The Great Books Weren’t All Great, but While Reading Them I Sometimes Was

by Varun Gauri At the University of Chicago, I majored in an interdisciplinary concentration most easily characterized as Great Books. I studied with an Indian poet, a Japanese postmodern literary critic, and an historian who admired Michel Foucault, but my most influential professors were men influenced by Leo Strauss, including Allan Bloom, Joseph Cropsey, Leon…

The Buddhist Self

by Varun Gauri When modern Buddhists and mindfulness practitioners say the ultimate cause of stress and suffering is the craving for permanence, especially the misguided craving for a permanent “self,” which “self” are they talking about? In his interesting and provocative book Why I Am Not a Buddhist, Evan Thompson explores the possibilities: (1) The…

Debating the Koch brothers – Ben Lerner’s “The Topeka School”

by Varun Gauri In my last speech of my last high school debate round, at the finals of the Ohio championships, I claimed victory because our opponents, a team from the local private academy, our nemesis, neglected or “dropped” our argument that taxing cigarettes would certainly, absolutely, trigger nuclear war. Therefore, I declared, whatever you,…