tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97169972024-03-17T05:52:36.525+11:00Lindsay's LobesA collective kaleidoscope of thoughts on life’s light filled agendaLindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.comBlogger697125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-5243541774200197752024-03-15T22:29:00.001+11:002024-03-15T22:29:14.667+11:00Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-size: 14pt;">This book in my view is an enjoyable
read but annoyingly without footnotes/ references which makes philosophical
analysis so much harder.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">I saw shades of Melville's Moby Dick, Heidegger’s Being and Time
and postmodernism. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The whole book on my view might be regarded as a response to the
Koan albeit with some modifications: </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">And what is good, Phaedrus,</span></i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">And what is not good—</span></i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Do we ask anyone to tell us these things?</span></i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 18.6667px;">Noting Koans are not necessarily meant to be solved as they cann be can be parodoxical statments that focus the mind in a non rational intutive mediative mode. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 18.6667px;">They can provide one with the answer, over time, but the rtionale is to beak free from mundane anlytics and expernce enligtenment in the Zen Buddhist tradition.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">What I liked and my thoughts on his
Odyssey. </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Possibly a candidate to become an enduring classic and embracing
ethical values as is appropriate to our technological age. As he sees lacking a
dynamic societal response such as could be applied in consideration of his
‘quality’ metaphysics.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">His approach to writing for me bears a resemblance to
Melville’s epic ‘Moby Dick’, notwithstanding the latter is of a bygone era.
Call me Ismael is the Narrator alongside periodic entries by Captain Ahab,
punctuated with enormous detail on whaling versus details a similar literary
style of Persigs philosophical probing laced with his motorcycle
maintenance guide. .</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Melville provides a critique on his Calvinist strict upbringing,
its decimation of the environment and warns of encroaching nihilism. He is
in search of values just as is </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pirsig’</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">s
intentions appear under the title - <i>An inquiry into Values. </i> </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Similarly, the narrator is joined by Phaedrus and another
unnamed one with ideas punctuated by detail on motorcycle maintenance to
return to philosophical musings and social critiques. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The ghostly Socratic character of Phaedrus adds another degree
of complexity and interest. As an aside Pirsig suggests reading Lila for those
further interested in the character of </span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus (the author's alter ego) where he is jarred out of his
solitary routine by an encounter with Lila, </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">a straightforward but troubled woman who is nearing a
mental breakdown</span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pirsig first encounters </span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus (pages 80/81) in the form of strange wisps of memory
morphed into an individual who was subject to shock treatment that destroys his
personality - he is now dead. Thereafter he surmises in his ‘</span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chautauqua’ (in effect philosophy concerned
with values and enrichment) how acutely aware that ideas are now only possible
for him after restoration of his mental state from the </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">prior burden of schizophrenia. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">What emerges along the arduous journey of competing ideas is a
long list of western philosophy (a great refresher for any serious
student and I don’t mean to be condescending) to encompass shades of
Nietzsche Heidegger, Derrida and postmodernism. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where I have questions</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">But as a traveller down the road to pioneer new thinking
it becomes rather difficult, I think, to make definite conclusions or
fresh claims when so much seems to be already detailed by Heidegger and those
that followed. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The effective merger of east versus west thinking at first blush
doesn’t seem to add much more to what’s already known in the post
Newtonian world of today. One is aware of the dualistic limitations of the
Greek thinkers just as Darwin’s theory of evolution has had to be twigged
– it’s no longer just the survival of the fittest
</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">But, of course, one needs to explore further those
thoughtful ideas that nevertheless require one to undertake a leap of
faith. You can't really mix up what in effect is mysticism
with rationality can you? Or otherwise you must accept that as
if it's a new religious way of thinking? </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pirsig accepts this difficulty but finally concludes there is a
seemingly simple intuitive solution - to separate the dynamic
patterns from the basic static ones. What is in effect in his mind an
amalgam of past and present tenses. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">This then becomes the final conclusion of his ‘Chautauqua’</span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;"> which takes shape in his mind as
an interesting read even if one doesn’t agree with his final outcome. After
all, the journey is more important than arriving at the destination- well,
mostly I guess? But I like the conclusion from
the Philosophy Now article which illustrates </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">ultimately Pirsig’s brilliant
thinking. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <i>Dynamic Quality’ is the term he gives to the
continually changing flux of immediately-experienced reality, while ‘static
quality’ refers to any concept abstracted from this flux. The term ‘Dynamic’
indicates something not fixed or determinate, which means that Dynamic Quality
cannot be defined, and therefore a true understanding of it can only be given
directly in experience.” (Andrew McWatt)</i></span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Analysis</span></u></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt;">One can get an initial impression he’s embarking on a ripping
good yarn on his motorcycle journey with a few philosophical musings
just as Hollywood adapted Moby Dick to the big screen.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt;">For </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Persig</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt;"> eschews the joys of motorcycling
superiority to travelling otherwise by road cocooned away from any direct
engagement with the roads surface, to experience the wind in your face and the
environmental changes first hand so to speak compared to other read travel
modes. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt;">He travels only the back roads where everyone and everything
moves at a refreshingly slower pace as he pauses refreshed in the evening to
read Emerson’s narrative on nature.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Seated at the wheel of his exceedingly powerful Honda breathing
in those life giving smells and fresh air he muses the problem then, and now
accelerating, is humanity’s disinterest in the details of technological
development as to how we can stay in tune with what’s happening. Such musings
became the catalyst to write his book sparked by the same malaise demonstrated
by his fellow companions. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">His ‘</span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chautauqua’
takes shape in his mind now as he is reminded these ideas are </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">only possible having cast off his prior
burden of schizophrenia. Ultimately to </span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">crystallise in his metaphysical concept of ‘quality’ manifests
as he sees it in the static and dynamic patterns we experience as ‘being in the
world’.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Persig’s philosophical <wbr></wbr>odyssey, like Melville’s
epic narrative, has different narrators- Pirsig and another unnamed with
frequent entries by Phaedrus</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> –
a ghostly other self up to a point or alto ego if you will. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Persig’s fascinating narrative continues on ably accompanied by
his ghostly narrator Phaedrus who weaves his way in and out of
the philosophical musings. Despite the reference to ghosts the
authors note <i>what follows is based on actual occurrences. He goes on to
say that much has been changed for rhetorical reasons.</i></span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus first entry into the Odyssey is after discussions ensue
over his accompanying troubled son Chris who asks Pitsig- <i>Do you
believe in Ghosts?</i></span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus has become Pirsig’s character as an individual
discovered from health records who loses his personality after shock treatment
for his mental condition. But from prior records one is able to piece together
his past life which echoes Pirsig’s youthful life and his mental
problems. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pirsig explains in graphic detail how Phaedrus lost his memory
from shock treatment to treat his mental illness. So it is the ghostly Phaedrus
who echoes </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Pirsig’s</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> previous life. But subsequently
Pirsig posits that Phaedrus fails in his PHD thesis in comparison to his
version. But the question </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">remains:
does</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> that version also
fail? Academia mostly thinks so if the paucity of any real research other than
the Philosophy Now article is any guide?</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">But that can be true for many great thinkers and writers whose
brilliance is only discerned by a future generation. I suspect that may be true
for Pirsig. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">But I guess for the millions of readers of that era living
during a time of turmoil in America didn’t care much about the finer
detail as its enjoyment resonates each step of the way to add clarity, even if
it’s only seen as challenging the status quo. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">But in the context of the post mental illness freedom</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Pirsig now feels</span><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 14.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Brian, an occasional morning café tea companion
and whose life is now dedicated to helping troubled youth informs me – <i>I
couldn’t be sitting here now and have this conversation without input of the
chemicals that calmed and eliminated those voices and bipolar mood swings
that gave rise to prior bizarre behaviours.</i> <i>Mental illness comes
before ideas he surmises</i> just as does Pirsig. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unlike Brian, the shock treatment received by Pirsig means he is
more acutely aware that those affected can’t always recall all the earlier
memories as the treatment changes the brain structure to the extent some feel
they aren’t the same person as before. That sort of treatment was largely given
then in ignorance as today it is rarely justified unless considered absolutely
necessary because of the known risks of memory loss. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The ghostly </span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus in parallel with Pirsig provides further perspectives
in the form of a Buddhist koan</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">What is good and not good? Noting Koans are not necessarily
meant to be solved.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">What emerges subsequently to justify his conclusion are shades
of post modernism to deconstruct the philosophical idea of subjects
and objects with his perception that all we see are patterns of quality. He
views this outcome as an effective merger of east versus west thinking. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The three narrators all aim at substantiating the view - in
reality </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> ‘being</span><span style="color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 14.0pt;"> in the world’ is synonymous with
“Quality.”</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus’s embolden approach is from one who is considered a
genius ( IQ 180) but in his attempt justify this view rationality he suffers a
mental breakdown and is admitted to an institution which liquidates his
personality. See page 80. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">That was known technologically as ‘Annihilation ECS.’ A whole
personality had been liquidated without a trace in a technologically faultless
act <i>that has defined our relationship ever since. I have never met him.</i></span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">But fortunately Phaedrus has left behind a legacy—trunks of
notes, recollections of him by family and friends, even fleeting memories that,
like flashes of lightning, illuminate the narrator’s quest for him- language
and the reality he calls “Quality.”</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Quality then he concludes is analogous to the Chinese “Tao” of
Zen thought. He feels the Church of Reason was wedded to logic
as philosophical mysticism is ineffable and can only be understood by
non-rational means- by experience. .</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here I sense shades of Kierkegaard and likewise the basis of Zen
practice.</span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Phaedrus then tries to imagine the debates in ancient Greece
between the rhetoricians and dialecticians - a debate as to whether or not
reality could be captured in words. But the consensus is that it is not
possible as good is ever changing. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The narrator’s focus turns to discern that the ‘Buddha ‘exists
independently even within analytic thought to provide analytic direction.
An attempt is made to combine rational analysis with an expanded rhetoric to
experience Quality by an alternation between past and present tense. That is
being in the world represents a combination of static and dynamic patterns
of quality. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Therein it is acknowledged you can’t combine something that is
ineffable with rationality in his brilliant conclusion taken
from Philosophy Now. </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">The answer according to Pirsig is quality – an amalgam of static
pattern with the dynamic. The static can be defined whilst the dynamic can only
be experienced even though we can discern what we believe are personal degrees
of that dynamic quality. From an article in Philosophy Now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dynamic Quality’ is the term he gives to the continually
changing flux of immediately-experienced reality, while ‘static quality’ refers
to any concept abstracted from this flux. The term ‘Dynamic’ indicates
something not fixed or determinate, which means that Dynamic Quality cannot be
defined, and therefore a true understanding of it can only be given directly in
experience.” (Andrew McWatt).</span></i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "New serif",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-6741236245993611962024-02-26T18:13:00.012+11:002024-02-27T13:17:24.250+11:00The Philosophy of Buddhism<p><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Introduction</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Remarkably the Buddha’s Philosophy dating back 2400
years bears a striking resemblance to those sages that were soon to
follow. The ancient Greeks represented by the Stoics, Plato and Aristotle
all adopted similiar ideas independently or through interaction- for noone knows. That amalgam of ideas as to how to live the good life, a
happier and more virtuous one, to deal with and overcome suffering, speaks to
us today just as it did then.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Buddhism embraces science in modernity as the Dali
Lamar reaches out to the scientific world in asserting its relevance to the in underpinning
a happier existence, to quell a troubled world. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Buddhism in terms of mindfulness and its wisdom
stream has been demonstrated to reap healthy outcomes. <span style="color: #202124;">The </span>Dalai Lama has emphasised the need for a
Universal Responsibility to be adopted by all major religious- traditions
– to affirm a message of love, compassion and forgiveness.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Upon any form of sickness the
Buddhist ideal is for the patient to seek medical treatment but to show
compassion and mindfulness leading to calm and inner peace. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Well known celebrities such as Richard Gear, Arthur
C Clarke and in the more modern philosophical era both <span style="color: #202124;">Wittgenstein and Russell endorse its philosophy. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">An
overview of Buddhism and its evolution as spread out into the world</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Buddhism first arose from the teachings of the
Buddha Gautama who lived in the 6th century BC as an alternate response to its
roots in Hinduism in India. His charismatic teaching was to take hold during a
period of great social change and intense religious activity where many were no
longer content with the external formalities of Brahmanic (Hindu high-caste)
sacrifice and ritual.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">As Buddhism took hold it spread out to Southeast
Asia, China, Korea and Japan to play a pivotal role in the spiritual, cultural,
and social life of the Eastern world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">More recently in its modernised mindful
aspect it has taken hold during the 20th century as it spread to the
West. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Key Concepts and interpretation of his teaching</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Buddhist councils for centuries following the
Buddha's death attempted to establish his true and original teachings. After 18
councils of deliberation over many centuries principally two schools of
thought survived. <b> </b></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Theravāda </span></u></b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">is</span></u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; padding: 0cm;"> considered
foundational in line with traditional Buddha's teachings. It posits the
supremacy of the Buddha and his teachings to attain ‘enlightenment’ where one
reaches a state where all suffering ceases referenced as ‘Nirvana’: that which
is only attainable by Monks. But by following Buddhist principles lay people
can be reborn into more positive circumstances. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Mahāyāna is </span></u></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; padding: 0cm;">where </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Buddhists believe </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">enlightenment can be attained
in a single lifetime</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">, and this can be accomplished even
by a layperson. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Mahāyāna tradition is by fare the
largest major tradition of Buddhism today, with 53% of practitioners, compared
to 36% for Theravāda. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Buddhism has become modified as it
spread out to encompass further schools of thought that broadly assert:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">Within each of us is a Buddha nature.</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">Attained by emptying the mind of preconceptions to allow
for intuitive and meditative thinking or awareness. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">Accessibility through all sincere spiritual practices-
meditation, mantra m praying, physical exercise, songs of realisation and so
forth. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">The true self is nondual. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">Possible to reach enlightenment in a single
lifetime, </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· <span style="color: #202124;">Can be part or complementary to any religion including
Christianity. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The Fundamental message</span></u></b><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">is
about suffering, impermanence, and no-self. Existence is painful and
individuality implies limitation which gives rise to desire; and inevitably
then causes suffering. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">What is desired is transitory and perishing-
leading to disappointment and sorrow. The “path” taught by the
Buddha, dispels the “ignorance” that perpetuates this suffering.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Hence, life is a stream of becoming, a series
of manifestations and extinctions. The concept of the individual ego is a
delusion; the objects with which people identify themselves—fortune, social,
position, family, body, and even mind—are not their true selves. There is
nothing permanent, and, if only the permanent deserved to be called the self,
or atman, then nothing is self. There can be no individuality without a putting
together of components. This is becoming different, and there can be no way of
becoming different without a dissolution, a passing away.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Existence in terms of the Five aggregates</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Buddhists set forth the theory of the five
aggregates or constituents of human existence: (1) corporeality or
physical forms (2<b>) </b>feelings or sensations (3) ideations i.e.
perceptions or cognition/thinking (4) mental formations or dispositions i.e.
intentions and (5) consciousness i.e<b>. </b>self-awareness<b>.</b></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">According to Buddhists a person is in a process of
continuous change, with no fixed underlying entity.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Rebirth, is potentially an endless series of
worldly existences in which every being is caught up was already associated
with the doctrine of karma - in pre-Buddhist India under Hinduism this concept
was generally accepted by both the Theravāda and the<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mahāyāna
traditions.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Karma</span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;"> in the form of good conduct
brings a pleasant and happy result to engender similar good acts, while bad
conduct brings an evil result to create repeated evil actions. This furnishes
the basic context for the moral life of the individual. Some karmas bear fruit
in the same life in which they are committed, others in the immediately
succeeding one, and others in future lives that are more remote.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The acceptance by Buddhists of the belief in karma
and rebirth while holding to the doctrine of no- self gave rise to a difficult
problem: how can rebirth take place without a permanent subject to be reborn?
Indian non-Buddhist philosophers attacked this vulnerable point in Buddhist
thought, and many modern scholars have also considered it to be an insoluble
question. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">However, the relation between existences in rebirth
has been explained by the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in
appearance and yet is different in every moment—what may be called the
continuity of an ever- changing identity.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The Four Noble Truths</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">· </span></b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The truth
of misery, the truth that misery originates within us from the craving for
pleasure that can be eliminated in a methodical way or path.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">· Hence,
the Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination whereby one condition
arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">· Every
mode of being presupposes another immediately preceding mode from which the
subsequent mode derives, in a chain of causes.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">· The misery
that is bound up with all sensate existence is accounted for by a methodical
chain of causation.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The Eightfold Path</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The Noble Eightfold Path is constituted by right
views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right
effort, right mindfulness, and right meditational attainment. The term right
(true or correct) is used to distinguish sharply between the precepts of the
Buddha and other teachings. In effect what we might refer to today as virtue
ethics. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Nirvana</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">The aim of religious practice is to be rid of the
delusion of ego, thus freeing oneself from the fetters of a mundane world. One
who is successful in doing so, is said to have overcome the round of rebirths
and to have achieved enlightenment. This is the final goal—not a paradise or a
heavenly world.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Though nirvana is often presented negatively as
“release from suffering,” it is more accurate to describe it in a more positive
fashion: As an ultimate goal, to be sought and cherished. Though it is true the
Buddha avoided discussion of the ultimate condition that lay beyond the
categories of the phenomenal world. What the Buddha said when questioned on
such matters is in effect it is enough knowing how to get there rather than to
ponder such unknowns.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Conclusion </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Budda was an empiricist who observed the reality of
suffering in the word to link such suffering to desires and unhealthy
attachments that can never be satisfied. The way out of this reality where we
are stuck in an endless cycle of suffering was to first acknowledge these noble
truths and then to lay open the pathway to enlightenment. Buddhist philosophy
accepts the cycle of birth and death and disease but puts forward the means by
way of rebirth can end the cycle of attaining the state of nirvana in this life
or the next. The question arises as to what happens next when one attains such
an enlightened state is never answered by the Buddha. He contends it is enough
to know how to get there by adopting the virtuous 8 fold
steps. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence this can be seen very much as a workmanlike
approach that involves a continuing process that can be undertaken invoking
references to meditative and intuitive mediums that vary across different
schools. Suffice to say the answers to our questions along that path is for
each individual to experience. It is not prescriptive in that sense of
following rigid doctrines although these are integral to its philosophy.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Rather they underpin the way forward which can only
be experienced and talked about in gradual steps to its ultimate aim of Nirvana
– beyond the ceiling imposed by language.
