Month: December 2012
-
Gift economy worksheet for philosophical practice
The following is the latest version of the gift economy worksheet I’ve begun going through with new conversation partners. It’s been quite illuminating to go through the process of inquiring with another with the common purpose of reaching mutual understanding. * Overview This worksheet is the result of about 2 years of thinking about how…
-
‘Beauty of soul, according to nature’: A short course at Schumacher College
I have been invited by Schumacher College, which offers “transformative courses for sustainable living,” to teach a short course in November 2013. The following is my first attempt to make out what the course will be about. Philosophical Background Ancient philosophers held that a good life was one lived according to nature. Notably, ‘according to’…
-
On 3 moments of freedom
Let’s examine a few different conceptions of freedom in hopes of arriving, in the end, at where we began. In his famous essay, “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person,” the contemporary philosopher Harry Frankfurt states, “According to one familiar philosophical tradition, being free is fundamentally a matter of doing what one wants…
-
Of tree climbing and tree-hugging
In this corner of rural Pennsylvania, there are no rocks to climb. But there are trees to sit near the top of. Beyond prospects and horizons, tree climbing presents feels. A lot of back stepping, open hands, heel hooks, and mantling. Some lines of bark running in north-south pinches. Some textures like dried coral. You go…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 