In the present 6,580-word OEN article, I first list my "Top 20" OEN articles over the years (since October 2009), ranking each one by the number of views it received online at OEN. Next, I offer some reflections on certain aspects of my "Top 20" list., including relevant information about the thought of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) April 10, 2025: I recently decided to construct a ranking of my 665 OEN articles based on the number of views of each one at OEN. I quickly concluded that a ranking from 1 to 665 was impractical, because no one would be interested in looking at such a long list. After gathering a certain amount of preliminary information about my OEN articles that had been viewed more than 2,000 times each, I decided that a ranking of the "Top 20" of my OEN articles, based on the number of views of each one, would be the most reasonable ranking for me to construct.

A tip of my hat to OEN for its daily listing of the "Top 20" most frequently viewed OEN articles over the last two days for giving me the idea of compiling my "Top 20" OEN articles based on the number of views of each of them.

It has been a labor of love on my part to construct the list of the "Top 20" of my 665 OEN articles over the years.

Ah, but why bother to construct a list of my "Top 20" OEN articles at all? Good question. I'm not sure that I have a good answer to that question. But here goes my reply.

I retired from teaching at the University of Minnesota Duluth at the end of May 2009, after teaching there since September 1987. In October 2009, I published my first OEN article - the first of my 665 OEN articles. In all honesty, I have been amazed at my own productivity over my years of retirement. By now constructing the list of my "Top 20" OEN articles, I am hereby honoring and celebrating my own amazing productivity over my years of retirement.

In addition, since my retirement at the end of May 2009, at the age of 65, it seems to me that I have been living the philosophical life far more thoroughly than I did in the first 65 years of my life. And so by celebrating my life in my retirement years in the present "Probe" essay, I am also hereby honoring my living the philosophical life far more thoroughly in my retirement years than I did in the first 65 years of my life - perhaps most notably in my recent 28,800-word 665th OEN article "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025).

In my estimate, living the philosophical life involves learning how to engage in what Ong refers to as "the Art of discourse" in the subtitle of his massively researched 1958 book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason - "the Art of Reason," that is in Ramist logic and in philosophical thought in the Age of Reason. Ong's massively researched 1958 book is a history of the formal study of logic from Aristotle, who invented the formal study of logic, down to the French Renaissance logician and educational reformer and Protestant martyr Peter Ramus (1515-1572). I return to this way of understanding the philosophical life later on in the present essay.

In any event, here are my "Top 20" OEN articles over the years, based on the number of views of each one: (1) 11,691 views: "Who Was Walter Ong, and Why Is His Thought Important Today?" (dated March 11, 2010; my first OEN article was dated October 10, 2009). (2)9,218 views: "Celebrating Walter J. Ong's Thought" (dated December 30, 2017). (3) 8,601 views: "More Americans Should Try to Understand Modernity as Walter Ong Understands It" (dated July 1, 2011). (4) 8,473 views: "Hillary Clinton Urges Us to Stand Up to Extremists in the U.S." (dated March 16, 2012). (5) 8,400 views: "Martha Nussbaum on Why Democracy Needs the Humanities" (dated May 4, 2010). (6) 5,616 views: "The Questionable Ethical Teaching of the Catholic Bishops Regarding Abortion in the First Trimester Should Be Debated" (dated January 3, 2011). (7) 5,567 views: "Was William Faulkner a Conservative Writer? No, Not Quite!" (dated March 3, 2011). (8) 5,538 views: "James Carroll Profiles Pope Francis in the NEW YORKER" (dated December 17, 2013). (9) 4,043 views: "In Defense of Manly Virtue: Camille Paglia vs. Walter Ong and David Bakan" (dated December 30, 2013). (10) 3,900 views: "Jiddu Krishnamurti and Anthony de Mello, S.J.: Two Spiritual Guides from India to Enlighten Us" (dated September 4, 2012). (11) 3,028 views: "The Two Americas Should Be Discussed Further" (dated November 24, 2012). (12) 3,010 views: "James Carroll's Call to Arms" (dated March 17, 2011). (13) 2,999 views: "Not For Profit, Eh? Hold on There, Martha Nussbaum!" (dated April 3, 2010). (14) 2,945 views: "Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought" (dated September 20, 2020). (15) 2,960 views: "Edward O. Wilson Inveighs Against Organized Religion" (dated November 16, 2014). (16) 2,910 views: "Roman Catholic Moral Reasoning in the Supreme Court Ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby" (dated July 2, 2014). (17) 2,859 views: "Why Doesn't Pope Francis Support Freedom of Speech?" (dated January 28, 2015). (18) 2,831 views: "Justin Frank, M.D., Puts President Obama on the Couch" (dated October 19, 2011). (19) 2,784 views: "Bishop Olmsted Is Wrong in the Abortion Controversy in Phoenix" (dated December 23, 2010). (20) 2,778 views: "Pope Francis on Evil and Satan" (dated March 24, 2019). (Links to each of my "Top 20" OEN articles can be found in the "References" at the end of this essay.)

