Category: education

• December 21, 2011

  On being in debt up to your ears (but in a good way)

  On Philosophy as the Love of Giving “In gratitude,” the note said. Inside the box was a book by Seneca, Epistles 1-65 of the Loeb Harvard Edition. The old man Seneca is writing to his younger philosophical friend and pupil Lucius, a Roman knight and civil servant. The letters were meant both to educate Lucius in…
• December 17, 2011

  ‘Leisure is a school of wisdom’

  Procellous \proh-SEL-uhs\, adjective: Stormy, as the sea. The plan traced on our chart will lead us through oceans procellous and perilous straits, amid regions where the atmosphere is cheerless and the sun’s rays are pale, and the spring blossoms no sooner unfold their petals than they droop and languish. — C.C.C.P. Silva, M.D., The Western Medical Reporter, Vol. 10 *…
• December 15, 2011

  What is civil society and why does this matter?

  I’m currently finishing a personal essay entitled “In Search of a Middle Style for a Convivial Civil Society.” In it, I’m trying to make sense of how civil society is changing and of how I’m able to make a decent living as a result. I’ve included a small part below on the concept of civil…
• December 14, 2011

  Brand naming: Thinking differently

  The inner circle of brand doyens at Lexicon (I almost wrote Lexipro, then almost quipped about Lexi-con) is exploring car names that could become impactful brands in a twenty-first century green economy. In “Famous Names: Does it Matter What a Product is Called?” (The New Yorker, October 3, 2011), the writer John Colapinto listens in:…
• December 13, 2011

  An Auerbachian theory of literary style and social change

  Can one deduce a theory of literary style and social change from Erich Auerbach’s book Mimesis? Yes, and not with too much straining. One could think of a new style as coming into being and becoming settled in four distinct moments. The First Moment: Doxa. The style (or suite of styles: I will use the singular…