Author: Andrew Taggart
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Letting go of anger
Goals Moderate: The goal is not to manage anger; it is to make anger subside. Stringent: The goal is not to cope with anger; it is to ensure that anger doesn’t arise. What is Anger? Anger is the belief that someone has (1) deliberately harmed you and (2) that retaliation (in thought or deed) is…
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On speculative philosophical biography
The strange thing about philosophy is that it is supposed to be lived or, if not lived, then livable. I call this “strange” because no one would say that a biologist should live biology or a surgeon live surgery. But for a philosopher not to live philosophically seems a contradiction in terms. At least that…
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Eric Gill on holy work
A synthesis of the thought of Eric Gill (1882-1940), sculptor, stone mason, wooden engraver: Of holiness. To work is to worship. Of the nature of man. Every man is a kind of artist (=craftsman) Of the nature of work. “Art is skill in making; the good work is the skilful work.” — Excerpts from A Holy Tradition of…
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Time to rethink the concept of ‘higher education’?
Professor X* reviews the state of higher education 2 years after his well-read Atlantic expose. A few choice bits: The university experience in the 1970s: “My pursuit was rather solipsistic and no doubt shortsighted but harmless–a solitary pastime, like collecting penguin figurines or breeding orchids.” The university experience the 2000s: College now “was a place where…
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On philosophical counseling and Willy Wonka
This past summer, I was having lunch with a friend of mine. Over fish tacos, he asked me what reason I had to believe that I could work with end-of-life conversation partners. How did I know that I could bring them peace of mind? I told him I did not know, and my intuition was that…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 