At a glance, we can see from the "Top 20" list that four of my "Top 20" OEN articles were published in 2011; three, in 2012; 2, in 2013; 2 again, in 2014. After 2014, no more than one of my OEN articles made the "Top 20."

In addition to the downward slope of my most popular OEN articles being from the most distant years from now, it is also humbling for me to see that the most recent of my 665 OEN articles over the years to make the "Top 20" was published on September 20, 2020. In other words, none of my OEN articles published since September 20, 2020, has received more than the 2,778 views that my number 20 OEN article in the "Top 20" received. Put differently, it now appears from the "Top 20" list that my best years for writing widely viewed OEN articles are now behind me. Perhaps the time has now come for me to stop writing articles for OEN - and move on to other endeavors in my remaining retirement years.

Now, in addition to writing about William Faulkner in two of my "Top 20" OEN articles, I have also written about him in my ground-breaking essay "Faulkner and Male Agonism" in the book Time, Memory, and the Verbal Arts: Essays on the Thought of Walter Ong, edited by Dennis L. Weeks and Jane Hoogestraat (1998, pp. 203-221).

Now, at a glance, we can see from this listing of the titles of the "Top 20" of my OEN articles that Pope Francis (born in 1936; elected pope in 2013, the first Jesuit pope,) is one of my favorite persons to write about.

In addition, we can see at a glance from this listing that the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter Jackson Ong, Jr. (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university in the City of St. Louis, Missouri - where, over the years, I took five course from Father Ong.

I have surveyed Father Ong's life and eleven of his books and selected articles in my award-winning book Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (2000). My book received the Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology, conferred by the Media Ecology Association on June 15, 2001. I have framed the award and the letter of transmittal from the then-president of MEA Lance Strate of Fordham University in New York. I have both framed documents on display in my home in Duluth, Minnesota.

Walter Ong's work has never been lionized the way that Marshall McLuhan's work has been. For McLuhan's references to Ong's breakthrough work, see the "Bibliographic Index" in McLuhan's widely read 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (sic) (pp. 286-287).

Now, at a glance, we can also see that I frequently comment on Trump and certain other nationally prominent political figures such as Hillary Clinton and President Obama.

I should point out here that the American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Justin A. Frank has also profiled President Trump in his perceptive book Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (2018).

In any event, the NYT opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg has just published an insightful column about Trump's "skill as a demagogue" titled "Why Did So Many People Delude Themselves About Trump?" (dated April 7, 2025) in The New York Times.

Now, at a glance, we can also see that many of my "Top 20" OEN articles center on Catholicism - as do many of my other OEN articles.

You see, I was born (on March 17, 1944, in Ossining, New York, my father's hometown) and raised (from the age of four in Kansas City, Kansas, my mother's hometown) as a Roman Catholic before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) significantly reformed the practices of Catholicism by mandating the use of the vernacular languages, instead of Latin in the Mass, and by dispensing with the practice of eating fish, instead of meat, on Fridays. The years of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1966) somewhat overlap my years of undergraduate studies (1962-1966).

