We might conceive of an itinerary as a long education of the soul. When I think of the nature of good education, I am put in mind of the Latin educare, meaning “rearing,” “bringing up,” “leading forth.” We want to examine our lives more fully and, for that, we will need stepping stones, paths to follow, and moral guides. We want also to see how we fit into the order of thing in order to overcome our sense of estrangement from the world and each other. For that we will need clarity of vision and courage and judgment.
Below, you’ll find some itineraries you can follow in hopes of making some sense of our all too human modern world.
(Dear reader, please watch your step. This page is a work in progress. More itineraries to come, more prettifying yet to be done.)
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Leading and Funding a Creative Life
During this time of economic and social upheaval, one of the questions that looms large is how to support a life of the mind without losing one’s shirt. Our modern institutions are collapsing or in decline, and yet we continue to cling to old models on the belief that nothing fundamental has changed (it has) or on the assumption that our case will prove the exception (which is doubtful). It seems to me that it cannot be taken on faith that old funding models–university patronage, fellowships and grants, decent and humane part- to full-time work in some non-creative endeavor, and so on–will make it possible for creative types to paint, draw, build, write, imagine, and play alone and together.
What is called for instead is a thoroughgoing philosophical reconsideration of how our financial concerns must be harmonized with the rest of our lives. For many today, practical matters are a cause of concern, with the result that they are overcome by pain, dissatisfaction, strife, and, not least, a sense of boredom. In the following pieces, I set out stepping stones we’d do well to examine and consider following.
Models – Inside Higher Ed - Part 1
Imagination – Inside Higher Ed - Part 2
Funding the creative life – Parts 1, 2, & 3
3 needful jobs in 21st C. - here
The Changing Face of Work Life
Organizations getting “leaner.” Careers are not just churning and turning over; they’re going away and not coming back. Start-ups have become commonplace, many springing up overnight and gone by the morning. As workers become freelancers and ‘experts’ turn into consultants, the work space itself has become a mobile laptop and a shared hub. What is going, how did we get here, and how to make sense of it all? Better yet, how do we re-conceive of the very idea of a meaningful work life? Some thoughts:
The great speedup – here
Ways of life businesses – Parts 1, 2, & 3
Sensible Plan B’s – here
Spiritual Exercises (Ascesis)
Ascesis refers to thinking-acting-emoting-examining exercises whose immediate aim is to transform the whole person. They range across the breadth and height of human experience, and they can be found in many genres and forms, in many tones and shades, in many moods. They are, in the most basic sense, styles of self-education.
The “view from above,” an ascent from my first-person perspective to a cosmic perspective; premedatitio malorum, a meditation on the worse things that can befall me and, from there, an intense concentration on the freshness of the eternal present; epilegein, the daily repetition of a school’s maxims, precepts, and dicta; hypomnemata, personal notes that consist solely of “efficacious thoughts” intended to transform one’s “way of living” (Hadot 1998: 31); examination of conscience, an awareness of one’s moral defects and a commitment to moral progress (Hadot 202: 198-202): among Hellenistic philosophers, these and other forms of inner discourse were meant to strengthen the practitioner’s resolve and to bring him moral uplift.
For more on the concept of ascesis, go here. Some examples from the past year or so:
Childhood – here
Pleasure – here
Growing up & aging – here & here
Stoicism exercise for the rough patches – here & here
DIY week – starts here
Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule – here
Some Well-Intentioned Advice for Unsettled Post-graduates
A kindly letter – here
Concern expressed for the “emerging adult” – here & here
Some Reflections on and Visions of Education for the Soul
Oh, they’re around. To be collated…
