An interlocutor in a debate I recently heard tried to suggest that there is an ultimately ‘subjective’ reality in every person that no one else can have access to or contest. In the context of the debate, he was arguing that there are things a person can recognize to be true about himself, and othersContinue reading “A Note on Truth & Language”
Tag Archives: Community
Friendship and Its Contexts
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the nature of friendship and its profound (and perhaps near primary) importance in a fulfilling human life. This claim in itself could and has been the subject of much discourse, but his development of this topic provides many other ideas that are worth pursuing in their own right. OneContinue reading “Friendship and Its Contexts”
Communication & Communion
As I have indicated in prior blog posts, I enjoy finding etymological connections between words and thinking through how those connections might inform our living. Thinking about terms that have the same origin might inform us about how others have thought and even the way we implicitly think as we use our languages (usually unreflectively).Continue reading “Communication & Communion”
The Coffee Shop
All tables and chairs seat chattering folksIn talk that ranges from debates to jokes; Scents of brewing and baking all around. A meek, old couple engaging in ScrabbleWhile two, young babes persistently babble; Hot drinks – mere pretext for smiles to be found. Familiar faces rushing by outsideAs calm within is allowed to abide; CoffeeContinue reading “The Coffee Shop”
A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force
In what is, in my view, one of the most audacious works of political theory written in the twentieth century, The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt formulates a distinction between two ways in which human beings relate to one another: power & force. This pairing is specified by her to have a meaning that is notContinue reading “A Reflection on What Moves Us: Power & Force”
Hoping for Clarity 