How to Drop Out. August 2012 Update When I wrote the original essay, my lifestyle happened to be close to the popular myth of dropping out, which was lucky because it attracted more readers, but unlucky because that myth is unrealistic and distracting.
I still get emails from people who are excited to ask how I live in a cabin in the woods, or live with no money, things I never claimed to do. My goal may have been to separate myself from society, but only because that seemed like the best way to serve my deeper goal: giant blocks of time when there's nothing I'm supposed to be doing. Now I'm moving toward that goal as more of an insider. For more about how I live now, check out my Frugal Early Retirement FAQ. October 2008 Update "How To Drop Out" has been my most popular piece of writing for more than four years. 1. Seriously, it's good to live differently, to take uncommon paths, to minimize your dependence on a society gone astray. 2. 3. Now, that doesn't mean you should accept all gifts. 4. 5. 6. The Dark Mountain Project. More on the (fragile) nature of reality. One of the wonderful things about getting involved in a new venture like Purpos/ed is the connections that you make to people and organizations you’ve never heard of before.
One such person is Dougald Hine, who’s been involved in a myriad of projects. This post centres around The Dark Mountain Project, something Dougald co-founded. What struck me upon reading the manifesto was, as I was discussing recently, the assumption behind most of what we do that business will continue as normal and that ‘reality’ is a stable, coherent, objective concept. In fact, what we term ‘reality’ is merely a “bloomin’ buzzin’ confusion” (William James) of competing narratives and stories. It’s the reason we often talk past one another: what some may dismiss as ‘semantics’ hide very real phenomenological difference in the way individuals are using terms to descibe things and ideas. As you’d expect from reading the above, Andy and I have separate reasons for starting Purpos/ed. If we choose to, that is. How can I lead a life of the mind outside the university? On re-conceiving ourselves (part 3) « Andrew Taggart.
This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on leading the life of the mind outside the academy.
In Part 1, I examined 3 models for living well. In Part 2, I discussed what we need to do in order to change our conception of leading a life of the mind. In Part 3, I try to give a fairly broad picture of how we’ll need to re-conceive of ourselves. In Part 4, I discuss the virtues (e.g., resourcefulness, modesty, self-mockery) necessary for leading such a life in this the new economy.
A Preface on Subject Matter and Moral Expertise In Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that we should expect no more precision than is warranted by the subject matter. I confess that like many of you, I’m muddling on. And yet, I’ve also come to believe that I have worked out a broad sketch of a solution for how to lead a philosophical life outside the university.
Ideally. How much more moral expertise do we want or need? Kinds of Person: Getting Down and Dirty Mixed Motivations, Mixed Goods, and ‘Subsidizers’