By Dr. Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 52 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog! This week, I reach my preliminary goal of sharing fifty-two weekly blog posts in a row – that’s one full year of Philosophy & Zen blogs! Hooray! During the course of the past year, I have written about the meaning of philosophy, as well as: practical uses of philosophical analyses; ways to utilize modus ponens and other rules of logic; multiple moral theories in the context of applied ethics; principles of the Intellectual Code of Conduct; various social justice applications; a little bit of Zen; a few alte ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 51 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog  This will be the penultimate blog post for a while, and next week’s essay will celebrate fifty-two weeks  - a full year – of Philosophy & Zen blog essays.  After next week, I will take a break from the blog and strengthen the focus on my consulting practice, with the further aim of completing my book on Well-Being & Justice, as well as revamping the P&Z website.   The “rebuilding” idea that inspired the title of this essay has multiple meanings and applications; I certainly (sti ..read more

Welcome to Week 50 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog  The topic at the forefront of my mind is the evil of Netanyahu and Israel’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinians through air strikes on Gaza.  I wrote about the decades-long plight of Palestine in my week four blog post as well.  Now things have escalated to what appears to be the point of no return. Earlier this month, Netanyahu declared that Israel would build in Jerusalem despite international pressure not to do so; his predictable strategy is playing out insofar as he is destroying buildings in Gaza so that he annihilates Pal ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 49 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog! It’s all about Zen today and this week, to maintain a semi- adequate degree of well-being. Stresses arise, but a calm attitude helps to avoid exacerbated problems. I notice perfectionistic tendencies in moral and control manifestations, and I deep belly breathe through the humbling recognition of multi-layered and complex fallibility. Political nonsense, the plight of the Palestinians, environmental devastation, financial woes, and yearnings for peace and freedom gather into a massive, storm-surged wave that pummel ..read more

Biden’s recent speech to Congress outlined several of his initiatives, including the American  Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan; he also urged Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which will hopefully be signed into law soon.  The jobs in the Jobs Plan include engineering and construction jobs to replace toxic lead pipes with new water lines and to build electric vehicle charging stations, as well as funding for farmers to plant cover crops, which will help to offset CO2 emissions; additionally, there will be funding to boost the pay of caregivers, who, for far ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 47 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog!  Last week, as part of my response to Cohen’s Making Peace with Imperfection, I reflected on the value and usefulness of optimal models, despite the drive towards perfection – or near-perfection – that appeals to such models may promote. The examples I shared included a few models of justice and well-being, including Plato’s Tri-partite model of Justice; Aristotle’s virtue ethics framework; and my Network Theory of Well-Being, Revamped, which is modeled through a series of interconnected feedback loops within ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 46 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog!  This is part twelve of our twelve-part series about overcoming perfectionism, based on the insightful book Making Peace with Imperfection by philosopher Elliot D. Cohen, who is also a practitioner of logic-based therapy and founder of the National Philosophical Counseling Association.  I am likewise certified in logic-based therapy and enjoy providing guidance through one-on-one and small group sessions via Zoom, telephone, or in-person meetings.  One of the reasons that I decided to write such a pr ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 45 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog!  Anxiety about uncertainty plagues the minds of certainty perfectionists, who “demand certainty about what transpires in the material world” of space and time (Cohen, p. 161).  Certainty perfectionism is the tenth and final variety of perfectionism that Elliot Cohen explains in his handy and helpful book Making Peace with Imperfection.  Cohen explains that certainty perfectionists want “perfect knowledge and assurance about the world, [especially] about bad things happening. For the certainty perfect ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 44 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog! Neatness perfectionists have a difficult time accepting anything that is in disorder or which contains a blemish, stain, or other physical imperfection.  We’ll explore neatness perfectionism as the penultimate variety of perfectionism that Elliot Cohen explains in his helpful book Making Peace with Imperfection. Cohen explains that, while “there’s nothing wrong with wanting or preferring” that things are neat, orderly, and good-looking, “the problem arises when you demand it” (2019, pg. 148).  As with all ..read more

By Martha Louise Lang, PhD Welcome to Week 43 of the Philosophy & Zen Blog!  Existential perfectionists cling to the unreasonable demand that, in order for life to be worth living, the world must not contain injustices or other bad events. Unfortunately, injustices are quite rampant in our precious but precarious world; nevertheless, the world maintains significant positive value, and life is still worth living. This week, we continue our exploration of the varieties of perfectionism outlined in Elliott Cohen’s book Making Peace with Imperfection, with a focus on existential perfectio ..read more