Eudaimon Counseling

09/03/2023

My latest blog post, "Desire for Love as Desire for Truth," is up at https://www.eudaimon-counseling.com/post/desire-for-love-as-desire-for-truth
I hope you enjoy!

Upon waking today, it occurred to me that I wanted to write a post about how what makes romantic love so often irresistible is that it entails the feeling of love of truth; then I received the perfect fodder for this post in an article that just came out - "Agnes Callard's Marriage of Minds" - about...

05/04/2022

01/04/2022

My article published in Merion West a couple weeks ago, to mark the 2nd anniversary of and, in many countries, the transition away from pandemic-era restrictions. In the article, I reflect on what living during the pandemic has meant for all of us, through the lens of Aristotle's idea that to be a human being is to be something between a beast and a god. I argue that during the "corona-years" we been living as both gods (accessing the entire world through ) and beasts (confined in our homes, muzzled by our masks). But what will happen once the restrictions are lifted?

The article is called "Gods and Beasts: An Aristotelian View of the Corona-Years."
Read it here: https://merionwest.com/2022/03/15/gods-and-beasts-an-aristotelian-view-of-the-corona-years/

Merion West is an online magazine of culture and politics.

30/03/2022

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

Many of us have taken on roles and characters in order to perform the way we feel we have to in the world. These roles and characters enrich the world and allow ourselves to experience particular kinds of identities, but they limit our growth when we equate them with who we really are. Who we really are is both less and more than any of these roles or characters. To explore our real selves is to open up to the rich but more formless possibilities of our identity – which we do when we give up the constraints of an overly defined manner of being in the world.

If this speaks to you, sign up for the upcoming philosophical counseling group, "Developing Authenticity," which starts this April and runs through end of June. This group is a space in which to explore our rich, creative, vulnerable, and childlike but also incredibly dynamic and powerful selves. Join us if you want to be part of this life-affirming journey.

Find more information on : https://www.eudaimon-counseling.com/workshops-in-intentional-living

30/03/2022

25/01/2022

How philosophical conversation happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaqMaBzCSw

23/11/2021

20/11/2021

Philosophy counseling helps individuals who are facing difficult personal challenges and ethical choices, by doing what philosophy has always been about: leading people to know themselves better.

Write to me at [email protected] if you'd like to learn more about my practice in philosophical counseling.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjbdvx/why-some-people-are-talking-to-philosophers-instead-of-therapists

Some philosophical counselors offer useful help with problems of living; others aren’t sure mental illness is real. What will their field become?

04/07/2021

A peak into my latest project, which is an attempt to bring people from different parts of the political spectrum into dialogue that is productive and builds good faith. This week we discussed the way that America's history and matters of race in the US are taught in K-12 and what the right way to introduce certain critical perspectives on America's history may be.
One thing that comes to mind today is a point I first read in the (sometimes controversial, though hopefully not in this respect) political philosophy scholar Leo Strauss, who argued that what is distinct about America's conservatism is that it based on idealizing a founding moment that was itself radical and revolutionary - American conservatism is somehow tied up with a basically non-conservative political stance. This is one of the things I find interesting about the political development of these United States. A Happy July 4th to everyone!

14/05/2021

I typed some (literal) nonsense into Google and stumbled on this website: https://asdfjklsemicolon.com. I am happy to see there are people out there in the world who are taking it upon themselves to save humanity - one "different" person at a time.

You seem to have stumbled across my web page. Congratulations. Web pages are funny things. They try their hardest to get whatever the creator wants to say out to as many people as possible trying every tactic to attract and hold on to visitors. Without visitors, the website serves no purpose. That p...

20/04/2021

Bringing attention to Monica Vilhauer and Jennifer Scuro's excellent new Youtube channel Rogue Philosophers, and particularly this episode about philosophical counseling and how it can help people in dealing with a "shipwreck moment".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvqY3TVujTA

Dr. Monica Vilhauer and Dr. Jennifer Scuro discuss the importance and novelty of philosophical counseling to improve one's quality of life, to take on life c...

25/12/2020

Today I offer this quote from the Bible, which I read completely for the first time this year...
"And after six days Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain out of the way, and was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun and his clothes were as white as the light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said to Jesus: Master, here is good being for us. If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles: one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold a bright cloud shadowed them. And behold, there came a voice out of the cloud saying: This is my dear son, in whom I delight; hear him. And when the disciples heard that, they fell on their faces, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said: Arise, and be not afraid. And when they looked up, they saw no man, save Jesus only."
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone and may we all raise our vibration today and this year!! ❤️