Category: education
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Must one ‘make a sharp break with the academy’ in order to be a philosopher? A conversation
“[A] conversation is a dramatic work, even if a very short one, in which the participants are not only the actors, but also the joint authors, working out in agreement or disagreement the mode of their production.” –Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue — Early last week, I received a note from J. about my thoughts concerning Stanley…
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On Geoff Dyer’s anger; or, how to kill Rilke to dust
The following is an excerpt from Geoff Dyer’s book, Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence (New York: North Point Press, 1997), 99-103. Dyer’s rant—and it is a rant, in a very self-conscious vein—reminded me of my desire to vomit upon listening to a public discussion that was neither public nor a discussion, a…
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A mobile lab, a think tank, a community center, a gathering space
Just saw and starting reading about the BMW Guggenheim Lab on urbanism. Located on Houston St. in the Lower East Side. The tag: “A mobile lab traveling around the world to inspire innovative ideas for urban life.” Further Reading Misha Leptic, “Unwieldy Property,” 3 Quarks Daily —. “Would You Like People With That City?,” 3 Quarks…
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On Fish’s ‘Does Philosophy Matter?’ Answer: No…and yes
Philip Carey, the protagonist of Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, is deeply confused. On the one hand, he has rejected revealed religion and thus does not believe in God. On the one hand, his moral principles uncannily resemble those found in Christianity. On his list of virtues are charity, compassion, humility, and love. It occurs…
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Moral education in Maugham’s Of Human Bondage
I’m about halfway through Somerset Maugham’s novel Of Human Bondage (1915). As the editors tell us in the introduction, the novel was originally written when Maugham was in his 20s but because Maugham couldn’t find a publisher he filed it away in his writing desk. After some commercial success years later, he returned to the…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 