Yesterday Yesterday was an interesting day for me. It began with a table tennis match between Michael, my gardener and car-washer, and me. We have been playing a while, and he has gotten steadily better; he is now a very good player and has even beaten me on one occasion. It was extremely close yesterday, […]
Chapter 8 The End of Skill? Is it possible that skill will wither and die? Then what? For all their life-enhancing qualities, might skills disappear? Might we become a species devoid of skill? Might we be left with only the skill-free part of our nature intact? Might other animals become more skilled than we are? […]
Chapter 7 Philosophy and Skill Skill hasn’t played much of a part in the history of philosophy; one would think it doesn’t exist. Let’s rectify that omission. We can start with the explanation of action: what factors contribute to a person’s action? A standard answer is belief and desire: people act because they have desires […]
Chapter 6 Work, Leisure, and Skill Skill belongs in both work and leisure. Probably these two types of skill evolved together, as they do in animals (there are also unskilled work and unskilled leisure). Both types of skill can be enjoyed and promote human flourishing. We do jobs and we play games. Our need for […]
Chapter 5 The Value of Skill When G.E. Moore compiled his list of primary goods—pleasure, knowledge, friendship, and artistic appreciation—he didn’t include skill. He could have; he should have. Skill is a good thing. If you consult a thesaurus, you will find many rough synonyms for “skill” that are manifestly positive. We don’t say derisively […]
Chapter 4 Acquiring a Skill Now we know what skills are, how they are distributed, and how they evolved; next we must ask how they are acquired. This topic is more practical than the previous topics, and probably more appealing to the reader interested in improving his or her skills. What is the best way […]
Chapter 3 Origins of Skill Look around you at human society: you will see many people—almost everyone—equipped with one skill or the other, often with multiple skills. We are routinely classified as Homo sapiens, but we might as well be described as Homo skillians. Skill is our species characteristic, our zoological essence. That is, we […]
Chapter 2 The Scope of Skill This is to be a descriptive chapter: I will enumerate and describe the many kinds of skill there are, noting their similarities and dissimilarities. The emphasis will be on the enormous variety of skills, along with their clear affinities. It is remarkable that we bring such variety under a […]
