Category: education

• January 21, 2011

  On the category of emerging adulthood; or, how 20 somethings are wasting their lives

  A Polemic There’s been a lot of talk of late about 20 somethings. Discussions have ranged from their carnivorous tastes in social media to their open attitude toward sexuality to their desire for self-esteem. By my lights, the most interesting discussion has centered on a new category of individual development: emerging adulthood. According to Jeffrey…
• January 20, 2011

  Reason follows in fortune’s train

  “Fortune is often found in Reason’s train.” Montaigne, Essays   For years, I’ve been stuck. I haven’t been able to make much progress in my estimation of the relative merits of Stoicism and tragedy. One of the goals of Stoicism is to immunize the practicing Stoic against luck (tuche). Since external goods are beyond his…
• January 16, 2011

  On our Pollyanna problem

  “When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.” —Pollyanna (1913) 1 When we examine our lives and the lives of others, what should we focus our attention on? To make this question perspicuous, let’s consider a few cases. a) Suppose you apply for a job for which you…