</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Q & A</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What aspects of Buddhism do you think seem
reasonable as accounts of human reality?</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The search for meaning to overcome suffering by
following the enlightened pathway to happiness is both a reasonable and
appealing aim to “being in the world”. So it’s hardly surprising we see
elements elsewhere in western philosophy just as Buddhist schools have been
influenced by alternate philosophises throughout the world. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Buddhist thinking is evident within the home of
western philosophy in ancient Greece where rational, abstract logical
considerations took precedent. Here we see the desirability of striving to
attain the “golden mean” by Aristotle as analogous to Buddhism’s ‘middle
way" in common with the pursuit of happiness.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Aristotle’s ideal
of attaining happiness echoes Buddhism as both articulate a gradual cumulative
process of human development aimed at attaining an </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">enlightened<span style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333;"> state.</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mindfulness
attributable to Buddhism has been demonstrated to yield improved health and
wellbeing and particularly in psychology. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/buddhist-psychology-east-meets-west/202009/buddhisms-place-in-psychology" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/buddhist-psychology-east-meets-west/202009/buddhisms-place-in-psychology</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-cube/202203/when-the-buddha-gave-psychology-lesson" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-cube/202203/when-the-buddha-gave-psychology-lesson</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What aspects of Buddhism speak most clearly to your
own personal experience?</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 'Philosophy Now' Brian Morris d<span style="color: black;">escribes four varieties of Buddhist metaphysics, and
questions whether they can form one coherent system of thought.</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I mostly agree with the writer as I see
their continued relevance today. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Buddhism and Stoicism Are Closer Linked than You'd
Think –</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Both offer real life hope and resilience to the
inevitable trials and tribulation inherent in existence. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/would-marcus-aurelius-be-a-buddhist-today/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/would-marcus-aurelius-be-a-buddhist-today/</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What aspects of Buddhism resemble ideas in western
philosophy?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The ancient Greeks inclusive
of Stoicism and Aristotelians have similar ideas as summarised
above.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Scottish philosopher David
Hume wrote: "<i>When I enter most intimately into what I call
myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold,
light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never catch myself at any
time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the
perception” </i>which some feel has a Buddhist flavour to it.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But how would one even know that if that's all
there is to human beings? How would you determine what one perception is as
distinct from another? Rather I think the Buddhist idea of a non self
rests on the idea of impermanence and a more rational </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">analogy is evident in </span><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Process
philosophy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Process philosophy embraces the novelty of
experienced reality to rely on intuition and reject permanence, uniformity
and materialism. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Arthur Schopenhauer </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">was
influenced by Indian religious texts and later claimed that Buddhism was the
"best of all possible religions. Schopenhauer's view that
"suffering is the direct and immediate object of life and that this
is driven by a restless will and striving" are similar to the Four
Noble Truths of the Buddha. Schopenhauer promoted the saintly
ascetic life of the Indian sramanas as a way to renounce the
Will. His view that a single world-essence (The Will) comes to manifest
itself as a multiplicity of individual things (principium individuationis) has
been compared to the Buddhist doctrine as developed in Yogacara
Buddhism. Finally, Schopenhauer's ethics which are based on universal
compassion for the suffering of others can be compared to the Buddhist ethics
of Karu</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">ṇ</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">ā.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Western_philosophy#:~:text=Arthur%20Schopenhauer%20was%20influenced%20by,Four%20Noble%20Truths%20of%20the" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Western_philosophy#:~:text=Arthur%20Schopenhauer%20was%20influenced%20by,Four%20Noble%20Truths%20of%20the</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Immanuel Kant's Transcendental Idealism</span></b><span style="color: #202122; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> has also been compared with the Indian philosophical approach of
the </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Madhyamaka school<span style="color: #202122;"> by
scholars such as T. R. V. Murti.</span><span style="color: #3366cc;"> </span><span style="color: #202122;">Both posit that the world of experience is in one sense a
mere fabrication of our senses and mental faculties. For Kant and the
Madhyamikas, we do not have access to 'things in themselves' because they are
always filtered by our mind's 'interpretative framework'. Thus both
worldviews posit that there is an ultimate reality and that reason is unable to
reach it. Buddhologists like </span>Edward Conze<span style="color: #202122;"> have
also seen similarities between </span><b>Kant's </b>antinomies<span style="color: #202122;"> and </span>the unanswerable questions<span style="color: #202122;"> of the Buddha in that "they are both concerned
with whether the world is finite or infinite, etc., and in that they are both
left undecided."</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Bertrand Russell’s</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> affinity is noted as he regarded Buddhism as the only religion
compatible with science. But it must be remembered that Russell was part of a
generation which looked on metaphysics with disdain. Bertrand Russell is my
view became unnecessarily wedded to a purely scientific
philosophical underpinning. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A ‘Philosophy
Now’ article talks about the meditations of <b>Descartes (1596-1650</b>)
to ascertain any similarities in his approach compared to traditional Zen
Buddhism.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">At first glance one might conclude there are
fundamental differences since western philosophy seeks to ask profound
questions with responses usually guided by logic to form a narrative about such
things as what is the meaning of life, the nature of the mind and what language
is. Buddhism on the other hand draws its strength from inward meditative
practices manifested in the eightfold paths to enlightenment. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However, the author suggests
there is a correlation in the approaches of both in what might be reasonably
construed as their use of Koans. <span style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><b><u>Koans used during meditative practices in
Buddhism. </u></b></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Koans are used during
meditative practices and are paradoxical statements or parables or questions
that need not have a logical answer. The idea is for the student to abandon any
preconceived ideas and instead rely on intuitive responses from meditating
about the question, paradox or parable to achieve an enlightened
response. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Buddhist is schooled on
the idea that one cannot solve the Koan, for its value is in the response and
the enlightenment realized. The Buddhist might spend a lifetime finding
appropriate responses, the determinate to enlightenment. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Does Buddhism seem consistent with a modern
‘scientific’ world view?</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Some modern figures argue Buddhism is
both rational and uniquely compatible with science</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Buddhism’s mindfulness and the designated pathway
to enlightenment presents a wisdom stream that might be considered a
modern “scientific” world view.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However, what might seem remarkable that such views
arose</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Buddhism’s evolutionary journey from its Hindu
roots, less the priestly traditions, rituals and caste systems has been
modified to accommodate its expansion into the world. This is evident more
recently into western culture and previously Asia and along the Silk Road.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One of its central elements is a
style of mindfulness meditation practice that derives largely from the modern
Theravāda Buddhist meditation revival in Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. 19<sup>th</sup> and
20<sup>th </sup>centuries. Robert Sharf </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <a href="https://philosophyofbrains.com/2017/01/23/the-embodied-mind-in-hindsight.aspx" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">https://philosophyofbrains.com/2017/01/23/the-embodied-mind-in-hindsight.aspx</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Robert Sharf, </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">who is
a scholar of Buddhist studies at UC Berkeley and he has, apparently, heard this
kind of question before, is specific in terms of the challenge he thinks
Buddhism presents the sciences' presumed philosophical basis.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">"In order to make Buddhism compatible with
science," Sharf says, "Buddhist Modernism ... accepts a Cartesian
dualistic understanding of the world." This Cartesian separation would, he
claims, be pretty weird to most Buddhist teachers throughout its history. As he
puts it:</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">"Traditional Buddhist epistemology, for
example, simply does not accept the Cartesian notion of an insurmountable gap
between mind and matter. Most Buddhist philosophies hold that mind and object
arise interdependently, so there is no easy way to separate one's understanding
of the world from the world itself."</span></i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Scholars have deduced from the Buddhist writers
what they consider are the foundational aspects which however don’t necessarily
encompass the current “mindfulness” ideas that are attributed to Buddhism.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The scholar here presents a view about its early
roots increasingly becoming repositioned into mindfulness in its evolutionary
journey and particularly in the last few centuries. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/05/11/527533776/buddhism-and-science" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/05/11/527533776/buddhism-and-science</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">References</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Western_philosophy" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Western_philosophy</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Buddhist_schools" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Buddhist_schools</span></a></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-53346684863777833042024-02-10T02:13:00.006+11:002024-02-10T02:15:38.640+11:00The nature of Evil<p><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introducing Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
and others on the nature of Evil</span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introduction to Hannah Arendt</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As a Jew and intellectual who
maintained a relationship throughout her life with Martin Heidegger she was
well qualified academically in both philosophy and theology and lived through
the early period of anti –Semitism to ponder the holocaust for which she felt
responsible-but for what one might ask? </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Her subsequent political philosophy
is written in the style of Jewish person responding to the evil inflicted on
one's people and not as a world citizen (as she puts it) and her ideas remain
controversial today. But her many publications sheds light on her view on the
nature of evil which can flourish under totalitarianism. She is at pains
to point out </span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">the challenge to one’s mental
capacity essential to rise above the terrible fate of one's own people to ascertain
what was pernicious for all humanity</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> in
her conclusion. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A brief summary of her life’s work
</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">After arrest in 1933 for affiliation
with a Zionist organisation she took the first opportunity to leave Germany.
After hostilities ceased in 1945 she turned her attention to the concentration
camps which remained her focus until 1953. After </span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">the death of Stalin she published <i>The Human Condition </i>in
1958. She then analysed American, French, and Russian Revolutions.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">She revisited her earlier work after
the trial of Adolf Eichmann with the publication of </span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the “Banality of Evil</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">” followed<i> </i>in 1963.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Although she ceased writing about
totalitarian concentration camps in 1966 that preoccupation with the problem of
evil remained to the end of her life.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Key concepts </span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The “The Banality of evil” talks
about how easily a process can be executed, however evil, in a
non-thinking way by individuals under the power of totalitarian regimes.
Individuals may act in ordinary ways (to be observed as terrifyingly normal as
she puts it) in all other respects outside of the regime to strictly
follow those orders with horrendous consequences. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But that line of thinking doesn't
wash of course in a legal sense as was concluded in the Nuremberg trials.
Arendt disagrees with the concept introduced by the court under the heading of
crimes against humanity.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">She points out Concentration camps
are not a unique invention of totalitarian regimes, but were first used both by
the Spanish in Cuba and in the Boer War (1899-1902). Similar concepts
were justified under an alleged 'wrath of the people'"--to rationalize and
justify their existence was invoked by British imperial rule in India as well
as South Africa and the subsequent world wars.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">She does however acknowledge a new
phenomenon in the form of a complete dehumanising of its occupants in the
concentration camps and also under the Stalin purge. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Her final ideas on the nature of evil
are psychologically based.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Her position is that while one is
thinking </span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">i.e., experiencing the silent
dialogue of thought, the ego splits in two, disclosing an inner difference
within an apparent identity. At lightning speed these "two-in-one,"
as she calls them converse as long as the activity of thinking lasts.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">She found that these thinking
"partners" have to be on good terms, essentially in agreement,
because they cannot go on or resume thinking if they contradict one another.
Arendt grounded, existentially, the logical law of non-contradiction in the
congeniality of the two-in-one.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By the same token it is in the
activity of thinking that the explicitly human relationship between a
plurality, though it be only of two, is first established. Again, it is not an
"idea" but the experience of sheer activity that makes the <i>one</i> not
only respect and relish but refuse to abrogate at any cost the right of
the <i>other</i> to freely exercise the right to think.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In this respect Socrates preferred
death rather than live apart from his thinking "partner" and in
Arendt's many references to him stands forth as the diametric opposite of
Eichmann. Eichmann's contradictions indicated not that he had lost this aspect
of consciousness to become bereft of inner plurality, no contact with himself,
and that therefore he could be relied upon to do anything, anything at all,
that his "conscience" assured him was his duty. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However Arendt did not live to
complete her theory on the mind. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Banality of Evil: Reference</span></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/hannah-arendt-papers/articles-and-essays/evil-the-crime-against-humanity/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Evil: The Crime against Humanity |
Articles and Essays | Hannah Arendt Papers | Digital Collections | Library of
Congress</span></a></span></u><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introducing the nature of evil as
seen by author Jung Chang – Mao – The unknown Story.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I recall the conversations with Jung
Chang who discussed the 10 years of painstaking research underpinning his book
“Mao, The unknown Story" which she co-authored with her husband Jon
Halliday.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">You may recall Jung Chang wrote 'The
Wild Swans': which sold over 10 million copies and as far as I know is still
banned in China.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">During their research Jung and her
husband were able to interview 150 close confidants of Mao including the
immediate family, which allowed them to determine aspects not previously
understood and hence the title 'The unknown story':</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In tandem with this research a
virtual treasure trove of additional material was also discovered in the
Russian archive demonstrating the importance of Russia to Mao.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What Jung was able to capture the
essence of the man, another terrible dictator with a lust for power
outrivalling Hitler or Stalin as the consummate ultimate psychopath?</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Jung found through the interviews
with those close to him, a revelation of how Mao had described to them his
overwhelming intense ecstasy arising from inflicting violence and brutality
against the mass peasantry.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Violence shaped every facet of his
life as an attachment expressed in the form of a constant desire for brutal
vengeance and dehumanisation.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">China was a net importer of grain, a
poor nation and Mao realised that food was the only saleable asset at his
disposal to achieve funding for the military might necessary to become a world
power. Mao turned to China's food production and diverted domestic requirements
for sale to Russia knowing such a policy would cause mass starvation. In fact
Mao had acknowledged that it may be necessary for up to half of the entire
population of China to starve to death as a sacrifice for China to become a
superpower. There were opponents who objected to this policy, but as a
brilliant strategist he managed to isolate them and finally had his revenge
against them and the party who did not fully support him with the introduction
of the 'Cultural Revolution'.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It has been estimated he was
responsible for possibly over 70 million deaths in China.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">During the period of the 'Cultural
Revolution' all cultural activity was banned as Mao knew culture is what makes
us human and his attachment to power by dehumanisation remained with him all of
his life.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He also was a great strategist in
terms of enlisting intellectual support abroad, and diverted a massive 7 % of
gross national product to those splinter groups of intelligence who became
supporters of his purpose. Consider that today where foreign aid is much less
than 1% of GDP for even the wealthiest of countries.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Jung wrote this account with no
mention of Mao being evil as the facts speak for themselves. It was written out
of an intense curiosity, not out of vengeance in any way, even though both her
parents suffered terribly. Her father died prematurely in a mental asylum and
both were heavily beaten and publicly humiliated.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence, my inclination is to also see
evil as an alluring sense of power (lust if you will) underpinned by the
intense feelings that consumes its perpetrators. The darker side of humanity
manifests in power as in an evil spirit if you will.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">All of what we consider as evil acts
that we in the 21st Century inclusive of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide,
the Mass murders by the Khmer Rouge, the communist mass killings following the
policies of Stalin and Mao, the slaughter in Rwanda are underpinned I believe
by both the lust for power and the intense ecstasy arising from inflicting
violence and brutality. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">That is evident as the heart of
evilness which is to deny that part of us humans that allows us to transcend
nature and not to succumb to the allure of power and is inevitably accompanying
brutality and dehumanising objectives. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">An antidote to evil? - Professor
Raymond Tallis (‘Philosophy Now’) as a humanist puts succinctly his view as
follows: </span></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We<b> </b>need to preserve the vast, rich cultural legacy owing to,
or inspired by, religious belief. We cannot forget or actively reject this
without losing something irreplaceably precious in ourselves. The legacy is not
simply out there in the public realm as a collective heritage of art,
literature, architecture, and music. It is in the very fibre of our individual
and social being. The atheist, existentialist, Marxist, Maoist, Jean-Paul
Sartre highlighted this in L’Idiot de la Famille, cited and translated by
Robert Cumming in Starting Point (1979, p.225):</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> “We are all Christians, even
today; the most radical disbelief is still Christian atheism. In other words,
it retains, in spite of its destructive power, schemata which are controlling –
very slightly for our thinking, more for our imagination, above all for our
sensibility. And the origins of these schemata are to be sought in centuries of
Christianity of which we are the heirs whether we like it or not.”</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">At the very least, humanist
philosophers should spend less time brooding on the wickedness seemingly inspired
by religious belief, and more on what religion tells us about our nature. Most
importantly, we should consider what we can learn from the history of
religions, how a sense of the transcendent – what theologian Hans Kung
characterised as “a particular social realisation of a relationship to an
absolute ground of meaning”, answering an existential hunger experienced by all
humans – can play into our lives for good or ill. In particular, how we can
avoid the path that leads from beatific visions to thuggery – a question that
is as much a challenge for secular humanism as it is for religious believers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Q & A: But what is it about the actions that make them evil?</span></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">They all involve the complete
dehumanising of those involved in executing and organising such atrocities, to
negate any form of freedom and independence in thinking. Therein we can
reliably observe an absence of any guiding ethical considerations pertaining to
governance. Instead what is apparent is the regime's involvement as one
consumed in a nationalistic fervour intent upon revenge against a
perceived evil enemy or group. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">This was abundantly clear in the
Concentration Camps, in the Stalinist purges and in the “ecstasy in violence”
and mass societal sacrifice of people starved under Mao’s leadership in order
to make China a world power. Similarly in the slaughter in Rwanda we see
the same “dehumanisation” in the form of a perceived evil enemy (Satan) as
justification for unparalleled levels of violence and genocide. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> <b>Q Are they not just part of
human nature, with a foundation in our DNA and evolutionary history? Or is
there something else going on?</b></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Arendt’s final conclusions
offer food for thought and a glimmer of hope they are not integral to
human nature but rather it is our darker side that can only flourish when we
relinquish our inner consciousness. The plurality of two egos as she puts it
allows us to consider the two sides to any argument in the Socratic tradition
keeping in mind ethical considerations.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Professor Raymond Tallis puts forward
a similar idea given his idea that we can “transcend nature” and the
instinctive reaction that leads to extreme violence and mindless
brutality. </span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We need to preserve the vast, rich
cultural legacy owing to, or inspired by, religious belief. We cannot forget or
actively reject this without losing something irreplaceably precious in
ourselves. The legacy is not simply out there in the public realm as a collective
heritage of art, literature, architecture, and music. It is in the very fibre
of our individual and social being. The atheist, existentialist, Marxist,
Maoist, Jean-Paul Sartre highlighted this in L’Idiot de la Famille, cited and
translated by Robert Cumming in Starting Point (1979, p.225):</span></i><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“We are all Christians, even today;
the most radical disbelief is still Christian atheism. In other words, it
retains, in spite of its destructive power, schemata which are controlling –
very slightly for our thinking, more for our imagination, above all for our
sensibility. And the origins of these schemata are to be sought in centuries of
Christianity of which we are the heirs whether we like it or not.”</span></i><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">At the very least, humanist
philosophers should spend less time brooding on the wickedness seemingly
inspired by religious belief, and more on what religion tells us about our
nature. Most importantly, we should consider what we can learn from the history
of religions, how a sense of the transcendent – what theologian Hans Kung
characterised as “a particular social realisation of a relationship to an
absolute ground of meaning”, answering an existential hunger experienced by all
humans – can play into our lives for good or ill. In particular, how we can
avoid the path that leads from beatific visions to thuggery – a question that
is as much a challenge for secular humanism as it is for religious believers.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My inclination is to also see evil as
an alluring sense of power (lust if you will) underpinned by the intense feelings
that consumes its perpetrators. The darker side of humanity manifests in power
as in an evil spirit if you will.</span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Are evil acts an aberration whose
cause is some individual or systemic failure? Are some people just prone to
evil and given power and opportunity, act out their evil intent?</span></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The inclination may be to see these
events as an aberration but it appears to me that the darker side to our nature
is also a constant that can reappear with devastating consequences given the
right conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The legacy in thinking from Hannah Arendt was that the while calling for
a rethinking of the concept of evil, most importantly she demands a
rethinking of the notion of moral responsibility, by claiming that every human
being not only holds the potential to eradicate evil, but has the
responsibility to do so, through the power of critical thinking. Indeed “we
resist evil by beginning to think, by reaching another dimension than the
horizon of everyday life” (Hannah Arendt: Legal Theory and The Eichmann Trial, Peter
Burdon, 2017, p.279). reference © Georgia Arkell 2023- Philosophy Now</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-44548586066276412542023-10-25T00:38:00.010+11:002023-10-25T00:50:52.302+11:00Liberty, Freedom of Expression and Literature <p> <b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introduction </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">John Stuart Mill's philosophy provides one of the
more comprehensive insights. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mill argues the only time coercion is acceptable- (by that I mean ensuring or </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">persuading <span style="color: #1d2a57;">someone to do something
they are unwilling to do or take into consideration ) </span></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">is when a person's behaviour harms other
people—otherwise, societies should treat diversity with respect.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His Utilitarian approach contained in his essay on
Liberty champion’s individuals and society rights to embrace unpopular opinions
since they may turn out to be correct or successfully challenge entrenched
ideas to underpin progress. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Liberty according to Mill is integral to progress
for two main reasons. First, the unpopular opinion may be right and secondly it
enhances debate leading one to better understand opinions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Some of the problems that emerge from his
Utilitarian approach is that it is often impossible to determine if a work in
fact will causes widespread harm until well after the event of the published
work. One sees the growing capacity for dangerous conspiracies that continue to
spread misinformed views all hatched under the context of free speech. The
damage is sustained long before harm can be ascertained. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In that respect some sort of community standard
seems necessary other than purely the subjective idea not to cause harm. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; padding: 0cm;">Australia diversity and inclusiveness of
individuals is now recognised in legislation to ensure one is free to make
personal choices about ones identity and to enshrine</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Privacy provisions that prohibit non- consensual
personal information being disclosed, </span><span style="color: #7a7a7a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Individuals cannot be forced to identify and state
their pronouns, disclose their sexuality, or express personal preferences which
contravenes anti-discrimination laws in existence. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Authors need to be aware
of these provisions to avoid offence but it seems an overreaction to go back
and amend past books and publications to conform to these recent laws,
analogous to tearing down old statues of those prominent figures now considered
offensive in the light of their past actions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But one obviously needs
to be familiar with these laws when writing an autobiography to avoid offence. Generally speaking fiction writers presume those reading their works accept the fictional basis so they are free mostly except for porn or disgsting material. </span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">As far as
autobiography is concerned a writer’s position is no different to individual
rights in everyday life - the freedoms and restrictions under the law from
which ignorance is no defence. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mill’s concept of individualism </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However, Mill does recognise there needs to be some
brakes within governance. He realizes that a society that becomes completely
free of any constraints inevitably will succumb to a powerful minority who will
override an individual's basic rights and curtail freedom. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Liberty is compatible with an enjoyment of freedom
enshrined in law and by regulation. Hence a democracy needs to ensure
individual rights of expression are enshrined in its governance and only
curtailed where outcomes can be demonstrated to be harmful according to
Mill. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He sees the individual as paramount in governance
to take precedence over the state. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence, the state exists for the individuals rather
than the other way around. This assumes a degree of individual education within
a properly constructed society. That might lead one to argue that concept
entails a leap of faith. But Mill does acknowledge such an idea of
self-sufficiency cannot apply to children and some of those with limited mental
or physical capability. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He advocates warnings against dangerous practices
and poisons rather than making them illegal or banning their use. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Liberty and limits on powerful groups are
compatible aims. </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But to reiterate the question of liberty implies
equality to achieve the individual’s participation which may call in turn
involve far more intervention than possibly Mill envisaged. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">How can people have a say if there are no laws and
effective governance to ensure minorities and the disadvantaged are able to be heard
by those in power. One powerful person’s freedom might enslave another to
silence. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence the necessary regulatory oversight is
imperative if the rights of all individuals are to be maintained.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Entertaining entertainment as one way not to avoid
harm to others.</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Within the bounds of entertainment (as to how we
define it) it is hard to see how literature, films or whatever media is
involved can cause harm when produced purely for entertainment and the reader
is suitably informed. Of course there must be some limits set as a form to
restrict distribution to the vulnerable, children and where community standards
necessarily give rise to a ban on disgusting material. That involves the
subjective definition as to what is entertainment or art and what isn’t. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Moral purpose and intended outcomes </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I am reminded of the words of Mark Twain who
emphatically denied that no person should ever read anything into his work
other than it was just a story intended to entertain. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For it seems that this view of writers, that aim to
entertain can hardly be construed as causing harm. Furthermore it is common
practice for writers to include a note that no characters in any novel
represent real people and that any perceived resemblance is
unintentional. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In other instances an author might legitimately
engage in a social challenge to highlight injustices of one kind or another
within the fictional characters that make up the narrative, so as to confine to
the fictional narrative and avoid personalization. Even so one generally
might want to present both sides to any matter which is bound to
create more interest and integrity to avoid the author's bias to be on
display. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Autobiographical and memoirs are always subjective
in the eyes of the author </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The degree to which we see ourselves will always
differ as to how we are perceived. So that if you wanted to understand the real
personal nature of someone an autobiographical account may not be a good
starting point. If you were afforded the luxury of being able to talk freely with
those who knew that person well you may have a better perspective but even so
memories are not always reliable. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ultimately the author’s ego is potentially going to
show matters in their best light unless a disciplined factual approach is taken
which concentrates on events and outcomes to avoid judgements on people and so
forth. It’s hardly surprising that many celebrities’ autobiographical accounts
invoke hostility between siblings after publication whose perspectives markedly
differ. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">A good example of how to avoid such pitfalls is
acclaimed novelist P. D. James ‘A Time to be in Earnest’ who is described
by reviewers as a rich “fragrant of autobiography”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">She concentrates on her life’s experiences-
beginning with school days, being happily married, the tragedy of her husband’s
mental illness and the great thrill of her first novel being published. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We learn something about her as a person inclusive
of an obsession with Jane Austin and her ideas on the evolution of the
detective novel as a form of popular entertainment, together with her fears it
might entertain ideas of crime amongst readers which she aims to overcome with
moral outcomes. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Herein we see the advantage of an author seeking to
be entertaining and interesting to provide insights into her area of expertise
with glimpses of her desires for ethical outcomes.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There is an absence of controversial judgments
about those close to her or matters bound to stir up hostility. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Q & A – Possible answers to
questions </span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What are the responsibilities of a writer?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The concept of authors looking to entertain readers
seems to offer the best perspectives of not causing harm, to concentrate on
factual and or perspectives that don’t involve controversy. Rather the author’s
fictional characters are the ones challenging social issues where
applicable. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Australia diversity and inclusiveness of
individuals is now recognised in legislation to ensure one is free to make
personal choices about ones identity and to enshrine </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;">Privacy
provisions that prohibit non- consensual personal information being
disclosed, </span><span style="color: #7a7a7a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #7a7a7a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; padding: 0cm;"><o:p>I</o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">ndividuals cannot be forced to identify and state
their pronouns, disclose their sexuality, or express personal preferences which
contravenes anti-discrimination laws in existence. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Authors need to be aware
of these provisions to avoid offence but it seems an overreaction to go back
and amend past books and publications to conform to these recent laws,
analogous to tearing down old statues of those prominent figures now considered
offensive in the light of their past actions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">An a emergent modern day
phenomenon for fiction writers to pragmatically embrace the concept “anything
goes” since it’s fictional and you need to understand that if you’re a
reader of fiction, so that’s the end of the matter. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Similarly as far as
autobiography is concerned a writer’s position is no different to individual
rights in everyday life - the freedoms and restrictions under the law from
which ignorance is no defence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">How should a creative
person approach their craft? How far</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">should they go to avoid
offence (if at all)?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Some acknowledge they have
responsibilities and what about a balanced approach?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">To add a moral dimension that can be
effectively woven into the story by way of a parable or in a narrative it is
best to avoid pointing the finger - at individuals or causes. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Where
it is known to be a controversial topic allow the fictional characters to
engage in a balanced debate to show both sides and thus avoid offence. But one
obviously also needs to be familiar with new laws when writing an autobiography.
