Category: ethics

• 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 2, 2012

  The beautiful soul in Strawberry Fields

  David E. Cooper and I are writing about the notion of the beautiful soul. David argues that the beautiful soul will manifest beauty in his demeanor when the latter has learned to appreciate the beauty of things all around him. I want to see in this picture a certain meditative gracefulness embodied in the beautiful…
• June 29, 2012

  Joan’s drawing

  When, a few weeks back, Joan asked me whether I would like to have one of her drawings, I thought only, “Which one?” There are 30, perhaps as many as 40 drawings hanging in the fourth floor hallway. There were ones of younger frail women and others of cocksure men. Neither sort would suit. For…
• June 28, 2012

  Philosophical friendships: A gentle refutation

  A few days ago I tried to meet an objection to leading a philosophical life that ran something like this: “Andrew, it is all well and good for a philosopher to surround himself entirely with philosophical friends, but the rest of us live, and have to live, more ‘in the world,’ where living ‘in the…
• June 26, 2012

  What is it like for someone not to ‘get me’?

  “[E]loquence consists of saying the right things and only the right things.” –Rochefoucauld What is it like for someone not to ‘get me?’ She can be focused on me but ask the wrong questions. He can be focused on me but look at the wrong things. She can care for me but fail to recognize…