Queer by Nature

By JohnR |

“Love” is not single act, such as gazing fondly at another, but is a total way of living in relation to another person that is enacted through myriad activities each of which on its own is neither a necessary condition for love nor a sufficient condition for love. Saying “I love you,” for example, does […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Protecting Identity

By JohnR |

We don’t just live in our minds.  We also don’t just live in a world with other people.  We live with the need to have the world in our mind fit with the world of other people, and the shape our life takes is determined by how these two mesh. At one level, this need […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Generosity and Critique

By JohnR |

In North America, we commonly buy gifts for our close friends and associates at Christmas and on birthdays, and anticipate in return that a similar group will send gifts our way at the appropriate times.  We can feel it, probably as a slight, when we do not receive a gift from a close friend, and […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Sensitive Matter

By JohnR |

Hurting another person is a very easy thing to do. We often think of “hurt” in terms of the pain induced by bodily injury.  This obviously is an important kind of hurt, but we should be careful to construe it rightly.  The harm is done to the body, but the hurt is a matter of […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

On Rules and Family Life

By JohnR |

When I was in India recently, I had occasion a number of times to travel on the highway.  What was striking to me, while travelling from Chennai to Puducherry or from Delhi to Agra, was how slow highway travel was.  Despite my drivers’ constant, aggressive attempts to push through traffic, and despite their preferred speeds […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Law of Laws

By JohnR |

There are many essential aspects of human life that are inherently non-individual, that is, aspects of life that individuals depend upon but that no individual alone could ever define, create or maintain.  Language is one of most obvious examples of this: minimally, language must be something adopted and developed by at least two people acting […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Descriptive Ethics

By JohnR |

We are constantly describing.  “I’m nervous about the interview” or “He’s such a funny guy” or “You have to pick that up.”  Our days are filled up with talking, or listening to others talk or reading what others have written, and all of these activities of language are basically matters of description. In many situations, […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gregarious and Solitary

By JohnR |

In his observation of the animal world, Aristotle noted that some animals naturally flock together, while some are naturally solitary.  The human animal, he observed, partakes of both characteristics.  We humans thrive only if it is both the case that we can be involved in groups and if we can function as independent individuals. This […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Calculating Your Earnings

By JohnR |

We often have a sense of pride in a product that we have made, and the effort we put into forming the thing gives us a sense of ownership. After years of practice with the soccer ball and the playing field, I feel on the “inside” of soccer, I feel that soccer is “my thing.”  […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

By Your Leave

By JohnR |

“I can finally relax,” she said.  “I couldn’t really enjoy the music when we were with them.  I really like those guys, but I’m not at ease with them.  I’m happy now to be able to go out with you, so that I can just focus on what I’m doing.”  That’s something I heard recently, […]

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 2 Comments