Category: education
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On getting kicked in the teeth: A letter to a friend
The following is a letter I wrote to a friend of mine a few days ago. The names have been changed and the personal information removed. — September 14, 2011 Dear Sarah, Yes, John is a strange fellow. The bad thing is that he’s boorish and dull. The good thing is that he understands the…
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Concerning the ills of talkativeness
The lovely thing about Plutarch is that no subject is too common that it cannot reveal much about us and our minor vices. So it is with talkativeness. The chatterer, in saying much, lacks much. He lacks self-control and courage, secrets flowing too freely from his open mouth and loose tongue. Yet what he lacks…
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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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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…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 