After writing Part 1 of this series, the idea of the fool and Peterson’s inadequate treatment of it stayed with me, and in my mind I continued searching for good examples that embody the idea of the fool. Then I remembered the character, Sabina, from Milan Kundera’s the Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is an excellent example. Another character from the same novel, Tomas, goes through the process of becoming the fool in the story.…
I have decided to go through Jordon Peterson’s recent book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, and record a commentary here. These are quick notes, which is to say I’m leaving room for reconsideration and changing my mind in the future. Let’s begin. Rule 1: Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievements. There isn’t much new material in this chapter, compared with Peterson’s earlier “12 Rules for Life”, with the exception of…
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…
In the most recent post, which began this series, I said that I would discussion of Thomas Teo’s (2017) article, “From psychological science to the psychological humanities: Building a general theory of subjectivity“. If you have not yet read that article, I’d encourage you to do so, because what I’ve written here is a response to Teo’s article. While thinking about that article, let us also remember our general plan: We want to know what…
Because I have already used the phrase, “psychological humanities”, and because I know I am going to use the phrase in the near future (both here and on my YouTube channel), I have decided to spend some time on introducing it. Trying to provide an introduction gives me a chance to reflect on psychological humanities. I also hope to improve my understanding with the help of your feedback. Let’s begin with Thomas Teo’s 2017 article,…