Month: December 2014
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Two boo’s for ‘living in order to work’
I Call me puzzled. I can’t help but recall a wealthy man I used to tutor while I was living in New York City. He was an heir to a famous American dynasty and was doubtless so wealthy that none of his grandchildren would ever need to work. Despite this, he worked very long hours, founding and co-founding companies,…
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‘God cannot be amazed’
‘God cannot be amazed,’ states Josef Pieper in Happiness and Contemplation. So much the worse for God, I think. It can be good to think about what God cannot be. God knows, so he cannot be amazed. Not ever. The Thomist Pieper: In contemplation a mirandum is seen, that is to say, a reality which evokes amazement because…
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‘Nothing happened until it did’: Kensho and positive samadhi
Nothing had happened, but then I hadn’t expected anything to happen anyway. We must have descended the long stairwell, feeling the polished wood of the handmade rail with soft fingers as we went. Then we would have stepped outside into the early afternoon sunlight and onto the sidewalk, possibly looking up at the bowing trees. We would…
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Openness, wonder, and joy
Philosophy is not for those who presume to know all there is to know. Nor is it for those who, being bourgeois, take life to be wholly self-explanatory. ‘The commonplace mind,’ writes Josef Pieper in ‘The Philosophical Act,’ ‘rendered deaf-mute, finds everything self-explanatory’ to the point at which ‘”wonder” is no longer there.’ Now that must be…
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What is lacking in having no strong attachments
It is easier for most of us to recognize, as if by default, Marcia’s prolonged grieving over her son Metilius than it is to understand someone who does not grieve or miss anyone who has passed into and out of his life. We recognize a mother’s strong attachments to her too soon gone son, and we wonder…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 