“Through this tree, we glimpse the benefits of ecological thinking. Instead of viewing a tree simply as something that looks nice or provides a single offering such as apples or shade, we can begin to see how deeply connected a tree is to its surroundings, both living and inanimate. A tree is a dynamic element […]
“Soil is miraculous. It is where the dead are brought back to life. Here, in the thin earthy boundary between inanimate rock and the planet’s green carpet, lifeless minerals are weathered from stones or decomposed from organic debris. Plants and microscopic animals eat these dead particles and recast them as living matter. In soil, matter […]
“Now, since those prior to us have left undiscovered what pertains to legislation, it is perhaps better for us to investigate it ourselves––and indeed what concerns the regime in general––so that, to the extent of our capacity, the philosophy concerning human affairs might be completed. First, then, let us attempt to go over whatever partial […]
Life is full of gophers. This thought occurred to me shortly after watching a sturdy stalk of purple kale rock back and forth several times, seemingly of its own volition, before falling into a decidedly inharmonious horizontality. As I rushed over to save the plant from being dragged into the soil, I was pleased to […]
“To exist is for all people something choiceworthy and lovable, and we exist by means of activity (for this consists in living and acting). And in his activity, the maker of something somehow is the work; he therefore feels affection for the work because he feels affection also for his own existence. This is natural, […]
“Complete friendship is the friendship of those who are good and alike in point of virtue. For such people wish in similar fashion for the good things for each other insofar as they are good, and they are good in themselves. But those who wish for the good things for their friends, for their friends’ […]
“The person lacking self-restraint is like a city that votes for all that it ought to vote for and has serious laws, yet it makes use of none of them.” ––Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, Book 7, Chapter 10 “History is a foreign country, and the old are […]
“Brutishness is a lesser thing than vice, even though it is more frightening, for the better part [of the soul] has not been ruined in the case of a brute animal, as it has been in a human being who is vicious; rather, the brute animal does not have that better part. It is similar, […]