The Narthex
Ironies of Intelligence
It is the soul, through the intellect, that thinks
By James Hanink | May 26th 2020 3:22 PMThe New York Times vacillates in its effect on readers. Often enough it induces nausea. But sometimes it gives us food for thought. A recent obituary, “Joel Kupperman, Scarred by Success as a Precocious ‘Quiz Kid,’ Dies at 83” (May 15, page A24) is surely food for thought. So what’s…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMemory & Meaning
Consciousness subsists in the embodied person
By James Hanink | January 20th 2020 10:11 PMReady for a trip down memory lane? Even if you aren’t, a birthday can send you on your way! If it’s a septuagenarian birthday, count on it. Still, regardless of your generation, you can do some philosophical packing before you head out—or get pushed. For a start, it’s worth noting…
READ FULL BLOG POSTOn Measurement Muddles
There’s no scale to balance good & evil, or to take the measure of a man
By James Hanink | January 6th 2020 10:47 PMAh, the things we ask! When we’re running late, as often we are, we ask what time it is. When something goes missing, as it often does, we ask where it is. Or suppose we have a tough decision to make. Then we ask how to weigh the contending pros…
READ FULL BLOG POSTJust Because
Often answers are in terms of 'what causes what'
By James Hanink | December 9th 2019 9:14 PMEver run out of time to answer your children’s questions? (It’s not that we don’t have the answers, right?) Well, there’s always the handy reply “Just because!” But suppose it’s we who have the questions, and we don’t have the answers? What then? We could always ask someone, maybe a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGod and Man at Play
Creation is ongoing, spontaneous, and forever surprising
By James Hanink | September 17th 2019 3:06 PMHugo Rahner, SJ, is the author of a classic work Man at Play. The central and staggering insight of Man at Play is that God is at play! How so? Proverbs 8:27-31 gives us a starting point. From the beginning, Rahner points out, Divine Wisdom (Hochmah) has been “playing before…
READ FULL BLOG POSTUnderstanding Humanism
Creation is its fundamental context
By James Hanink | August 20th 2019 2:21 PMThe devil is in the details -- and in definitions. For such details we might reflect on the new Vatican-Beijing accords, already in jeopardy, and the not-so-new nuclear weapons treaties now publicly flaunted. How about definitions? Let’s consider, as a trial run, humanism. As always, context counts. The French Revolution,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Waiting Room
Thought and prayer can redeem our endless waiting
By James Hanink | July 29th 2019 9:31 PMThe philosopher Simone Weil’s Waiting on God (1950) is a haunting reflection on the distance between “the everyday” and the transcendent. A year earlier the playwright Samuel Beckett finished his Waiting for Godot. Beckett’s “Godot” is a fantasist’s inkblot: interpret him as you please. Not so the God to whom…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMy Facts, Your Facts
Some facts are brute facts; they “just are”
By James Hanink | June 20th 2019 8:29 PMHere’s a snappy reality check: “You’re entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.” But reality isn’t always easy to check. For a start, if my opinion is ill-formed, I’m not really entitled to it. There’s a duty to think carefully about our opinions. Of course, today’s political slugfest…
READ FULL BLOG POST"Always Certain, Seldom Right"
Let’s revisit this damning dismissal
By James Hanink | May 16th 2019 3:02 PMKnow anyone who’s outspoken, opinionated, who calls a spade a spade? I surely knew my father, to whom I owe more than I can ever repay. When the family was planning his funeral, my mother told the pastor “John was outspoken…too outspoken for most people.” Right. Some of us liked…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Double Line
History progresses in the line of evil and in the line of good
By James Hanink | May 8th 2019 2:44 PMAsking someone “How are you doing?” can get personal. What if someone takes the question literally? Maybe someone like Mr. Pilgrim. He’s no pushover. Suppose he flips the question and asks “How are you doing?” Or he might even ask “How are we doing?” If he raises this question, he…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSects, Sectarianism, and Secularism
Conciliatory approaches don’t satisfy
By James Hanink | April 29th 2019 9:14 PMFunny things happen on the way to political dialogues. Not to mention that the participants say the darnedest things… On the one hand, we believe that our deepest commitments should inform our political practices. These practices, presumably, include political dialogues. On the other hand, we tell each other that true…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLife's a Carousel
Behind the wall of mirrors are complex, unseen elements
By Richard DellOrfano | April 23rd 2019 1:18 PMIn Balboa Park, a renewed antique carousel turns round and round, with bobbing horses and the familiar circus décor and music. It has one of the few operational brass-ring games anywhere. I was touring the Park to create an excursion video for the San Diego County Library branch in San…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Sniper
A psychologist, a minister, a disabled Marine veteran, and a writer discuss war
By Richard DellOrfano | March 28th 2019 4:37 PMAs I stood in the entry of an Assisted Living dining hall, hoping to join my friend after lunch, I overheard this comment: “She’s no angel. I heard she shacked up with George last night.” The speaker nodded toward another woman two tables over with coiffed hair and Fifth Avenue…
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What Are We Doing?
Our communities must share an overarching vision of the good
By James Hanink | March 12th 2019 4:49 PMWhat are we doing? When philosophers ask that question, they’re looking for an act-description. An act-description involves an agent, an act, and (implicitly) the intention in so acting. We can take some act-descriptions at face value. Others we can't. Consider two presidential examples. Harry S Truman, pressed to declare a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDoable Deeds
Thinking philosophically reaches to wisdom
By James Hanink | February 11th 2019 5:59 PMDysfunction is the order of day, and at every level. Each of us, I’ll wager, wants to tell someone “get your act together.” Plenty of people think that I need to hear the same message. And someone, no doubt, thinks that you, gentle reader, need to as well. Of course,…
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