Category: ethics

• March 13, 2011

  Why being laid-back may not be a virtue

  Being “laid-back” has become something of a buzzword. Roommates are laid-back. So are managers–good ones. And boyfriends–the ones worth holding onto anyway. Apparently, being laid-back is a great virtue. About what topics are those who profess to be laid-back truly laid-back? About another person’s actions or behaviors; about her choices in life; about his values…
• March 12, 2011

  On Richard Rapport’s Nerve Endings

  A philosophical review of Richard Rapport, M.D., Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse (New York: Norton, 2005). Richard Rapport’s remarkable book returns us to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century where amateur science hewed more closely to aesthetic vision. The main characters are the cantankerous Italian, Camillo Golgi, and the pensive, ardent…
• March 11, 2011

  Brooks’ modesty manifesto

  In “The Modesty Manifesto,” David Brooks argues that over the past 50 odd years our culture has overemphasized self-esteem with the result that we do not know ourselves and we have failed to become virtuous citizens wedded to common causes. Further Reading Thomas Nagel, “David Brooks’s Theory of Human Nature” Andrew Taggart, “Who is David…
• March 10, 2011

  On It girls

  My friend Peter Foges wrote a wonderful, short blog, “It Girls,” on Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks for Lapham’s Quarterly. My comment reads as follows: — Dear Peter, “Let no man be called happy before his death.” Thus Solon. But then what of Garbo and Louise Brooks? What of these after the end of celebrity? The…
• March 9, 2011

  Then Bon Jovi again

  Excerpts from my diary dated March 9, 2011 3 a.m. Hungering for the day, for coffee, for dawn. 10:30 a.m. Queueing at the DMV. Listening to Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer” in the background. Thinking of childhood, then of disappointment. Hearing that license is too long expired to be renewed. Today is colder than…