Month: August 2024
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The New Power Elite, According To Patrick Deneen
Patrick Deneen points to an upside-down view evident, as he describes it in his book Regime Change, in the current meritocratic elite: the very ones who hold power insist that they have none. How are we to make sense of this statement? First, Deneen suggests that Western history can be understood in terms of commoners…
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“We’re Full”: On Working Class Animus Toward The New Power Elites
If you’ve ever read Reddit threads apropos “moving to town X or Y in the United States,” then you’ll likely have come across some comments like: “We’re full.” To this, another person might reply, stating that that is “MAGA country,” with the implication that the writer making this claim is a progressive. Though this distinction–MAGA…
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Awareness Is NOT An Object
What Is Awareness? Provisionally, we’ll say that awareness is that to which any objective experience (or object or arising) is appearing. How Is This To be Experientially Established? Explore the following: 0. Does awareness exist? Then consider the viveka (discrimination) teaching in order to establish, in addition to the presence or existence of awareness, the metaphysical priority of awareness.…
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Parmenides: Being Is; Non-being Is Not
I’d like to comment on the opening stanza of Francis Lucille’s fine philosophical translation of Parmenides’s poem “On Reality” (free PDF). Lucille: Now then, I [the Goddess tells Parmenides] will instruct you; hear what I say:Two paths are open to investigation.The first says: being is and nonbeing is not.It is the path of certainty, because…
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Awareness Clarified & The Yoga Of Awareness Unfolded
In Review 1. Awareness vis-a-vis objects 2. Case #1: Localized awareness 3. Case #2: Death 4. The Yoga of awareness expounded Awareness And Objects Really, the direct path teaching of Advaita Vedanta is so simple that it’s often misunderstood. It states: That’s it! We can go on: The Experiential Study Essentially, there are doubts or…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 