Tag: Learning

• January 30, 2014

  The nightwatchman is always fooled

  The nightwatchman is on the lookout for the intruder. He is instructed to be vigilant. He has learned by rote the common routes, and he has devised certain stratagems for staying awake, for being alert. But the danger always comes by surprise whenever and wherever he was not looking. He was looking but not for…
• June 29, 2013

  Reconsidering discipline and discipleship

  Let us begin with Henri Nouwen’s careful reflections on the mutual dependency of discipline and discipleship. Discipleship, he writes, calls for discipline. Indeed, discipleship and discipline share the same linguistic root (from discere, which means “to learn from”), and the two should never be separated. Whereas discipline without discipleship leads to rigid formalism, discipleship without…
• March 22, 2013

  A comparison of the genre of drama with that of philosophical inquiry

  Compare a couple of the playwright David Mamet’s reflections on drama (the full text is available here) with my own thoughts about the genre of philosophical inquiry. (To read an excerpt from my book, The Art of Inquiry, go here): Mamet: We know any drama ends when we find the answer to the question which gave…