Category: meditation

• March 23, 2011

  Philosophical counseling and the language of trying things out

  Preface There is a beautiful line in the late philosopher Robert Nozick’s book The Examined Life about taking a position. Nozick confesses that when he was younger he believed, like any good analytic philosopher, that he had to take a position on everything. As he got older, he realized that “position-taking”–the presumed need to make…
• March 22, 2011

  Ivan Illich on ascesis

  ASCESIS. Introduction, etymology and bibliography 1989.-Ivan Illich The following is a brief excerpt.  The article can be read in its entirety here. NB: Pierre Hadot has written extensively about ascesis in What is Ancient Philosophy? and in Philosophy as a Way of Life. — I want to cultivate the capacity for second thoughts, by which…
• March 20, 2011

  Alternative educational models: A philosophical overview

  Philosophical Questions Q: What is human nature? A: Human nature is thinking-crafting. Q: What is community? A: Community is self-governance aimed at the common good (an anarchist principle with a republican final end) Q: What is education? A: Education is the cultivation of our thinking-crafting natures realized in self-governance and striving toward the common good.…
• March 19, 2011

  On the difference between falling asleep and taking a nap
• March 14, 2011

  Reflections on two months of blogging, on page clicks, referrers, searches, and, above all, anonymous readers

  A blog seems to me a curious thing. One day you set up shop and natter away. The next nobody looks over your shoulder while you do so. You can write in public, but there’s no public. You urinate in the park without getting caught. Then, for no apparent reason, someone stumbles upon your blog,…