Category: education

• May 3, 2014

  Being virtuous without being empathetic

  So far, I have argued (1) that the ascetic ideal of empathy has sprung forth from a false metaphysical picture of human beings as weak, suffering creatures and (2) that it  leads to the conclusion that when we speak, we not do often lodge claims that can be examined with a view to changing our basic conceptions…
• May 2, 2014

  Empathy as an ascetic ideal

  Why would empathy not be a supreme virtue? By ’empathy,’ I mean what most laypersons mean: either feeling what another is badly feeling or acknowledging what the other is badly feeling. By ‘supreme virtue,’ I mean the virtue of virtues, one that is ripped free of context and raised to a principle. That principle would…
• May 1, 2014

  Humans as inquisitive creatures

  A few days ago, I wrote about the metaphysical-ethical picture, which claims that human beings are weak. I believe this picture is widely held today. I believe the picture is untrue. Below, I sketch a more accurate picture of human beings as inquisitive creatures. * Metaphysical-Ethical Picture 2: Human Beings are Inquisitive Creatures 1.) Human beings…
• April 30, 2014

  On a category mistake: ‘Human beings are weak’

  Here are three questions that fascinate me: 1.) How did we go from being creatures who above all ‘desire to know’ (Aristotle, Metaphysics I)–let us say: to understand our place in the world–to being creatures who want most of all to be helped (modernity)? 2.) How did the accidental property of weakness (e.g., feeling weak on Tuesday)…
• April 29, 2014

  Against empathy

  Consider a commonplace yet erroneous metaphysical assumption about (modern) human beings made by most people today (especially those in the caring profession): In virtue of our being inherently weak and prone to suffering, we human beings yearn to be helped. * Two brief anecdotes that tell against this picture: One philosophical friend suggested, ‘There is nothing more…