From a pragmatic perspective a </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">fictional
account needs to be accepted as such if you’re a reader of fiction.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What degree of freedom of
expression do you give yourself? Offence be damned? Truth (my version of it) at
all costs?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Artistic integrity
paramount? Minimizing harm to others? Compromise?</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">When writing an Autobiography one preferably
aims to be entertaining and interesting about you life’s journey by providing
insights into your area of experiences - glimpses of your desires or aims that
shape your narrative. That possibly excludes any adverse judgments about
those close to you or to entertain one sided options on controversial matters
bound to stir up hostility. Ultimately one has to be careful not to allow
one’s ego to potentially show matters in terms of self-interest as in
the best possible light always, but rather to opt for a factual approach
to concentrate more on describing the events, their outcomes and feelings at
the time. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">To reiterate a good example of how to avoid such pitfalls
is acclaimed novelist P.D James who “Time to Be in Earnest” described by
reviewers as a rich “fragrant of autobiography” “where she concentrates on her
life’s experiences- beginning with school days, being happily married, the
tragedy of her husband’s mental illness and the great thrill of her first novel
being published.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">We learn something about her as a person inclusive
of an obsession with Jane Austin and her ideas on the evolution of the
detective novel to become a popular entertainment for many, together with her
fears it might entertain ideas of crime which she aims to overcome with moral
outcomes. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Herein we see the advantage of an author seeking to
be entertaining and interesting in the absence of harsh judgments about those
close to her or to talk about controversial matters presented in such an emphatic
manner it is bound to stir up hostility. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-41471190094247478372023-10-05T14:44:00.001+11:002023-10-05T14:46:23.228+11:00Being frendly and the bonds of friendship <p> <b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Definition </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship is a topic requiring a
working definition which I propose as follows: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As a noun</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">: One whose shared interests underpins a deep
affection, trust and rapport independent of sexual or family love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">As a verb</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">: welcoming, accepting, empathetic, kindly and
being loyal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ideas on how friendships may have first
formed</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">According to many evolutionary
biologists friendship may have developed as necessary enhancement to survival.
Even in the upper echelons of the animal Kingdom we notice a form of
friendship and deep affection amongst social animals. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For instance a pride of lions
rely on trust as successful hunters (involving skilful and strategic
teamwork) of very large animals inclusive of elephants - continually
reinforced given the obvious tell-tale signs of fondness we witness within the
hierarchy of the pride. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friends and Happiness </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In a publication entitled “Friends and
Happiness: An Evolutionary Perspective on Friendship” the authors David M G
Lewis of Murdoch University, Leith Al Sheaf of the University of
Colorado, Eric M Russell of the University of Texas and David M Buss even
talk about the development of reciprocal altruism as an evolutionary long
term survival advantage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The authors suggest our evolutionary
journey was reliant on hunting or scavenging large animals (to obtain the
necessary protein to underpin larger brains) that required a collaborative
effort based on trusted friends within the tribal structure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Who are we? Where did we come from?”</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Likewise Dr.Hugo Zeberg of the
Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reports on new technologies, research and
collaborations to begin to answer the question: “Who are we? Where did we come
from?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The answer is we have far more in
common with our extinct or ancient cousins than we ever thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Scientists hypothesize that the idea of
sticking together and adding friendly support became integral to
our survival represented in those genes that make up our present
footprint.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Blood Brothers</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Noting past societies had
traditions of close, loving, male friendships — sometimes called “blood
brothers”. Blood brotherhoods are common among hunter-gatherer societies
and early warrior societies, often involving an exchange of blood or
vows. <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Among the Akwe-Shavante, indigenous people of western Brazil, parents
encourage their sons to develop one or two close friends, their <i>i-amo</i> (“my
other” or “my partner”), who become their companion for life. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Evolutionary traits arising from the
great migrations</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The attributes we associate with
friends continue to define someone who will be supportive and trustworthy. Such
traits were particularly important during the great migratory journeys, for
tribespeople to rely on those bonds to find their way through violent climatic
upheavals. So that an affinity with nature and reliance on skills and
social interaction leading to deep affection and dependence became an
existential reality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Those challenges shaped that need for
deep relationships and with nature. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendships of First Nations People and
the kinship system </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Women’s friendships were forged
principally as carers, food gatherers, storytellers and in ensuring
socialisation within the mob or clan. On the other hand young men
reaching maturity received tutoring in the law and their responsibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But the concept of friendship was much
wider than European ideas. Within each nation (there were approximately 500 pre
colonisation with their own language) there were complex laws and customs
governed aspects of their existence. Therein that gave expression to deep
feelings of affection for not only the land but across the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">This was achieved by virtue of the
concept of “Moëty"where one is born either as a hunter-gatherer (on
one side of the "Moety" ) or as a conservationist charged with
ecological responsibility on the other. Their respective responsibilities were
defined by predetermined “Totems". Within that nation all peoples in
the clans and mobs are regarded as close friends where they were born on your
side of the Moëty you belong to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So, to reiterate, wherever you
travelled within a nation (defined by landmark boundaries) all those within
your side of the Moëty must show hospitality and friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The complex nature of how this works
dates back to </span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">the
Creation stories, embedded in the Dreamtime, ensuring everything can
be seen as two halves, inclusive of yourself and your
environment. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Accordingly, pre
colonization, the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Moëty system existed
across Australia where there is a section or subsection system with
four to eight ‘skin names’. Individuals gain ‘skin names’ upon birth
based on the skin names of his or her parents, to indicate the
section/subsection that he/she belongs to. The children must not
marry into that side of the Moiety, regarded as their extended family, but
alternate with each generation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Totems
as predetermined existential responsibilities </span></u></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The foundation of the kinship
system is the totems where each person has at least four: one
personal, family, clan and nation totem. The Totems provide a link to
the physical universe: to land, water, geographical features, and animals.
The family, clan and nation totems are pre-ordained but an
additional individual totem is decided by tribal elders to recognize
personal strengths.They convey your clan’s responsibility and the
landmarks and rights within those designated areas. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For instance if
Emu was a designated Totem, then one side of the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Moëty in the clan would have expertise in hunting
for that animal whilst one born on the opposite side as a
conservationist ensures eggs are not taken to preserve sustainability. They
would know everything about its life cycle and habitat. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Individuals then are accountable
for their totems and are to ensure these totems are protected and
passed on to future generations. This then invokes a friendship to the
earth and its landmarks believed to be bequeathed by the creative
spirits. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Skin
Names explained </span></u></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The 3rd level
of the kinship system are skin names. They define the relationship
of one another and their obligations to one
another. An individual doesn't have the same skin name as their
parent's, husband and wife. Rather It is a sequential system based on the
mother’s name (in a matrilineal system), or the father’s name (in a patrilineal
system), and has either a four cycle or 8 cycle naming cycle.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">To reiterate, on
each side of the "Moety" the children who marry must marry into the
opposite side until such time as the cycle is complete. The naming cycle then
repeats. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It is not hard to
understand why the early anthropologists had no idea what it meant and how it
subsequently became compromised with the decimation of the clans and nations.
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">An Aristolean perspective</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In Ancient Greece
his idea for friendships was those relationships which were forged by
people who like each other, do good for one another, and share their
aspirations during that time together. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He identifies three kinds of
friendships: one of utility, one of pleasure and finally one he called the
perfect friendship. In the first type of utility, the relationship is based on
the good as one to another, in the second type it is contingent on mutual
pleasure arising from shared activities. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship as a motivation to do good
works</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship contains elements of the
abovementioned given we share pleasing tasks which might mean our love for
dogs, for example underpins friendships involving shared activities such as
walks and discussions. When a friend becomes overwhelmed then we may routinely
prepare meals or act as a temporary carer and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Shared values</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Their perfect type of friendship
according to Aristotle involves one forged when those friends are good
and alike in virtue; for each alike wishes well to each other… they are good in
themselves” , <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But the reality mostly is it is a
mixture of things and it is hard to imagine a close friend relationship to
develop without a common interest where some value is perceived in respect of
the relationship, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Symbolism and the wider community </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In many Asian countries for instance
there is the annual celebration of Friendship Day with the custom of exchanging
gifts, cards or flowers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship Day was first proposed in
Paraguay in 1958 which became the catalyst of the idea of a Global Friendship
Day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ever since the 30 July has been
fervently celebrated as Friendship Day in Paraguay every year and has also been
adopted by several other countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The World Friendship Crusade has
lobbied the United Nations for several years to recognize 30 July as World
Friendship Day; finally, in 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations
decided to designate 30 July as the International Day of Friendship and
proceeded to invite all the Member States to observe the International Day of
Friendship as per the culture and customs of their local, national and regional
communities, including through education and
public awareness-raising activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship is regarded as the important
gateway that builds bonds and develops camaraderie and trust between all
cultures as we are mostly social people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">From a global perspective the simple
action of building friendships is seen as the shift that is urgently needed in
society to achieve lasting peace. The UN and UNESCO believe this would put an
end to division, poverty, violence, and human rights abuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In a more personal level the giving of
friendship bracelets is a popular practice as a token of affection which can be
traced back to ancient China. Similarly the role of close friendships is
evident in the biblical stories, in novels, poetry, images and in the lyrics of
the popular songs such as “That’s what friends are for” – “in good times,
bad times I’ll be on your side forever more”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> Better health and well-being
linked to friendship </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">According to <i>By </i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Michael R. Kauth, Ph.D., professor, Menninger Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine the concept
of </span>friends evolved because having a close friend improved one’s
chances of survival and the survival of one’s children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">That coincides with the idea we make
friends as most people don’t want to feel alone, but seek validation and
companionship just as they did face the perils of life so long ago. But feeling
lonely doesn’t apply to some people able to substitute activities with a love
of nature whose interactions might more aptly be described as only having
acquaintances. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But for the most part, according
to <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">a study of 323,000 people across 99 countries referenced by Kauth,
friendship was linked to better health, greater happiness, and a higher level
of well-being. If close, loving friendships are an adaptive trait that evolved
among early humans, we should expect that close friendships are common and
valued across cultures. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Modern day Friendships</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In modernity we are left with the
remnants of our evolutionary traits despite mostly being far removed from the
affinity with the land and the battle against the elements of our ancestors.
What seems to form the basis of friendships today is shared activities and
interests. Nothing could be more important than world peace where
shared friendships whether tentatively based on trust or not seem to be the
best way forward. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Tim Delaney and Anastasia
Malakova in an article in Philosophy Now categorize and analyse the
different kinds of modern-day friendships.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The authors indicate that friendships
are forged for safety, survival, social inclusion and to maintain a sense of
identity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Sociologist Peter Belau (1918-2002)
suggested we employ a ranking system in forming friends motivated by a
perceived reward in enhancing social approvals and sending shared
outlooks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What also occurs is that
those initial strong friendships can equally drift apart for any number of
reasons? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The bonds in modernity seem much more
complex to be divided into many subcategories: attached principally driven by
feelings of affection or personal regard; those who provide assistance and
support to one another; those who are on good terms with one another because
they share certain attributes, such as religious and cultural affiliations;
those who share a common interest such as music or favourite sports team; or,
by those who participate in certain social activities, such as travelling or
bush walking or hiking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Conclusion and suggested Q&A
discussion points </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Clearly, the modern era has introduced
many new forms of friendship that couldn't have been dreamed of by our
ancestors. But the question is are those first traits that were necessary
for survival still applicable today? – I think they are in this age of the
human- the Anthropocene”! : The period during which human activity has
been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Q&A- discussions</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Let’s be friends, or at least friendly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Is that possible or worthwhile? Can you
live a solitary existence and be happy?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There is no question from my
perspective it is not only possible to be friendly but friendships were
instrumental in our survival just as underpins social animals. From First
Nations People we can understand how it was for all peoples in the clans and
mobs to be regarded as close friends on the basis of their birth on one side of
the Moëty. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">That ensured anywhere in a nation
(defined by landmark boundaries) you could call on a friend to be of help when
that person was on your side of the Moëty. That was the concept of the enlarged
friendship group akin as if part of your family even though you may never have
met. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Friendship is regarded as the important
gateway that builds bonds and develops camaraderie and trust between all
cultures as we are mostly social people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">From a global perspective the simple
action of building friendships is seen as the shift that is urgently needed in
society to achieve lasting peace. The UN and UNESCO believe this would put an
end to division, poverty, violence, and human rights abuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">To reiterate Friendship is also linked
to better health, greater happiness, and a higher level of well-being. If
close, loving friendships are an adaptive trait that evolved among early
humans, as I believe is the case, then we should expect that close friendships
are common and valued across all cultures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Can you live a solitary existence and
be happy?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One doubts it is possible or even
practical to live a solitary life but one can accept some individuals will form
an affinity with nature or a particular passion where any necessary
interactions are more in the form of acquaintances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mental impairment may also negate that
social norm to the extent deep relationships are not possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Can you be friends with a pet? A piece
of software mimicking a human entity or even a virtual pet? Is social media the
answer to friendship (as was the case for pen-pals long ago in my childhood
days )?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Pets can act as friends, but it is not
possible in my view for us to invent machines as real comforters other than
what already exists in calming music, animal contact and the various media
applications that can be continually improved. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Does gender play a role or stage in
life?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The female friendships tend to be more
empathetic and socialistic whilst male bonding is usually later on with bonding
to support activities, but today the roles are becoming blurred.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Is friendship the other side (opposite)
of loneliness?</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">That coincides with the idea as to why
we make friends as most people don’t want to feel alone, but seek validation
and companionship just as they did face the perils of life so long ago. But
feeling lonely doesn’t apply to some people able to substitute activities with
a love of nature whose interactions might more aptly be described as only
having acquaintances. Friendship is not necessarily the other side (opposite)
of loneliness. There is a difference between being lonely and craving
companionship as distinct to being happy in your own skin so to speak. That may
allow someone to be happy in the absence of close friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Is friendship an end in itself, a
positive good for not just wellbeing, but personal development and growth?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Their perfect type of friendship
according to Aristotle involves one forged when those friends are good and
alike in virtue; for each alike wishes well to each other… they are good in
themselves” , <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But the reality in my view is that
mostly it is a mixture of things and it is hard to imagine a close friend
relationship to develop without a common interest where some value is perceived
in respect of the relationship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What is it that makes for a good
friendship? A big question, not easily answered.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In a nutshell in my view one where
shared interests allow for a deep affection, trust and rapport, knowing one can
always agree to disagree in providing an honest answer and one who can be
relied upon in times of need. </span><span style="color: #007b35; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-11325429989248256842023-09-03T01:04:00.002+10:002023-09-03T01:04:27.196+10:00A philosophers view of beauty <p><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Beauty </span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What is beauty? Is it objective or
subjective? Culture/context dependent? Or Universal and determinate? </span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Introduction –what is beauty</span></u></b><u><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">?</span></u><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In one’s life narrative beauty can be present in just about every
facet of existence – should we pause in a reflective mood.
</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In what you may regard as an unusual but valid remark to stretch the
imagination and say, that’s a beautiful piece of logic. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">One feels more at home talking about experiences or in simply saying
something is beautiful than attempting a working definition. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The ancient Greeks linked beauty to the primary forms in nature – the
sky, mountains, trees and the animals: those things that give us delight; a
pleasure arising from outline, in colour or motion.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Sculptural or other artful forms were only considered beautiful when
proportional and life – like.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">From the dawn of time there are a myriad of examples of land art in
prehistoric and Indigenous cultures—blurring the distinction between nature and
art to the sublime beauty and grandeur of beauty in nature. Take our first
Nations people for instance. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: #FEFDFA; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So it was in the beginning the dreamtime was to
dominate every facet of their rich life; in mythical creation stories,
ceremonial art, music, ritualistic practice; initiation rites into adulthood;
and in the repository of knowledge of the law handed down from one generation
to another. Within the tribal system adolescents were isolated away from the
rest of the tribe under the control of elders who provided tutelage on all
matters of their law until they were sufficiently aware to make the positive
transition to adulthood which carried with it the responsibility towards their
tribe and the environment upon which they were dependant –</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: #FEFDFA; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Charles P Mountford – The Dawn of time.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Let Beauty Awake </span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In that respect I am reminded of the words of the great English
composer Vaughan Williams and the delightful lyrics he employed by Robert Louis
Stevenson in this beautiful composition aptly entitled “<span style="color: #181821;">Let Beauty awake”</span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #181821; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,<br />
Beauty awake from rest!<br />
Let Beauty awake<br />
For Beauty’s sake<br />
in the hour when the birds awake in the brake<br />
and the stars are bright in the west!<br />
<br />
Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,<br />
Awake in the crimson eve!<br />
In the day’s dusk end<br />
when the shades ascend,<br />
let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend,<br />
to render again and receive!</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #181821; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181821; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Those hauntingly delightful lyrics and equally
captivating tune leaves a lasting legacy.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181821; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I also remember reading what I considered an interesting
thought provoking paper on </span><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">the
built environment in the context of Aristotle’s beautiful city.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aristotle’s
Most Beautiful City</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Scholar Andrew Murray’s
paper references this concept when discussing his mission aimed at bringing
peace and stability to the troubled Solomon Islands. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">His key reference was the harmonious philosophy of Aristotle. This was
his introduction: ‘<i><span style="color: #333333;">In Book VII of the Politics,
Aristotle notes that beauty is realized in number and magnitude, and the city
which combines magnitude with good order must necessarily be the most
beautiful. ‘{Politics VII, 4 (1326a33-35)} Not much else is said there about
beauty itself, and so the sentence must refer to other discussions. What is
Aristotle‘s understanding of beauty? How is it found in the physical features
of a city as discussed in Book VII? How does it relate to the moral entity of
the best possible city? The paper will in three sections discuss Aristotle‘s
understanding of beauty, the beauty of the built city and the beauty of the
constituted city’</span></i>.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">His paper provides insights
as to how the design and architecture of a city create a welcoming, friendly,
beautiful environment and contrasts a fortress. The latter mentality only
serves to underpin mistrust. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aristotle’s
ideas about living a more purposeful existence remain relevant in the built
environment today.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">If we want to create a trusting environment we need to pay
attention to providing warmth and appeal in a welcoming design layout for a
model city. That sort of thinking for instance is necessary to reduce
recidivism in the prison system whose mega gloomy buildings provide just the
wrong environment for any form of rehabilitation. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">During my visit anywhere in Europe, what I found amazing
was the level of beautiful architecture- life and nature often combined in
symmetry as if the city's builders were guided by Aristotle’s beautiful
city ideals.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">One concludes that beauty is one of very distinct
enduring universal truths that make life worth living.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">For when we achieve the aim of making things beautiful,
we justify our own existence.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe the world will be saved by beauty” –
Fyodor Dostoevsky. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Is Beauty objective or subjective? </span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The difference being the objective sense of “beautiful” refers to the
property itself in the object that causes the experience, while the subjective
sense of “beautiful” refers to the experience alone.<span style="color: #424242;"> In
contrast to the Greek philosophers who regarded beauty as different forms whose
depiction in symmetry was life-like and hence beautiful; Enlightenment
philosophers considered beauty to be a subjective judgment
as "in the eyes of the beholder". </span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche thought beauty does not exist in isolation and is
not an inherent quality of the world, but rather a subjective and human
creation. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In other words, humans impose their own standards of beauty onto the
world around them, rather than beauty being an objective quality that exists
independently of human perception.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #383838; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">‘Man believes that the world itself is filled with
beauty—he forgets that it is he who has created it.’ ‘He alone has bestowed
beauty upon the world— alas! Only a very human, all too human
beauty…’—Nietzsche</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The inference is we simply get into the habit of labelling things as
beautiful because they appear pleasing to our senses, to blithely adorn the
world with this title. The lack of realization that our perception of beauty is
heavily influenced by our own subjective experiences, values, and even our
biology.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Hence for Nietzsche and the enlightenment philosophers such as Kant,
beauty is not an objective quality of the world, but a product of our own
subjective interpretations. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aesthetic Judgment</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aesthetic theory also examines how people make
judgments about art. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Questions that arise: Are aesthetic judgments rational?
Do they have justifications, and if so, what kind of justifications?</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In attempting to answer such questions we can consider
Kant’s response i</span><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">n the <i>Critique of the Power
of Judgment</i> (1790), where he (like Hume) considered judgments of
taste to be highly subjective—that is, a statement about the subject’s response
to an object. He also thought that when people experience beauty, they
invariably conclude others <i>ought</i> to feel the same way. Kant
believed that art and beauty are not a matter of personal preference as values
and ideals are involved and so can be considered good.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But that does not answer the question as to what means
or justification in determining aesthetic judgments? </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">British philosopher Frank Sibley (1923 – 1996)
attempted to answer the question where he identifies the necessary distinction
between sensory observation and aesthetic judgments. He concludes people
usually base their aesthetic judgments on one's sensory observations- for
instance observing the use of a blue melancholic palette.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But he also concludes someone could disagree with your
melancholy idea to interpret the colour as meant to be a calming notion. In
this sense, aesthetic judgments have justifications but not necessary rules,
conditions, or relations between what a person sees and how they interpret or
judge it.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But Heidegger thought that the idea of </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aesthetic judgment was </span><span style="color: #424242; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">a flawed concept. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">From his phenomenological perspective he considers art
and beauty as integral parts of our primordial ''being in the
world". </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Beauty, consciousness and the difficulty of making judgements about
aesthetics </span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Raymond Tallies believes beauty forms part of the mystery of
consciousness and defies definition.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Tallies posits humans have reached a stage of development that allows
us at times to “transcend nature” so that we get a glimpse of reality beyond
the usual existential state when we experience beauty. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">We are at the crossroads so to speak in a constant state of
becoming. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A slight variation on that theme was held by <b>Ralph Waldo
Emerson </b>who linked the concept of beauty and its relationship to the human
spirit.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Emerson argues against beauty as simply a matter of aesthetics or
sensory pleasure, but rather a spiritual quality that reflects the harmony and
balance of the universe.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That experience of beauty is inspirational to uplift the soul, and it
has a transformation power. Emerson provides examples from nature, art, and
human experience to illustrate his idea that beauty is manifest in many
different forms. "Beauty" for Emerson offers a profound and inspiring
reflection on the importance of aesthetic experiences.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In evolutionary terms in nature, Beauty seems
to exist without bestowing any particular advantage or need to
differentiate species in terms of sustainability according to biologists.
