Category: philosophical counseling
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Existential Weight, Existential Truth, Existential Betrayal, And Existential Heroism
Consider that a philosophical conversation is centered on asking and seeking to answer the most basic questions of human existence. But not just this, for it is also concerned with our lives becoming the answers we’ve come to so far. Grant as much. Then when I have a philosophical conversation, I’m looking–intuitively, that is–for a…
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‘You Married The Wrong Woman’
You married the wrong woman. And then you had children with her. For years, you’ve been going to see a marriage counselor in the hope that she could provide you two with the tools you needed to cope with the relationship. Now you’re beginning to see. The years you spent in your seated practice didn’t…
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Who I Am Is ‘Neither Perceivable Nor Conceivable’
Nisargadatta was once asked, "Who are you?" He replied: "Who I am is neither perceivable nor conceivable." Anything you perceive discard. Anything you conceive discard. What, then, is 'beyond' the mental and the physical? Not even a leafless tree at that point! — Andrew J. Taggart (@andrewjtaggart) September 24, 2019 “Who I am is neither…
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On Psychedelics And The Orange Meme
Not long ago, another man living in New York, this one in his mid-50s and working in investment banking, took a trip upstate on one Friday. This man, who’s pretty polymathic, is a scientific rationalist, mostly. He was to be away for three days at an event where psychedelics would be taken on Saturday, and…
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The Fear of Death, The Meaning Crisis, And The Orange Meme
I recently had a philosophical conversation with a lovely and intelligent man, someone I’m quite fond of, someone who’s a co-founder living in New York. For quite a while, he’s been afraid of his own death and of the death of those he loves. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote, “A picture held us captive.…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 