Subsequently, I was in the Jesuits for a time (1979-1987). In the Jesuit novitiate in Denver, Colorado, I made a 30-day directed retreat in silence (except for the daily conferences with the retreat director), following the Spiritual Exercises of the Spanish Renaissance mystic and founder of the Jesuit order (known formally as the Society of Jesus) St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556).

The Second Vatican Council in the Roman Catholic Church (1962-1965) instructed all religious orders to return to their original charism. When the Jesuits subsequently returned to studying their original charism, they discovered that St. Ignatius Loyola had given directed retreats, whereas the Jesuits in more recent times had been giving preached retreats. Older Jesuits such as Father Ong and Pope Francis had completed their respective 30-day preached retreats in silence (except for the daily conferences with the retreat director) in the novitiate as preached retreats, and as practicing Jesuits, both Father Ong and Pope Francis gave preached retreats.

Now, my years of Jesuit formation were mostly devoted to further studies - in philosophy at Saint Louis University and in theology at the Jesuit theologate at the University of Toronto.

In any event, over the years of my retirement writing my 665 OEN articles (2009-2025), I have occasionally written about Ignatian spirituality in a few of my OEN articles.

In many of my other OEN articles about Pope Francis that are not listed here in my "Top 20" OEN articles, I have referred interested readers to my earlier OEN article in which I profiled the doctrinally conservative pope, "Pope Francis on Evil and Satan" (dated March 24, 2019).

In many of my other OEN articles in which I discussed Ong's work that are not listed here in my "Top 20" OEN articles, I have referred interested readers to my earlier OEN article "Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought" (dated September 20, 2020).

In two of my more recent OEN articles, I have articulated my more pointed criticism of the Roman Catholic Church's moral teachings regarding its vision of individual personal moral development: (1) "Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development" (dated September 17, 2024); and (2) my wide-ranging and deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN article titled "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025) - which has been viewed 1,300 times thus far (as of April 10, 2025), despite my graphic and colorful language in it being flagged by the ever-vigilant OEN website. In any event, my wide-ranging and deeply personal 665th OEN article was the most deeply gratifying OEN article that I have written over the years.

Now, in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025), I deliberately and frequently used graphic and colorful language in it to carry out my desire to honor what C. G. Jung referred to as fantasy thinking involving images and associative thinking, as distinct from what he referred to as directed thinking involving logic. Yes, there is a certain logic also involved in my 665th OEN article as well.

In any event, in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article, most of my graphic and colorful language occurs in my extensive discuss of the body and the charming mom-son porn videos of the now-retired American pornstar Mandy Flores (born on March 19, 1989). In the subsection titled "Digression: My Love Song About Mandy Flores and Her Mom-Son Porn Videos," I celebrate her beautiful body - with her big (39") boobs and her eye-catching big nipples and her clean-shaven p*ssy -- and her seductive performances in her charming mom-son porn videos. In my 28,000-word 665^th OEN article, I mention Mandy Flores' name 250 times as I celebrate her calling as devout Christian to help me and other guys masturbate as we watch her perform seductively in the various fantasy skits in her many mom-son porn videos that are available free on the internet - she has helped perhaps millions of boys and men of all ages masturbate.

For example, at the XNXX website, 43 of Mandy Flores' porn videos are available free. The "Top 10" of her porn videos at XNXX have been viewed by millions of boys and men of all ages for a grand total of 805.8 million views at XNXX alone (as of April 8, 2025; her fans at XNXX view her 43 porn videos there so frequently that the number of views for each of her 43 videos keeps increasing regularly).

Wow! Mandy Flores' "Top 10" videos at XNXX have been viewed a total of 805.8 million times thus far. Her most popular video at XNXX has been viewed 451.9 million times!

My most popular OEN article has been viewed 11,691 times. For my 665 OEN articles to have been viewed one million times, each of my 665 OEN articles would have to have been viewed 1,655.6 times - unimaginable for my 665 OEN articles!

For my "Top 10" OEN articles to have been viewed a total of 805.8 million times, each of my "Top 10" OEN articles would have to have been viewed something like an average of 80.6 million times - unimaginable for my "Top 10" OEN articles!

Ah, but can you imagine just how widely known I would be if my "Top 10" OEN articles over the years had been viewed for a grand total of 541.9 million times?! I'd probably be the most famous op-ed commentator in the English-speaking world!

