In this week’s spotlight I’d like to discuss circularity through something known as hermeneutics, or the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation. Recently I had the opportunity to discuss with a friend our recent show with Professor Patrick Grim. At one point in our conversation, Grim suggested that he was becoming more and more inclined towards perspectivism, the idea that perception, experience, and reason change according to the viewer’s relative perspective and interpretation. Perspective I referred to the work of Nietzsche, in particularly his “Will to Power” essay and ... Read More
In this week’s spotlight we turn our attention to happiness. What is happiness? What makes you happy? Is happiness something we can hold on to—maintain throughout our lives; or does it come and go like shadows in the dawn? Do we have to know unhappiness in order to recognize happiness? Or is happiness just the absence of unhappy situations or circumstances? Happiness Defined Webster is not much help when it comes to defining happiness. Webster simply puts it this way, “Happiness: the state of being happy.” Perhaps one of the ... Read More
In today’s spotlight I wish to address the notion of a truth and through the thinking of one of the world’s great philosophers, that of Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard learned a way of thinking—a way of life, from Socrates. Kierkegaard sought a “truth…for which he was willing to live and die.” A Life Worth Living Nowhere is Kierkegaard’s life intention captured better than in the words of Hans Friedrich Helweg who, about a month after Kierkegaard died, published an article entitled Hegelianism in Denmark. A large part of Helweg’s article focuses ... Read More
In this week’s spotlight I’d like to discuss the idea of fairness. What does it mean to be fair? Now most people are generally pretty certain they understand the difference between fair and unfair—that is, until you dig down into the grit. What do I mean by that? Perception There is an old story of a group of blind men and an elephant. As the story goes, when they encounter the elephant for the first time, they each touch a different part of the animal and come away with a ... Read More
In this week’s spotlight, I want to discuss bullying, but not the schoolyard bullying we generally think of when the subject of bullying comes up. No, instead I want to address the idea that there is a great deal of bullying going on in our society over ideas. Heightened Arousal We live at a time when potential tragedy seems to lurk everywhere, and this fear only heightens our sense of arousal, our readiness for fight or flight. 2020 for many people has simply become a nightmare year and the nightmare ... Read More
