Berfrois

The End of the Beginning by Douglas Penick

The End of the Beginning by Douglas Penick

This essay marks the ending of the lavish storehouse of riches known as Berfrois...

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M. Munro: Autofiction

M. Munro: Autofiction

Recalling how Kafka’s tale ends, with the gatekeeper closing the door of the Law as the protagonist expires, roaring in his ear that all along it was meant for him alone...

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Greg Gerke on Gilles Deleuze

Greg Gerke on Gilles Deleuze

In reading bits and bobs of Deleuze, I came upon some pages in What is Philosophy? that cooly and accurately describe the artist’s experience...

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Golden State; Misplaced Dreams

Golden State; Misplaced Dreams

Today, when I hear that fraudsters such as Robin DiAngelo are seeking to coerce employees of large corporations into joining “racial affinity groups”, my only thought is this: No thanks, lady. I’ve seen that trick before...

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No One the Wiser

No One the Wiser

What is Socrates getting out of showing people that they don’t know what they take themselves to know?

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Samik Dasgupta: Digital Death

Samik Dasgupta: Digital Death

We must wrestle control from Big Tech. We must restore dignity to the dearly departed...

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Considering Cremation

Considering Cremation

Just a few steps away, my mind was buzzing like a bee: What the hell are you doing? You’re only fifty! People your age are starting new chapters in their lives, and you’re planning your death?

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The Quest for Solitude and Silence

The Quest for Solitude and Silence

A practice ‘designed to demonstrate the transience of all material things’ has been co-opted in ‘service of the profit motive’...

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Kenkō’s Travels

Kenkō’s Travels

It wakes one up to go away from home for a time, no matter where...

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Booked Out

Booked Out

These books destined me to an unbalanced life, like a poorly packed U-Haul that leans too far to one side...

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Chenxing Han in Yogyakarta

Chenxing Han in Yogyakarta

I miss many aspects of my chaplaincy training: the deep listening that can blossom in the most unexpected of circumstances, the twinning of action and reflection...

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Consequentialist and Deontological

Consequentialist and Deontological

To evaluate states of affairs we use the concepts of good and bad, better and worse. To evaluate actions we use in addition the concepts of right and wrong...

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Do puppets have free will?

Do puppets have free will?

Arguments against free will go back millennia, but the latest resurgence of scepticism has been driven by advances in neuroscience during the past few decades...

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Are we puppets of the gods?

Are we puppets of the gods?

The almost subconscious fear that we could be soulless machines manipulated by other powers poses a profound philosophical conundrum pondered since ancient times...

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René Girard has many Silicon Valley disciples…

René Girard has many Silicon Valley disciples…

A student of René Girard’s while at Stanford in the late 1980s, Peter Thiel would go on to report that Girard is his greatest intellectual inspiration...

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Why are the humanities worth saving?

Why are the humanities worth saving?

The historical shift currently underway is massive. The ridiculous stories that the anti-woke hucksters and tabloids love to pick up and ridicule are in fact just the faintest epiphenomena of this massive shift...

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Douglas Penick: At Ease Together

Douglas Penick: At Ease Together

Awareness joins inner and outer, near and far. It can also be referred to as compassion...

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What might José Ortega y Gasset say to us now?

What might José Ortega y Gasset say to us now?

Far from fitting the stereotypical image of a philosopher, sat in an ivory tower, Ortega y Gasset was engaged with his society and its troubles...

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