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 47. Motion of confidence (Part 2)

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On March 5, 2014
Last week’s philosophy café offered another conversation about confidence. As noted before, confidence has two levels. One is conditional: the conscious trust in one’s abilities or worth, developed through experience and familiarity (“or entitlement”, as someone pointed out, referring to the social confidence of private-school girls). The other is what John Dewey described as “unconscious […]
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QA 45. Much obliged?

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On November 30, 2013
For months I’ve been like a hound dog barking at a rabbit hole. Then I think I fell in because things got kind of strange. Here’s how it went… Step 1 (QA 44). The development of philosophical practice as ethical and emancipatory leads me to think about human dignity as integral, inherent and immeasurable. And […]
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QA 37. Dec 2012. Ten years down the road

  • Posted by Helen Douglas
  • On December 9, 2012
2012 has been my tenth year as a “philosopher in private practice”. I’m a bit surprised to find that what began with a hunch and a leap of faith has developed in unanticipated directions, yet stayed true to its roots. The hunch concerned philosophy as a way of life. First, that philosophical activity – to […]
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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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