Plumage and attraction to certain colours or objects in nests cannot
always be traced back to any evolutionary advantage. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Let beauty emerge for its own sake? </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Culture/context dependent? Or Universal?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The modern day view of Beauty I suggest is neither egalitarian or in
the eye of the beholder, nor influenced to any marked degree by culture. As we
become more aware of the brain's chemical reaction to feelings of pleasure or
delight from experiencing beauty (given advancement in
neuroscience) may in fact be hard wired and universal – our miraculously
complex brains serve an Aussie, Briton, Asian or European or any culture with
that same exhilarating feeling. Of course opinions differ just as they do
different reactions in any culture within our global village. But you
would be hard pressed to demonstrate one culture's distinctively
different reactions to beauty to others. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Beauty defies both definition and <span style="color: #333333;">Aesthetic
Judgment - yet we might say it remains an </span>enduring universal truth
that make life worth living. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">For when we achieve the aim of making things beautiful,
we justify our own existence.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #4c4a4a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe the world will be saved by beauty” –
Fyodor Dostoevsky, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181821; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But beauty is inextricably tied to the mystery of our
consciousness.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-60022651579158780412023-08-21T23:55:00.006+10:002023-08-21T23:55:55.696+10:00Without love society will collapse <p><span style="color: #4d5156;"> </span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Introduction </span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Love remains one of the more commonly used words in our
language, although its use is less than the 19th century when romanticism
figured more strongly in literature.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The ancient Greeks defined love as either Storge, Phileo, Eros
or Agape. Storge was for your family and relations, Phileo was the affectionate
love you feel for your friends and Eros was driven by desires to exemplify
passionate love, whilst Agape was the pure and ideal unconditional love.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">But Italian poet and moral philosopher Dante had a different
view to that of the stoics who thought one should be wary of our desires and
rely more on reason. Dante considered all love to be good so long as it is
properly applied. One gets the impression reading his epic work “The Divine
Comedy” that one should follow our desires to love properly and if love should
fail you then you simply learn by your mistakes. Pick yourself up and
start all over again as the song goes.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">What has provided a challenge in our </span><span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Judeo/Christian </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">culture
is the combination of the Hebrew thinking aspect to love expressed as a
covenant which conflicts with Greek rationality applied to Christianity by St
Paul. Kierkegaard provided his synthesis as a way forward but in the process
discredits Pauline theology for a much simpler basic Christianity- the golden
rule. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">existential movement also had a lot to say about love. Camus saw
love as the driving force for his existence whilst </span><span style="color: #272e30; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: .4pt;">Kierkegaard regarded love as the substance of life which
unites the self to joy. He saw the necessity to better understand others'
actions to calm one’s initial hostility and make way for love as in the
act of forgiveness. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Epic novelist Herman Melville (Moby Dick) who was a member
of the transcendentalist’s movement, offered a critique of the interpretation
of love from his strict Calvinist upbringing …<i>and whatever they may reveal
of the divine love in the Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian
pictures, in which his idea has been most successfully embodied; these
pictures, so destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any
power, but the mere negative, feminine one of submission and endurance, which
on all hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his
teachings.</i></span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">For when we attempt to define its essence (as in true love) we
come against the glass ceiling of language. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then the essence of love is more a question of whether such
feelings that arise to underpin love can transcend nature or are just part of
it? </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is the mystical element- yet another possible topic? –
Mysticism! </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mystic Cynthia Bourgeault whilst discssing the author of 'The
Cloud of Unknowing’ had this to say. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">"Typically we think of love as having something to do with
emotions - with our feelings of affection? But if we assume that this is what
our author (of the 'Cloud',) has in mind, we quickly tumble into the sand trap
of that old "head versus heart" dichotomy.</span></i><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Whatever the author means by love, it is something of an
entirely different order from our usual sense of devotion and affection. It is
not a property of our faculties (memory, reason, emotion, will) but of
something that emerges from far deeper in the soul."</span></i><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So that this rather grand vision is just a belief - which can’t be
proved, as per the quote from Professor David Buss of the Psychology Dept. of
the University Of Texas at Austin. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">But true love takes its own course, through unchartered
territory. It knows no fences, has no barriers or boundaries. It is difficult
to define. Eludes modern measurement, seems scientifically woolly. But I know
true love exists. I just can’t prove it.</span></i><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background: ghostwhite; color: #5874a1; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The one we more readily identify is possibly the instinctive
love of a parent for an infant child, but it’s not always the case in
situations for instance in postnatal depression.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So, summing up, love can mean so many different things - a
personal affection in intimacy, devotion, the love of a cause, as a duty in
patriotism, references to selfless love, in the love for one’s country which
can turn to war as referenced as the supreme sacrifice or in the desire or
admiration for beautiful objects or art form expressions.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We even see GOD-like devotion directed towards a sporting team
or when we simply say with sincerity “I love you". What becomes rather
obvious, is that as </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">'love' is used so freely, one struggles to define it.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So, for the purpose of this discussion paper I will provide a
working definition as follows.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Working Definition- Love as in a loving Union. </span></u></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Love as in a loving Union reflects love as an emotive </span><span style="color: #040c28; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">deep
affection, a feeling of warmth or fondness and regard within relationships with
partners, family or a group.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #040c28; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, in our subsequent discussions, one might find such a
definition inadequate or the need for amendment. But by providing a working
definition you offer the opportunity for more specific discussions and
questions. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Where does this loving union come from?</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">To reiterate, probably the one we immediately identify as such a
relationship is the instinctive deep feeling of love of a parent for a child,
but that is not always the case as in postnatal depression. The inclination is
to link love as emanating from the heart (a pleasing or joyful emotive feeling)
whilst others think love is more a matter of daily decisions to consciously act
in a loving manner It immediately raises the question (</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">as
it is often</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> assumed) one’s duty is to love unconditionally our
children. But is that practical or possible?</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maintaining that loving feeling</span></u></b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The positive emotional feedback arises within us
of pleasure or satisfaction that reinforces a positive
repetitive discourse just as feelings of rejection or
alienation have the reverse effect. What seems apparent to me is love
begins within our feelings or emotions, whatever union is involved. Central to
the maintenance of the union is the security afforded where the union feels it
is based on trust.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unconditional Love</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A question arises in relation to the union with one’s
children that it is a duty to love unconditionally our
children. But is that practical or possible? </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The biblical authors distinguished between passionate love as in
intimacy -versus Agape, to mean "unconditional love", but who’s
rather grand application, given our limitations as human beings, also seems to
me to be somewhat of a contentious issue. There may be many instances of
unconditional love we feel are valid but usually there is some overarching
reward in mind even if it's only the good feeling that subsequently
arises. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Trust and Reciprocity</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The question of reciprocity is also influenced by trust. In the
absence of trust one sees irrational “get even” behavioural responses to sever
a loving union.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">One party feels betrayed and hence the union bonds are broken.
It can only be repaired once the healing process takes place, which is usually
seen as a form of love.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Hence it is the power of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">love that gives</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> one
the capacity for loving unions to continue to blossom over time, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">dependent</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> usually
upon a continuing encouragement or willingness to compromise, sufficient to
withstand the mounting pressures of life’s experiences. The idea to me then
that love leads to a more willing desire to make compromises or
sacrifices seems more realistic than “unconditional love”, that can
remain </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">an aspiration</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> rather than a reality.
</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is also the risk of strong emotions which give rise to our
feelings which tell us the truth about how we feel, but not
necessarily the truth, so that there remains the possibility we
become so attached to the security of a loving union that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">our</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"> judgment
becomes clouded. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Love in terms of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">reciprocity is tied
to the idea of community to facilitate a </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">merger of common
interests. If the situation arose where one side becomes subservient to a
lopsided emphasis on another’s interests, it is hard to imagine that represents
a loving union. Even so, that doesn’t mean it can be ruled out, particularly in
a caring arrangement. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">For instance one can refer to instances where there exists an
agreed understanding in the relationship. The proviso then is dependent on a
remaining genuine concern between the parties, to accommodate more support of
one's interests over another’s. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">However, there is obviously
a clear distinction between feeling autonomous in knowing your points of view
will be respected in a loving bond as opposed to the excuse of an ego driven
controlling notion that inhibits any respect or awareness.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Autonomy</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The feeling of autonomy is one of the values of love where the
union enhances a feeling of being comfortable with what can be said. A
confidence and or secure feeling of a loving relationship acknowledged in the
patience and awareness shown of the needs of the other party. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A loving union of course does not necessarily have to involve
any surrender of autonomy as in some instances the reverse may be true where
one belongs to say a group where one finds such support as gives way to
exchanges of concerns previously inhibited by controlling influences. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the question arises is that sense of concern (as to the
welfare of one to another) sufficient? Is it fair? Such questions go to the
heart of how parties see the expression of a loving union playing out and
suggest a sustainable loving union must involve some form of sacrifice one way
or another.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This then raises the question of independence and what sacrifice
is willingly entered into and maintained as unforeseen events place existential
pressure on the loving union.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">In any union there will be new networks that invariably involve
different ideas that may render the parties having different perspectives. So,
the question is how much autonomy does one have to give up to sustain a loving
union? If we regard autonomy as good and a loving union as compromising
that autonomy, how then can a loving union be a healthy union in that context
? </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">To reiterate, do we need to assume it is a necessary part
of love to be willing to give up some of our autonomy but if so to what degree?
One might conclude that almost all or at least a fair degree of our identity or
autonomy can be maintained provided we embrace self-examination that
allows one to adapt to life. That in turn relates to how firmly we hold our
views and the preparedness or otherwise to see different perspectives whilst
maintaining that mutual concern for one another. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This then may entail a sharing of group vulnerabilities that
strengthens the ties in keeping with the loving union thematic. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">What do the respective parties gain from the union? – Does the
heightened sense of security (if applicable) feature in meeting one's
respective needs in a loving union? </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dignity</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is a presumed dignity we hold towards the other,
reinforced in day to day interaction. Love might be seen as a way to disarm the
emotive responses that might otherwise preclude many essential discussions that
would not occur in the absence of a loving bond. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Furthermore, love affords that dignity to allow for the
love of an irrational relative who constantly meddles in affairs and so gets on
one’s nerves.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">The proviso is of course we don’t always respond in the same
dignified way to everyone, who may for instance not be acting in an ethical
manner or may communicate in an inconsiderate manner. In other words there is
the matter of judgment which goes to the heart of selectivity. How do we choose
to love someone and expose ourselves to vulnerability? Because of hastiness and
lack of discernment in our decision-making this becomes a common thread
leading to many emotionally scarred unions. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">In simple terms what makes (in our eyes) one who is considered
lovable or not and might this be considered a matter of discernment? </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally, it is also the feeling of autonomy because one is free
to express oneself within reason in the knowledge of patience and awareness
practised by the respective parties bonded together by love. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Does Empathy act as a precursor for building a loving
fruitful union? </span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Philosopher Peter Singer posits
practising empathy is fundamental to fruitful loving unions. He
encourages people to view empathy as crucially important in making ethical
decisions in any union or group. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Conclusion </span></u></b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sentiments usually represent emotions or feelings that seem to
ultimately become an expression of love. That is providing the discerned traits
are met with our approval and the union continues to afford dignity, reciprocity
and usually a form of autonomy or mutual satisfaction or agreement
embodied in such a union. Trust is not the same thing but in its absence
it is hard to see how a loving union could survive. I believe in true love but
I can’t prove it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What's more without loving unions society would collaspse. </span></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-18949811847387150432023-07-20T21:29:00.000+10:002023-07-20T21:29:36.305+10:00Human all too Human- Analysis of Aphorisms 630 & 631 <p> <b><u><span style="font-family: "Old serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Introduction</span></u></b></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Old serif", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Nietzsche’s “Only to Human” was his first in the
aphoristic style after he retired as a professor from Basil University due to
ill health.</span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Although it pre dates the emergence of his “will to power”
and his later vigour against morality (Genealogy of Morals) those
early seeds of thought are already evident. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Overview</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 11.75pt; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Herein
in the aphorisms we observe his contempt for societal views based on absolute
truths arising from convictions. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Rather, Nietzsche believed truth
(with a small t) depends upon whichever interpretation prevails at a given time
which is a function of power. Page 45 - "What Nietzsche Really
Said" - Solomon /Higgins. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The appearance of a postmodernist view is negated by his
quest (never realised since his mental breakdown precluded this
project) to create human values in respect of the
inescapable sense of self. He also concurred with the aims of the
empiricists and adopted a western style in his philosophy</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">.
</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 2.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 13.5pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">He saw history as bedevilled by
abstract delusional religious convictions which could be overcome by a new
civilization (redemption if you will) emerging via the superman<b> – “</b>The<b> </b>Übermensch”.
But he never outlined the new values
that would subsequently emerge to support such a
vision </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Discussion Topic</span></u></b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">: <b>Belief
and Conviction: Good or Bad?</b></span></u><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Affirmative </span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche’s
philosophy represents a narrative expressing his conviction of the foolishness
one can covet or know absolute truth.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">To
embark on such a quest he believed is illusory, a view that has wide acceptance
today as it brings with it the risk of unnecessary irrational suffering if one
clings to childlike abstract ideas linked to an unhealthy devotion to a cause-
whether religious or secular. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Doubtful </span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In
respect to Nietzsche that opposition to abstract values and
childlike belief belonged to Christianity -but not to Christ, who he
believed was the only true Christian. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The
problem with this assertion is that alternative ideologies could just as
easily arise with similar adverse outcomes to the inquisition.
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Quotes out of context and conflation</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I believe it because it is absurd</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt;">- </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> <i>credo quia absurdum est” as the standard of
extreme fanaticism. </i></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">It
is not the struggle of opinions that has made history so turbulent; but the
struggle of belief in opinions,—that is to say, of convictions.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Note
his use of this quote is out of context and the phrase ……<i>but the
struggle of belief in opinions </i>is a conflation of two
different things. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">An opinion is a judgment based on
facts in attempting to draw a reasonable conclusion from factual evidence
whereas a belief is a conviction based on cultural or personal faith,
morality, or values</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Although one gets the gist of what
Nietzsche is trying to say in fact you wouldn’t usually conflate a belief with
opinions – since strictly speaking opinions are not beliefs. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Determine what is/are the conclusion of this writing, i.e.
what is he asserting is the case?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In a nutshell Nietzsche is asserting:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "New serif",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The disastrous societal belief that one can ascertain
absolute truth has led to untold suffering and strife. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The
fanatical adoption of abstract beliefs and sacrificial undertakings based or
promises of an after- life risks overriding rational thought. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The yield of catastrophic results such as was
the case in the Inquisition. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "New serif",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The unnecessary suffering that has occurred could have
been avoided if such beliefs were substituted by a will to investigate what was
right as per the scientific inquiry method.
</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Then work out what are the supporting arguments (premises)
for the conclusion(s) and what is mere rhetoric or polemic.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "New serif",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A valid argument is made against the idea we can ascertain
absolute truth.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "New serif",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The subsequent arguments against societal views based on
opinions and matters of faith or belief are polemic or a narrative.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "New serif",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A weakness is he makes no allowance for secular outcomes
to yield the same disastrous results as the childlike religious ones.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">And finally whether you agree with him or not and
why; how does it relate to past and present day issues of belief and conviction
in our world and the actions they inspire.</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">..</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Mostly
I believe he is on the right track given our propensity to hold strong convictions
about things which have alternate views in that context.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In
a number of respects he provides a precursor to post modernism which has
influenced the way we view the world to provide a brake on fundamentalist type
religious thinking.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A
catalyst for one to think about our values and the often subjective manner they
arise. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">How does it relate to your belief system</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">?</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I don’t think he influences my belief
system to any great extent since I don’t knowingly subscribe to any of the
excesses he rallied against.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Old serif",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche
wanted to reclaim that divine element he saw as a potential in humanity so he
was totally devoted to the here and now. That’s an important lesson. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-81685753649616368642023-07-10T23:54:00.003+10:002023-07-15T22:17:20.835+10:00Process Philosophy leading to process theology<p><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Process philosophy</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> is a 20th century philosophical movement
embracing novelty of experienced reality to rely on intuition and reject
permanence, uniformity and materialism.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Henri Bergson 1859/ 1941</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> was considered a founding father who proposed
life’s experience entailed a continuum of creating oneself analogous to
existentialism. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He appealed to both academia and in
common and general appreciation culminating in his Nobel Prize awarded to him
in Literature in 1927.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">First educated at Lycée Condorcet in
Paris in 1878 to 1881 he studied at the École Normale Supérieure, as a
brilliant student at home in both Greek, Latin and scientific
subjects. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Early work- introducing the concept
of lived time. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His principal focus concerned his
concept of the inner flow of his so called lived time which opposed the
scientific spatialized conception of time as measured by a clock. .</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His concept was to recognise an inner
awareness and liberty to reject scientific determinism. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 1891 he married Louise Neuburger,
a cousin of the French novelist Marcel Proust. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mind and Body- memory is independent
of the body</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He correctly conclude memory is not
actually lost but rather it is only the bodily mechanism that is lost and
unable to recall memories which was a ground-breaking idea at the time. . </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Bergson concluded that memory, and so
mind, or soul, is independent of body and makes use of it to carry out its own
purposes.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 1897 he returned as the professor
of philosophy to the École Normale Supérieure, having first entered as a
student. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 1900, he was called to the Collège
de France, the academic institution of highest prestige in all of France, where
he enjoyed immense success as a lecturer until the outbreak of World War
I. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">William James was an enthusiastic
reader of his works, and the two men became warm friends. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">1903 - 'An Introduction to
Metaphysics' – the two ways of knowing </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The two ways of knowing separate the
scientific approach o see things as solid and discontinuous whilst the
intuitive way conceptualises the global, immediate or references matters that
reach into the heart. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The first gets things done but cannot
view reality as it leaves out duration and its perpetual flux, which is
inexpressible and can only be grasped as in self-awareness. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Créatrice (1907; </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Creative Evolution), is considered his
greatest work to define him as a process philosopher. He proposed that the
evolutionary process involves an enduring (“vital impulse”) that is
continually developing and generating new forms. Evolution is creative and not
mechanistic. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His ideas then are remarkably similar
to modern day evolutionary biology that understands our DNA blueprint is
constantly subject to the environment. It doesn’t represent a form of
Neo-Darwinism as portrayed by evolutionary biologists such as Richard Dawkins
and others as a form of genetic determinism.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In this developing process, he traced
two main lines: one through instinct, leading to the life of insects; the other
through the evolution of intelligence. Both he suggested is the work of one
vital impulse that is at work everywhere. Bergson was on the right track as in
modernity we know, having spent billions on the DNA project we know our genes
only play a limited role and the novel environment is far more influential. The
switches within DNA can be switched on and off according to the environment
which is far more influential. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Summary of Bergson's main ideas:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Evolutionary
and not materialistic. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Life
has an 'inner flow', an inner spirit, which is known by intuition and accounts
for material/bodily changes.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Two
kinds of time exist: Scientific, mechanical, objective, 'out there' time; and
inner time, subjective, of our immediate intuitive flowing experience.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Understanding the self. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He argued any attempt to understand
the self by analysing it in terms of static concepts fails to reveal the
dynamic, changing character. Reality is a continual process of change and is
apprehended intuitively via the inner time awareness as a continuum of all
existing changes or movements, with no break; a continual flow, ever evolving
creatively.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There is a 'life force', an elan
vital that has endured the ages and accounts for the creative evolution of
life, instinct and intellect in all living things. It is the driving force
propelling life to higher and higher levels of structure and organisation, an
impetus which is creative but whose endpoint is not known. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> His idea was that the ‘Elan Vital” cannot be known empirically or through the sciences which are concerned
with the static, material, discrete way of apprehending reality.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Instinct is limited because it grasps
the fluid, dynamic nature of life but is limited to the individual; intellect
is limited because it can construct general truths and categories of existence
but by doing so it imposes a static character to reality. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By intuition knowledge is possible
which is superior to that of instinct or intellect working separately.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His system is dualistic, insofar as
he sees reality divided between life (and spirit in life) and matter. It is
life that is the impetus to creativity, the flow ever evolving, unrestricted,
not predetermined.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What flows is whatever we deem to be
there, such as matter (inanimate) in tension with life, (the living, organic
spirit). All part of a flowing reality. Matter tends towards inertia and it is
life that is creative, using matter or whatever there is, to evolve into
greater free forms, not prescribed or limited by the 'dead hand' of
matter. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Critics and analysis of his
Philosophy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The idea that intuition is instinct,
becoming aware not only of its objects but also of itself and is a necessary
part of consciousness; (self-aware) is contrary to the Rationalists, Kant and
Hegel who prioritised the intellect as the way to grasp the nature of reality.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Bergson claimed that the intellect
evolved as a tool to divide and subdivide the flow (matter of life) - a
continual creative process. This intellect-tool is a projection upon
reality, upon the flow, which is reflected back to us so that we suppose it to
be real, made up of clock-time static objects.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But it is not like that; it is just
our way of subdividing the endless, continual flow so that action can be
undertaken.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Later career.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It was until 25 years later in 1932
he published “The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, where he claimed that
the polar opposition of the static and the dynamic provides the basic
insight. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">According to Bergen there are two
sources of morality with one having its roots in intelligence and the other
based on intuition, and finding its expression not only in the free creativity
of art and philosophy but also in the mystical experience of the saints.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Influence of Bergson</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His influence has been greatest in France,
but it has also been felt in the US and Great Britain, especially in the work
of William James and Alfred North Whitehead. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Alfred North Whitehead 1861- 1947.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He was an English mathematician and
philosopher, who collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica
(1910–13) and, from the mid-1920s, taught at Harvard University and developed a
comprehensive metaphysical theory.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The Concept of Nature (1920).</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whitehead was influenced by Henri
Bergson's anti-mechanistic philosophy of change.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">1925 Boston Lectures- A critique of
“scientific Materialism”</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He criticized Materialism as
mistaking an abstract system of mathematical physics for the concrete reality
of nature. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whitehead's mind was at home with
such abstractions, and he saw them as real discoveries and not intellectual
inventions. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Religion in the Making</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 1926, Whitehead interpreted
religion as reaching its deepest level in humanity's solitude, that is, as an
attitude of the individual toward the universe rather than as a social
phenomenon.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Gifford Lectures</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In January 1927 the University of
Edinburgh invited him to give a set of 10 Gifford Lectures in the ensuing
academic year. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For this, Whitehead drew up the
complex technical structure of “the philosophy of organism” (as he called his
metaphysics)</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The lectures reflected Whitehead's
speculative hypothesis that the universe consists entirely of becoming, each of
them a process of appropriating and integrating the infinity of items
(“reality”) provided by the antecedent universe and by GOd (the abiding source
of novel possibilities.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whitehead had an unwavering faith in
the possibility of understanding existence and a superb power to construct a
scheme of general ideas broad enough to overcome the classic
dualisms. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But he knew that no system can do
more than make an approach, somewhat more adequate than its predecessors, </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">to understand the infinitude of
existence. He had seen the collapse of the long- entrenched Newtonian system of
physics, and his “Adventures of Ideas (1933)” was Whitehead's last big
philosophical book. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whitehead emphasized the impulse of
life toward newness and the absolute need for societies stable enough to
nourish adventure that is fruitful rather than anarchic. In this book he also
summarized his metaphysics and used it to elucidate the nature of beauty,
truth, art, adventure, and peace. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By “peace” he meant a religious
attitude that is “primarily a trust in the efficacy of beauty.”</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Main Ideas of Whitehead's Philosophy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> · The
conventional, scientific/materialist accounts of the world (matter, bits of it
in motion and that is all there is) is deeply flawed as it fails to give a any
proper account of reality (the universe).</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Physics
(the primary science) has no place for qualia (secondary qualities we perceive,
such as colours, sounds etc...) in its narration of what there is and
doesn’t offers a place for ethics, beauty or the religious
experience.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Physics
deals with natural laws, concepts like mass, universal constants and force but
cannot provide an explanation of the reason why the universe is as it is. .</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Everything
in reality is super sensitive to the presence of everything else, to represent
our experiences of “the other” through a non-conscious awareness or 'feeling.'</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Our
experience tells us that reality encompasses causation, valid rules of
inductive inference, that the qualities of things must belong to them, that
aesthetics, ethics, religious intuitions are parts of the world not just
figments of the imagination. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">· Everything
is connected/related to everything else in a vast organic-like whole and this
connection is a 'knowing' the other through feeling. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What I liked: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Rather obviously our view of reality
is constrained by the fact one can’t step outside of the universe of which we
are inextricably linked and view it independently. That case is argued
under process philosophy rather successfully so that the only way we can view
our place in the world is to understand the processes involved.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I think one can say that process
philosophy ideas have practical benefits in inviting us to consider the
appropriate process involved and to arrive at an optimum solution. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">So that Whitehead might be seen more
as one who integrated those past ideas into his philosophy. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Beginning with Henry Bergson the
notion of lived time and the idea we have an inner self we have the
psyche/spiritual aspect to our existence as in process philosophy which spills
out to process theology. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Process Theology </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Whitehead’s perspective is the soul has
two poles, a mental/active and a physical/passive. The (infinite) World-Soul’s
references as the “primordial nature of God.” It is sort of like the cosmic
genetic code. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Roughly speaking Process Theology in
my view does not conflict with the idea of existence preceding essence as in
existential thinking. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">There is “God", and there is
man, a fragmented image of “God" if you will. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">At every moment, we have the ability
to make a choice. We either make that choice based on our past experiences, or
we make it based on a possibility that transcends our past. What allows for
that transcendence? According to Process Theology, it is something like a
mirror that gathers “the data” of all of the activity of the fragments and
mirrors back to each one all of the past experiences along with a new
possibility that would be the next best step to take given all the current
data. Do we take that "leap of faith” into a new experience, or do we
stick with the comfort of our past experiences? Whatever we choose, gets
mirrored back to “GOD”, which is likewise the change in our choices and so the
exchange continues… It’s a process.<br />
As Nietzsche put it, do we remain a camel and follow the path that has been
laid out for us by our familial and societal customs, or do we manage to gain
the courage of the lion and create our own path? If we take on the role of
“lion”, then we must be willing to slay every scale on the dragon, otherwise we
will continue to repeat history.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One might hold the view that this can
best be achieved by meditation and introspection. Another way to look at it is
to say one can “transcends the Ego “?</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-46005916175029708672023-06-15T11:59:00.006+10:002023-06-15T18:33:15.785+10:00Bendigo Trip We recently enjoyed a stay in Bendigo where we visited the Buddhist Temple (The Great Supra) which is expected to be completed over the next 100 years with adjoining community dwellings.
