What is LOVE? -- If you loved me, you wouldn’t want to change me !?

If you loved me, you wouldn’t want to change me | Philosophers' Mail

The impulse to alter our lovers appears to run counter to the spirit of
love. If we loved and were loved, surely there wouldn’t be any talk of
change? Isn’t love about the acceptance of an entire being, in their
high and low points?



But,  being told we simply have to love someone for all that they are, or else
think of ourselves as bad people, is asking too much.



How could someone
never want to change any part of us if they know us properly? Do they
lack all ambition for our true potential? Do we not ourselves aspire to
change and improvement? Then why blame them for wanting from us what we
at heart want from ourselves?



For the Greeks, given that we are all very imperfect, part of what it
means to deepen love is to want to teach – and to be taught. Two people
should see a relationship as a constant opportunity to improve and be
improved. When lovers teach each other uncomfortable truths, they are
not giving up on love. They are trying to do something very true to
love: which is to make their partners more loveable.

Is parental lying morally justified?

Parents in U.S. and China Both Lie to Their Kids, Study Says | TIME.com:



Parental lying is important, the researchers wrote, because “this practice may play a role in children’s lying behavior and evaluations of others who lie, two issues that are widely recognized as central to moral development.”


In conclusion, they wrote, their study raises “important moral questions for parents about when, if ever, parental lying is justified.”



Also read:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/parent-pulse/201208/parental-lying  and Chinese Lying about Good Deeds

Libraries should promote learning, not police values

Libraries should promote learning, not police values 

sides
being a bastion of knowledge, public libraries also enable Singaporeans
to participate more effectively in building a better society for all.
To be engaged citizens who understand trade-offs and propose expedient
solutions requires that we be exposed to information and viewpoints that
at times may challenge what we hold dear. Critical thinking skills are
best honed when we are exposed to contradictory ideas, data and dogmas. -
See more at:
http://www.edvantage.com.sg/content/libraries-should-promote-learning-not-police-values#sthash.Cku2qWiU.dpuf

Besides being a bastion of knowledge, public libraries also enable Singaporeans to participate more effectively in building a better society for all. To be engaged citizens who
understand trade-offs and propose expedient solutions requires that we be exposed to information and viewpoints that at times may challenge what we hold dear. 

Critical thinking skills are best honed when we are exposed to contradictory ideas, data and dogmas. 

Political scientist James Fishkin, widely cited for his work on deliberative democracy, has identified five
elements integral to legitimate deliberation. They include making accurate information and relevant data available to all participants, and attaining substantive balance where different positions are compared based on their supporting evidence. 

There is also a need to allow for diversity, where all major positions relevant to the matter are considered, and the practice of conscientiousness, in which participants sincerely weigh all arguments. 

Finally, equal consideration should be given to views based on evidence and not on the people who advocate those views.

 cited for his work on deliberative
democracy, has identified five elements integral to legitimate
deliberation. They include making accurate information and relevant data
available to all participants, and attaining substantive balance where
different positions are compared based on their supporting evidence.
There is also a need to allow for diversity, where all major positions
relevant to the matter are considered, and the practice of
conscientiousness, in which participants sincerely weigh all arguments.
Finally, equal consideration should be given to views based on evidence
and not on the people who advocate those views. - See more at:
http://www.edvantage.com.sg/content/libraries-should-promote-learning-not-police-values#sthash.Cku2qWiU.dpuf

Besides
being a bastion of knowledge, public libraries also enable Singaporeans
to participate more effectively in building a better society for all.
To be engaged citizens who understand trade-offs and propose expedient
solutions requires that we be exposed to information and viewpoints that
at times may challenge what we hold dear. Critical thinking skills are
best honed when we are exposed to contradictory ideas, data and dogmas. -
See more at:
http://www.edvantage.com.sg/content/libraries-should-promote-learning-not-police-values#sthash.Cku2qWiU.dpuf

Besides
being a bastion of knowledge, public libraries also enable Singaporeans
to participate more effectively in building a better society for all.
To be engaged citizens who understand trade-offs and propose expedient
solutions requires that we be exposed to information and viewpoints that
at times may challenge what we hold dear. Critical thinking skills are
best honed when we are exposed to contradictory ideas, data and dogmas. -
See more at:
http://www.edvantage.com.sg/content/libraries-should-promote-learning-not-police-values#sthash.Cku2qWiU.dpuf

Does Evolution Explain Religious Beliefs?

