Category: ethics
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Childhood… tire swings… growing up: A spiritual exercise in drawing material inferences
3.5 Morning. You’re welcome, and I’d be delighted. An aside: I love opening these rainbow colored documents and not at first being able to tell whose voice is whose. Did I say that? Did you? Does it matter? Well, no. Good morning, A. Not sure exactly what this document is. Reminders to me? Notes to…
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On walking home from school
I said, “If ever I have a girl, I would like to name her Marilynne. Wouldn’t that be something?” She said, “I think it would be something if you could name a daughter Marilynne.” I must have been 8 years old when I first started walking home from school. That would have put me in…
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Friends as fellow travelers; or, the art of saying farewell
The following is a spiritual exercise (ascesis) in the art of saying farewell. The former friend whom I’m addressing in the letter has an extensive background in music, physics, and philosophy, has a prestigious academic pedigree, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in philosophy. We first met only days after I moved to NYC, a…
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‘Therefore, I tried the hammer…’: On how not to receive a gift
The impetus for the following letter was a guffaw. Last week I ordered a copy of Hubert Dreyfus’s Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time and, by mistake, had had it shipped to my conversation partner’s residence. Here: a non-gift for you! Thanks! In his turn, he had mailed the book to me. On Monday,…
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Gift economy explained, justified, and defended
Gift Economy Explained 1. Suppose A gives B a gift wholeheartedly. (By “wholeheartedly,” I mean without reserve or hesitation, without holding back or misgivings. Positively, I mean: “giving forth freely or receiving plentifully.”) 2. Then B receives the gift wholeheartedly. 3. It follows that B is goodly indebted to A. The debt is lighter, not…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 