Essays by our Advisory Council Members

This essay series showcases the diverse perspectives of our advisory council members as they engage with the philosophy of orientation in relation to contemporary issues, personal experiences, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Each essay highlights the ways in which orientation, as a fundamental human process, shapes our understanding of the world and ourselves.

In her essay, “Grief and Aesthetic Means of Reorientation,” Kathleen Higgins explores the profound disorientation caused by grief and examines how aesthetic experiences—such as rituals, art, and storytelling—can serve as powerful tools for reorientation. Drawing on Stegmaier’s insights into the nature of orientation, Higgins argues that engaging with aesthetic practices helps individuals regain their footing after loss, fostering a renewed sense of meaning and connection.

Politics is complex, befitting the complex issues faced by society and the myriad complex solutions people offer to address those issues. Politics should be serious discussions about issues that face all of society, but political dialogue is too often overshadowed by bitter arguments.

I am a social and political philosopher, and I want to develop further the philosophy of orientation in ways that can help us better understand politics and forge a different path for politics and society. Werner Stegmaier has, with the philosophy of orientation, given us valuable tools with which we can, as it were, lift the lid on the deep, wide, and complex social realities of politics.

All professions require the people who work in them to know a lot, and to continue to learn. In the United States, lawyers learn the basics of the law in law school, or as a major in law, then pick up much of the practical aspects of the profession through actual practice after law school. At the same time, they must periodically engage in what we call “continuing education,” so that they keep alert to changes in the law.

Life turns out much the same for medical students, though their education is significantly more practical than that of law students. After studying biology and chemistry as undergraduates, they learn the basics of the human body, disease and injury at medical school, while accumulating clinical experience as well. …

This essay series brings together Enrico Mueller and Carlin Romano in a dynamic exchange of ideas, where each response sharpens and challenges the other’s position. Engaging in a written dialogue reminiscent of philosophical debates throughout history, their back-and-forth unfolds as a competition of perspectives, testing the limits of concepts like agonism, kairos, and the role of philosophy itself. Readers are invited to witness this evolving conversation—and perhaps even join the discussion themselves.