So, yes, I envy the now-retired pornstar Mandy Flores for having been viewed on XNXX a grand total of 541.9 million times in her "Top 10" videos at XNXX. May God continue to bless Mandy Flores in whatever work she now undertakes.

But, alas, at the XNXX website, they do not have my favorite Mandy Flores' mom-son porn video: "Mom and Son Share a Creampie" (2017). As you may have surmised by now, I dwell on Mandy Flores' wonderfully seductive performance in her charming "Mom and Son Share a Creampie" (2017) video in my long "Digression: My Love Song About Mandy Flores and Her Mom-Son Porn videos" in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article "Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's Foreign Policy" (dated March 24, 2025). Because I mention Mandy Flores 250 time in it, that is my favorite of my 665 OEN articles. Let me now explain the memorable backstory about writing that OEN article.

For two weeks in March 2025, I had no phone or internet service as I was writing my 665th OEN article. Consequently, as I wrote in the essay that I was writing about Mandy Flores and her charming mom-son videos, especially her charming "Mom and Son Share a Creampie" video, I could not stop periodically and check my memory of certain details in one of her many mom-son videos against the actual video in question by re-watching it and thereby refreshing my memory of details in it. As I wrote about Mandy Flores' body in graphic detail during those two weeks when I had not phone or internet service, I sensed her presence in my psyche - I felt that I was communing closely with her as I wrote from memory about her as graphically and vividly as I could. As you may imagine, my writing about her in such graphic and vivid detail during those two weeks in March became a memorable experience for me.

Now, I have stated above that my experience of making a 30-day directed retreat in silence (except for the daily conferences with the retreat director) following the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola was one of the most memorable experiences of my long life (I turned 81 on March 17, 2025, when I was writing my 28,800-word 665th OEN article). Well, as you may have surmised by now, my experience of writing my 28.800-word 665th OEN article is now also another one of my most memorable experiences in my life - thanks in large measure to my writing about Mandy Flores in it.

Now, even so, I cannot tell you certain points of information about my online relationship with Mandy Flores. I cannot tell you when I first started watching her porn videos that are available free on the internet. I also cannot tell you when I exchanged email messages with her - which I recount doing in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article. Nor can I tell you when or how I learned that she is a devout Christian and the mother of two children.

But I can tell you that I have not exchanged email messages with any other pornstars whose porn videos I happen to like watching. Nor do I know if any other pornstars whose porn videos I like watching are devout Christians.

Yes, my 28,800-word 665th OEN article is wide-ranging and deeply personal in certain respects - including all the respects involving Mandy Flores. Nevertheless, I cannot explain to you why I happened to dwell on Mandy Flores at the time in March when I was writing my 28,800-word 665th OEN article and was without phone or internet service. However, I can tell that my wide-ranging and deeply personal 28,800-word 665^th OEN article started out being about Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein's lengthy discussion of President Trump's topsy-turvy foreign policy in The New York Times. I did not start out to write a deep reflection about how American politics is downstream, figurative speaking, from American culture and the emergence of the ubiquitous mom-son porn videos available free on the internet in American culture for many years now - which became a focal point in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article as I wrote at length about Mandy Flores' many charming mom-son porn videos.

But enough about the backstory of my 28,800-word 665th OEN article. That much is history now. The story of my life going forward from my profound experience of writing extensively about Mandy Flores during the two weeks in March when I had no phone or internet service involved my own personal subjective experience. You see, through my experience of vividly and graphically writing about Mandy Flores' beautiful body and her charming mom-son porn videos during two weeks in March, I somehow connected her beautiful body with my own Mom's body when I was a baby suckling at her breasts. This connection that I felt with Mandy Flores's beautiful big (39") boobs and her eye-catching big nipples enabled me to experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido in my psyche that was "married within" my psyche to my early childhood image of my own Mom's big boobs and her eye-catching big nipples - an interior personal and subjective process of liberation from endogamous kinship libido "married within" my psyche to my earl childhood image of my own Mom in my psyche that continues to unfold in my psyche to this day. Ah, but now I need to back up a bit and explain the terminology that I am here using to interpret my own recent personal and subjective experiences involving Mandy Flores and my own Mom.

