Making our history one step at a time
Durkheim argues that at its root, suicide arises when there is a disequilibrium between the individual and society. Investing in mediating institutions and communities is a vital component towards addressing this heart-rending problem.
Could trying to walk in someone else's shoes ever be a bad thing? Many would argue that empathy is central to the development of morality. Bloom argues otherwise: that empathy acts like a spotlight, biasing us to short-term answers and parochial solutions.
This is the next book by Paul Tournier that I was able to hunt down in the UW library system. It too is out of print and unavailable as an ebook, but thanks to the interlibrary loan system, I was able to get it shipped from the University of Oregon. Paul Tournier is a Swiss... Continue Reading →
I just finished reading Jonathan Haidt's most recent book The Codding of the American Mind, and I wanted to go to his original work The Righteous Mind which he wrote back in 2012. I was already familiar with some of the ideas in The Righteous Mind from his TED talk, "The Moral Roots of Liberals... Continue Reading →
Goodreads Summary Lowell Bennion, Sterling McMurrin, and Obert Tanner were colleagues whose lives often intertwined. All professors at the University of Utah, these three scholars addressed issues and events of their time; each influenced the thought and culture of Mormonism, helping to institute a period of intellectual life and social activism. In Conscience and Community... Continue Reading →
The Pity of It All by Amos Elon is my most recent delve into German history through the eyes of German Jews. I have encountered many of the characters in the dramatis personae before: Moses Mendelssohn figured prominently as one of the great rationalists in The Age of Reason: From Kant to Fichte. Hannah Arendt,... Continue Reading →
I added American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism after listening to an interview with the author, Thomas Simpson, at the Maxwell Institute Podcast. It got me excited, because I had recently read another book with "Modern Mormonism" in the name, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Greg Prince. Simpson's... Continue Reading →
Rating: 4/5 Goodreads Summary Here the great Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc analyzes 5 of the greatest heresies of all time: Arianism, Mohammedanism (Islam), Albigensianism, Protestantism, and "the Modern Attack," showing that the world would be vastly different today if Arianism or Albigensianism had survived--and how it is different because Protestantism survived. He predicts the re-emergence... Continue Reading →
This is my next attempt at engaging in the world of German literature. I have read several novels in German, including Franz Kafka's famed Der Prozess (The Trial), and lesser known ones such as Michael Kohlhaas both of which I read for classes towards my German minor. I have continued to seek out additional books... Continue Reading →
