Month: May 2011
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On lovers and libraries
My ideal library would consist of 5 beautiful books: beautiful to behold and to taste. In grad school, we lined wooden planks and cinder blocks with the coolest books then available and when we threw a party people came over to admire–our books. They opened the door, said hello, and made their way over to…
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My quirky Spinoza on the nature of friendship
In my quirky reading, Spinoza’s Ethics is a book of friendship. Spinoza’s vitalist principle of life, the conatus, states that “Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to persevere in its being” (Ethics 3P6). Very well then, but what’s the best way to persevere in one’s being? My quirky Spinoza replies, “Surround oneself…
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Nelson Jones on why Dawkins disappoints: The theism/new atheism debate reconsidered
In “Why Dawkins Disappoints” (New Statesman, 20 May 2011), Nelson Jones argues that atheism is now the default position in the modern world. In science, in law, and in everyday life, we make no appeals to God in order to explain natural phenomena or to resolve all-too-human disputes. And this, he implies, is something new,…
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Overheard while sitting outside Cafe Regular in Park Slope, New York
“Because you know he just needs to get out of his head. Go get a job washing dishing, whatever it is…. What do I mean?… Because all he does all day is think about the meaning of life. Just sits and stews…. Or he just needs to work the shit out of therapy.”
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On New York, a philosophical city
New York is a philosophical city, a city of love and strife, of ruthless ambition and holy luck, of fluid social mobility and clotted social distinctions. Here there is refinement which is then papered over by the new nouveau riche. And there is always the new nouveau riche: the barbarians supplanting the decadents. A philosophical…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 