QA 50! Thoughts at sea

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On October 26, 2014
A funny thing happened at the Philosophy Café last month. I got lost. We all set sail on a conversation about “sadness”, but I didn’t know what they were talking about. My mind was clear and present. I just couldn’t relate, couldn’t get a grip, couldn’t participate. And the good ship “we” sailed on without me. […]
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QA 30. Philosophy Café: Community in conversation

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On November 2, 2011
It’s Tuesday night, and I’m just home from a philosophy café. I have hosted these monthly gatherings since I started my philosophical counselling practice in 2002. This year, we’ve been generously offered space in the lovely village bookshop, after hours – a perfect setting for conversation. We were thirteen this evening: some regulars, a couple […]
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QA 26. (Nov 10) To change our thinking

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On November 8, 2010
If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?  The answer is: Nothing will work, but everything might. Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments. Clay Shirky We have a duty to change our mode of thinking. David Harvey There appears to be magic simply in the willingness […]
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QA 13. (April 09) Tug of war, tug of words

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On May 5, 2009
Michael the teacher was talking about what he says to new classes to disarm them. To disarm them? An ambiguous phrase. Did he mean to charm the children or to take away their weapons? Which reminded me of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s view that discourse (conversation, dialogue) is the way we can engage with each […]
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