In his essay “What is Enlightenment?” Immanuel Kant proposes that to achieve enlightenment, one needs the freedom to make public use of their reason. Any such summary statement would run the risk of misunderstanding Kant’s position if we overlook the significance of the public itself. Kant defines public as a universal space potentially shared by all human beings, and private as a local and situational space specific to practical concerns. The public is a place…
In “Where the Money Is: Value Investing in the Digital Age,” Adam Seessel draws on his early career as an award-winning journalist to bring his engaging style of writing to the world of capital markets. Intended for a wide audience beyond professional investors and analysts, Seessel focuses on value investing and how it differs from other investment styles, such as growth investing and short-term trading. He traces the history of value investing, highlighting key figures…
Self-help is a tricky subject. Depending on the audience, it can provoke intense sympathy and intense skepticism. A dismissive attitude toward the current self-help culture can point to the lack of substance and depth in the popular material, the deceitful and self-serving “gurus,” the hyper-optimism of followers, the fixation with “positive thinking,” the unrealistic promises, the individualistic bias, and the social-political blindspots. But should the self-help culture–with all its associated ideas and aspirations–be completely dismissed?…
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…
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…