Category: education

• July 19, 2012

  The transformation of the beautiful soul

  The beautiful soul is a person who exhibits beauty in his general appreciation of beauty. I asked my friend, the philosopher David E. Cooper, the following question: Is there an ‘education’ of the beautiful soul, a path one might follow in hopes of becoming one and, if so, what might this involve? In our conversation,…
• July 16, 2012

  What makes it impossible to become a beautiful soul

  Let’s suppose we spend our days exercising many of the virtues. They may include  fidelity, courage, patience, and so on. I am curious how it is that the prominence of one salient vice such as arrogance can throw a person’s demeanor into disharmony and thereby make it impossible for him to become a beautiful soul.…
• July 13, 2012

  Summary of a good inquiry concerning the rarity of good female friendships

  In my philosophy practice, I have been thinking lately about what stays with my conversation partners after I have left the scene. I know that I will not always be there for them, that I will die someday, and I want to make sure that they will flourish without me. What stays, therefore, with them?…
• July 12, 2012

  What activities maintain or enhance sober joy?

  During the past couple weeks, some conversation partners, friends, and I have been discussing my friend David E. Cooper’s concept of “sober joy” (see his book, Convergence With Nature). I think I want to say, at least for the moment, that sober joy is a yes-saying demeanor or comportment characterized by a general steadiness and…
• July 4, 2012

  On my love of sensualism

  I would never have imagined that philosophical life, which seems to privilege inquiry, abstract considerations, mathematical rigor, and mental activity more generally, could open me up to ‘sensualism’ but it has. Perhaps it is that dwelling on how all transient things hang together points me back to this particular thing here, revealing to me a…