Owen Flanagan

I’m now two-for-two on my early evening intentions for the week, having successfully made it through two hours of talk by and Q&A with the philosopher Owen Flanagan, who spoke about “self-cultivation” practices in a variety of world traditions, mostly ancient Greeks and modern (often Western) Buddhists, but with passing reference to Confucians and Christians. These practices were then related to morality, with special reference to different attitudes towards anger. Specifically, in modern Western thought, anger is often cultivated as desirable and virtuous (e.g., moral outrage), whereas for Seneca (in De Ire) and Buddhists (specifically referencing a conversation he’d had with the Dalai Lama), anger is not useful, almost always excessive in its expression, and harmful to the person experiencing it.

On our walk next to the millrace, J. and I saw and admired a family of wood ducks, and I took a lot of pictures of the water and the bridges. I intended to share one here, but my computer doesn’t want to accept the transfer right now.