The power of the 8-minute walk

"...even if it is only an eight-minute interlude around the block or a few moments in a nearby park, a walk is already a journey in which many of the grander themes of travel are present... https://t.co/XSds7lzZLm to Travel 300621

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) June 30, 2021

philosophy without borders: our latest posts, 21 – 28 june 2021

> Dear Philosopher, Philosophically-Minded Person, or Member, Fellow
> Traveller, or Friend of PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS,
>
> As many who receive this note will doubtless already know, PHILOSOPHY
> WITHOUT BORDERS, created in 2013, is a small cosmopolitan community of
> people, widely distributed in space and across time-zones, connected by
> the internet, who are pursuing philosophy together as a full-time,
> lifetime calling.
>
> PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS has two basic aims:
>
> • to enable and support the pursuit of philosophy, worldwide, and
>
> • to create and share original works of philosophy freely available to
> anyone, anywhere.
>
> Here are our latest posts—
>
> THE LIMITS OF SENSE AND REASON: A Line-By-Line Critical Commentary on
> Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," #18–The Necessary Equivalence of
> Experience-of-Objects and Objects-of-Experience.
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://againstprofphil.org/2021/06/20/the-limits-of-sense-and-reason-a-line-by-line-critical-commentary-on-kants-critique-of-pure-reason-18-the-necessary-equivalence-of-experience-of-objects-and-objec/__;!!Cx0GcAwIk107!oMXxmrr54ZidyYoCBVgyau2AY-5gp-Cto1_LWjtzTDYc2GutqCRandUYZuEUQ5M8Dlg$
>
> A Theory of Human Dignity, #13–The Neo-Person Thesis, Neo-Persons, and
> Non-Persons.
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://againstprofphil.org/2021/06/20/a-theory-of-human-dignity-13-the-neo-person-thesis-neo-persons-and-non-persons/__;!!Cx0GcAwIk107!oMXxmrr54ZidyYoCBVgyau2AY-5gp-Cto1_LWjtzTDYc2GutqCRandUYZuEUkVrsUkI$
>
> ***
>
> PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT BORDERS is home-based on Patreon, here—
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.patreon.com/philosophywithoutborders__;!!Cx0GcAwIk107!oMXxmrr54ZidyYoCBVgyau2AY-5gp-Cto1_LWjtzTDYc2GutqCRandUYZuEU6xtPKQ0$ >.
>
> So if you're not already a patron, please consider becoming one!

Best Buddhism Books | Five Books Expert Recommendations

https://fivebooks.com/category/religions

The way we were

'The Intellectual Life' https://t.co/meRe5B2YgL
(https://twitter.com/TerenceJSweeney/status/1402434104340135937?s=02)

Advice to the parent of a prospective English major

My son is finishing up his first year of college and is thinking of majoring in English, and I would love to know your thoughts about whether this is a worthwhile thing for him to do. Wouldn't it be better to go into an engineering, math, or science field? Not everyone becomes a best-selling author like you, and I'd like him to be able to earn a livable wage.

Concerned Mom

Your son will follow his enthusiasm and ambition and find some good teachers and that will lead him off in directions unknown. I think the Department of English is one of the worst places to go since it's been so thoroughly politicized and demented, and the pleasure of language has been completely leached out. Mortuary Science is a celebration compared to the English Dept. Take notice of what he's reading and read the works for yourself and maybe start up a conversation. If he insists on majoring in English, offer to pay him for two years to sit in a rented room in a small town and read all the classics from Chaucer to Cheever and Jane Austen and Dickens and not skip Henry James and the Brontës and Twain and do Shakespeare, of course, and Shelley and Hardy, but no criticism — keep him away from the teachers. During those two years, he'll likely find a lover and if, as odds favor, she's a woman, then a family is likely, and they'll need to think about income. Best-selling authors don't come out of the English Department: it is there to kill their interest, so English grads tend to become English teachers, and this is perilous work. You can be the greatest Shakespeare scholar in the land but if two students accuse you of insensitivity to people with freckles and brown eyes, you're likely to be thrown in the ditch. This sort of nonsense doesn't go on in engineering or math because in those fields, there is a clear demarcation of competence, unlike in the humanities where it is entirely a beauty contest. Good luck to you both and if you've been neglecting prayer in your life, now is the time to resume. -GKeillor