Author: Andrew Taggart
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On the Ulysses effect: Insight, foresight, and ingenuity
The Story Aware that, when the time comes, he will be unable to resist the siren’s beautiful song yet cognizant of the fact that the siren is really a death trap, Ulysses advises his men to secure him firmly to the ship’s mast. That way, he can listen to the song without being lured to…
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Todd May on the meaningfulness of lives
In his New York Times The Stone blog “On the Meaningfulness of Lives,” Todd May seeks to rescue the concept of meaning from Sartre’s pronouncement that in a godless universe the concept is unintelligible. A worthy endeavor. Here’s how the argument goes. 1. Distinctions. Meaningfulness is not morality (good or bad, good or evil). Meaningfulness is…
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How is willpower weakened and strengthened?
In his New York Times Book Review of Roy Baumeister and John Tierney’s book Willpower, “The Sugary Secret of Self-Control,” Steven Pinker says, And he [Baumeister] showed that self-control, though almost certainly heritable in part, can be toned up by exercising it. He enrolled students in regimens that required them to keep track of their eating,…
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Alasdair MacIntyre on the very idea of the university
Alasdair MacIntyre, “The Very Idea of a University: Aristotle, Newman, and Us,” British Journal of Educational Studies 57.4 (December 2009), 347-362. The following are notes taken on MacIntyre’s essay. I’ve sought to make my notes intelligible and worth your time. MacIntyre’s essay is worth reading in its own right as it casts an unfavorable light…
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Epicurus’ argument against the fear of death
Tonight when I was sitting on my roof reading my paperback copy of Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, I looked over at my neighbor’s garden. The trees were straight and leafy, the flowers were orange and contented. Yet who was looking after them? During all the time I’d spent up here not once had I…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 