Category: ethics
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An invitation to the reader to join me in a philosophical conversation
A Cordial Invitation I’d like to invite you to have a philosophical conversation with me. If you’re living outside of New York City, then the conversation would take place over Skype. If you’re in the City, then we’d take a stroll through Central Park. The economy we’d be engaged in would be a gift economy.…
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The Economist: ‘New middle classes rise up’
In “The New Middle Classes Rise Up” (September 3, 2011, The Economist), the editors state that emerging giants such as India, Brazil, and China are beginning to show signs of middle class unrest. A growing middle class has become more vociferous about making anti-corruption claims and demanding greater comforts. One expert quoted says that “the middle class…
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Wendell Berry on the proper education for young people
The following is an excerpt from Wendell Berry’s “Thoughts in the Presence of Fear,” Orion Magazine (Autumn 2001). The article was published shortly after September 11, 2001. As far as I can make it, we have made little progress on devising a “proper education [that] enables young people to put their lives in order.” My friends and…
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On the other side of radical education lies wisdom: An exhortation; or, on the question whether really free is really good
As I review the list of alternative higher education schools, I’m struck almost immediately by their shared ethos of anarchism. They begin with a rejection of the status quo and then level their critique at the corporatization of the modern research university. They say that the university is the institution of elitism, the perpetuation of privilege,…
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On getting kicked in the teeth: A letter to a friend
The following is a letter I wrote to a friend of mine a few days ago. The names have been changed and the personal information removed. — September 14, 2011 Dear Sarah, Yes, John is a strange fellow. The bad thing is that he’s boorish and dull. The good thing is that he understands the…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 