Does Evolution Explain Religious Beliefs?
I don’t think science as such can explain everything. Therefore, assuming that the existence and nature of the world can be fully understood (I’m not sure it can!), this is going to require something more than science.

If the person of faith wants to say that God created the world, I don’t think you can deny this on scientific grounds.

The interviewee for this installment is Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
Michael Ruse, a professor of philosophy at Florida State University and the author of the forthcoming book “

Interviewed by GARY GUTTING for New York Times
July 8, 2014

eBook: Perceiving God: Epistemology of Religious Experience

To download go to this link -Perceiving God: Epistemology of Religious Experience by William Alston

The central thesis of this book is that experiential awareness of God, or as I shall be saying, the perception of God, makes an important contribution to the grounds of religious belief. More specifically, a person can become justified in holding certain kinds of beliefs about God by virtue of perceiving God as being or doing so-and-so.

We believe in the reality of objects that we perceive using our senses. In like manner we are justified in perceiving the existence of metaphysical entities using our consciousness (mind).

Does one owe a special debt to one’s country of birth?

The Debt to One’s Homeland

 Do you owe your country or family a debt?


Can someone leave without being branded a traitor? And do those who leave in search of a better life make life worse for those who stay?

Who has a right to judge the one who left? Had things gotten as bad in one's country, or were they bad but not bad enough to leave? Can someone leave without being branded a traitor? And do those who leave in search of a better life make life worse for those who stay?

What if we re-frame this issue:  In the first place, has one's country betrayed her citizens right to live a better life?


The crux of the matter is an issue of priority: choosing an individual's life over a community.

Do I Have the Right to Be Alive?

Do I Have the Right to Be? - NYTimes.com:



Anyone who reflects on the unjust death of others will be surprised at how much his or her own right to be is put in question, to the point where his or her place on this earth can appear as a usurpation.



Emmanuel Levinas discerning question: “What is most natural becomes the
most problematic. Do I have the right to be? Is being in the world not
taking the place of someone?”



I think we fail to appreciate how radically contingent our lives really are.



The mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz coined the phrase
“Butterfly Effect” to refer in chaos theory to the manner in which small
occurrences (like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings) can have enormous
consequences that appear to be random (like the weather).



A random decision in time and space effected one's existence (non-existence). It also sets up a sequence of events in which an entirely different set of people end

up being born.

Animal Rights: Group seeks 'personhood' for 4 chimps in NY

Group seeks 'personhood' for 4 chimps in NY  

"Once we prove that chimpanzees are autonomous, that should be sufficient for them to gain legal personhood and at least have their fundamental interests protected by human rights," Wise said.

If the lawsuits succeed, similar ones could eventually be filed on behalf of other species considered autonomous, such as gorillas, orangutans, whales, dolphins and elephants, Wise said.

Deconstructing God

Deconstructing God - NYTimes.com

The particular beliefs are more local, more stabilized, more codified,
while this underlying faith and hope in life is more restless,
open-ended, disturbing, inchoate, unpredictable, destabilizing, less
confinable.

 If you cease to ‘believe’ in a particular religious creed, you have
merely changed your mind. But if you lose ‘faith,’ a way of life,
everything is lost.

 Derrida calls this a “religion without religion.”

--  John D. Caputo, a professor of religion and humanities at Syracuse
University and the author of “The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida:
Religion Without Religion.”

The Case for 'Soft Atheism': A Godless Religion

The Case for 'Soft Atheism' - NYTimes.com:

If the devout Christian had been brought up in a completely different
environment — among aboriginal Australians or in a Hindu community, say —
that person would believe radically different doctrines, and, moreover,
come to believe them in a completely parallel fashion. On what basis, then, can you distinguish the profound truth of your doctrines from the misguided ideas of alternative traditions?

 It is possible to reject all religious doctrines as false without dismissing religion itself as noxious rubbish.

