Jacob Howland
speaker
188 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Jacob Howland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, he moves back and, like, yes, he gives different perspectives on that, right? So we have the beautiful in the symposium, we have the good, right? Obviously, the truth is absolutely fundamental. But one thing I want to say is, you know, you mentioned earlier attention.
And I am convinced, I've heard several people say this or read it, that attention, proper attention is an act of worship.
That's very interesting. I see where you're going with that. That's for sure.
Well, nothing.
There is no escape. Yeah. I just ran a class for some applicants to my university. And we were discussing David Foster Wallace's This is Water, Kenyan graduation speech. I don't know if you know this. But anyway, it's great. And at some point there, he says, you know... that everybody worships something, right?
And that in fact, and he makes this case, he says, you know, whether it's Jesus Christ, whether it's Yahweh, whether it's some extreme, you know, the good, something like this. If you aren't If you don't bow down to those highest things, then your life is going to be miserable.
Golden calf.
So if you have the proper goal, And let's just, I mean, let's not try to define that, but let's say it's transcendent.
Right. That's a great way to put it.
Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, that's good. C'est la vie. So then your attention can be rightly focused. And the questions are the right ones. That's the important thing. And we go back to your earlier statement about quest. The questions are the right ones. And that becomes very exciting because... Okay, why?
It is indeed not.
Well, I can speak to that from the perspective of a scholar or a reader, a thinker. If you have a book in front of you and you're trying to make sense of it, we all know this. A question, a good question, can reveal depths of meaning and understanding in everyday life.
to come to understand what the question really is can reorient you and can again reveal, I'll just use the same phrase, depths of meaning in your own existence that you simply weren't attending to.
Right, right. Way out beyond the wilderness, right?
And this, well, and so this relates to Socrates saying, you know, wonder is the beginning of philosophy. There's a, there's a... So let's go back. I agree. Happiness not only is not the proper aim. In Vasily Grossman's wonderful book, Life and Fate, there's a little chapter where this guy has written a little letter in the Gulag.
And he says something like, happiness with a capital H has been the cause of the greatest evil in the world. And I think this is right. And you read it elsewhere. You read it in the Deshna Mambulstam's book, Hope Against Hope. In the name of happiness, the greatest evil was committed.
Right. Right.
So... I imagine you would agree with this, but I propose that what is far more important is meaning. And meaning is... The deepest and richest things are the most meaningful and the highest things.
That's like the well that will never run dry. Inexhaustible. And so in human life...
Showing 121–140 of 188 · page 7 of 10
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