Author: Andrew Taggart

• August 3, 2015

  William James on “The Moral Equivalent of War”

  William James, a committed pacifist, lived through the Civil War and the Spanish-American War and died during the run-up to World War I. In an incredible essay, “The Moral Equivalent of War,” first delivered as a talk at Stanford and later published in 1910, the year of his death, James observes that though everyone would…
• July 22, 2015

  The Predominance of Softness

  I am trying to investigate the prevalence of softness and the rarity of toughness because I believe that we have learned to be soft when it is time to get, and be, tough. Can we find another way into the predominance of softness? It has often been observed that ours is an Age of Anxiety or,…
• July 20, 2015

  Aristotle on Toughness

  We have become soft and it’s time to get tough. Aristotle says that “it is softness to fly from what is troublesome” and so the coward does. But then most of us are flying from what is troublesome. Can we even recall what courage is? Aristotle: The coward, the rash man, and the brave man, then, are…
• July 16, 2015

  The Limits of Leftist Thinking about Artists Making a Living

  A couple of days ago, my partner Alexandra brought this article, “Culture isn’t Free,” in Jacobin Magazine (July 2, 2015) to my attention. What is remarkable is just how it shows, in nuce and with such concentration, (i) the limits of leftist thinking as well as (ii) many of the doxa (i.e., the unquestioned, commonly received stock of beliefs) of the left.…
• July 13, 2015

  How an Artist Can Hack a Living: A Report

  Can Modern Artists Make a Living? This report was born of a query sent to 30 friends on April 30, 2015. I asked whether they knew anyone making a living at making art. The response was wintry. Virtually no one knew of anyone who fit that description, yet nearly all expressed curiosity about reading my findings. This 32-page report details what I’ve discovered since…