THE RISKS OF FREEDOM
Charles Hartshorne:
Before humanity there were far fewer terrible risks for life on this planet. It is the price of our escape from the relative tyranny of instinct that we are uniquely exposed to the perils of being able to fall into drastic conflict with our fellows and with the nonhuman animal life around us.
REMEMBERING JOE STAMEY
I’m embarrassed to say that I’m a bit proud of the fact that I was one of Richard Nixon’s mistakes.
Read moreON (NOT) READING KANT
Joe Stamey:
The many readers – rather nonreaders – of Kant who have claimed that the categorical imperative might allow the (moral) willing of a maxim that would subordinate everyone’s interests to mine, or to some concrete or particular group’s or individual’s, show that they are nonreaders.
A 'GOOD SOCIETY' SUPPORTS DUTIFUL ACTION
Mary Midgley:
Claire Mac Cumhaill and Rachel Wiseman, presenting (with quotes from) Mary Midgley’s thesis outline: “Without a good society, ‘the sequence of events becomes entirely irregular’ and when an individual acts ‘the traditional result does not necessarily follow.
STORIES MAKE A LIFE
Rebecca Solnit:
“… stories are your life. We are our stories, stories that can be both prison and the crowbar to break open the door of that prison; we make stories to save ourselves or to trap ourselves or others, stories that lift us up or smash us against the stone wall of our own limits and fears.
THERE'S READING, AND THEN THERE'S READING
I’ve always thought of myself as a reader. When I was in grade school, one of my parents’ preferred punishments for my childhood misdeeds was confining me to my room for a specified period of time.
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