Newsletter: January 2024

What is to be gained from contemplating one’s mortality? And are you missing out on anything if you don’t?

Existentialism in Twentieth-Century Culture

Existentialism captures the popular imagination partly because it’s so much more than just philosophy.

Newsletter: December 2023

Gift exchange at its best is a playful form of status exchange. It acknowledges that relationships always involve imbalances of power, but shows that both parties to the relationship are comfortable enough with one another that they can switch between the roles of creditor and debtor with ease and grace.

On “Bourgeois” Philosophy

Especially on matters of value, it often seems settled from the outset that our minds or our hearts aren’t actually supposed to be changed in the process of reading or writing philosophy.

Newsletter: November 2023

Autumn, as a season of changes, is a fine time to reflect on impermanence, its sadness, and its beauty.

What Is Existentialism Part Four: “Broad Church” Existentialism

The term “existentialism” has taken on a life of its own and has found application in a wide range of contexts. In a wry nod to existentialism’s complicated relationship with religion, I’ll call this broader movement “broad church existentialism.”

Newsletter: October 2023

The self-regard that Sikhs call haumai might show itself clearly in moments of greed or arrogance but it’s an undercurrent of most of our lives most of the time. Giving attention to this undercurrent, and working to overcome it, seems to me a worthy undertaking, whether or not you identify as Sikh.

What Living Philosophers Will Still Be Read in 2123?

Which philosophers that are alive today will people still be reading one hundred years from now? There’s excellent philosophy and then there’s excellent philosophy that lasts. What’s the difference?

Newsletter: September 2023

Most of us in North America are only beginning to learn what it means to relate to the land and its original inhabitants in a reciprocal and sustainable fashion. Doing this involves appreciating the difference between property rights and stewardship—both in terms of what that means for how we treat the land and for whose land we say it is.

What Is Existentialism? Part Three: Historical Antecedents

“It doesn’t have to be this way” could be the rallying cry of existentialism. You’re free to live otherwise than you do, and if you hew to the life you’re leading, that, too, is your choice, and that choice is your responsibility. This sort of thinking didn’t burst onto the scene in the nineteenth century.