Already it is a beautiful building with delightful art work and decorative scultures.
We also visted the local Cathedral and enjoyed our lakeside walks and evening meals with friends.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEoVhEQel51YuK1qav-rZ1iBiSFIo9tqVMzSq_nj9uQSt1jcnl-5IXzF7X1bY9C2b_MbuCTcR-tSNnz76u4dD-MzQ6lVgX0LiofPLdEkt4fOwUsCQm5P5s6JuZ7mttUuDsD799xY6kJoeKSXC28nGNSfC9Tpm7CbHn-5DqqwdWA-Nf8K0nA/s3264/IMG-2764.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEoVhEQel51YuK1qav-rZ1iBiSFIo9tqVMzSq_nj9uQSt1jcnl-5IXzF7X1bY9C2b_MbuCTcR-tSNnz76u4dD-MzQ6lVgX0LiofPLdEkt4fOwUsCQm5P5s6JuZ7mttUuDsD799xY6kJoeKSXC28nGNSfC9Tpm7CbHn-5DqqwdWA-Nf8K0nA/s320/IMG-2764.JPG"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsHOp5Q9uek4gupInZKTrsrRELmOLgiYsNK73YRXt2YxtQ7KesItS2z6uEtZhmxCO1PjYtlr081ZC_DiM4Jp-8Lc7xU-n5y5VwVPepn0b_DBTo0n94GpybvkwDss3G9Y-xfg47ndgPXoXw31QuYLduBmf_X6StkHXtGUrZIVhHF48XO_olvg/s3264/IMG-2815.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsHOp5Q9uek4gupInZKTrsrRELmOLgiYsNK73YRXt2YxtQ7KesItS2z6uEtZhmxCO1PjYtlr081ZC_DiM4Jp-8Lc7xU-n5y5VwVPepn0b_DBTo0n94GpybvkwDss3G9Y-xfg47ndgPXoXw31QuYLduBmf_X6StkHXtGUrZIVhHF48XO_olvg/s320/IMG-2815.JPG"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02CdnpIBE72gc4LTyX11g69UrucbQYYPmGJWr45Q-uS59k2Bh83yDh0hoT5GSIwJhFJOi8VYWUwJuQjloJOCHZGPv9gbV0fp3OFzxvhs6O4HpT_XIhGJtqXjfLLfXzxHVleiY0GY-mZxOo17kldBP1T_f6I5UTC2ptuPQrDgyNUBxGn74kA/s3264/IMG-2816.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02CdnpIBE72gc4LTyX11g69UrucbQYYPmGJWr45Q-uS59k2Bh83yDh0hoT5GSIwJhFJOi8VYWUwJuQjloJOCHZGPv9gbV0fp3OFzxvhs6O4HpT_XIhGJtqXjfLLfXzxHVleiY0GY-mZxOo17kldBP1T_f6I5UTC2ptuPQrDgyNUBxGn74kA/s320/IMG-2816.JPG"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3pOtqNVd0XQpXzyDrdyLlWBESr55kGoe61JIEVEXaMKkxxfwwnK9zZX_BUz8RZ9AjkKTzmZ6HF_fDTNOkZPTYhov42orV6FQ2kS_YRaZySHEJZRptXV0IZA5NSxYztfdAeyEM8tXTSHnvq-3M3FhLKEO-jTS8zHxWAIggTnV4tUzHSqxmg/s3264/IMG-2821.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY3pOtqNVd0XQpXzyDrdyLlWBESr55kGoe61JIEVEXaMKkxxfwwnK9zZX_BUz8RZ9AjkKTzmZ6HF_fDTNOkZPTYhov42orV6FQ2kS_YRaZySHEJZRptXV0IZA5NSxYztfdAeyEM8tXTSHnvq-3M3FhLKEO-jTS8zHxWAIggTnV4tUzHSqxmg/s320/IMG-2821.JPG"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikEMZzt7sMBod-APSt0svMAF6UK99rITxDn_FPFjOO96wbm7LtO9quztv8iS-e65lkU9vhMLaG7yYPGWwgNgGLxLKRAforBB74lgmrCmskvKTsqGIatIeFnAiu13abTXR5xATlOPL8ZLWcT9etz-pMzpdnQ03dYb88in42_tkhbWOm5rqpfA/s3264/IMG-2827%20%281%29.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikEMZzt7sMBod-APSt0svMAF6UK99rITxDn_FPFjOO96wbm7LtO9quztv8iS-e65lkU9vhMLaG7yYPGWwgNgGLxLKRAforBB74lgmrCmskvKTsqGIatIeFnAiu13abTXR5xATlOPL8ZLWcT9etz-pMzpdnQ03dYb88in42_tkhbWOm5rqpfA/s320/IMG-2827%20%281%29.JPG"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-89287712725797857582023-05-27T12:10:00.001+10:002023-05-27T12:13:10.353+10:00Charlie Byrnes WW2 diary as a Wellington Bomber Pilot <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsvhQuMn21G4gDEIAuNPfGeKzErIumrpFB9Gqh99hAwVyisrTk4xarF77uVqeC9rlzKyjakT06RWBMFcu7yPdCLe6puSaOnzGqCDnKfm35mS9Rm67_az7c_NyWTaKxgIkCMavMg__PIincDAmfay4m7uchuMcMUpsMcfTkOnOA3seZlGWm0w/s1280/DEDC0139-C2F5-4BF7-BE4F-3AA01DB52874.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsvhQuMn21G4gDEIAuNPfGeKzErIumrpFB9Gqh99hAwVyisrTk4xarF77uVqeC9rlzKyjakT06RWBMFcu7yPdCLe6puSaOnzGqCDnKfm35mS9Rm67_az7c_NyWTaKxgIkCMavMg__PIincDAmfay4m7uchuMcMUpsMcfTkOnOA3seZlGWm0w/s320/DEDC0139-C2F5-4BF7-BE4F-3AA01DB52874.jpeg"/></a></div>
You can purchase from Amazon this kindle publication of my fathers war diary as a pilot flying Wellington Bombers in WW2. Just go to Amazon in the book section and type in Charlie Byrnes.
There is not so much on the pilots experience but more so an interesting adventure, firstly by boat to England and eventually to India.
From filthy troop ships, ports of interest, singing engagements with the BBC and punctuated by the high fatality rate of comrades who he remembers as the fine young man he was proud to call his friends, it’s a kaleidoscope of adventure.
Thanks to Nicla Byrnes for publishing this work and providing the artwork.
Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-27065423448260717392023-05-10T23:11:00.000+10:002023-05-10T23:11:01.648+10:00When goodness and good intentions may not be enough<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Nietzsche’s philosophy in his “Genealogy of Morals” confronts
the reader with two important questions: - what value has morality and that of
truth?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Truth</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> for Nietzsche is a relative matter, dependent upon
our interpretations- at first glance we might be inclined to say he is a
postmodernist which however he isn’t. His idea of truth depends upon whichever
interpretation prevails at a given time which is a function of power. Page
45 - <b>What Nietzsche Really Said - Solomon / Higgins.</b></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">On the question of <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">what is good</span> Nietzsche's critique
of traditional morality centred on the typology of “master” and “slave”
morality. By examining the etymology of the German words gut (“good”), schlecht
(“bad”), and böse (“evil”), Nietzsche maintained that the distinction
between good and bad was originally descriptive, that is, a non-moral reference
to those who were privileged, the masters, as opposed to those who
were base, the slaves. The good/evil contrast arose when slaves avenged
themselves by converting attributes of mastery into vices. If the favoured, the
“good,” were powerful, it was said that the meek would inherit the earth. Pride
became sin. Charity, humility, and obedience replaced competition, pride, and
autonomy. Crucial to the triumph of slave morality was its claim to being the
only true morality.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Bernard Magnus, Professor of
Philosophy; Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, Magill (Ed)
'Masterpieces of world Philosophy' and notes added by G. Eraclides. </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche's consistent use of
militaristic metaphors also gives an impression of aggressiveness, but by all
accounts he was a gentle polite soul. He believed one must “philosophise with a
hammer” as was necessary to wage "war against morality".</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Observations</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche foresaw, as the army of
non-believers grew, nothing existed to fill the cohesive gap religion provided
even though it was slave related. So that society must descend into nihilism-
the absence of any defining values. Despite his pessimism, he foresaw an
emergent higher valued golden culture could emerge from the ashes, spearheaded
by his ‘man made’ supermen. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But firstly one must tear down the
old idols, ideas and errant slave related philosophies so that practically
nothing is spared. His theme proposes we adopt the diversity in nature, to
be free spirits, to rid ourselves of the slave mentality. For religion had
become corrupted and decadent - humility was only exercised so one might be
exalted, to support a loathing of the body, to engage in an unhealthy
collective guilt and to exasperate suffering. Christ was the great free
spirit, vainly speaking in parables attempting clarity to reject the idols and
corrupt controlling institutions. He was the only true Christian but he was
killed – so that what followed was a distortion - decadence and the corruption
of ideals – the distorters such as St Paul and what followed. Nietzsche was
against any form of utilitarianism, which is evident in today’s institutions,
aimed at serving a common good. Rather, his heartfelt philosophy is inspired by
the free spirits of the Homeric Greeks. They relied on
instinctiveness and freedom, of inner lights and life affirmation to exemplify
the joyful here and now. Aristocratic ideals not subject to the mediocrity of
democratic governance. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">However the
question arises as to how practical is it to rely on the noble spirit
and instinctiveness?</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">By instinctiveness Nietzsche <wbr></wbr>means
to intuitively avoid becoming slaves within one ideology. He believed all
religions were unable to provide the truth- for it is the responsibility of
humanity to discern what is true and good. But he never pinpoints any system of
governance or methodology other than the vision of the overman and his
accompanying works. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">One did not have long to wait after
his death for his prophecy to be realised, given the mass </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">slaughter of
the First World War. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But the
question is how much can be fairly attributed to his reasons?
</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">His vibrant
and aggressive style was in marked contrast to his poor state of health.
He experienced the terrible brutality of war as a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">25-year-old hospital attendant in 1870 in the
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). Caring for traumatically affected or wounded
soldiers he contracted diphtheria and dysentery.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The aftermath was pain and
suffering became his constant companion. He suffered a complete mental
breakdown in 1889 and never recovered to die in 1900.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">However, his work was subsequently
misinterpreted and corrupted by his sister Elizabeth in support of the Nazi
party of which she was a member.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Upbringing and
early influences </span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Born in 1</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">844 in the Prussian town of Rocked, in
Germany, he was the son of a Lutheran pastor who died when Nietzsche was only
5. Moving to Naumburg his formative years were with his mother, sister and
two maiden aunts.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Both Nietzsche grandfathers
and his uncle were Lutheran ministers, as was his paternal grandfather,
Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche (1756–1826) - a distinguished Protestant
scholar. His primary education was at a boy’s school to progress to a private
institution, at Pforta in Naumburg.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Later, he gained admittance to the
prestigious boarding school, Schulpforta, which recognised his accomplishments
in music and language, where he studied ancient Greek, Roman literature and
composed poems and music. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">He was also influenced by Epicurus
(341–270 BC) who talked about the need to learn about what satisfies
fundamental needs, which mostly involves a radical upheaval to reprioritise
one’s life.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">“He who understands the limits of
life knows how easy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of want and make
the whole of life complete and perfect,” he wrote. Seize the day!</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">After graduation he enrolled in
Bonn University (1864) as first in theology to later switch to philology. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Inspired by <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/&source=gmail&ust=1683809540164000&usg=AOvVaw3XGG7_XFBl6YuG9vhiAF9Y" href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Arthur Schopenhauer </span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">in 1865, Nietzsche was enthused to then study
philosophy, and read all of his works and studied others such as <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"></span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"></span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-transcendental-idealism/&source=gmail&ust=1683809540164000&usg=AOvVaw2QQd8EiOMQaCm7btNtIHQm" href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-transcendental-idealism/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Kant’s -anti- materialistic theories.</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">He switched to the University of
Leipzig, to follow his favourite professor Friedrich </span><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_Ritschl&source=gmail&ust=1683809540164000&usg=AOvVaw07WYCc3g8q78z4dQv47j1E" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_Ritschl" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Ritschl</span></a></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">. The Professor was impressed by Nietzsche and
published his essays in academic journals. Nietzsche was offered a
Professorship in Greek Languages and Literature at the University of Basel
in Switzerland. In the intervening time whilst in mandatory military service,
he suffered a severe accident whilst attempting to leap-mount into the
saddle of a horse. A serious chest injury meant he was placed on sick leave as
his wound refused to heal.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Returning to Leipzig he met the
composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883), and they developed a close friendship to
visit him in Switzerland. There he also met </span><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Brockhaus&source=gmail&ust=1683809540164000&usg=AOvVaw08wv_yWqcKNe9Di-iFdevV" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Brockhaus" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Hermann Brockhaus</span></a></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> (1806–1877), who was married to Wagner’s sister.
Brockhaus was an authority on Sanskrit and the Zoroastrian religion, whose
prophet was Zarathustra (Zoroaster). That association was to ignite his
interest in the Zoroastrian religion and paved the way for his later works
– ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra ‘(1882- 1885).</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">University Life at Basel</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche, aged only 24, took up a
professorship at Basel despite the fact he was yet to complete his
doctorate. He admired both Ricard Wagner and similarly continued to
enthusiastically support Schopenhauer’s <wbr></wbr>Philosophy. His first
major published work, the ‘Birth of Tragedy’<i> </i>in 1872<i>, </i>brought high
praise from<i> </i>Wagner, but harsh criticism from academia.
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche examines the tension
between the “Apollonian” and the “Dionysian” forces- the Greek GOD of light and
reasons and the GOD of wine and music.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche favoured Dionysus to be
an uplifting alternative to religion, which he contends focus excessively on
heaven. Nietzsche’s “Dionysian” energy, which he favours, dates back to
the pre Socratic ancient Greek culture which he regards as a more creative and
a far healthier force. He feels this dynamic element of
Dionysian influence has lost ground to the “Apollonian”
forces of light and reason. But the flowery language and
inaccuracies did not sit well with authoritative Philologists who were fiercely
critical to damage his reputation to the extent enrolments were curtailed to
his courses. Much later on Nietzsche attempts self-criticism, noting the
earlier work bore the fruits of his adolescence. He reverted to an “Apollonian”
as a philosopher reliant on the forces of light and
reason. Towards the end of his university tenure Nietzsche began to write
Human<i>, All-Too-Human</i> (1878)—which turned out to be a pivotal moment
which served to end his friendship with the anti-sematic Wagner following his
attack on his artistry. For the remainder of his time Nietzsche was a highly
respected figure at Basel, until his resignation in June, 1879, aged only 34,
due to his deteriorating health. He suffered worsening migraine headaches,
eyesight problems, depression and severe stomach complaints. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Later major work and style </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">After his early retirement
Nietzsche published Human only to Human (1878-1880), The Dawn of Day ((1881)
The Gay Science (1882), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1882- 1885), Beyond Good and
Evil (1886) Genealogy of Morals (1887) and Twilight of the Idols (1889). Nietzsche
style reverted to the use of aphorisms as a means to mount a critique of
conventional philosophical wisdom and to write in such a manner to appeal to
the widest possible audience.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Critiques of his work argue it is a
never ending narrative of disjointed or disorganised aphorisms. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But Scholars Solomon and Higgins (What
Nietzsche really said – argue on pages 49-<b> </b>50)</span> state such a
style ensures his work is more easily digestible- freed from the chains of
metaphysical forms of thinking that Nietzsche despised. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">His poor physical health led him in
his quest for spiritual health - in what he describes as a constant state of
becoming which sustains him. Possibly this is why he sees no room for
compassion. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">But the question
arises is this a valid point to abandon the idea of compassion?</span>
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A brief summary of most of his
works is as follows:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Human only Too Human</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche's first lengthy
contribution to literature, since as his previous works comprise
only philological treatises. Nietzsche addresses his concerns <a name="m_-8218162264922597580_m_-25881554094759"></a>of the ensuing crisis he
sees for mankind. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The Dawn of Day</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The title might represent
Nietzsche's work when he is no longer under the influence of Schopenhauer or
Wagner. It is a critique of morality and suggests the need for a “revaluation
of all values.” Nietzsche talks about the problems associated
with Christianity and that it is power which principally underpins human
behaviour.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Gay Science</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A polemic against rationality as he
favours the instinctive approach. That is in the sense of an intuitive style to
embrace vitality, artistry and visions that take humanity out of its present
state of enslavement. Nietzsche detests any authoritative set of values and
champions the idea of the free spirit.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">It is in ‘The Gay Science, that
Nietzsche declares God is dead.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">He is the first philosopher to talk
about the death of GOD, which means ( according to Nietzsche) that as
people give up the idea of understanding GOD and that reading the bible will
tell you what to do, religion will lose its grip on the culture. There are some
people who will continue to believe but fewer into the
future. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Thus Spoke Zarathustra</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Plot Summary</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Zarathustra descends from 10 years
of solitude on the mountain prepared to teach humanity about the overman. At
Motley Cow he explains the meaning of life – the overman (superman) is one who
is free from all prejudicial concepts or moralities - who thereby creates his
own values and a purposeful joyful life.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The people are bewildered and lose
interest in the overman.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But the exception is the tightrope
walker, who subsequently falls and dies. Zarathustra decides the only
possibility is to try to convert the few individuals who are willing to stand
out from the crowd. He explains to these few who come forward about the
doctrine of eternal recurrence - all events will repeat themselves again and
again eternally. None of the followers fully attain the position of the
overman, although they grow in stature. But they all enjoy feasting and a
joyful songful exchange with Zarathustra- to embrace the idea of eternal
recurrence.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche’s narrative reverts to a
parable-like style, to describe the existential struggle and sacrifice
undertaken by the overman. The struggle is analogous to symbolically
scaling mountains, whilst remaining hearty, full of laughter and gaiety- to
exemplify the free spirit of the overman. This is his answer to the looming
chaos facing the western culture as he sees it, <b>but is it too vague a
notion to really take hold? </b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Beyond Good and Evil</span></i></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> (1886)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This is ambitious work that tempts
us to discern what is true and good. The crux of his analysis is to distinguish
between truth as in scientific truth and value which he links to the will- by
will we mean the faculty of the mind. He criticises philosophers who are
reliant upon “self-consciousness, and “free will”. Rather, he takes us
beyond the concepts of good and evil and introduces us to the notion of the
will to power- a psychologically derived drive from which we experience through
the senses to constitute one's overarching will.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In a nutshell Nietzsche proposes
the concepts of good and evil are not the opposing forces as one might think of
them. Rather, there is only the will to power that is the driving force to our
existence and enables one to discern what is true and good. When we understand
this factor it will allow us not to be judgmental but to aspire paradoxically
to a higher morality. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Twilight of the Idols,
Philosophizing with a Hammer-1888</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche revisits prior criticisms
of Socrates, Plato, Kant, Christianity and German culture. He contrasts their
alleged cultural decadence to reaffirm his positivism to Thucydides and the
Sophists. He invites his audience to test the idols of the past to
allegorically tap on them- “sounds them out” so to speak to determine if they
are hollow, just as a physician would use the percussion hammer.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> ‘Death Knell’ - </span></i></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">On the morning of January 3, 1889, while in Turin,
Nietzsche experienced a mental breakdown which left him an invalid for the rest
of his life until his death in 1900.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Conclusion</span></u></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Despite
suffering terribly his prodigious work provides a testament to his own will and
immense material to ponder, about which </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">continues to be subject to countless interpretations.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Nietzsche’s hope is that as free
spirits one can be unbounded by the shackles of dogmatism to embrace hardships
in a constant state of becoming as part of that circle of eternal
recurrence. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Quote</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">“I am a forest, and a night of dark
trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses
under my cypresses.”</span><br />
<span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">― </span></span><b><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Friedrich Nietzsche- Thus Spoke Zarathustra </span></span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-70516470492729888432023-05-04T23:51:00.004+10:002023-05-05T00:14:21.844+10:00More Soulful Reflections<p><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The earliest formal accounts of the soul probably came from ancient
Egypt and Babylonia but I want to begin with ancient Greece since there is a
clear link to </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">later monotheistic religions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Not only have
that but Hindu philosophy has strong links to Greek Aristotelian metaphysics as
they share </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">a fundamental
common theme embracing a divine and immortal mind or soul. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Aristotle’s metaphysics is analogous
to the ideas of the Upanishads which locates the inner self, whose spirituality
was of great interest to Albert Schweitzer. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">For in Greek thinking both Plato and Aristotle believed in
immortality but there was a distinction in relation to the soul. Plato's idea was
of a soul as indestructible part of the body versus Aristotle’s view it was the
intellect and not the soul that survives death.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Greek
thinking influenced monotheism for thousands of years with Aristotle’s
metaphysics integral to both the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions. For
instance, Aristotle ideas were incorporated into Islamic thinking, when his
significant first ever formal works on metaphysics were translated into Latin.
