Michael Sobocinski

Michael Sobocinski

12 stories

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Michael Sobocinski

The Lure of Unity: Buber, Merton, and the Self

Martin Buber and Thomas Merton both tried to move past the fragmented self. Why is the desire for unity so important, and how can it sometimes lead us astray?

Photo by Brian Quid on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

The Wound Before the Wound

Long before disconnection hardens into grievance, it starts as something smaller and easier to miss, in the ordinary arithmetic of small social costs.

Photo by Mishaal Zahed (Meschael Zahède) on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

Scheler, Buber, and the Political Economy of Ressentiment

How Max Scheler's ressentiment and Martin Buber's I-Thou/I-It distinction show why shame psychology and neoliberal political economy describe the same wound.

A living presence reduced to a sortable entry

Michael Sobocinski

The Wound Doesn't Care What You Feed It

Grievance politics and market extraction look like separate problems. They're the same relational failure, and ignoring that costs us more than we think.

Photo by Max Brindley on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

The Philosophy Behind Taking Connectedness Seriously

Before something is one thing or many things, what is it? A deep dive into Aristotle, Whitehead, and Buber on potential, relation, and becoming.

Photo by Malachi Brooks on Unsplash

Michael Sobocinski

It's Time to Take Connectedness Seriously

Wildfire smoke, war, and a struggling democracy feel like separate crises. What if they're symptoms of one wound: treating relationships as optional?

Michael Sobocinski

Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Logic Behind a Relational Universe

A closer look at the actual argument structure behind Parmenides's monism and Heraclitus's logos, and why this ancient dispute quietly underwrites a contemporary case for relational ontology.

Michael Sobocinski

The 2,500-Year-Old Argument About What's Real

Parmenides argued that reality must be one and unchanging, while Heraclitus saw order in constant change. People still debate this question.