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A friend of mine told me a story about a man who was a manager at a factory. One day, out of anger, he completely trashed one of his direct reports. He used a superior tone of voice, completely disparaging the dignity of his employee. The manager went home that day, calmed down, and regretted his outburst. Even if he was right about the content of what he said, the disrespect he showed to his…

Antonio Balestra, Justice and Peace embracing “Peace is four times more important than justice.” I heard these words from the late Fr. Arsenie Papacioc. During his life, he suffered injustices. When he spoke about peace, he didn’t do it like someone who likes to utter beautiful phrases without ever having been tried by them. Similar phrases are often used by marriage counselors; you can also…

One of the notions that appear in Nicolae Steinhardt’s diary, both directly and indirectly, is truth. In a world in which falsity is the norm, as the 1950 Romania was, the question of truth has its own flavors. There are moments when the spirit of arithmetic is required. When the world around you makes no sense, when people claim that obviously false ideas are truth, when your brethren are…

Photo by Scott Spaeth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/44531407@N03/43596092432 I was walking in the neighborhood. A rabbit got scared, ran into the street, and got hit by a car. It was part of my daily involuntary participation in ugliness. Two things I heard at the same time: the muffled sound that ended the rabbit’s life and the voice that justified in my head my lack of responsibility. I had…

Summer of 2012. I was in my birth country, Romania, and I was angry. The TV was on at all times, and various political debates were taking hold of my soul. I was on one side of each debate, and I could not understand how one of my best friends was on the other. I was filled with passion, always ready to criticize or show others how wrong they were.  At the end of that summer, I returned to the…

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the first major novel of the renowned Russian writer, a poor student has done the unthinkable: murder. By all accounts, he is guilty, not only juridically , but also morally. By killing, he has separated himself from society, and the society has the right to punish him.  Raskolnikov is surrounded by people. His friend, his mother, and his sister have…

Here’s a dialogue with Adrian Guiu that took place at the Seminary Co-Op bookstore in Chicago. We talked about personhood, missed encounters, Dostoevsky, and the possibility of radical diversity as it appears in C.S. Lewis’ encouragement to read old books.

If you’re in Chicago on September 25, I hope you will join Adrian Guiu and me discussing Immigrant on Earth. https://www.semcoop.com/event/octavian-gabor-immigrant-earth-adrian-guiu

Stories of Personhood from Immigrant on Earth: A Philosopher on the Road to Emmaus

Some texts that first appeared in a draft form on this website are now part of a collection of essays, Immigrant on Earth: A philosopher on the Road to Emmaus. You may find the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or on the publisher’s website. It is a book in which the human condition of being immigrant is revealed: constantly applying for visas in the souls of other human beings, while at the same…

I used to ask myself this question, “”what will you do if you go to heaven and find Stalin there? Will you tell God, sorry, but this is not the place for me?” The question was mistaken. The challenge is not to accept “my enemies” in heaven if God brings them there, but to accept that I can be in heaven only if I have already accepted them. There is no heaven for me in their absence; they…

There is a sense in which every day of our existence is marked by our involuntary participation in ugliness: you walk on a street, a rabbit gets scared, and the rabbit runs under the wheels of a car; your gestures or habits can get someone else out of his mind; or you even fall into abominable activities, like Sonya in Crime and Punishment, in her participation in the world that is given to her.…

Photo by George Hodan, Alone Boy. Someone recently asked me a seemingly simple question: “Have you considered the effects on your team’s members when you present yourself as a reluctant leader?” The question didn’t challenge the authenticity of the approach. It was expressed rather in this context: yes, you are a reluctant leader, but how might this be perceived by your colleagues? What is the…

In the Romanian story Ageless Youth and Deathless Life, the child of an emperor and empress refuses to be born. He was to be born into leading people, as the son of the emperor, and this is not attractive for the child. Leadership may come with all the goods of the world, but how can they lead to personal joy and happiness? Indeed, the emperor promises him every possible thing, dominion over…

An aching love

This is one of the sessions for the conference celebrating Gary Saul Morson at Northwestern University, a couple of months ago. My talk begins around 2:19:00.

This is an article published in Depictions, a special issue dedicated to victimhood. In this paper, I explore the possibility of refusing the separation between victims and perpetrators even when evil actions take place. To do so, I discuss Socrates’ claim that a good man cannot be harmed and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s portrayal of Alyosha Karamazov. I argue that one of the features of people who do…