Month: February 2014
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‘Why be gentle?’
‘Why be gentle?’ my philosophical friend asked me. ‘That is a good question,’ I said. * At the beginning of Theaetetus, Socrates asks Theodorus whether there are any good young men whom he knows. Theodorus replies, Yes, Socrates, I have become acquainted with one very remarkable Athenian youth, whom I commend to you as well worthy…
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‘Beauty is the splendor of the highest good’
I read, ‘Beauty is the splendor of the highest good.’ Beauty is not the highest good itself but its shining forth. Anyone or anything at its best is therefore beautiful. Whatever has achieved its essence: this is beauty. That which fully actualizes its function: beautiful. A world at its best would have to be gloriously beautiful. Someone…
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Tenderness of tenderness
‘Tenderness,’ said one philosophical friend, ‘is a way that love expresses itself for oneself or another.’ We have been searching for an accurate way of understanding how one takes care of oneself properly. ‘Taking care of oneself properly’ lacks of certain ‘intimacy’ in the offing. (One may take care of one’s business affairs properly, but…
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Arrogance as a paradoxical moment in philosophical life
One common excess marks the character of most good philosophical friends and conversation partners. That excess is arrogance. The path of philosophical life is not desired by the ignoramus. And it cannot be disclosed to the self-loathing man. Nor to the complacent man. Only the arrogant man (1) relishes what is higher, (2) wants it for…
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Contemptu Mundi and Unity-in-diversity
The Philosophical Path Awakening to–philosophical life. Contemptu mundi: the belief that the everyday world is no longer a home. Worse: Revulsion. Disgust. Flooding the senses: total ugliness. Loneliness amid or beyond the ordinary world. Despair. Three-fold queries. Where are my fellows, my friends of virtue? Where is my beautiful soul? (Am I not also contemptible…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 