Since Mauss, gift v . market and state has been homologous with premodern v . modern. Nonsense, Godbout argues. Alongside the state and market systems, more fundamental than either, is the primary sociality of family, neighbors, personal relations - the realm of the gift. He writes, “before . . . . Continue Reading »
Early on in his The World of the Gift , Jacques Godbout offers this intriguing vignette: “A retired civil servant, an atheist and rationalist, totally secular, does volunteer work with a religious order that cares for the poor. ‘You know, I receive more than I give,’ he is quick . . . . Continue Reading »
In an interview with Wired about his movie Inception, director Christopher Nolan is questioned about an ambiguous scene in the film:So, there’s no one right answer.Oh no, I’ve got an answer.You do?!Yeah. I’ve always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be . . . . Continue Reading »
Pity the person who looks at the night sky and sees only hot glowing balls of gas. If he starts to speak, you are likely to get a great deal of hot air, but little romantic glow. Knowing the composition of a thing is good, but it is at least as good to know what a thing is to mankind.Stars are more . . . . Continue Reading »
Charles Taylor neatly contrasts Augustine’s conception of time and eternity to that of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus. Eternity is not for him timelessness but “gathered time.” He expounds: Augustine’s “instant is not the ‘nun’ of Aristotle, . . . . Continue Reading »
In an article on dead metaphor, Andrzej Pawelec contrasts Lakoff and Johnson’s ballyhooed (by them!) notion of “cognitive metaphor” with the romantic view of metaphor propounded by Shelley and other poets. ”Lakoff’s view is ‘scientific’: he looks . . . . Continue Reading »
My colleague Jonathan McIntosh takes issue with my post about nature in Aristotle: “I like the idea of questioning or challenging Aristotle’s notion of nature, but is it possible that your remarks confuse ‘not being impeded by an external influence for the fulfillment of . . . . Continue Reading »
The concept of nature is front-loaded. Nature is what things are in their origin. Hence physis sometimes means “birth.” Hence too Arius: If the Father is ungenerated and the Son begotten, then they must have distinct natures. Athanasius and the Cappadocians deny the premise. . . . . Continue Reading »
Aristotle argued that certain kinds of things have “a principle of motion and of stationariness,” an “innate impulse to change.” Artificial things do not have such an impulse or principle, insofar as they are products of art, though “in so far as they happen to . . . . Continue Reading »
Recently I was asked my opinion on anthropogenic global warming. In the ensuing discussion, there was criticism of my rejection of “the majority opinion of ‘experts’” as a good or valid method to base my position. Having rejected that, I was asked by what means, if not the . . . . Continue Reading »
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