Category: philosophical counseling
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On getting kicked in the teeth: A letter to a friend
The following is a letter I wrote to a friend of mine a few days ago. The names have been changed and the personal information removed. — September 14, 2011 Dear Sarah, Yes, John is a strange fellow. The bad thing is that he’s boorish and dull. The good thing is that he understands the…
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Concerning the ills of talkativeness
The lovely thing about Plutarch is that no subject is too common that it cannot reveal much about us and our minor vices. So it is with talkativeness. The chatterer, in saying much, lacks much. He lacks self-control and courage, secrets flowing too freely from his open mouth and loose tongue. Yet what he lacks…
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On the Ulysses effect: Insight, foresight, and ingenuity
The Story Aware that, when the time comes, he will be unable to resist the siren’s beautiful song yet cognizant of the fact that the siren is really a death trap, Ulysses advises his men to secure him firmly to the ship’s mast. That way, he can listen to the song without being lured to…
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Todd May on the meaningfulness of lives
In his New York Times The Stone blog “On the Meaningfulness of Lives,” Todd May seeks to rescue the concept of meaning from Sartre’s pronouncement that in a godless universe the concept is unintelligible. A worthy endeavor. Here’s how the argument goes. 1. Distinctions. Meaningfulness is not morality (good or bad, good or evil). Meaningfulness is…
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How is willpower weakened and strengthened?
In his New York Times Book Review of Roy Baumeister and John Tierney’s book Willpower, “The Sugary Secret of Self-Control,” Steven Pinker says, And he [Baumeister] showed that self-control, though almost certainly heritable in part, can be toned up by exercising it. He enrolled students in regimens that required them to keep track of their eating,…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 