Category: philosophical counseling
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The riddle of meaningful work
A Misplaced Desire The desire to do meaningful work or to do what one loves needs to be brought into question. I too once made the assumption that meaningful work stretches most of the way across a good life. I don’t think so any longer. Further philosophical and historical reflection reveals that the desire for meaningful work…
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Movement and rest: The modern vs. the ancient view
The Modern Picture: Movement Before Rest 1. We moderns believe that movement is metaphysically prior as well as superior to rest. 2. To move is chiefly to act. 3. Action is goal-oriented. 4. An act is the means by which something other (a goal, an ideal, a target) is realized. 5. Action is governed chiefly by…
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Socrates contra dogmatism, skepticism, and agnosticism
How, in all things, does one steer clear of dogmatism without being a skeptic or becoming an agnostic? The dogmatist is anyone who claims to know for certain, the skeptic (of the kind I have in view) being doubtful about what we can know for sure. If we are neither dogmatists nor skeptics, then aren’t we committed…
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Socratic Moral perfection and the Unity of Virtue
One can start to make heads and tails of Socrates’s discussion of the unity of virtue with Protagoras once one introduces the concept of moral perfection. Written in 1969, John Passmore’s book, The Perfectibility of Man, remains a touchstone on this subject. Moral perfection, which is but one kind of perfection and which is not to be confused…
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Virtue’s supremacy and its directiveness: Reflections on Vlastos’s Socrates
In Socrates’s moral philosophy, what is the right relationship between virtue and human flourishing? In Gregory Vlastos’s view, wherein he defends the Sufficiency Thesis, there are four components: 1. Human flourishing is the final end, that for the sake of which all else is done. All action aims ultimately at human flourishing. 2. Virtue reigns supreme…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 