Month: August 2014

• August 18, 2014

  Utility of academic philosophy

  Originally posted on Ask a Philosopher: Joyce asked: Give three examples of how academic philosophy is useful in the contemporary world. Answer by Massimo Pigliucci Let me begin by questioning the question (just like any good philosopher would do!). Why should academic philosophy be useful, and what do we mean by useful anyway? It is…
• August 15, 2014

  The Fall of the Warrior and the the Idea of the Noble

  In The Good Life and Sustaining Life: An Inquiry into Our Great Vexation (in progress), I write,  I have included the figure of the warrior in the schema but not without some reservations since I am not at all sure whether the heroic life is possible in modernity. Many societies have held the aristocrat-warrior in…
• August 12, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: Vague Words and Well-specified Questions

  Certain philosophical terms have been slowly creeping into business culture and everyday speech, terms such as ‘meaning,’ ‘value,’ ‘direction,’ and ‘purpose,’ without its being possible, with any clarity or analytical rigor, to pin down their meanings. Calling a project ‘meaningful’ implies that one is drawing a line between projects that are not meaningful and those…
• August 8, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: Definitions (Excerpt)

  Preliminary Remark The good life and sustaining life are two separate, albeit connected, concepts. How they are connected, when they are connected properly, is the subject of this philosophical investigation. Definitions and Distinctions  1. By ‘the good life,’ I mean that for the sake of which one ultimately lives.  2. Throughout the course of this…
• August 7, 2014

  Philosophical Portraiture: Listening Intently and Considering Closely

  In Aleksandra’s most recently completed portrait, the subject is in the midst of a philosophical conversation. In the figure on the left, we see a man listening intently. He is either ready to hear another speak or, more likely, is in the middle of hearing someone make a claim. He is listening–but in what manner? Intently,…