I am here deliberately using that language about the liberation in the psyche of endogamous kinship libido that Ong uses in recounting Erich Neumann's Jungian account of the eight stages of consciousness in his grand synthesis of C. G. Jung's work titled The Origins and History of Consciousness, translated by R. F. C. Hull (1954; orig. German ed., 1949).

In Ong's 1971 book Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture (1971, pp. 10-11), he succinctly summarizes the Jungian Analyst Erich Neumann's Jungian account of the eight stages of consciousness in his book The Origins and History of Consciousness (1954; orig. German ed., 1949) as follows:

"The stages of psychic development as treated by Neumann are successively (1) the infantile undifferentiated self-contained whole symbolized by the uroboros (tail-eater), the serpent with its tail in its mouth, as well as by other circular or global mythological figures [including Nietzsche's imagery about the eternal return?], (2) the Great Mother (the impersonal womb from which each human infant, male or female, comes, the impersonal femininity which may swallow him [or her] up again), (3) the separation of the world parents (the principle of opposites, differentiation, possibility of change, (4) the birth of the hero (rise of masculinity and of the personalized ego) with its sequels in (5) the slaying of the mother (fight with the dragon: victory over primal creative but consuming femininity, chthonic forces), and (6) the slaying of the father (symbol of thwarting obstruction of individual achievement, [thwarting] what is new), (7) the freeing of the captive (liberation of the ego from endogamous [i.e., "married" within one's psyche] kinship libido and the emergence of the higher femininity, with woman now as person, anima-sister, related positively to ego consciousness), and finally (8) the transformation (new unity in self-conscious individualization, higher masculinity, expressed primordially in the Osiris myth but today entering new phases with heightened individualism [such as Nietzsche's overman] - or, more properly, personalism - of modern man [sic])" (Ong, 1971, pp. 10-11).

This quote from Ong's 1971 book is taken from Chapter 1: "Rhetoric and the History of Consciousness" (pp. 1-22). "Rhetoric and the History of Consciousness" is reprinted in volume 4 of Ong's Faith and Contexts, edited by Thomas J. Farrell and Paul A. Soukup (1999, pp. 93-102).

Yes, to be sure, the history of the theory and practice of rhetoric in our Western cultural history is a central theme in Ong's work. Yes, to be sure, in all 665 of my OEN articles, I am engaged in the practice of rhetoric as I try to persuade and convince my readers of my various interpretations in my 665 OEN articles.

Now, Ong also sums up Neumann's Jungian account of the eight stages of consciousness in his (Ong's) book Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality [Gender], and Consciousness (1981, pp. 18-19; but also see the "Index" for further references to Neumann [p. 228]), the published version of Ong's 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University.

Now, back to my account of how American politics is downstream, figuratively speaking, from American culture in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article. For the sake of possibly advancing American culture in the near future, I urge American men of a certain age to use the fantasy skits in Mandy Flores' charming mom-son porn videos, and the other mom-son videos that are available free on the internet, to help them possibly also experience the liberation of endogamous kinship libido "married within" their psyches to the early childhood image in their psyches of their own moms. But I hasten to add that American men who are misogynists, as Trump and his many male MAGA supporters are, are not ready psychologically to experience the liberation of the endogamous kinship libido "married within" their psyches to their early childhood image of their own moms in the psyches.

Ah, but what about the endogamous kinship libido "married within' my psyche to my early childhood image of my father? Yes, I have yet to experience the liberation of the endogamous kinship libido that is "marries within" my psyche to my early childhood image of my father. This liberation will no doubt be part of my experience of stage (8) of the eight stages of consciousness that Neumann describes.

Incidentally, my father was in the Army and stationed in dover, England, on March 17, 1944, when my mother gave birth to me in my father's hometown of Ossining, New York. In any event, my father returned to Ossining in 1945, and entered my life for the time after I was born when I was 18 months old.