Islamic scholars were much more open then to new ideas before later retreating
into more of fundamental stance. Christianity similarity adopted his ideas that
were incorporated into the great religious philosopher of the 13ty Century, </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Thomas</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> Aquinas. </span></p><p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His religious philosophy was </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">officially
endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1907.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">A similar position arose with the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, who eventually </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">asserted the resurrection of the dead is a fundamental
principle of Judaism </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The formulation of dogma was helpful to Jews pressured to defend their
religion and needing to have ready replies to theological attacks on it.
Maimonides formulated <em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Thirteen Fundamental Principles
of Jewish Faith, </span></em>the last of which is belief that the dead
will be brought back to life when God wills it.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">By the 13</span><sup style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> century that view became accepted into Judaism, and as Maimonides included it among his </span><em style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Thirteen Principles</span></em><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But it should be noted in the early periods there existed much more
diversity than there is now in the Christian religion. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">By way of example it wasn’t until the 6th century that the idea of
reincarnation was considered heretical. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This isn’t surprising given the eschatological expectations of a
messiah that permeated Jewish thinking just prior to the unexpected execution
of Christ.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That idea of messianic figure was rife at the time whose expectation
was for the Jews to gain their freedom from the Roman yoke as was
foretold in the latter OT texts and in particular to the book of Daniel.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">According to Professor Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly in
their publication “All Things Shining”, what began in Christianity under the
influence of Pauline influences to combine Jewish mysticism with Greek
rationality was a bad idea.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">For the Greeks of Plato’s era, in the 5<sup>th</sup> century BC,
human’s beings had one, single universal essence: at their best they were
rational agents who, through disinterested philosophical argument, could
discover objective, universal, timeless truths of nature and human ethical
excellence. For the Hebrew it was the special covenant with GOD. The truth then
was commitment to the covenant. To some degree this conflict of cultural ideas
continued except for those devotees of Kierkegaard, who accepted his synthesis. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In terms of the so-called eastern religions composed principally of
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, Buddhism took its lead
from Hinduism less the priestly connections with worship and associated
rituals. It was to spread across SE Asia to be further morphed into different
strands along the Silk Road as it incorporated aspects of Taoism in China.
There is some debate as to whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy.
Based on the idea that religion is defined as the worship of a God (rather than
the rejection of worship) in that sense Buddhists is a philosophy.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But if you define religion as a belief which promises reality and
involves the study of sacred texts I think it can be regarded as a religion.
There are many different strands as for instance Tibetan Buddhism incorporated
the idea of local Gods into its basic tenet.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The differences between Hinduism and Buddhism also relates to the idea
of the negation of the self. In</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> Hinduism, human soul, is believed to be connected to the Brahman.
However, Buddhism in its enlightened state negates the idea of a self,
believing its independence cannot be separated. However, what might be
construed on the pathway to enlightenment is a duality. Therein we have the
conventional sense of self that applies only until such a state of
enlightenment is realized.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>First Nations People </b></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Interestingly the Australian Aboriginal society, existing for possibly
some 70,000 years in isolation pre colonisation held similar views to all of
the world’s major religions and in particular in relation to the soul. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">They believed that the
dreaming one is reincarnated to return in different existential forms to
inhabit the land to which they are inextricably joined. So they believed the
land owned them and so the idea of owning land was nonsense. Life was a
continuous circle defined by predestined totems and the law which gave rise to
kinship and the means of governance without the need for supreme rulers. </span></p><p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Modernity </b></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Finally we can turn to our
modern way of viewing the immortal soul which depends in turn on how we view
the mind and consciousness. In respect of our mind dependent consciousness and
what is deemed reality is a source of continuous debate. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">On the one hand we have the
hard- nosed materialists who believe that the output of the brain and our
consciousness can only be the </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">product of
the human brain. That view contrasts to the non- materialists who argue
consciousness is a fundamental state in the universe to which we are all
inexplicably linked.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></p><p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Such questions will remain debating issues since no one can be
absolutely sure what reality is. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So that ultimately it boils down into what you believe and that’s
where the ABC‘s recent research as in the Conversation talking about a survey
into the soul in 2021 is of interest. The results suggest that, as a nation, we
may not be as sceptical as we think we are.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The survey results showed that on an overall basis 69.7 percent
of respondents said they either believed in or were open to the existence of
the soul, with 14.7 percent unsure, 5.7 percent thinking it unlikely, and 9.9
percent saying they do not believe it exists.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But only 48 per cent of Australians say they believe in ghosts or
the possibility they may exist, but 69 per cent say the same for the soul,
according to new research.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What about young people </span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">S</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">urprisingly,
perhaps, it was the youngest age group — 18-26-year-olds — who expressed the
most openness to the non-material: 49 per cent said they believe in the soul,
and 48 per cent in life after death (in both cases, another 28 per
cent were open to the possibility).</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The percentage who said "I believe this does not exist"
about any of the options never rose to double digits for this cohort (9 per
cent for ghosts, only 4 per cent for life after death).</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">By contrast, the oldest age bracket (76+) were much more sceptical: a
full 40 per cent said they do not believe in ghosts, and 28 per
cent dismissed the possibility of life after death.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The gender disparities will be less surprising to some. Men were on
average more than twice as likely as women to tick the "I believe this
does not exist" box.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">When it comes to the existence of God or a higher power, men and women
said they believed or were open to it at almost the same rate. But for the
rest, women were markedly more willing to profess belief: 50 per cent to
38 per cent for the soul, 38 per cent to 30 per cent for life
after death, 34 per cent to 26 per cent for angels.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Soul-searching summing up. </span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So that we can conclude the question of souls is still one that
matters. It is, in effect, wrestling with the meaning of human life and what is
it that makes us human — and whether each of us is more significant than the
rocks or pebbles in the sea. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In my view it’s not so much the doctrines of the various
religions that bind its followers, for there will be matters of interpretation,
but rather that search for meaning that continues so that the division between
the secular and sacred is rather blurred. Like adherents of Buddhism
emphazising it’s a philosophy and not a religion by pointing out the tenets of
their sacred texts and beliefs in the path to enlightenment. But mostly
something that is considered sacred is connected to religion and if you change
a definition of region not to mandate worship of a GOD but reality with sacred texts than it is a religion. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So, Buddhism is a religion like any others which all have their
philosophical underpinnings. Then there is far more commonality in religious
thinking than we might think except for a few twists along its evolutionary
journey. Talking to people who have converted from Christianity to Buddhism
they believe Christ was a reincarnated Buddha. People will continue to adapt as
will our beliefs, slowly over time. </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This is why the belief in souls persists, even in this apparently
secular age.</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="gmail-msonospacing" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-14083002101472386792023-04-21T15:39:00.001+10:002023-04-21T15:39:50.794+10:00In search of self and it's soul <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">This paper examines the article on the soul as per the link below as a good reference point to underpin discussions. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/why-are-most-of-us-stuck-with-a-belief-in-the-soul" target="_blank">https://aeon.co/essays/why-<wbr></wbr>are-most-of-us-stuck-with-a-<wbr></wbr>belief-in-the-soul</a></span></u><o:p></o:p></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Everyday use of the word soul and excitable neurons. </span></b></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The soul is routinely used to describe our reaction to a musical song or a piece of art or any creation by saying it speaks to my soul.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">To be more explicit we may also add it gives me
shivers down my spine – our central nervous reaction of highly excited neurons. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Then
there's rare moments to feel the emotional impact taking in breathtaking scenes on walks or to observe beautiful gardens. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Around the campfire at night when
gazing into the flickering sparks or embers under a starry cosmos we may experience dreamlike comfort.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So that this is state of soulful human wonderment which draws us into thinking about non- material things. But that doesn’t
translate of course into ideas of an immortal soul. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Introduction</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Firstly let me summarize the
author’s response, as I see it, which is to define the soul in terms of the various
religious doctrines and to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">acknowledge the persuasive psychological
needs those views offer. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">His conclusion is we are stuck with
the idea of a soul while questioning the validity to hold such views.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Modern day use of the word “soul”
has waned.</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But given modern day advances in science the use of the word “soul” has been largely replaced by “’Consciousness” or the
“mind”. Indeed </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">the ancient texts use so many different terms for it such as breath or heart that its challenging to make any conclusions as to the extent it was talked about then. One must accept there will be many incorrect translations. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rather it is preferable to use consciousness/ mind which has
undergone a minor renaissance in modern day terms which in turn has invoked
renewed interest in the ancient platonic ideas. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The author rather obviously follows
a bottom up materialist’s view, amongst a plethora of current views. In a
nutshell the brain and its output is all there is.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But unanswered questions arise as
to why and how such consciousness arises – that’s the hard problem about
consciousness talked about by Mind Philosopher David </span><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Chalmers. He argues that </span></span><span style="color: #040c28; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">consciousness is a fundamental property ontologically
autonomous of any known (or even possible) physical properties.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Chalmers is a dualist but remains
agnostic to the idea of a soul ………..</span><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> <i>So, as a scientist, I just can’t go there</i></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> yet</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Then we have the quantum level of
consciousness which in a nutshell means the universe
is consciousness.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Other theories are the soul/mind
advocates who suggest that all things have a degree of consciousness; birds,
plants, even molecules.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Finally one might conclude it’s
more a matter of mysticism that involves a leap of faith to become a believer.
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">From my perspective,
belief in a soul comes back to how we feel about our experiences? –
are they in the context of a psyche/spiritual experience or does one firmly
stay in the materialist camp? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Faith and rational thinking
underpinning the belief in the immortal soul</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In that respect it might be
interesting to talk about what specific ideas were held by the philosophers. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">My aim goes beyond the
author's ideas to provide additional information that underpin such
beliefs. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In ancient Greece it was believed
the realization of the good life – a virtuous one, was for the soul as a
substance to gain ascendancy over the body. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The idea that permeated society was
it was imperative to teach the virtuous way of life to the youth.
Hence knowledge inherent in the soul needed to be
strengthened. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That memory of virtuous knowledge
was believed to have been mostly forgotten during the trauma of birth. However,
we know, merely understanding ethics or the virtues doesn’t mean folk will
actually follow that example in life.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The birth of Consciousness as a
moral persuader </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Socrates, responding to
charges of impiety and corruption if Athenian youth, held that his conscience provided
the ethical guiding light. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Hence we have the idea for most
people that it remains a clear guide in relation to how we feel about our ideas
of justice or whether or not decisions made were based on a fair and
ethical basis. But having a conscious does no translate into an immortal soul. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">However. Socrates was convinced that, in addition to our physical
bodies, each person possesses an immortal soul that survives beyond the death
of the body. But he was also concerned that the so-called “logos” lives on in
terms of his wisdom after our death. Logos is the divine reason implicit in the
cosmos, giving it form and meaning.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But such ideas were of interest to
St Paul who merged Greek rationalism with Hebrew mysticism which is less
emphatic as to the nature of the soul. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Experiences and feelings underpin
ideas of the soul </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">There is a wealth of information in
the Biblical stories which leaps of faith, occasioned by miraculous
occurrences. They are of course just stories that introduce the idea of irony and aim to make sense of the word then. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But in the end the Jewish religion boils down to a belief we are more than our bodies and that a dimension of
consciousness, soul, survives death eternally. The fact that it is more clearly
defined in Christian versus Jewish doctrines is an interesting fact that
doesn’t detract from the overall consensus by either that the soul survives death.
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That sums it up for the Abrahamic
religions of the world- Judaism, Islam and Christianity who share many of the
OT stories which try to make sense of the world when they were closer to
everyday existential challenges than we are today. Abraham for instance started
out believing in many GODs before settling on just the one which became the
catalyst for the three religions today, no doubt influenced by the events of
that time and the feelings that arose as a consequence. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Hence I think the evolutionary
effect in biology points to particular feelings one has more so than an actual
fear of death.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Fear of death arose as a
consequence of materialism more as a modern day phenomena presented as an
underlying quest for immortality. But that’s not to say there was fear of
GODS and various forms of sacrifice (including human )offered in early periods. Add to that
religion used for political purposes to gain power and brainwash youth to
become terrorist suicide bombers. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The duality concept – body and soul</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Augustine</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The idea of this duality of a
separate soul to the body was talked about in the meditations of St Augustine
(354 - 430) and further complemented much later on by Thomas Aquinas, but with
a twist. He is regarded as the father of religious philosophy by the Catholic
Church. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aquinas </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">invigorated the philosophy of Aristotle which had been
abandoned during the so-called dark ages but taken up by a more enlightened
Islam before retreating to fundamentalism. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Aquinas believed the question
relating to the immortal soul within the body to be an insoluble nonsensical
philosophical question. He turned the question around by arguing it was the
body that was the nature of the soul and not the soul for the body. Therein
that part of the body as represented by its intellectual soul is an
incorruptible form.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Further philosophical views.</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Spinoza</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The idea of substance talked about
by Spinoza was to captivate Einstein who saw the energized source and immortal
soul as a natural corollary as to how energy passes front one state to another
in accord with the laws of the universe. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Descartes </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">also thought the body and soul are interacting entities
with different attributes. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Immanuel Kant</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">, as a scientist, took a different route maintaining the
categorical imperatives, which gave us our ethical views must come from GOD
otherwise where else could they rationally arise. According to Kant there
is a moral necessity to believe in an immortal soul as it underpins enriching
cognitive experiences that give impetus to obtaining the greater good and to
guard against scepticism.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Kierkegaard</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> on the other hand, regarded as the father of the
existential movement, begins his synthesis in support of the immortal soul with
a series of rhetorical questions. The crux of his existential philosophy begins
with the inescapable idea of a self which is spiritual in nature and which
invites a leap of faith to ensure meaning to existence. His synthesis is of
body and soul suggesting eternal things connected to the soul combined with
everyday necessities must be lived in a balanced manner. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">First Nations Views</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Turning to the Australian
Aboriginal society in search of their ideas on a soul we find the idea of the
land and existence as all form one circular cosmic soul which is introduced
continually via the dreaming. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The land and all there is as a
result of the creator spirits who seeded authority to humans once sufficient
knowledge was acquired to tend and nourish Mother Earth. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This is achieved by predestined
laws dependent on what side of the Moëty one is born to be either
hunter/gatherers or conservationists charged with ecological responsibility.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The responsibilities are defined by
totems that vary between nations with one chosen by the elders who demonstrates
a charisma in respect to one of the totems. The totems designate what animals
and landmarks can only be hunted in different areas are the responsibilities
within nations. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Conclusion </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As the author notes, the idea of an
immortal soul as part of the human psyche is going to stay with us. But the
idea of a soul as integral to our psycho /spiritual existence has undergone a
minor renaissance in academia in more recent times. For we are more than just
flesh and bones. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Questions </span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Are such matters best left alone as mysteries? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What do we think about the initial article on souls?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Is it preferable to talk about mind and consciousness
and what do we think about the possibilities that make up the human psyche?
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What do we think of the idea.., if death can
be the end of me as a finite individual mind, it does not mean it will be the
end of me altogether. It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere
by-product of matter ……,it seems to me quite probable that (my mind) will lose
its limitations and be merged with an infinite mind ………?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Does the article provide any food for thought or
quantifiable existential challenges to a belief in the soul /afterlife?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Do you agree with the idea of being stuck with a soul or
do you have an alternative view as per below: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Could personal patterns of thoughts as in souls live on
just as the works of those before us in their writings live on afresh in each
generation and transfer in intergenerational memory?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What do we think about the idea that death is the
ripened fruit into a new form as proposed by Heidegger?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Can consciousness be ultimately from a primordial source
that remains a mystery?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Having rid ourselves of the illusion of time, can that
free us from the fear of death as Einstein nonchalantly dismisses its relevance
as his letter to his friend?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">How would you describe a human being in relation to
their soul assuming you believe in the existence of an immortal
soul? E.g. are we spiritual beings with a soul residing in a physical body?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">·<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What message do you think the author aims to
convey? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-84104589440765000472023-04-08T14:27:00.006+10:002023-04-08T14:37:39.236+10:00Keeping in Time with Heidegger’s Dasein <p><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Introduction </span></b></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger grew up in a conservative, religious
rural town and in 1909 spent some time in the Jesuit order before leaving
University of Freiburg.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In 1911 he switched subjects to philosophy and
began teaching there in 1915. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger's philosophical interest was initially
kindled when he read Brentano and Aristotle. He concluded that the wisdom of Aristotle's
demands to consider the different modes of being has been lost in subsequent
western philosophy. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger spent a period teaching at University of
Marburg (1923–1928), but then returned to Freiburg to take up the chair vacated
by Husserl on his retirement.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He dedicated to Husserl, “in friendship and
admiration” Being and Time. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He is regarded as a leading light of the
20th-century existential movement.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He sets himself in <i>Being
and Time</i> to respond to the question ‘What is being’?</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">My impressions </span></b><br /></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His style of writing is labored and
introduces many new words to the reader so it’s hardly surprising there are
many detractors or that some abandon any effort to comprehend his
philosophy. </span><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But there can be little
doubt his work underpinned subsequent existentialism and much of modern day
thinking. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">It’s hard to argue any of his
premises about being in the world and his work demonstrates a radical departure
from previous philosophy to introduce the significance of our everyday
existence and the futility of pretending you can view it independently as an
outsider. He provides an insightful narrative into the limitations of
analytical philosophy and epistemology. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger’s status was severely tested
on revelations it was found he was a member of the Nazi Party which sullied his
image. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">A great deal has been written
about this including rebuttals of any anti-Semitic feelings by Heidegger in
his responses. All I would want to comment upon is to say I agree with those
scholars who suggest it was a mistake on his part, but I note one can find no
endorsement of anti-semanticist within “Being and Time”. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Being in the World </span></b><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger introduce us to “being in the world” which defines a new way of thinking that
invites the reader to desist the propensity to idolize facts- because this
is not what it is to philosophize according to Heidegger. He argues against analytical
philosophies who are totally reliant on logic and facts as analogous to our
reliance today on technology which is divorced from ‘being in the world’ except
to the extent its interaction becomes the tools that complement existence.</span><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Therein lies fuzziness in thinking
wherein our technological dependence has estranged us from the reality of
everyday living. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">It is not as if everyday objects come
flying towards us but are in essence are only present or ready to hand as
we have to deal with such occurrences as is our choice in the
multiplicity of everyday existence. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The crux of his philosophy contained
in his major work “Being and Time” talks about the reality that we are immersed
in the world so it’s impossible to logically pretend you can view as if one is
peering in from the outside. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Science can only look at subjects and
objects and their phenomena to form theories and advance empirical studies, but
cannot participate in ‘being in the world as he defies it. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">There are various modes of being such
as our interactions of things that are present or as envisaged as in ready to
hand as he puts it, the only exception is in being until death. <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hammering home our interactions with
the world. </span></b><br /></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger initially introduces the
concept of Dasein which means “Being There “. </span><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger’s philosophy begins with
the premise we are out of context with the reality of living and thereafter his
narrative talks about Dasein's (meaning us) interactions as in being in the
world. That has its origins relate back to our primordial essence. Being in the
world is ancient concept and Heidegger goes to great lengths to demonstrate the
reality of our existence has been obscured by our minds reliance on technological
developments that overlooks the reality of Dasein’s ‘Being in the World’ </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger introduces the reader to
many practical examples and none more so than of the tradesman’s use of his “Hammer”</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">What Heidegger explains is the
propensity to just look at a hammer as an object which he describes as “present
to hand” as in being in the world rather than be associated with its related
uses involving nails into wood, construction, homes and so forth. The term he
uses for this mode of being is “ready to hand”. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The same principles apply in our interactions
with others that are hammered home so to speak by prior conceptions. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Shining a light on his philosophy </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The aim then of
Heidegger’s philosophy is then to encourage a realization of authentic being in
the world that is supportive of introspection and meditation in keeping with
the essence of our primordial beginnings </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The very act of thinking deeply in
itself according to Heidegger is to take a step in the right direction towards
an authentic way of being and existence, </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His philosophy
invites questions in relation to the idea of being in the world and the nature
of creation itself as he posits our essence relates back to a primordial
beginning. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">A useful analogy was provided in the Philosophy Now
Issue 125 </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">By </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Andrew
Royle 2018. He </span><em style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">is a drama therapist,
working with the bereaved, in private practice in London</span></em></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Let us remain with our workman in his workshop, and now imagine that the
workman reaches out for a hammer and finds instead an empty space. In now
looking for his hammer, the workman starts to notice his workshop, which has
been there, surrounding
him, all the time. He casts an eye over the shelves, seeing dust; he spies a
cracked window; becomes aware of a spider moving across the ceiling; he notices
the detritus of uncompleted tasks and worries about deadlines. Heidegger says,
in this ‘looking around’, the referential context of Being is ‘lit up’ (p.74).
