Category: philosophical counseling

• August 12, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: Vague Words and Well-specified Questions

  Certain philosophical terms have been slowly creeping into business culture and everyday speech, terms such as ‘meaning,’ ‘value,’ ‘direction,’ and ‘purpose,’ without its being possible, with any clarity or analytical rigor, to pin down their meanings. Calling a project ‘meaningful’ implies that one is drawing a line between projects that are not meaningful and those…
• August 8, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: Definitions (Excerpt)

  Preliminary Remark The good life and sustaining life are two separate, albeit connected, concepts. How they are connected, when they are connected properly, is the subject of this philosophical investigation. Definitions and Distinctions  1. By ‘the good life,’ I mean that for the sake of which one ultimately lives.  2. Throughout the course of this…
• August 7, 2014

  Philosophical Portraiture: Listening Intently and Considering Closely

  In Aleksandra’s most recently completed portrait, the subject is in the midst of a philosophical conversation. In the figure on the left, we see a man listening intently. He is either ready to hear another speak or, more likely, is in the middle of hearing someone make a claim. He is listening–but in what manner? Intently,…
• August 6, 2014

  The Good Life and Sustaining Life: An Inquiry into Our Great Vexation (An excerpt)

  Preface: Our Great Vexation There may be no greater vexation in our time than the question of how to make a living in a manner that accords with leading a good life. Laypersons may evade the question merely by closing their eyes and keeping their heads down; doing so involves the great effort of remaining…
• July 29, 2014

  The tragedy of the commons: Existential homelessness

  I have been discussing the three ways of making a living, one of which is concerned with using the property we have. One good test of my first maxim–using properly what you’ve got–would be the ‘tragedy of the commons.’ In a now famous paper, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons,’ which was originally published in Science in 1968,…