Depending on the venue, shots of Socrates, Kant and Nietzsche will be supplemented with chasers of yoga, tai chi, meditation, music, dance and virtual reality experiences. – The New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Problem With Trying To Be Morally Perfect
Can the moral saint, if perfect, ‘waste’ time watching films and television? How about spending any money on fine food or travel? Or expending energy on sport rather than seriously important causes? Or going birdwatching or hiking? No time either for theatre or the pleasures of curling up with a good book. The problem with extreme altruism, as Oscar Wilde is reported to have said about socialism, is that it takes up too many evenings. – Aeon
Why There Are So Many Of Those Cheesy Christmas Movies
This, when uttered in the context of a Hallmark holiday movie, is a beacon to the Christmas spirits, who know one thing, and pretty much one thing only: No one should simply muddle through the holidays. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not — however you find meaning in the time of year that these movies shorthand as “the season” — the ideal, these films insist, is unmitigated joy. — The Atlantic
The Most-Popular Poem Of 2018
More than 250,000 people in 2018 clicked on the poem, which features such lines as “It is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes.” – Washington Post (AP)
English National Opera Makes Its Saturday Shows Free For Under-18s
“Removing cost as a barrier to entry for under-18s is a seismic leap forward for ENO and for opera as a whole, and we hope to entice as many under-18s as possible, from the musically obsessed to the just plain curious.” – The Stage
The Phenomenally Successful School That Exposed A Major Flaw In Higher Ed
Even taking the alleged fakery into account, how did T. M. Landry school seem to fool so many of America’s most prestigious universities for years? The work of admissions officers is notoriously secretive, but what little is known about the Landry affair threatens foundational assumptions about American higher education. – The Atlantic
Women-Only Music Festival In Sweden Found Guilty Of Gender Discrimination
A new ruling said that although festival organisers did not enforce the “man-free” rule, since “no differentiation based on sex was made between visitors at entry”, the statements the company issued prior to the event “discouraged a certain group from attending the event”, breaching a law banning gender discrimination. – Irish Times
How Cafe Culture Changed Debate
It wasn’t that the conversations in the café were necessarily intellectually productive; it was that the practice of free exchange itself—the ability to interact on equal terms with someone not of your clan or club—generated social habits of self-expression that abetted the appetite for self-government. – The New Yorker
Want To Succeed? Listen To Those Who Disagree With You
Philosophers go to conferences to find critics who can help them improve their theories. All of us need to recognise the value of listening carefully and charitably to opponents. Then we need to go to the trouble of talking with those opponents, even if it means leaving our comfortable neighbourhoods or favourite websites. – Aeon
A Philosopher Asks: Would It Be So Bad If Humans Went Extinct?
What I am asking here is simply whether it would be a tragedy if the planet no longer contained human beings. And the answer I am going to give might seem puzzling at first. I want to suggest, at least tentatively, both that it would be a tragedy and that it might just be a good thing. – The New York Times