Author: Andrew Taggart
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The Eastern View of Selfhood: Metaphysical Premises and Puzzles
There are three basic views regarding what animates all of reality. The Eastern view insists that I = the Absolute. The Greek view avers that the human self seeks to live at its peak within the bounds of finitude. The Christian view holds that there is a transcendent being which, animating all of reality, is…
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Money, Our Elephant in the Room: Some Reflections
Last night, Leon Berg, a founding member of The Ojai Foundation, and I hosted a conversation at The Ojai Foundation. The title of the conversation was ‘Money: Our Elephant in the Room.’ Could there be any subject that is more taboo than that of money? Common sense tells us that money is to be used but…
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Eloquence Training: Episode 3. Misconceptions About Eloquence
Eloquence involves saying the right thing in the right way with a sense of ease. An eloquent person, then, is someone who often or almost always speaks eloquently. In this third episode, Alexandra and I discuss misconceptions about the nature of eloquence: that eloquence is flowery speech, charismatic speech, or scholarly discourse. We urge instead…
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Toughness Trained Through Harder and Harder Contests
Our Predicament We are forever holding back. We are always backing down. Every day we stand aside, give in, crumple up, let fall. Has panic settled in? This is meekness. Look around you and you will find it–so dour, so damp, so commonplace–almost everywhere. The Desirability of Toughness Suppose, like me, you say, ‘Enough is enough.’ Then…
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Endowment Effect and Wrenching Toughness
In behavioral economics, the ‘endowment effect’ states that individuals ascribe higher value to the objects they possess than to the objects they could secure. If this is true, then we are ‘loss averse’ creatures that prefer to keep what we have and are more disheartened by the loss of our possessions than by the gain of some other, perhaps…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 