Now, before I turn away from discussing Mandy Flores to a few closing points, I want to make one further point here about her. In my "Digression: My Song About Mandy Flores and Her Mom-Son Porn videos" in my 28,800-word 665th OEN article, I refer to her as my muse in that article. This still strikes me as an apt characterization of the roles she played in my writing that wide-ranging and deeply personal OEN article. Simply stated, I found Mandy Flores an inspiration. She inspired me then, and she still inspires me now today as I write about her further in the present "Probe" essay - in which the name Mandy Flores appears 33 times. Ong's name also appears 38 times in the present "Probe" essay, including in the "References" at the end of the essay.

Ah, but is the role of muse for me that Mandy Flores played in my writing of the long and deeply personal 28,800-word 665th OEN essay related to anything that Ong discusses anywhere in his publications? I would say, yes, the role that Mandy Flores played in my writing that long and deeply personal long and wide-ranging 665th OEN article is definitely positively related to what Ong refers to as "the Art of Discourse" in the subtitle of his massively researched 1958 book Ramus Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (as in Ramist logic -- and as in philosophy in the Age of Reason).

Let me put my points here differently. What Ong means by "the Art of Reason" basically involves what I would describe as isolated intellectual contemplation. By contrast, what Ong refers to as "the Art of Discourse" involves, implicitly at least, attempting to speak directly to the soul of the person I am addressing. In the case of my 28,800-word 665th OEN article, the person I am primarily addressing in it is Mandy Flores with her beautiful big (39") boobs and her eye-catching big nipples and her clean-shaven p*ssy as I see her perform in her many charming mom-son porn videos.

Now, by addressing myself to the soul of Mandy Flores in my writing about her, I am attempting to engage in the spirit of I-thou communication with her in my writing - but of course I-thou communication with Mandy Flores is not possible in writing, but only in live face-to-face communication with her. Amen. Well, the time has now come for me now to say goodbye here to Mandy Flores.

For further discussion of the philosophical life, see the American scholar Agnes Callard's learned but accessible new 2025 book Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life.

Agnes Collard was born in 1976; she received her B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1997, and her Ph.D. from the University of California - Berkeley in 2008. She is a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago.

For a review of Professor Callard's accessible new 2025 book, see NYT book reviewer Jennifer Szalai's article "The Secret to a Good Life? Thinking Like Socrates. In Open Socrates, the University of Chicago scholar Agnes Callard argues that the ancient Greek philosopher offers a blueprint for an ethical life" (dated January 15, 2025) in The New York Times.

The most efficient way for me to provide you with an introductory overview of Callard's accessible new 2025 book Open Socrates is to tell you its parts:

Title page (p. i).

Copyright page (p. ii).

"Contents" page (p. iii).

Half-title page (p. v).

"Introduction: The Man Whose Name Is an Example" (pp. 1-22).

"Part One: Untimely Questions" (p. 23).

"Chapter 1: The Tolstoy Problem" (pp. 25-50).

"Chapter 2: Load-Bearing Answers" (pp. 51-76).

"Chapter 3: Savage Commands" (pp. 77-109).

"Chapter 4: "Socratic Intellectualism" (pp. 110-139).

"Part Two: The Socratic Method" (p. 141).

"Introduction to Part Two: Three Paradoxes" (pp. 143-146).

"Chapter 5: The Gadfly-Midwife Paradox" (pp. 147-175).

"Chapter 6: Moore's Paradox of Self-Knowledge" (pp. 176-207).

"Chapter 7: Meno's Paradox" (pp. 208-242).

"Part Three: Socratic Answers" (p. 243).

"Introduction to Part Three: The Socratizing Move" (pp. 245-249).

"Chapter 8: Politics: Justice and Liberty" (pp. 250-273).

"Chapter 9: Politics: Equality" (pp. 274-297).

"Chapter 10: Love" (pp. 298-333).

"Chapter 11: Death" (pp. 334-369).

"Acknowledgments" (pp. 371-374).

"Notes" (pp. 375-389).

"Index Locorum for Plato" (pp. 391-392).

"Index Generalis" (pp. 393-405).

