by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ It’s been several months, now, since my father – “Aba” – died, and the memory of these last, difficult years has receded just enough for some of the earlier, happier ones to begin to re-emerge. The last thing I worked with him on was Start-Ups, a book about his life... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ I am mostly out of the philosophy profession and have been for several years now, so but for Justin Weinberg and his Daily Nous, I would be unaware of the vital goings-on of professional philosophy's Bright Young Things and their fellow travelers. I would have never have known, for example,... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ Philosophy professors like to think that ours is a clarifying business, so some may be surprised to discover that we can be confused about things that most ordinary people are not. One of these things is partiality and impartiality and how they affect ethical questions. Certainly, the average person thinks... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ It is a strange thing to stare down at a box in a hole in the ground and think that your father is inside it, but that’s exactly what I did last Monday, when we buried my dad, Alexander Kaufman, who would have been 94 years old this June. I... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ I haven’t written anything ill-tempered about philosophers in a while. Those who read me regularly will know that for the last two years, I have been managing an ongoing and increasingly bleak situation with my elderly and infirm parents, so the antics of philosophy’s Bright Young Things haven’t seemed very... Continue Reading →
By Daniel A. Kaufman ___ On several occasions, I have described moral ‘oughts’ directed towards others as an invitation to self-governance. Moral Realism is a bust, so these oughts don’t derive from some transcendent moral order, and regardless, whether or not morals can be construed as objective or “Real” turns out not to matter. [1]... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Crispin Sartwell (Dickinson College) returns to Sophia to talk about the issues he has with compulsory, state-sponsored k-12 education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYm03FISkM4&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 10:50 - Crispin’s schooling experience in Washington DC 20:20 - The tension between learning and compulsion / Formal Compulsion and oppressive atmospheres 25:50 - Compulsion of minors considered more generally... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ In this episode of Sophia, I talk with Crispin Sartwell of Dickinson College about my essay, "Wanting and Doing." [https://theelectricagora.com/2021/05/25/wanting-and-doing/] We discuss action, desire, and powerlessness as understood in Christian theology and contemporary addiction discourse. https://youtu.be/F4zXOajVfmQ 4:04 Wanting and doing in Christian and Addiction Discourse. 36:54 Overeating and the Problem... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. --Paul, Letter to the Romans 7.15 (Revised Standard Version) ___ Remarks by Crispin Sartwell on addiction, during our second dialogue on my Prolegomena for a Pluralist Metaphysics,... Continue Reading →
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ What strikes me more than anything about our current moment is how utterly alien the dominant zeitgeist is from that of just a few decades ago. Increasingly, I find myself unable even to comprehend people’s reactions to social, political, and cultural developments, let alone identify with them. This rather abrupt... Continue Reading →
