Tag: philosophy
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On Dolly Parton and the Beauty of Virtue
Dolly Parton is not simply a good person, or a beautiful poetess; she is both beautiful and good, in a way the philosophy of character strives to explain but can’t always illustrate convincingly. … it may be that Dolly can do more to explain the philosophers than the other way around. Let us make a […]
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Assumptions, Questioned and Un-
What counts as knowledge – that is, knowledge of reality? This is a question for the philosophers, in the end; but, as Gramsci said, everyone is a philosopher, so it’s a question for all of us. And while Gramsci’s point was that everyone has a philosophy, one they live by, some philosophers are better than […]
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So, Just Your Ordinary Gothic Murder Romance SciFi/Time Travel Mystery Novel, eh?
Turton, Stuart. The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Sourcebooks Landmark, 2018. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] This is one of those books that wind up on the stack because someone else in the house was reading it and enjoying it so much that I got curious and a little envious and said “Hey, […]
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Greatest Hits of Aesthetics?
Kul-Want, Christopher and Piero. Introducing Aesthetics: A Graphic Guide. Icon Books, 2012. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] The problems with aesthetics begin with spelling and pronunciation. In my experience, a lot of people incline to calling it ascetics. I took some courses on aesthetics once, and I usually think I like it, but […]
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A Toolkit for the Life of the Mind
Julian Baggini and Peter S. Fosl. The Philosopher’s Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods. Second edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project.] My sister-in-law has bought me a number of outstanding books for Christmas over the years. This is one of them. I’m not technically a philosopher. I like philosophy, […]
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Postmodern Dialectics for Bible Study
Westphal, Merold. Whose Community? Which Interpretation? Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church. The Church in Postmodern Culture, James K.A. Smith, Series Editor. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project.] This marvelous book by Merold Westphal ended up on the “Read Me” shelf because it was cited in a paper I read […]
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From Socrates to Sartre at Super Speed
T.Z. Lavine. From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest. New York: Bantam Books, 1984. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project] How this book ended up on the Read Me Shelf is a mystery. It doesn’t look like it came from any of the usual book stores, and it’s old. This makes me think that […]
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Working Theology
Gramsci said that everyone is a philosopher – because everyone has a philosophy of life. In that sense, everyone is also a theologian. Everyone has a theology – a talk about God – whether it’s derived from the Catechism of the Catholic Church or what the madrasa curriculum covers or Mom’s explanation of puja or […]
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Epistemological Question
Wanted: help with contemporary epistemology! I think that the popular “correspondence” theory of truth has been more or less abandoned in thoughtful circles these days, replaced by things like “coherence” theories, assessed by criteria like “comprehensiveness.” I think I understand that, although I’m no expert. I think I partially understand the notion of “warranted true […]
Matters of Interpretation 