Refined religion sees the fundamental religious attitude not as belief
in a doctrine but as a commitment to promoting the most enduring values.
That commitment is typically embedded in social movements — the
faithful come together to engage in rites, to explore ideas and ideals
with one another and to work cooperatively for ameliorating the
conditions of human life.

Most important, this positive secular humanism focuses directly on the
needs of others, treating people as valuable without supposing that the
value derives from some allegedly higher source. The supposed
“transcendent” toward which the world’s religions gesture is both a
distraction and a detour.

What is History: Facts or Social Constructions

Do not fear historical interpretations - Columnist - New Straits Times:



Everywhere, historians and non-historians alike distort history. Therefore, it is important for all citizens to develop a mastery of historical literacy.



One aspect of historical literacy is to use history and its theories as tools of thought. The authentic search for knowledge empowers ordinary citizens to be clear in their thinking and not gullible in the use of history as indoctrination and propaganda.

In Praise of Idleness

"I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous.

I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work. " observes Russell.

"The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery," he adds.

"I remember hearing an old Duchess say: 'What do the poor want with holidays? They ought to work.'  People nowadays are less frank, but the sentiment persists, and is the source of much of our economic confusion."

Without the need to work, there's more time for leisure, for doing what we really enjoy.

 Read In Praise Of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

Why Should We Worship God: An Argument Against God's Existence

There is a wide consensus among theists that it is obligatory for us to worship God. For example, Richard Swinburne writes, ‘Worship is obligatory – it is the proper response of respect by man to his creator.’ (Richard Swinburne (1981). Faith and Reason, Oxford, Clarendon Press)

Although worship has a pivotal place in religious thought and practice, philosophers of religion have had remarkably little to say about it.

In this paper we examine some of the many questions surrounding the notion of worship, focusing on the claim that human beings have obligations to worship God. We explore a number of attempts to ground our supposed duty to worship God, and argue that each is problematic.

We conclude by examining the implications of this result, and suggest that it might be taken to provide an argument against God’s existence, since theists generally regard it is a necessary truth that we ought to worship God.

Read Grounds for Worship and I Can't Make You Worship Me

An Immortal Life Would Be Unbearably Boring

If we can prolong life endlessly, it would not be desirable.

An immortal life would have satisfied all its desires and achieved its goals. There is nothing left to do, but boredom.

Bernard Williams in "The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality" in Problems of the Self, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973, pp.82-100,  argued that immortal individuals would be utterly bored with unchanging desires.

Read Bernard Williams article "The Makropulos Case"

A Reply to Bernard Williams argument.

Anscombe: Without God There is No Need To Speak Of Absolute Shoulds

Topic for #88: G.E.M. Anscombe on Ethical Judgment and Action |

Anscombe says that we only think in terms of moral laws and obligations because Christianity was dominant in our culture for so long.

It is as if the notion “criminal” were to remain when
criminal law and criminal courts had been abolished and forgotten. A Hume discovering this situation might conclude that there was a special sentiment, expressed by “criminal,” which alone gave the word its sense.
So Hume discovered the situation which the notion “obligation” survived, and the notion “ought” was invested with that peculiar for having which it is said to be used in a “moral” sense, but in which the belief in divine law had long since been abandoned: for it was
substantially given up among Protestants at the time of the Reformation. The situation, if I am right, was the interesting one of the survival of a concept outside the framework of thought that made it a really intelligible one.

 Anscombe thinks that we also need to distinguish again between the intended (you are responsible for whether you do the unethical deed or not) and the merely foreseen (you are not responsible for this foreseen event that you do not intend).


G E M Anscombe on Moral Philosophy

Hermeneutics of events: Can a man speak for God?

Perkasa’s Zul Noordin celebrates Karpal’s death as clearing path for hudud | Malaysia | The Malay Mail Online: Datuk Zulkifli Noordin



He
wrote using his Twitter handle @zulkiflinoordin, "Allah has killed off
Karpal who was the major opponent of its implementation!"



Datuk
Zulkifli Noordin in making this remark presumes that he knows the mind
and intentions of God. Is this good theology?



