Topic

Growth

5 essays on growth from the Consilium journal. Featuring Erich Fromm, Maya Angelou, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Each pits three thinkers against one hard question.


Relationships

What Do You Do When One of You Has Changed and the Other Hasn't?

One person grows; the other stays put. Fromm says love must keep growing or it dies. Angelou says you cannot unlearn what you have learned. Wittgenstein asks what the silence is doing.

Erich FrommMaya AngelouLudwig WittgensteinChangeGrowth

Identity

How Do You Know If You're Growing or Just Running Away?

Three thinkers on growth and escape. James says test it against what actually changes. Dostoevsky says your secret motive is waiting. Horney says the idealized self is the first thing to go.

William JamesFyodor DostoevskyKaren Horneygrowthself-knowledge

Career

How Do You Know When You've Outgrown Your Job?

Three thinkers disagree about outgrowing your job. Adler says you're confusing ambition with superiority. Fromm asks if you're in having mode. Musashi says you haven't mastered it yet.

Alfred AdlerErich FrommMiyamoto Musashigrowthmastery

Loss

What Do You Owe to the Person You Used to Be?

Three thinkers on identity and change over time. Wittgenstein says the earlier self spoke a different language. Hurston says they carried you here. Aristotle asks if the change represents growth.

Ludwig WittgensteinZora Neale HurstonAristotleIdentityGrowthChange

Loss

What Do You Do When You've Outgrown Someone You Love?

Three thinkers on outgrowing the people you love. Emerson says growth isn't negotiable. Lorde says expansion at another's cost isn't freedom. Jung says look at what you're leaving.

Ralph Waldo EmersonAudre LordeCarl Junggrowthlove

Related

Alfred Adler Aristotle Audre Lorde Carl Jung Erich Fromm Fyodor Dostoevsky Karen Horney Ludwig Wittgenstein Maya Angelou Miyamoto Musashi Ralph Waldo Emerson William James Zora Neale Hurston Change Identity love mastery self-knowledge

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