Month: October 2011
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On living out indirect proofs: Not the vocation, the career, or the project but the life-work
1. We might say that life is one long indirect proof. We have to live a conception out before we can rule it out. In ruling it out, we come upon a more hopeful conception of a well-lived life. 2. Throughout the history of western civilization, we have lived out a number of conceptions of…
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Pinning down philosophical counseling: Short & long & elliptical answers
One of the questions I get quite often is what the hell is philosophical counseling. To be honest, I probably have this conversation just about every day. Here’s one example from an editor who will be publishing one of my essays on child-rearing and moral education. He tells me that I need to attach a…
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Friday meditation: Curating Tao Te Ching
The following are excerpts from Tao Te Ching. All have something to say about the nature of wisdom. Enjoy this Friday’s meditation. — I. To speak little is natural. High winds do not last all morning; heavy winds do not last all day. II. The ancient Masters didn’t try to educate the people, but…
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On the discipline of eating: Open questions
What is it like to put food in your mouth? To chew slowly? To look around and see warmed others beside you? To look down and find long-limbed wine in your glass? To have picked the vegetables, now in your mouth, thick from your garden? To have cooked the masticated sinews for hours beside those…
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On what I learned from fasting
Removing the inessentials is not a form of punishment; it is an act of joy. “He who knows that he has enough–is rich” (Tao te Ching). “The highest goodness is like water” (Peter France, Hermits: The Insights of Solitude). My defects have been pride and prejudice. I grew up with an overvaluation of my own…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 