As you know, Socrates himself left us no written documents. Much of what we know of Socrates' teaching comes from Plato's celebration and commemoration of Socrates in his various famous dialogues featuring the character named Socrates.

Callard carefully examines and interprets Plato's various dialogues featuring the character Socrates, and she helpfully provides us with the "Index Locorum for Plato" (pp. 391-392).

On the Copyright page of her learned but accessible new 2025 book Open Socrates (p. ii), Callard provides us with bibliographic information about the various translations of Plato's dialogues that she uses in her new 2025 book.

Callard's "Acknowledgments: in her new 2025 book Open Socrates (pp. 371-374) is the most extraordinary acknowledgment section that I have ever read in any book. As you know, Socrates did not recommend writing. So, what does Callard think that she is doing writing a book about Socrates' case for the philosophical life when his case for the philosophical life included recommending not writing?

In short, Socrates' was committed to question-and-answer live interactions - which of course writing does not allow us to engage in. Yes, to be sure, as an alert reader of written texts, you may question something that the author of a given text says. But of course the author of the given text is not present to answer your question about what he or she said in his or her written text. All of us know this from our experiences in reading written text.

For example, I know from my own experiences as a reader of written texts that I cannot question Callard about anything she says in her written text at eh very moment that I have a question for her about something she says in her written text. Of course, I could send her an email message asking her my question. However, I do not know her, and so I have no way of knowing if she might reply to my email message asking her my question about her text. No doubt live interactions are best suited for question-and-answer.

Now, Ong has reflected on another characteristic of written texts in his deeply thought-provoking essay "Maranatha: Death and Life in the Text of the Book" in his 1977 book Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture (pp. 230-271).

In Ong's essay "Maranathe: Death and Life in the Text of the Book," he says, among other things that "the bible actually ends with an explicit cast into the future, the explicit opposite of 'ever after.' The last words of the Christian bible are explicitly, 'Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all. Amen.' . . . Paul closes his first Letter to the Corinthians (16:22) with the same expression put urgently in Aramaic, 'Marantha,' 'Our Lord, come'" (p. 262).

Now, as I was working on the present "Probe" essay, an article came to my attention online titled "A Vibrator, Huh? Let's See Your ID: Sen. Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's wife, continues the Republican war against masturbation" (dated April 3, 2025) in the Dallas Observer online by Alyssa Fields: alyssa.fields|AT|dallasobserver.comEmail address (I saw the tile of her article at Drudge Report online on the morning of April 8, 2025).

In Alyssa Fields' article, she says, "The siege on self-gratification rages on in the 89th Texas Legislature. A new Senate bill, filed by North Texas Sen. Angela Paxton, Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton's other half, would require online shoppers to submit photo identification before purchasing a sex toy [her boldface]."

"Senate Bill 3003 claims to home in on the protection of minors by regulating the online sale of 'obscene devices' to those under 18."

I see the Texas Republican "siege on self-gratification" as manifesting the tragic anti-body Christian heritage in our Western cultural history.

Now, I have expressed my concern about another conservative initiative in Texas in my OEN article "Texas' War on Porn, and Robert Moore's Theory of the Archetypes of Maturity" (dated December 6, 2024). I am sorry to report that I have not found any liberals or progressives who have criticized these initiatives of conservatives in Texas.

In any event, for further discussion of the Second Vatican Council in the Roman Catholic Church (1962-1965), mentioned above, see The Oxford Handbook of Vatican II, edited by Catherine E. Clifford and Massimo Faggioli (2023).

Now, as you might expect, I am deeply grateful to all of the various OEN readers over the years who have read my various 665 OEN articles over the years, and to the various OEN readers over the years who have publicized my various OEN articles on their Facebook pages, and, most especially, to Rob Kall, the founder of opednews.com, for publishing so many of my OEN articles over the years without any hassle.

In conclusion, I have enjoyed writing my 665 OEN articles over the years. I believe that I have become a wee bit more articulate as a result of writing my 665 OEN articles over the years. In retirement (I retired from teaching at the University of Minnesota Duluth at the end of May 2009, after teaching at UMD for 22 years: 1987-2009, and I submitted my first OEN article in October 2009), I have undoubtedly honed my ability to take a position about something and defend my position - which I have found personally rewarding to do in each of my 665 OEN articles.

