The mingled, mingling threads of life are woven by warp and woof: calms crossed by storms, a storm for every calm. There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause: — through infancy’s unconscious spell, boyhood’s thoughtless faith, adolescence’s doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood’s pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men, and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more?
The Art of Putting Your Talent in the Service of the World: The Russian Prince Turned Anarchist and Pioneering Scientist Peter Kropotkin’s Advice to the Young
“Courage, devotion, the spirit of sacrifice, are as contagious as cowardice, submission, and panic.”
200 Years of Great Writers and Artists on the Creative and Spiritual Rewards of Gardening
Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Oliver Sacks, Rebecca Solnit, Bronson Alcott, Michael Pollan, Jamaica Kincaid, and more.
- “Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think they should have a lever that allows any old idiot to divert the whole group of us to Westport on a whim” — the trolley is reviewed
- New: IPM Monthly – Medieval Philosophy Today — a site for news, opportunities, publication notices, profiles of philosophers, etc., related to medieval philosophy
- “What I loved about the history of jazz—namely, that subtle changes to chord sequences and key changes could reframe the entire realm of possibilities for musicians in the future—was also a feature of the history of philosophy” — philosopher Andrea Pitts (UNC Charlotte) is interviewed about their life and work in philosophy, with a particular focus on social identities
- What is the value of studying moral dilemmas? — an exchange between Paul Conway (Portsmouth) and Guy Kahane (Oxford)
- “A great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by the belief in the virtuousness of work” — Bertrand Russell on the value of leisure and its “wise use,” in a 1932 issue of Harper’s (via The Browser). It was Russell’s 150th birthday this past Wednesday.
- “If spectacular forms of white supremacy were to end tomorrow, whiteness as a structure of privilege, power and hegemony would continue” — George Yancy (Emory) on how “white-perpetrated, anti-Black murder is all too acceptable, consistent and inoffensive to the very fabric of this nation”
- “Passing is not without costs: it takes a significant emotional and psychological toll, both on individuals who pass and on the friends and family they may leave behind” — Meena Krishnamurthy (Queen’s) on the “burdened virtue” of racial passing
THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Pride festival in Gran Canaria — which was attended by 80,000 people — is linked to Spanish monkeypox outbreak as well as two cases in Italy while European total reaches 100
UPDATE: After 100 Monkeypox Cases Reported in Europe, WHO Calls Emergency Meeting. “Monkeypox causes a wide array of symptoms (headaches, muscle aches, fever), but is most noted for skin lesions that are usually seen after 1 7-14 day incubation period. Normally, there are few cases detected outside of Africa. That was, until 2022.”