Under a pen name, he wrote a book that applies dual-process psychology to procrastination. As such, he has been engaged as a speaker on productivity, the best science-backed strategies to fight procrastination, and how to set up one’s writer’s nook for a sustainable writing practice—recently speaking at the Oregon Coast Learning Institute.
Read Dr. Frost’s Armchair Vertigo newsletter at davidjfrost.substack.com.
For links to essays and more information, click here: https://linktr.ee/davidfrost