Category: philosophical counseling
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Friday meditation: On gift giving, potlatches, and the modern world
The Gift Exchange I think it was last week when I had a conversation with John Mitchinson of Unbound books. I write “I think it was last week” because I’m starting to run all my conversations together, and my days have started to lose their hard edges. Near the end of my conversation with John,…
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A critique of CBT – Part 2
Kantian Critique as Just Generosity Kant’s conception of critique is meant to give us an accurate assessment of the instrument under investigation: of its proper uses, overuses, and misuses. There is a generosity of spirit in showing a pupil how something is to be used as well as in admonishing her for using it in ways…
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A critique of CBT – Part 1
Update: I’ve written some later reflections on CBT entitled “A Re-Evaluation of CBT.” The latter post is the culmination of over a year of working with conversation partners whose previous experiences were in cognitive therapies. Throughout, it should be borne in mind that I consider philosophical practice (for more about which, see here) to bear no resemblance to…
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On living out indirect proofs: Not the vocation, the career, or the project but the life-work
1. We might say that life is one long indirect proof. We have to live a conception out before we can rule it out. In ruling it out, we come upon a more hopeful conception of a well-lived life. 2. Throughout the history of western civilization, we have lived out a number of conceptions of…
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Pinning down philosophical counseling: Short & long & elliptical answers
One of the questions I get quite often is what the hell is philosophical counseling. To be honest, I probably have this conversation just about every day. Here’s one example from an editor who will be publishing one of my essays on child-rearing and moral education. He tells me that I need to attach a…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 