By virtue of the space of the missing hammer it’s as if a light switches on and
Dasein sees the world that has been there all
along.</span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The important point is that this light is not switched on ‘out there’ in
the world; rather, Dasein switches on a light for him/herself, in the doing, in
his/her interaction with the world. Generally, the world is categorized and
created for the workman in the context of his particular concerns: he ‘sees’ a
missed deadline in a half-finished barrel, or he ‘hears’ his boss’s rebuke
through the space of the missing hammer. The empty space becomes a disclosing
ground for Dasein to conjure and create the world. In doing this, Heidegger
describes Dasein as a ‘ Lumen
Naturale’ (a natural light), which lights up its Being-in-the-world “in
such a way as to be its [own] there” (p.129).</span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Being-With-Others</span></i></b></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In a similar way to Dasein’s entangled relationship with the world, so too
is Dasein entangled with other people. For Heidegger, we do not exist as
isolated individuals; just as we are committed to Being-in-the-world, so too
are we committed to Being-with-others.
For Heidegger, it is impossible for an “isolated I without other to be given”
(p.115). This is because, whatever I am – a son, father, husband, or bereaved,
etc – necessarily refers to and infers the existence of others – a parent,
child, wife, or a deceased loved one. So at the same time that I claim my
existence, my ‘mineness’, I also necessarily declare the incontrovertible
existence of others.</span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Let us not underestimate the profound significance of Heidegger’s move
here, which is a direct refutation of René Descartes’ solitary introspection
some three hundred years earlier, reversing Descartes’ sceptical starting point
for philosophy. Descartes asks, How can I be sure that the world and other
people actually exist? He replies to himself that whilst I may doubt the world
and others, whilst doubting, I am at least thinking – I cannot doubt that. “I think therefore I am” writes
Descartes famously. Yet from a Heideggerian perspective, it is a
contradiction-in-terms to say “I doubt the existence of others”, since the very
positing of ‘I’ necessarily refers to (in Heideggerian terms, has relevance to)
a ‘you’ or an ‘other’. Just as Heidegger’s workman claims his existence as a
workman in relevance with the world of his workshop, so too does each Dasein
claim its I-hood from the world of others that it is necessarily with and which
is relevant to it: the I necessarily posits the not-I, because Dasein comes to
understand itself from the world of things and of other people. In this way,
‘other’ is intimately predicated by and entangled with Dasein. Heidegger
therefore states that “Dasein is essentially a Being-with” (p.170).</span></i></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Summarizing Heidegger’s metaphysics </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The idea of metaphysics which suggests certain
things lie outside of physics began in ancient Greece with the first formal
works produced by Aristotle. But prior to his work the pre Socratic Greeks had
talked about being in the world involving different modes of being which became
the inspiration for Heidegger's “Being and Time”. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger’s challenge in thinking is to re-examine
‘being’. To reiterate, he introduces the term Dasein as in being in the
world that entails reference back to ourselves in respect to our
primordial structure that he suggests underpin “being in the world” which then
forms the basis for authentic existence. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger is not a critique of science, but rather
alerts us to the dangers of total reliance on a scientific way of thinking that
does not entail any references to 'being in the world'. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Existential References </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Anxiety, nothingness and authentic being, </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In a reference back to Kierkegaard idea of dread
Heidegger relates the feeling of dread or anxiety to a state where all such entities
sink away into a “nothing and nowhere, “ </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Existence then to Heidegger’s thinking is a state
hovering between nowhere and home where everydayness disappears and so one can
face the potential of authentic being. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Returning to the influence of Kierkegaard it is the
initial process generated by anxiety that provides the tipping point that
enables progress to be made due to the process began as a. consequence of
anxiety (dread, angst), as the non-trivial precursor to the potential to
realizing authentic being.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Expression of being and Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger attaches positive states of being as in
ascribing it as analogous to “light” and associated with “the joyful”,
entailing one coming home so to speak to something much greater than humanity-
e.g. a transcendent being relating back to our primordial beginnings.
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The nature of human 'Being' in terms of its
presence or our existence references 'Dasein' to signify ‘being there’ so to
speak. This is the crux of his narrative in 'Being and Time'.</span><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Questions </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidegger’s concerns about technology are:
(1) technology is just a way of understanding the world; (2) It is not a
human activity nor does it employ human thinking except that of the developers
specific instruction and (3) is apt to risk us seeing the world only through
technological thinking.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">How do you feel about the veracity or otherwise of
such claims? </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Are there enhanced possibilities of living a more
authentic existence that can be gained from an understanding of his philosophy?
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Or is it too vague and lacking in practicality? To
be authentic in terms of good conscience, care and to be truthful?
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do we see increasing inability to focus with young
people becoming over reliant on technology? </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do you think, properly managed, it can only enhance
our understanding of ourselves?</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Are there any parallels in his philosophy in
respect to other eastern religions as in relating to “being in the world”
linked to a primordial beginning? </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Both Heidegger and Nietzsche were on similar
missions but from different perspectives given their concern that the world was
heading into a period of nihilism.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do you think there is any risk we are heading in
that direction presently? </span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-61173697845657915632023-01-10T00:48:00.004+11:002023-01-11T02:23:07.097+11:00A brief introduction to Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology in philosophy. <p><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Definition of </span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>phenomenology? : </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The study of phenomenology is
the study of “phenomena”: from a </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">first person's perspective the study of our living experience. It seeks to ascertain the nature and meaning of experiences and not the things in themselves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Thus it’s an attempt to understand
the <span style="color: #1a1a1a;">structures of our consciousness. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Phenomenology underwent renewed
interest in the early 20th century from extensive works
of Husserl, followed by Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and others. In modernity concerning mind philosophy it covers our perception, thought,
memory, imagination, emotion, desire and social interaction.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His Life and thought </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Husserl was born in 1859, to non-Orthodox Jews and married to have three children by such time he converted
to Protestantism. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Earlier on his studies involved
astronomy, mathematics, physics and philosophy before he took an interest in psychology. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">After he obtained a PhD in mathematics he studied psychology and logic to then publish the philosophy of Arithmetic<i> </i>in 1891.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In 1901<i> </i>his phenomenological work was
published in two volumes. Husserl continued to update this work, explaining how things that are taken for granted
constitute themselves in our consciousness. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He died on April 27, 1938 in Freiburg. His
manuscripts (more than 40000 pages in total) were rescued and the first Husserl
archive was founded in 1939. There are now archives in Freiburg, Cologne, Paris,
New York and Pittsburgh.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introduction to Husserl’s philosophy </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He explains how the intention and meaning of
propositions (whether true or nonsense) arise from units of our
consciousness and are only temporal but facilitated at that time by the various modes of intuition.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Husserl contended that propositions and their
meanings stand alone and outside of one’s intentions so that a true proposition
e.g. Theorems for instance can only be discovered.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Propositions arise from the intentional acts. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He introduces the notion of ideal matters he calls
“moments of matter” where Propositions are understood as arising from
dependent parts of intentional acts. They comprise real or fictional life
experiences yielding a so-called “moment of quality" to initiate the
psychological modes of judgment which give expression and meaning to that experience. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Husserl also includes mere conversational
contextual type propositions so that there can be an amalgam of two factors (where
applicable) as to meaning plus the context. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">To reiterate, integral to his mind theory is
intentionality. His theory is that all experiences are singular to relate to a
single or number of objects as related to the intentional experiences of such
objects. Future experiences he defines as intended future horizons, representing the inner time intentional experiences which in turn motivate higher order judgments.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">From a first person’s perspective and empathetic
intentionality</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Husserl’s assertion is that for any
phenomenological description, it must be posited from the first person’s
perspective.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One can’t say for sure what is actually happening
in respect to the experiences of another. They could for instance be
hallucinating. He attempts to overcome any such subjectivity by grouping
phenomenological descriptions to intentional content indexes, whether such
propositions are delusional or rational. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The pathway to selfhood and empathetic
intentionality.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Husserl contends selfhood is a pathway from
childhood to adulthood and personal self-consciousness that facilitates empathetic intentionality. The result is that in ordinary conversation one is
mostly to perceive another’s intentions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Conclusion </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Following on from the idea of empathetic
internationality his conclusion is that phenomenology plays a leading role in
the constitution of ourselves and ones view of how we see ourselves objectively and
others. In other words the identification that others act or think like ourselves
in terms of intentional empathy shines a light on better understanding one
another. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Questions</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Are we too reluctant to learn from the experiences
of others or even our own or is it that we simply can't trust such perceived
intentions? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Should we place more reliance on intuition and
introspection in evaluating our life or stick with the hard facts or is a
mixture ideal? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Could or should phenomenology be used more to
stimulate more imaginative or higher quality outcomes in most qualitative research? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Could the application of phenomenology assist in
any analysis of mystical elements of life experiences? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-12232120301405605682023-01-01T12:41:00.003+11:002023-01-01T12:41:46.802+11:00George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel<p> <b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The philosophy of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel</span></b></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":1c2"><div aria-controls=":1ew" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1ew" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":1by" itacorner="6,7:1,1,0,0" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 723px;" tabindex="1"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">These notes are intended to support discussions on
Hegel's philosophical works. A handy reference is Carl J Friedrich’s ``The
Philosophy of Hegel”, which includes selections from his writing on history,
the philosophy of Right and Law, Phenomenology of the Spirit, The Science of
Logic and Aesthetics. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Other reference points inclusive of Spark Notes are
attached after the conclusion prior to the discussion questions. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I have also included extracts from the November
2020 published article in ‘Philosophy Now’ entitled ‘Hegel and History’ by Jack
Fox – Williams. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The approach taken, given the very large volume of
works, is to begin with a summary of his life and then to split this summary
into an explanation of his major themes. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I conclude with the article on history which I hope
will provide further food for thought. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Introduction </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">A brief sketch of his life, the context at that
time in history and a summary of major publications. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">An introduction to his major themes </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His idea of the Dialectic. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His Philosophical idea of spirit and self-awareness
in the community. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Lordship. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ethics as they relate to the expression of that Age
and the philosophy of Right. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">From the Phenomenology of Spirit. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Human consciousness. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Knowledge. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel and the Philosophy of History</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel and History’ by Jack Fox – Williams. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Conclusion and discussion points. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Introduction to his life and thought </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel was an influential philosopher of the18th
century whose works expanded into theology, logic, history and politics. He
belongs firmly in the German idealist’s camp. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>A brief sketch of his life and an introduction</b></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He was born in Stuttgart in 1770 as the son of a
government official. His entire life was involved in teaching and studying
philosophy, whose major influencers were Kant and his eminent friends such
as the poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) and Friedrich von Schelling
(1775–1854). </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His lifelong devotion to philosophy was
recognised by Frederick William 111 of Prussia in the same year he died from
cholera. By that time, in the latter period of his life his works and
doctrines had become universally accepted throughout Europe. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">At that time the aristocracy was clinging on to
their privileges following on from the French Revolution, which would have had
a profound impact on the worldview of Hegel and his contemporaries. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Much of his earlier writing entailed him attempting
to grasp the historical legacy of Christianity and its cultural and social
implications, as an orthodox Lutheran. Hegel inherited a modest bequest from
his Father after he died which allowed him to pursue his academic career. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In 1801 Hegel moved to Jena and joined Schelling,
to publish ‘The Difference between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of
Philosophy’ to collaborate with Schelling to produce ‘The Critical Journal of
Philosophy” </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In 1807 he published his first major work, the
Phenomenology of Spirit. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Later, as Jena became occupied by Napoleon’s
troops, Hegel’s activities were curtailed so he worked as a successful editor
of a newspaper in Bamberg. From 1808–1815 he became the headmaster and
philosophy teacher at a high school in Nuremberg. Subsequently he married and
began a family, publishing in 1816 the ‘Science of Logic’. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">After several years he returned to university life
and finally took up an appointment at the prestigious University of Berlin.
There he published his political philosophy, Elements of the Philosophy of
Right. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Following his death<i> </i>in 1831 Hegel’s
lectures on philosophy, history, religion and aesthetics were published.</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Theme – An Introduction to his idea of his Dialectic and what it
means. </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel introduces the idea of the
dialectic but in a different way to the philosophers that came before him.
</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">To more clearly understand what the
dialectic means for Hegel, we have to first understand that Hegel was an
idealist, more so in the tradition of his predecessor, Kant. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Like Kant, Hegel believed that we all
perceive the world and anything in it in our minds eye so to speak – not
directly. That is our minds gain access to the ideas of the world—made up of
images, perceptions, concepts. Both for Kant and Hegel, the only reality we can
know therefore is a virtual reality. But the difference for Hegel was important
in two ways. Hegel maintained our world view was a consequence of social
interaction. In other words all of our ideas are shaped by the ideas of others.
Hence our minds become influenced by the thoughts of other people through
language, traditions, societal and cultural influences to incorporate the idea
of the thinking spirit. To Hagel that interaction was real which prompted
earlier philosophers to think of him as a rationalist philosopher. That’s
because throughout his dialogue he attempts to provide a concrete basis for his
ideas. Later on however scholars would regard him as an absolute idealist.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Theme - His Philosophical idea of spirit and self-awareness in the
community. </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">This then is the collective
consciousness to which Hegel references as a logical and concrete progressive
accumulation of knowledge contained within the thinking Spirit. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In short Hegel’s idealism is realised through a dialectical process
involving social interaction. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hence, the second difference to Kant is Hegel sees
our collective ideas as evolving in a similar way as they do in any argument.
First, we have the thesis, as an idea or proposition about the world and how we
relate to it. Of course every thesis, or idea about the world contains an
inherent contradiction or flaw, which then will give way to an antithesis, a
proposition that contradicts the thesis. Finally, the thesis and antithesis are
reconciled into a synthesis, which then becomes the new idea combining elements
of both as or when the conflict is finally resolved. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel sees human societies evolving in the same
manner as arguments might evolve. An entire society or culture begins with one
idea about the world, which naturally evolves into a succession of different
ideas through a dialectical pattern over time. Hegel uses the German word Geist
in his work which i<span style="color: #292c2e;">s translated as “spirit” in
English versions that can mean both “spirit” and “mind,” depending on the
context. Hegel talks generally about the spirit of the age, which one would
conclude uses the term in a religious sense, which however he never fully
defines. </span></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">It must be noted at that time religion and
philosophy were not separated as they are now and Hegel devoted a considerable
narrative on the subject as distinct to his philosophy. For those interested
the spark notes reference here expand on the topic. But from consensus views I
think one can reliably conclude he was talking about a collective consciousness
(that he refers to often and is explained in his dialectic) as a kind of divine
thinking spirit. That spirit eventually ensures a resultant logical synthesis
ending after many inevitable conflicts. <span style="color: #292c2e;">It
must be noted </span>Hegel’s dialectic is talking about an ongoing
process. Although the ultimate Synthesis resolves the ‘pro’s and con’s’ the
process continues throughout history to slowly become more refined according to
his Logic.<span style="color: #292c2e;"> </span></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Theme - Ethical </span></b><b><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Life as the
Expression of an Age</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel’s philosophy can be thus summed
up as an expression of an Age, representing the given cultural expression of
the Spirit of that age. Spirit is the collective communal entity that
transcends individuals, but determines their beliefs and actions regardless of
whether they are individually aware of it or not. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Philosophy of the Right </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But Hegel did recognise in the age of
enlightenment that it gave rise to economic individualism who must have
individual rights. Later on in his writings in the Philosophy of Right, he
explains the state as a modern institution will self-correct as individualism
increasingly plays a more positive evolved role. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel proposes such institutions must
affirm the communal societal spiritual bond, but at the same time to also
preserve individual freedom.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">He went on to propose a regulatory
regime for the state and institutional ties that might be regarded as similar
in nature to unions for those private activities that lay outside their
state. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">From the Phenomenology of the Spirit- evolving human
consciousness. </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Given the prior thematic notes on the Dialectic and
what it means in the communal spirit of Age through social interaction we can
now turn to Hegel’s explanation about how this sophistication arose.
</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel asserts human consciousness
naturally evolved to become more sophisticated in the way it relates to the
world, over and above sensory inputs of objects. Hence, an understanding is
reached as to our relationship with other individuals, as part of the whole, to
be bound in turn by a single communal consciousness. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spirit in this philosophical sense,
then represents the community. In other words the amalgam of individuals who
form part of the whole, but whose values and actions continue to evolve in line
with the consciousness of the evolving spirit of that age. The apparent glue that
holds this all together has previously been covered under the prior thematic
where </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel uses the German word ‘Geist’ in his work
which i<span style="color: #292c2e;">s translated as “spirit” in English as in
the spirit of the age. </span></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">From the Phenomenology of the Spirit- Knowledge </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel is mostly in sync with Kant in that
attributes knowledge is not knowledge of “things-in-themselves,” or of the
inputs from the senses. He was in agreement with the rationalists such as
Descartes who said we are only able to trust the truths of the mind's
comprehension on its own. This differed to the Empiricists, who argued that all
knowledge arises from perceptions of actual objects, through our senses. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel talks about different modes of consciousness
involving m<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">eaning</span>, <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">perception and understanding
which supplies the evidence of the world in which we inhabit. </span></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel believed all of the different categories were
real as uncertainty gives rise to new perceptions that then become
certainties. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">To reiterate, individuals are immersed in the world
and are constantly mediating between the subjective and the collective moments
of understanding. .</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #484848; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Lordship and Bondage as the Basis of
Social Relations </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel agreed with the idealism of
Kant, but takes the matter a step forward to suggest self-consciousness is as a
consequence of the interactions through the eyes of another in society. Hence,
this self-</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">consciousness involves a social interaction and
identification with another’s consciousness. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Where inequality exists in relation
to a subordinate partner or in the case of a bondsman, the Lord is conscious of
the others lesser position. The Lord enjoys his status as in his freedom over
his subordinate other, who remains unessential to him. However, in doing so,
the lord may become uneasy or feel guilty in negating a consciousness with
which he has identified in order to assure himself of his independence and free
status. Hegel contends all life is founded on this social interaction. In other
words there are dynamic and competing moments of mutual identification where
one identifies or distances oneself from the other. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> It was within this master slave narrative that Carl Marx drew his
inspiration to formulate his manifesto. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The question arises however that a
collective consciousness at some point in time may relish in the idea of what
later is regarded as evil- as in slavery. Hegel gave considerable attention to
the idea of slavery which is outside the scope of this paper.</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">However, one might want to question
his model of self-consciousness. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="color: #292c2e; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel and the Philosophy of History</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel’s philosophy of history is perhaps the most
fully developed philosophical theory of history that attempts to discover
meaning or direction in history (1824a, 1824b, 1857). Hegel regards history as
an intelligible process moving towards a specific condition—the realization of
human freedom. “The question at issue is therefore the ultimate end of mankind,
the end which the spirit sets itself in the world” (1857: 63). Hegel incorporates
a deeper historicism into his philosophical theories than his predecessors or
successors. He regards the relationship between “objective” history and the
subjective development of the individual consciousness (“spirit”) as an
intimate one; this is a central thesis in his Phenomenology of Spirit -1807.
</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Little, Daniel, "Philosophy of
History", <i><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The Stanford Encyclopaedia
of Philosophy </span></i>(Winter 2020 Edition), Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), URL = <<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/history/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration-line: none;">https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/history/</span></a>>.</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In summary, Hegel, in line with modern
philosophers, suggests one questions the meaning of history and talks about
early primitive versions to become more reflective and untimely to ideally
be governed by reason.</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel and History’ by Jack Fox – Williams. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In this respect Jack fox Williams article ' Hegel's
understanding of History' which appeared in the November 2020 edition of
‘Philosophy Now’ sheds some further light on the matter. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel’s third way of doing history, philosophical history, prioritises thought above
event-commentary, synthesising philosophical concepts and ideas with historical
information. Hegel himself is doing this kind of activity when he famously
argues that the process of human history is a process of self-recognition
guided by ‘the principle of reason’.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">For Hegel, nature is the embodiment of reason. In
the same way that nature strives towards increasing complexity and harmony, so
does the world spirit through the historical process. The Pre-Socratic
philosopher Anaxagoras (c.500-428 BC) was the first person to argue that nous (meaning reason, or maybe understanding in
general) ultimately governs the world – not as an intelligence, but like a fundamental
essence of being. Hegel stresses the importance of this distinction, using the
solar system as an example. He writes:</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“The motion of the solar system proceeds according
to immutable laws; these laws are its reason. But neither the sun nor the planets
which according to these laws rotate around it, have any consciousness of it.
Thus, the thought that there is reason in nature, that nature is ruled by
universal, unchangeable laws, does not surprise us; we are used to it and make
very little of it…” (Reason in History).</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Moreover, Hegel argues that evidence of reason is
revealed through religious truth, which demonstrates that the world is governed
not by chance but by Providence. During profound moments of spiritual epiphany,
we come to the realisation that a divine order presides over the world.
Providence is wisdom endowed with an infinite power, which realises its own
purpose, that is, the absolute, rational, final purpose of the world; reason is
“thought determining itself in absolute freedom.” Hegel suggests that many
stages of human history appear irrational and regressive because society is
made up of individuals guided by passions, impulses and external forces.
