In Book I (345e-347a) of the Republic, Socrates distinguishes between one's ability to succeed at a craft (to be a craftsman) and one's ability to succeed in being paid (to be a wage-earner); and states that the two abilities should be considered in isolation
A few days ago, I wrote about how difficult it can be to learn about cultures that are unconnected to one's own; how we lack a context in which to understand what we are trying to learn. Part of my difficulty in this kind of learning is that
Senior American politicians who cannot tell a Sunni from a Shi'ite have been rightly roasted in recent years. However, to learn about a culture completely alien from your own is difficult. My ancestors are mostly from Western Europe. I grew up hearing the names Locke, Kant, and Descartes,
This morning, my breakfast was a fruit smoothie that I bought at Starbucks. Then I bought a large iced tea at Starbucks. While I sipped the iced tea, I listened to a jazz compilation released by Hear Music, the music label created by Starbucks. I appear to have been colonized.
I was looking for some dark socks this weekend, and I noticed that Dockers-brand socks were the lowest-priced ones on the Meier & Frank rack. Name-brand. Low price. Why not? So I get home this evening, take off my shoes, and see holes in the toes of
On the sleeve of his 1978 album London Town, Paul McCartney is wearing a patterned summer shirt. I saw a shirt with almost the same pattern for sale today at The Gap.
On my way to work this morning, I saw a woman outside wearing a skirt with a hemline above the knee. It was 41° F at the time.