References

Callard, A. (2025). Open Socrates: The case for a philosophical life. W. W. Norton and Company.

Clifford, C. E., and M. Faggioli, eds. (2023). The Oxford handbook of Vatican II. Oxford University Press.

Farrell, T. J. (1998). Faulkner and male agonism. Time, memory, and the verbal arts: Essays on the thought of Walter Ong (D. L. Weeks and J. Hoogestraat, Eds.). Susquehanna University Press/ Associated University Presses.

Farrell, T. J. (2000). Walter Ong's contributions to cultural studies: The phenomenology of the word and I-thou communication. Hampton Press.

Farrell, T. J. (2010, March 14). Who was Walter Ong, and why is his thought important today? www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2010, April 3). Not for profit, eh? Hold on there, Martha Nussbaum! www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2010, May 4). Martha Nussbaum on why democracy needs the humanities. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2010, December 23). Bishop Olmsted is wrong in the abortion controversy in Phoenix. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2011, January 3). The questionable ethical teachings of the Catholic bishops regarding abortion in the first trimester. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2011, March 3). Was William Faulkner a conservative writer? No, not quite! www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2011, March 17). James Carroll's call to arms. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2011, July 1). Why Americans should try to understand modernity as Walter Ong understands it. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2011, October 19). Justin Frank, M.D., puts President Obama on the couch. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2012, March 16). Hillary Clinton urges us to stand up to extremists in the U.S. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2012, September 4). Jiddu Krishnamurti and Anthony de Mello, S.J.: Two spiritual guides from India to enlighten us. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2012, November 24). The two Americas should be discussed further. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2013, December 17). James Carroll profiles Pope Francis in the NEW YORKER. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2019, December 30). In defense of manly virtue: Camille Paglia vs. Walter Ong and David Bakan. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2014, July 2). Roman Catholic moral reasoning in the Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2014, November 16). Edward O. Wilson inveighs against organized religion. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2015, January 28). Why doesn't Pope Francis support freedom of speech? www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2017, December 30). Celebrating Walter J. Ong's thought. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2019, March 24). Pope Francis on evil and Satan. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2020, September 20). Walter J. Ong's philosophical thought. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2024, September 17). Robert Moore on optimal human psychological development. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2024, December 6). Texas' war on porn, and Robert Moore's theory of the archetypes of maturity. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Farrell, T. J. (2025, March 24). Fareed Zakaria and Ezra Klein on President Trump's foreign policy. www.opednews.com URL: Click Here

Fields, A. (2025, April 3). A vibrator, huh? Let's see your ID: Sen. Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's wife, continues the Republican war against masturbation. Dallas Observer (print and digital). No URL for the Dallas Observer appears on the online version of Fields' article.

Frank, J. A. (2018). Trump on the couch: Inside the mind of the president. Avery/ Penguin Random House.

Goldberg, M. (2025, April 7). Why did so many people delude themselves about Trump? The New York Times URL: Click Here

McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg galaxy: The making of typographic man (sic). University of Toronto Press.

Neumann, E. (1954). The origins and history of consciousness (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Pantheon Books.

Ong, W. J. (1958). Ramus, method, and the decay of dialogue: From the art of discourse to the art of reason. Harvard University Press.

Ong, W. J. (1971). Rhetoric, romance, and technology: Studies in the interaction of expression and culture Cornell University Press.

Ong, W. J. (1981). Fighting for life: Contest, sexuality [gender], and consciousness. Cornell University Press.

Ong, W. J. (1977). Interfaces of the word: Studies in the evolution of consciousness and culture. Cornell University Press.

Ong, W. J. (1992a, 1992b, 1995, 1999). Faith and contexts, four vols. (T. J. Farrell and P. A. Soukup, Eds.). Scholars Press.

Szalai, J. (2025, January 15). The secret to a good life? Thinking like Socrates. In Open Socrates, the scholar Agnes Callard argues that the ancient Greek philosopher offers a blueprint for an ethical life. The New York Times URL: Click Here

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview