Month: October 2020

• October 19, 2020

  Beauty Of Soul: A Conversation

  This conversation between David E. Cooper, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Durham University, and me I’m pulling out of the vault. It took place in 2012. I’d forgotten about it until I was speaking with someone recently about beauty of soul. It’s a beautiful conversation, and I hope you find it to be so also.…
• October 17, 2020

  Religion For The Religious

  In the opening of Religion and Nothingness, Keiji Nishitani makes a stunning claim: [F]rom the standpoint of the essence of religion, it is a mistake to ask “What is the purpose of religion for us?” and one that clearly betrays an attitude of trying to understand religion apart from the religious quest. It is a…
• October 17, 2020

  The Ultimate Good Is The Realest Real

  Having, for many years and most especially in recent posts, duly praised Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue (1981), I hereby lodge a complaint. In The Village Voice also back in 1981, the perceptive critic George Scialabba, citing a crucial line from MacIntyre’s book, saw what I see: “The good life for man,” he [MacIntyre] concludes lamely,…
• October 16, 2020

  My Mellon Talk: The Liberal Arts During The Meta-crisis

  You can read the talk in its entirely here.
• October 15, 2020

  Modernity Is A Flight To Nowhere

  On September 20th, The New York Times, in true NYT fashion, published a non-sardonic brief: Looking to satisfy their itch to travel, thousands of people in Brunei, Taiwan, Japan and Australia have started booking flights that start and end in the same place. Some airlines call these “scenic flights,” but others are more direct and…