Puny Man, often in ignorant pride, claims to
speak for God. Let's consider another plausible scenario. We may also
interpret Karpal's death as God's Justice removing a floodgate that has
kept back the brackish water of evils and injustices. Why? To let evil
show its true colors and to face its final condemnation.



Which of these two interpretations is correct?  Perhaps neither or both interpretations are correct. There could be other understandings for this tragic event.



Event interpretation is prejudicial. 



Foucault argues that the episteme of an age condtions one's understanding of "Truth".

 

Philosophy is not like science

Please Stop Contributing to the Publish-or-Perish Landfill

by Wes Alwan on April 9, 2014 |

Bernard Williams was the rare academic who was also a great writer. In his review of Williams’ Essays and Reviews: 1959-2002, Paul Sagar lets academia have it:

We can now see that Williams was not lazy: he spent an immense amount of time reading and thinking, and knew much beyond his own academic arguments. What he chose to do was spend time thinking about things that most interested him, rather than engaging in the Sisyphean task of attempting to stay up to date with the vast and ever-expanding sea of contemporary scholarship, which tirelessly throws out publication after publication in every conceivable niche of enquiry. It is undeniable that the vast majority of present scholarly output in philosophy and attendant disciplines is of a poor standard: it is either unoriginal, original at the expense of being preposterous and tiresomely pointless or trivial, or else diligent and robust but utterly devoid of interest to anybody other than those academics who have made a career out of grinding out points and counterpoints within debates that only exist because of the very professionalization of intellectual pursuits of which their activity is a function. Williams chose to bypass all of this and get on with being original and interesting. It is not at all clear that he was making a mistake.
The present government’s Kafkaesque “Research Excellence Framework” demands that academics churn out publications, regardless of whether they have anything to say. More generally, there has been a pronounced cultural shift in professionalized academia away from teaching and towards measurable ‘outputs’, encouraging academics to translate whatever modest or untenable ideas they have into high ‘impact’ publications. Academia is in danger of ending up moribund via a prolonged case of morbid obesity. Williams’s advice was the exact opposite of all of this: disciplines like philosophy should not encourage, or give incentives for, publishing, unless what one writes is likely to be very good indeed; likely to be both genuinely interesting and original.
…
Philosophy is not like [science]: in philosophy, you are not only not adding data if you are making bad, or unoriginal, or stupid, or pointlessly banal and repetitive arguments, you are getting in the way of those who are trying to make sense of our world, and who might be able to make more sense of it than those who have tried before.

– Wes Alwan

Do Animals Have Rights?

Also read:  A comprehensive essay on animal rights and Environmental Ethics

Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit debated the issue of animal rights in 2001 with Peter Singer.^[127] Posner argues that his moral intuition tells him "that human beings prefer their own. If a dog threatens a human infant, even if it requires causing more pain to the dog to stop it, than the dog would have caused to the infant, then we favour the child. It would be monstrous to spare the dog."

Michel Foucault (French: [miʃɛl fuko]; born Paul-Michel Foucault) (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, philologist and literary critic. His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge.

Foucault's colleague Pierre Bourdieu summarised the philosopher's thought as "a long exploration of transgression, of going beyond social limits, always inseparably linked to knowledge and power."

"The theme that underlies all Foucault's work is the relationship between power and knowledge, and how the former is used to control and define the latter.  What authorities claim as 'scientific knowledge' are really just means of social control. Foucault shows how, for instance, in the eighteenth century 'madness' was used to categorize and stigmatise not just the mentally ill but the poor, the sick, the homeless and, indeed, anyone whose expressions of individuality were unwelcome."

Philip Stokes, Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers (2004)^[157]

Philosopher Philip Stokes of the University of Reading noted that overall, Foucault's work was "dark and pessimistic", but that it did leave some room for optimism, in that it illustrates how the discipline of philosophy can be used to highlight areas of domination. In doing so, Stokes claimed, we are able to understand how we are being dominated and strive to build social structures that minimize this risk of domination. In all of this development there had to be close attention to detail; it is the detail which eventually individualises people.

--Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault

For a more detailed introduction go to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy  --http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/

Foucault's Key Ideas

Follow link to read Foucault's Key ideas.

Foucault Key Ideas