Category: education

• October 26, 2011

  A critique of CBT – Part 1

  Update: I’ve written some later reflections on CBT entitled “A Re-Evaluation of CBT.”  The latter post is the culmination of over a year of working with conversation partners whose previous experiences were in cognitive therapies. Throughout, it should be borne in mind that I consider philosophical practice (for more about which, see here) to bear no resemblance to…
• October 25, 2011

  On living out indirect proofs: Not the vocation, the career, or the project but the life-work

  1. We might say that life is one long indirect proof. We have to live a conception out before we can rule it out. In ruling it out, we come upon a more hopeful conception of a well-lived life. 2. Throughout the history of western civilization, we have lived out a number of conceptions of…
• October 24, 2011

  Pinning down philosophical counseling: Short & long & elliptical answers

  One of the questions I get quite often is what the hell is philosophical counseling. To be honest, I probably have this conversation just about every day. Here’s one example from an editor who will be publishing one of my essays on child-rearing and moral education. He tells me that I need to attach a…
• October 21, 2011

  Friday meditation: Curating Tao Te Ching

  The following are excerpts from Tao Te Ching. All have something to say about the  nature of wisdom. Enjoy this Friday’s meditation. —  I. To speak little is natural. High winds do not last all morning; heavy winds do not last all day.     II.  The ancient Masters didn’t try to educate the people, but…
• October 20, 2011

  On the discipline of eating: Open questions

  What is it like to put food in your mouth? To chew slowly? To look around and see warmed others beside you? To look down and find long-limbed wine in your glass? To have picked the vegetables, now in your mouth, thick from your garden? To have cooked the masticated sinews for hours beside those…