Category: philosophical counseling

• March 16, 2011

  Models for post-university life

  Check out my latest piece entitled “Models for Post-University Life”; just appeared in Inside Higher Ed. You can also read the original blog, “Can one lead a life of the mind in a post-patronage society?” Part 1 of 4. Update For a while, I’ve been mulling over the idea for a blog, “The Last Career,” which…
• March 13, 2011

  Why being laid-back may not be a virtue

  Being “laid-back” has become something of a buzzword. Roommates are laid-back. So are managers–good ones. And boyfriends–the ones worth holding onto anyway. Apparently, being laid-back is a great virtue. About what topics are those who profess to be laid-back truly laid-back? About another person’s actions or behaviors; about her choices in life; about his values…
• March 11, 2011

  On the saying, ‘There’s more than one way to skin a cat’

  So far in New York, I haven’t found that any direct route takes me to my desired goal. Many are the paths that terminate in dead ends; many are those that, after a time, start resembling circles; many seem to lead nowhere and then, after I’ve begun trying something else, present themselves differently; a few–the…
• March 9, 2011

  Then Bon Jovi again

  Excerpts from my diary dated March 9, 2011 3 a.m. Hungering for the day, for coffee, for dawn. 10:30 a.m. Queueing at the DMV. Listening to Bon Jovi, “Livin’ on a Prayer” in the background. Thinking of childhood, then of disappointment. Hearing that license is too long expired to be renewed. Today is colder than…
• March 9, 2011

  Philosophy as confession

  In his review of Stanley Cavell’s autobiography, “Philosophy as Confession,” John Cottingham seeks to show that Cavell’s way of doing philosophy is more humane than the desiccated way of doing philosophy in the academy. For a number of years, Cottingham has been trying to effect a rapprochement between philosophy, religion, and psychoanalysis. He finds a…