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‘Stay-At-Home Dad’
It’s not difficult to explain why so few men take on this role; relative to women, I mean. My brief experience has made it very obvious and I can and will list the reasons for you. In short, in contrast to women, a man in this situation is repeatedly made to feel like there is something wrong with him.
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Parenting a Toddler: An Illustration of Wittgenstein’s Distinction Between Saying and Showing
Wittgenstein’s distinction between saying and showing can be seen, very simply, in how we raise our children. It is important. I hold it in mind at all times.
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The Form and Purpose of Philosophical Irony
The essence of philosophical irony is to say one thing while showing something else, for the purpose that is the purpose of all philosophy: the pursuit of wisdom. For example, were I to say something like: ‘Having children is bad because they cost a lot of money.’ On the face of it, what is said here is literally true: children do cost a lot of money. But what is shown here goes against what is said, because someone with an ear for tone might recognise the point being made: some reasons are too shallow to deserve serious consideration.
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Attend to What Matters: Freedom
My life is currently very constrained. I am occupied with looking after our 18-month old daughter. When she is awake, I am fully occupied; when she is asleep, I am on call and cannot go further than the effective range of the baby monitor.
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The Educative Power of Extreme Examples
Philosophers are often found reflecting on extreme examples of moral good or evil. When political philosophers talk about justice, they refer to utopian ideals that have no realistic chance of being realised. When we discuss ‘The Problem of Evil’, we talk about the Holocaust, or Hiroshima, or the worst forms of child abuse. These are extreme examples that hardly any of us face in real life (thankfully). Often they are outright fictional, as is seen when we discuss classic examples from literature and film. To many non-philosophers, this might seem like a waste of time and talent. […]
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Look Beyond the Body: The Phaedo
‘It’s easy to get caught up in material reality and forget what really matters. Caring for a newborn infant is a particularly clear example of this. Your life is made up of activities necessary for the care and maintenance of a body: feeding and cleaning and sleeping, inputs and outputs; these are all material measures. […]
An experiment with philosophy as a way of life
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