What is your usual way of reacting to another person's actions or words? Where do you start? If we are honest with ourselves (at least ourselves), how often do we begin with a genuine effort to understand the other? “I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to … Continue reading Food For Thought From Baruch Spinoza
Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the Social World
He was friends with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and sought to come up with a theoretical alternative to the dichotomy of idealism vs realism. French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty thought that both these positions share the mistaken assumption of a ready-made world that we can know either intellectually (idealism) or empirically (realism). What was … Continue reading Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the Social World
Spreading the Word: Lifestyle of Doing Nothing
Have you ever wished just to do nothing for a while? Relax, have nowhere to be, nothing to attend to, no obligations, no responsibilities - at least for a day or two. To some, this sounds like a dream vacation or a state of inner peace worth cultivating. To others, it is the epitome of … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Lifestyle of Doing Nothing
Spreading the Word: What Is an Intellectual?
What does it mean to be an intellectual? What is it like to feel oneself an intellectual? Is it a public role or a more private, secluded vocation, a contemplative and quiet way of life? While 100 years ago the Dominican preacher and philosopher Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges emphasized the need for solitude (although, not isolation) if … Continue reading Spreading the Word: What Is an Intellectual?
Spreading the Word: Burnout Society
Where do hyperattention, hyper-productivity, and promoting constant personal improvement lead? To a burnout society, according to contemporary philosopher Byung-Chul Han. In this short video, professor Ellie Anderson discusses Han's book and some of the ideas he develops in it: The Burnout Society. Enjoy! Keeping up the "Spreading the Word" tradition, I hope to share an … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Burnout Society
Spreading the Word: Life in Shakespeare’s England
This Friday I share with you a fascinating video -"Social disorder in Shakespeare's England". It is a lecture by Oxford University's Dr Healey who specializes in this period of British history. Besides being an interesting historical overview, it also helps to form a better understanding of the social and cultural context in which Shakespeare lived … Continue reading Spreading the Word: Life in Shakespeare’s England
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