Culture Education

Reading Groups, Like-Mindedness, & Participation

Intellect finds itself, not only in solitary activity, but also–perhaps primarily–in group settings. Even in adulthood, there are aspects of our intellect that remain invisible to us until we engage in the right conversation, or in the right playful mood, when we share the present moment with someone. If you have intellectual inclinations, you probably know the pleasure of conversation, including the simple pleasure of discussing a book in a group. This pleasure and the…

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Descriptive Psychology Education interview Phenomenological Psychology Phenomenology philosophical psychology

Interview with Marc Applebaum

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Marc Applebaum. We talked about his experience and education in psychological research and about how his interest was first developed in phenomenology. We also talk about phenomenological attitude, the importance of empathy with the experience of another human being, the connection between knowing someone and the style of relating to them, and how the phenomenological attitude differs from the attitude encouraged by natural scientific psychology. I hope…

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Education Teaching

The Solitude of Teaching

The teacher’s solitude is a burden as much as it is a necessity. This necessary burden is the product of a boundary we ought to protect. The teacher must absorb his or her disappointments, rather than react to them immediately and impulsively. Although the classroom is a “home,” for both the teacher and the students, the teacher doesn’t always have to feel at home. The feeling of being home is something he or she achieves…

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Education Psychology in Everyday Life

What Is Boredom?

I have started a weekly Zoom session, open to all psychology students at University of Macau, in order to provide a small support system for students (at least at the level of something being available) and to experiment with an unstructured and informal educational setting. The plan is to meet on Wednesdays, for only one hour each time, and talk about a topic in an informal and casual manner. Today was the first session. Four…

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book review Criticism Education

The Point of Criticism

Review of “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, & Life” by George Saunders Saunders’ book contains seven short stories in addition to his commentary on each. Out of the seven stories, three are by Anton Chekov, two by Leo Tolstoy, and the others are by Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol. The book is based on a university course on nineteenth-century Russian short stories that…

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