Erich Fromm is an influential social philosopher and prolific writer, whose life work offers a provocative synthesis of Western capitalism, Marxist humanism and socialist rational planning. He defines two modes of being: “to have” and ” to be”, and examines the characteristics and values of lives led in each mode with respect to materialism, politics, […]
Month: November 2009
Leadership: Believing in others as a way of life
Leadership as a belief in others there are two models of leadership that I am directly familiar with. The first is the leadership quality model which treats leadership as a quality manifested by the leader, often composed of subordinate virtues like honesty, loyalty, competence, empathy. In this sense leadership could be considered a state of […]
AP trying to do the math
The AP assigns 11 staff writers to immediately fact check Palin’s book. They apparently haven’t yet read Obama’s book, which precludes them from asking him why he won’t admit that it was written by Bill Ayers
Reflecting on the ancient philosophers and their practice
Hadot’s thesis is that the ancient Greek philosophers understood philosophy to be a love of wisdom, He placed philosophers in a state of conscious striving, between the already realized perfect wisdom of the gods and the masses of unconscious humankind, unaware or unconcerned with arête (excellence). He examined how four schools and two refinements answered […]
Ask a Pakistani why Afghanistan matters
If you want to know, ask somebody: (ht: smallwarsjournal) Afghanistan: Seven Fundamental Questions by Major Mehar Omar Khan I know we live in a world that is real and is moved by minds – thinking, manipulating, conniving, conspiring, calculating and masquerading minds. Our world therefore seldom has a place for ‘sentiments’ – pure, sincere, honest […]
The weightless administration is even further out of touch
At some point, you hope the administration will find the time to prevent a possible wave of shootings of Americans by Muslims. You know, to go along with the duty description of Department of Homeland Defense The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the […]
A Reflection on my professor’s commentary on my mid-term assessment
On engaging more with fellow class members: i think on the engagement piece, i have to look to hook in more to where my peers are rather than where i want them to be. I have to start from their position and proceed rather than trying to drag them to my position. I think […]
Our hope is changing in the wind
The New York Times reports: The group’s calculations last week put the number of American jobs at a little more than 300 — most of them temporary construction jobs, along with about 30 permanent positions once the wind farm is operating. Mr. McGarr told The Wall Street Journal that more than 2,000 Chinese jobs would […]
Reflections on critiquing the writing of others
Giving feedback about the paper is a way to show who you are and how much you care about the author. Suppose, in your opinion, the author has made a glaring error in logic or has not supported the thesis, or mischaracterized an opposing view, and because you are concerned about hurting their feelings, you […]
War is hell
From The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army. The book chronicles the careers of four different generals (GEN John Abizaid, GEN George Casey Jr, GEN Peter Chiarelli, and GEN David Petraeus).: A few weeks before he was scheduled to depart, Abizaid was walking on a […]