Category: philosophical counseling
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What is work?
The first principle of all action is leisure. Both are required, but leisure is better than occupation and is its end; and therefore the question must be asked, what ought we to do when at leisure? –Aristotle, Politics [Under capitalism,] one does not work to live; one lives to work. –Max Weber Transvaluation of Values:…
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Re-bundling Content: $10 Entire Ebook Collection
Re-bundling: The Very Possibility Since the emergence of the Internet Age, the general trend has been to unbundle content (newspapers and print magazines etherized and anatomized into articles, albums cut into 99 cent singles), to make content available via search, and for aggregation sites to skim advertising profits and other profits by nudging users to pass through their sites in order…
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Being refuted is better than refuting: Gorgias
Because I think it better, Socrates tells Polus, to be refuted than to refute. Being refuted releases one from false belief, and that is a better thing than freeing someone from false belief. And I count having false beliefs as a very bad thing indeed. You do another a favor by refuting him. He had beliefs…
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Socrates contra violence
The great sophist Hippias is losing his patience. Hippias had given what was proclaimed to be a fine (kalon) speech, and Socrates had remained silent. Afterward, Hippias agreed to entertain questions from those in attendance. Socrates sees his opening. During the speech, he couldn’t understand how Hippias could insist, if only in passing, that in Homer’s eyes…
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The tension between Zen and Socrates
I am becoming more aware each day of the tension between the Socratic way of life and Zen practice. For Socrates, there is in the beginning the logos, or speech saying what is the case. For Zen, there is silence before the existence of the spoken word. The tension can be plainly stated: is knowledge primordially discursive or non-discursive? I do…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 