Category: politics
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Alternative educational models: A philosophical overview
Philosophical Questions Q: What is human nature? A: Human nature is thinking-crafting. Q: What is community? A: Community is self-governance aimed at the common good (an anarchist principle with a republican final end) Q: What is education? A: Education is the cultivation of our thinking-crafting natures realized in self-governance and striving toward the common good.…
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On Montaigne’s moment
Could Montaigne be the philosopher for the early 21st C.? When Montaigne wrote in the 1580s, the Wars of Religion were raging all around him in France. The Reformation had already put the “problem of the criterion” center stage: How do we know God, and for that matter how do we know anything? Pyrronian skepticism…
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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…
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Brooks’ modesty manifesto
In “The Modesty Manifesto,” David Brooks argues that over the past 50 odd years our culture has overemphasized self-esteem with the result that we do not know ourselves and we have failed to become virtuous citizens wedded to common causes. Further Reading Thomas Nagel, “David Brooks’s Theory of Human Nature” Andrew Taggart, “Who is David…
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Our 21st. C. political puzzle
Here is the puzzle for 21st C. political theory. 1. The Communitarian Argument runs: Government must provide for what we cannot provide for ourselves. 2. The Libertarian Argument runs: Government, by its very nature, infringes upon individual freedom: privacy, property, and choice. The name ascribed to government encroachment is “big.” As Rick Perlstein points out in “Enemies…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 