However, behind the seeming irregularity of human history lies a divine plan
that is hidden from view and yet actualises itself through the historical
process. As a result of the many conflicts, revolutions and revolts that
society endures, humanity attains a greater glimpse of reason.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hegel goes even further in the development of his
argument and suggests that the realisation of reason in history also serves as
a justification for belief in God. He acknowledges that history reveals the
cruelty and sadism of human nature, but urges “recognition of the positive
elements in which the negative element disappears as something subordinate and
vanquished.” Through the consciousness of reason, we recognise that the
ultimate purpose of the world is incrementally actualised through those
occasional historical events which bring about positive transformation and
change. In this sense, Hegel presents a highly progressive view of history,
perceiving the development of human society as a dynamic process by which our
rational faculties become ever more refined and cultivated. Although there is
evil in the world, reason ultimately triumphs.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Finally he sums up Hegel’s rather optimistic
conclusion. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Greeks were aware of freedom, and rejected
tyranny for democracy, which is political freedom for the voting set. Their
freedom was maintained under conditions of slavery – a fact that made “liberty
on the one hand only an accidental, transient and limited growth; on the other
hand, it constituted a rigorous thraldom of our common nature of the Human.” So
according to Hegel, the German nations, under the influence of Christianity,
were the first to come to the realisation that man possesses free will. And
even while slavery still occurred under Christianity and subsequent political
systems, the notion of individual freedom has become central to states,
governments, and constitutions, first in the West, then elsewhere.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Conclusion </span></b></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">What can we say about Hegel’s dialectic as it
applies to modernity? Did it help in providing the synthesis for European nations to adopt a liberal democratic system in
the European style, which has avoided war, after the atrocities of successive
world wars? </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Is his idealism impractical or not? </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">What do we think of his idea of the
thinking spirit or world spirit - Do we think it exists and if so to what
extent is it evident in history? </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">What do we think of the idea that
reason always ultimately triumphs? </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Has Hegel contributed to a more
rational view to peaceful governance? </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">References</span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hegel/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #7d181e; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hegel/</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7d5nb4r8&chunk.id=d0e27&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=ucpress" target="_blank"><span style="color: #7d181e; text-decoration-line: none;">https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7d5nb4r8&chunk.id=d0e27&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=ucpress</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #7d181e; text-decoration-line: none;">https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
</p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/search/r?entry=/entries/hegel-dialectics/&page=1&total_hits=288&pagesize=10&archive=None&rank=2&query=Hegel" target="_blank"><span style="color: #8c1515; text-decoration-line: none;">Hegel’s Dialectics</span></a></span></p></div></div></div>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-63270983452076851762022-10-17T20:44:00.013+11:002022-10-17T20:46:47.316+11:00Baruch Spinoza <p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introduction <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Baruch Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam, whose
Jewish parents had to flee Portugal to escape the persecution of the Spanish and
Portuguese Inquisitions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His family landed in
the Netherlands, where Spinoza was born and raised in a Portuguese-Jewish
community, Spinoza attended a Talmud Torah school in Amsterdam.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence, he grew up as part of a typical Jewish
family to observe the usual religious ceremonies. However in maturity, as an
outstanding student and later rational philosopher, he was to query the tenants
of the stories in the Old Testament which he regarded as barriers to
understanding given the use of allegory and metaphorical references. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Furthermore, he rejected the literal translation of
the ancient texts and the idea of miracles, believing their introduction was
purely in order that they may have authority over the masses to whom they were
directed. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Spinoza’s God</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza’s God as in nature, he held was perfect,
determined, infinite and timeless. In other words the infinite ‘God or Nature’
is all there is of which we are part. He believed our interaction with such an
infinite being is manifest in an extension of this and in thought as
representations of the expressions of this reality. He believed there are many
other representations of this reality of which we are not privy, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza excommunicated. </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Consequently, at the age of 24, in consideration of
his views, he was excommunicated from the Jewish church and thereafter wrote
under different pseudonyms. In his earlier works he set out his proposition one
can only be happy in the attainment of knowledge in his principal work entitled
“Ethics”, which was based on rational thought. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Reconciliation and the true nature of things. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Harking back to the home of western philosophy and
to the idea of a love of wisdom by the ancient Greeks, Spinoza attempted to rule
out the idea of a division between the body and spirit to provide an
alternative rational conclusion the two are inextricably linked. You will
recall that Plato, when talking about living the good life, equated happiness
to living a virtuous life. That presupposes one ensures the substance of our
soulful element gains ascendancy over our instinctive bodily reactions. Plato
thought one could only live a virtuous life if one gained knowledge of the
virtues. Spinoza on the other hand, as the first pragmatic philosopher, put
forward his reconciliation to gain an understanding of the true natural order
of things in the universe, to accept our part in it, and thereafter to gain
blessedness </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence, Spinoza sought to replace the then new found
mechanistic account of the world at that time with his idea of a natural order
of things, to reconcile Plato’s quest for virtue and resultant happiness with
the attainment of blessedness through increased knowledge.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Obtaining blessedness </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His explanation to obtain blessedness was to view
the universe in different ways - one valid way as in purely the observer of
matter and the other as in the descriptions of the mind and their extensions by
way of thought. According to Spinoza both are equally valid. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Before Spinoza, existence was seen as an ongoing
battle to choose your side. If one was feeling bad or things weren’t going very
well then you were out of sync with the GODs. You needed to change your
behaviour, to get on the right side of the gods. But the question is, if the universe
was made up of just atoms and void, then surely such a hope of any blessedness
was misplaced. Rather, Spinoza posited a choice was unnecessary as the natural
order of things could be understood or expressed in a multitude of different
ways. But humanity was only privy to an understanding in terms of thought and
its extensions. The more we understand about the nature of things the closer we
get to GOD and the blessedness that ensues such a quest. He set out to rally
against the ascetics to argue the greater the involvement of an active body the
more agile and penetrating the mind can be. So that the mind and body interact
to underpin the accent of the mind towards GOD. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But we may want to question the validity of
Spinoza’s reconciliation of equal notions of reality. One might rather
think of various descriptions of things rather than different versions of a
reality that might lie beyond our grasp. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hostility towards the use of Metaphor, Analogy and
reliance on ceremonies </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza’s hostility to metaphor and artifice was
made clear in his Theological-Political Treatise. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His work paved the way towards the ecumenical
movement that concluded religious differences relate to varied cultural
situations and their imaginations to break free from fundamentalism. He
attempts a translation of the ancient texts based on intellect. Whilst one
might agree that the intellectual means of translation is preferred there also
appears to be equally a place for metaphor and allegory in talking about that
which Is ineffable- expressed in the age old stories. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Similarly, Spinoza was not inclined towards
prophesy or the temporary prosperity arising from ceremonies which he contended
are no aid to blessedness. For Spinoza, the God or Nature was able to be
understood as in the whole rather than in part.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Selected quotes </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The highest activity a human being
can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be
free.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">"The more you struggle to live,
the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are
doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is
sure....you are above everything distressing.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“I do not know how to teach
philosophy without becoming a disturbance of the peace.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“No matter how thin you slice it, there
will always be two sides.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“If you want the present to be
different from the past, study the past.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“I have made a ceaseless effort not
to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand
them.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more
you become a lover of what is.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Peace is not the absence of war, it
is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, and
justice.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>Religious - miracles </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the
things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like
fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by
those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these
men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken
away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Do not weep. Do not wax indignant. Understand.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or
deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things
be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor
to hate them, but to understand them.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“There is no hope unmingled with
fear, and no fear unmingled with hope.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> </span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Emotion, which is suffering, ceases
to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of It.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“The endeavour to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“No to laugh, not to lament, not to
detest, but to understand.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Further conceive, I beg, that a stone, while continuing in motion,
should be capable of thinking and knowing, that it is endeavouring, as far as
it can, to continue to move. Such a stone, being conscious merely of its own
endeavour and not at all indifferent, would believe itself to be completely
free, and would think that it continued in motion solely because of its own
wish. This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which
consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but
are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of
himself.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“The greatest secret of monarchic
rule...is to keep men deceived and to cloak in the specious name of religion
the fear by which they must be checked, so that they will fight for slavery as
they would for salvation, and will think it not shameful, but a most honourable
achievement, to give their life and blood that one man may have a ground for
boasting.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“There can be no hope without fear,
and no fear without hope.” </span><u><span style="color: #00635d; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/157589-there-can-be-no-hope-without-fear-and-no-fear" target="_blank" title="View this quote"><span style="color: #00635d;">s</span></a></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Happiness is not the reward of
virtue, but is virtue itself; nor do we delight in happiness because we
restrain from our lusts; but on the contrary, because we delight in it,
therefore we are able to restrain them.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“Of all the things that are beyond my
power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering
into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things
beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love
with tranquillity except such men.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable; in
speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Better that right counsels be known
to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the
citizens. Those who can secretly treat the affairs of a nation have it
absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of
war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;"> ----- <b>A
pragmatic approach </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The place for metaphor seems to remain firmly
entrenched in our ongoing narrative - old ideas yields to the new imaginative
ways of presenting metaphors which help to make sense of the world around us
just as we continue to tell ourselves stories - what it is to be essentially
human? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What remains a problem, given our imagination, is
the continued struggle of finding a way to incorporate social cooperation in
the acceptance of alternative ideas about reality? The question is not so much
how do we live in accordance with nature - a given, but rather getting humans
to live in the same communities with different perspectives as to what’s more
important. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Another way of looking at Spinoza’s idea in seeking
blessedness is to say one aspires to a love of truth, to be truthful to one’s
self -to embrace the virtues of honesty, courage, sincerity and truth telling
that permeate the better side of humanity. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Questions for discussions- I would be most grateful
to receive any responses </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza’s God as in nature, he held was perfect,
determined, infinite and timeless. In other words the infinite ‘God or Nature’
is all there is of which we are part. He believed our interaction with such an
infinite being is manifest in an extension of this and in thought as representations
of the expressions of this reality. He believed there are many other
representations of this reality of which we are not privy, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Question: What do you make of all of this or do you
prefer the idea that GOD is not the universe and reject the idea of naturalism
or pantheism inherent in the ideas of Spinoza ? </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza’s explanation to obtain blessedness was to
view the universe in different ways - one valid way as in purely the observer
of matter and the other as in the descriptions of the mind and their extensions
by way of thought. According to Spinoza both are equally valid. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Question: Do you agree with his conclusion? </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Spinoza thought that the more we understand about
the nature of things the closer we get to GOD and the blessedness that ensues
such a quest. He set out to rally against the ascetics to argue the greater the
involvement of an active body the more agile and penetrating the mind can be.
So that the mind and body interact to underpin the accent of the mind towards
GOD. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Question: Is this a truth as far as you are
concerned or does a simple faith suffice or is it purely a subjective idea by
Spinoza. </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Although one might agree that the intellectual
means of ancient texts translation is preferred there also appears to be
equally a place for metaphor and allegory in talking about that which is
ineffable- expressed in the age-old stories. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Similarly, Spinoza was not inclined to prophesy or
the temporary prosperity of ceremonies which he contended are no aid to
blessedness. For Spinoza, the God or Nature was able to be understood as in the
whole rather than in part. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Question: Do you think there is an ongoing role for
the use of metaphor and allegory in the stories we tell one another in
modernity? </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Question: Is the idea of the love of truth and the
truth telling integral to cooperation and living harmoniously in today's world or is
this more of a pipe dream. </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-57715118243625805572022-10-09T22:32:00.002+11:002022-10-09T22:51:53.593+11:00Alphington Park flowers and Fairfield Park Boathouse Vic <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently Anne's sister Julie and partner Di stayed with us in our apartment in Alphington. We shared a delightful luncheon at the nearby Fairfield Boathouse on a misty day. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Julie took some pictures of local flowers on a walk around the surrounding areas of Alphington, Vic as per below. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Don't worry about the brown color of the water since the river runs upside down (with silt on the top) and supports an abundance of wild life inclusive a seal that has made his home a short distance up-stream. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Click on the photos to enlarge </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqNPOeRcVGY4iz2IysJl4EWpUZJB5Nv7qYtDAU6w7APBD2tIF3fK4cTuI5rKZtM_XuoCeOIfQ5xi9BtrKd-k0CM0V6J6qzEoJCwqxpo8hwKnnO1kZtDYMyZFVysHXt8ifunHPbBCJZqSumi2y2ijVglDkQLur3jB68WFEsw_7DH0503mNw1Q/s640/IMG_6321.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqNPOeRcVGY4iz2IysJl4EWpUZJB5Nv7qYtDAU6w7APBD2tIF3fK4cTuI5rKZtM_XuoCeOIfQ5xi9BtrKd-k0CM0V6J6qzEoJCwqxpo8hwKnnO1kZtDYMyZFVysHXt8ifunHPbBCJZqSumi2y2ijVglDkQLur3jB68WFEsw_7DH0503mNw1Q/s320/IMG_6321.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0hfSFYgqUQMruKIP_SkoHPJ62EOJZEEejrYMJahl0Y6mIZciEaXbA3fLp-4vvqTyOzrJN1lBHKfQnjnbrpuTmHmvFB6ZNUeCuqWhMMXbytaUfrYg4shzrRczKd8062c5E1UDCewF8bKdiJAjW0mZMls2U6eivDXCcVhFqmaldMxMYStGBQ/s640/IMG_6320.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0hfSFYgqUQMruKIP_SkoHPJ62EOJZEEejrYMJahl0Y6mIZciEaXbA3fLp-4vvqTyOzrJN1lBHKfQnjnbrpuTmHmvFB6ZNUeCuqWhMMXbytaUfrYg4shzrRczKd8062c5E1UDCewF8bKdiJAjW0mZMls2U6eivDXCcVhFqmaldMxMYStGBQ/s320/IMG_6320.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjceSdI_PH-1Vo7GjrIQlBrU-Bqs3QjZJoZ5kS_QSwzfozF2c9QdVn-XPFgKjPxxY2nIDmDzIJuEUrXRYTrWt6HGtX0bfJH13Up9sYk2GqIvysfZuMkcJwqg3xa1H2SoMVJ4cHG05kz34wQ9gLDHjn4fOXpwXx5uuEJIvzoBsZBXhQmHXYJCg/s640/IMG_6312.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjceSdI_PH-1Vo7GjrIQlBrU-Bqs3QjZJoZ5kS_QSwzfozF2c9QdVn-XPFgKjPxxY2nIDmDzIJuEUrXRYTrWt6HGtX0bfJH13Up9sYk2GqIvysfZuMkcJwqg3xa1H2SoMVJ4cHG05kz34wQ9gLDHjn4fOXpwXx5uuEJIvzoBsZBXhQmHXYJCg/s320/IMG_6312.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeCub-zi40NvF3fxetFFON5LHpZxvHiMQnAVCJlMvaezQy4EQGK0oj7v0ZCz2727B0GGw5jnNYdp21KNj8OCF9FlkEdkxEcJJ-suyFPf78QXr88AsDZUXtTz_yYp15XZggY8K-DjZByGGgs4riCuonmpaPlLMW_0iy0scHokFXnsmG_xWEg/s640/IMG_6309.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZeCub-zi40NvF3fxetFFON5LHpZxvHiMQnAVCJlMvaezQy4EQGK0oj7v0ZCz2727B0GGw5jnNYdp21KNj8OCF9FlkEdkxEcJJ-suyFPf78QXr88AsDZUXtTz_yYp15XZggY8K-DjZByGGgs4riCuonmpaPlLMW_0iy0scHokFXnsmG_xWEg/s320/IMG_6309.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>Mediterranean spurge <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKRNo_rNG_Snj_BlhyAATPchutX9zx-O1NjwoW-FlDgWInLIfpQoB6hihdpOHp67sViwZ4cMlXsRMD-08CHnXuRrdnzg4kNmPYTAA8rrDScKy9DrO_tp0G4PgYvQBwokdY-RgbVilzrBohA9vqg5w75CXormmnR9w1yt4b6YPz7c6MPLlW6w/s640/IMG_6308.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKRNo_rNG_Snj_BlhyAATPchutX9zx-O1NjwoW-FlDgWInLIfpQoB6hihdpOHp67sViwZ4cMlXsRMD-08CHnXuRrdnzg4kNmPYTAA8rrDScKy9DrO_tp0G4PgYvQBwokdY-RgbVilzrBohA9vqg5w75CXormmnR9w1yt4b6YPz7c6MPLlW6w/s320/IMG_6308.jpg" width="240" /></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74t4F3eVVfoLjDJMvTxNgTGF1nmKJnS7HQtkOP2xCinC5WXkh2AfV0SgVS08p4JOH3IHCVzfru2PU_ZdtWghjPn5PsMWPQAgafbvxxxbCdNIOI6QIvmVXwfbnQJZ_lkpWbX2NXDaj-7aOjwGDEngGpDc1ep_YiMKK4y4HQ8wYmc6v18U73Q/s640/IMG_6306.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj74t4F3eVVfoLjDJMvTxNgTGF1nmKJnS7HQtkOP2xCinC5WXkh2AfV0SgVS08p4JOH3IHCVzfru2PU_ZdtWghjPn5PsMWPQAgafbvxxxbCdNIOI6QIvmVXwfbnQJZ_lkpWbX2NXDaj-7aOjwGDEngGpDc1ep_YiMKK4y4HQ8wYmc6v18U73Q/s320/IMG_6306.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganqRdIVAUVjhizuuj9eYciMwdiec6iLGaAzRZGf765g7z38YDPJs-Xtuj65fkqS-uxcbPBwTPkAquffHEDt3Wa01THI-KfTv2Q30O6O1TPM6Qlc0Yf_rNT2ta5Opf_qmjn6zgtQsV8b_bKLQNDqyux_cYFRb8-PqboD3xN_jDr9eOkzdIgw/s640/IMG_6305.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganqRdIVAUVjhizuuj9eYciMwdiec6iLGaAzRZGf765g7z38YDPJs-Xtuj65fkqS-uxcbPBwTPkAquffHEDt3Wa01THI-KfTv2Q30O6O1TPM6Qlc0Yf_rNT2ta5Opf_qmjn6zgtQsV8b_bKLQNDqyux_cYFRb8-PqboD3xN_jDr9eOkzdIgw/s320/IMG_6305.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>African wood -sorrel <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCb8gMmsQjpFz8Gu5KRuz7nlpTZVHMJ8sg2vB69-ofDnzifn4bGpMK3F28HMmIVwuoRhi5gtyzMw8eLi1XWIcar266nQHhL4veJ8AAnyUC1QdJNLnGFlQcbJ-LWYDswNSRRnQWs7O5l6KFMKjS5RXG5qhEOX4KeCDBW_Yyw3l_1s_sqkEtMA/s640/IMG_6304.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCb8gMmsQjpFz8Gu5KRuz7nlpTZVHMJ8sg2vB69-ofDnzifn4bGpMK3F28HMmIVwuoRhi5gtyzMw8eLi1XWIcar266nQHhL4veJ8AAnyUC1QdJNLnGFlQcbJ-LWYDswNSRRnQWs7O5l6KFMKjS5RXG5qhEOX4KeCDBW_Yyw3l_1s_sqkEtMA/s320/IMG_6304.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Big leaf Perriwinkle <p></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-69056954455223329982022-09-22T21:04:00.003+10:002022-09-27T21:20:42.380+10:00Machiavellian prayer <p> </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli really wanted us to repent? - Here’s my
attempt at a poem <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="yj6qo" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><p></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Machiavellian Prayer</span></b></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Oh foolish pride those words endure </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Upheld in centuries of poisoned paths </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">No heed is paid to a pilgrim’s plea </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Instead to argue the devil's due, </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">An eye for eye, expect no more </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Dust to dust, all hope expires </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Then I heard a spirit’s cry </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Banish such thoughts in your despair </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Grasp a hope of reverence unfurled </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">To follow that enlightened path </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">A new light, not plain to see </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">So onward in the light filled world </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Let it burn bright on your faces </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">And cast aside in such disdain </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Those words of princely pride </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">For such words, not said in jest </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;"></span>to see you for who you are </span></p><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #222222; font-size: 14px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">To repent, to seek a new found path </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Eternal hope rings out again </span></p></div></div>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-25686474018315823222022-09-19T15:42:00.002+10:002022-09-27T21:23:41.843+10:00 Machiavellianism <p><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Introduction</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My purpose </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">is
to provide some background material prior to answering questions with my
tentative answers to support discussions. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Your own views which will be greatly appreciated to
augment those future discussions. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli is one of the few writers whose name
has become an adjective in ‘Machiavellianism “ just as was featured in the
darker characters of Shakespearian plays. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">“The Prince” was the first
comprehensive text in political science clarifying the necessary ethics in
retaining power in a Republic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It lays out how a prudent prince secures and
maintains power analogous to the traits of a powerful lion and the cunningness
of the fox. Ethics and virtue in this context don’t correspond with the platonic
view but rather are defined by the existential reality that one cannot rely on
being good to retain power, because of human nature. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He is regarded as a great thinker whose ideas are
still practiced today, notwithstanding his cynical view of humanity and that
some of his views when taken literally remain unacceptable. </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Some interpret his work as satirical or only
designed to shock rather than be factual whilst others believe his views are
even more dangerous and unacceptable than they first appear. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He profoundly affected those philosophers who
followed him including Bacon Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume,
Smith, Marx, and Nietzsche.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Early life and service to the Republic of
Florence. </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He was born 3 May 1469 in Florence and became a
pupil of a renowned Latin teacher, Paolo da Ronciglione. It is thought he
attended the University of Florence.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">It was an age of culture (Michelangelo
and Cesare Borgia) but Machiavelli turned away from lucrative alternatives
available to him to serve the city. Firstly he was Chancellor to the military
and then Secretary for foreign policy.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">But In February 1513, when the regime was
overthrown by the Medici Family, he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured, He was released in March 1513 to begin his work writing “The
Prince” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">His Ethics</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli’s is associated with treachery and
relentless self- interest. He might be regarded as an ethical consequentialist
E.g. that the end justifies the means to justify why he condoned murder and
repression for rulers when necessary to retain power to avoid even worse evil. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In The Prince, he states of “cruelties well-used”
to identify characters as cruel.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However, it should be noted that recent work has
suggested that many, if not all, of Machiavelli’s shocking moral claims are
ironic. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Virtues</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The hallmarks of Machiavellian virtue are
self-reliance, self-assertion, self-discipline, and self-knowledge.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Virtue he attributes as meaning one relies upon
one’s self or one’s possessions, to abandon any reliance on nature, fortune,
tradition and so on. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli describes a wise prince as one who is
never idle in peaceful times but instead use his industry to resist adversity
when fortune changes. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">For Machiavelli, virtue includes a recognition of
the restraints or limitations within which one must work: not only one’s own
limits, but social ones, including conventional understandings of right and
wrong.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Are Fortune and virtue linked? </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli maintained that in order to rule over
an imperfect world of politics, inhabited by wolves, a ruler must not be meek
but rather adaptive, like a general in war. There are times once cannot adhere
to Christian values as fortune provides. In other words to aim to do what is
right where one can but if necessity dictates to do the opposite to prevent an
even greater evil. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">On Religion</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He suggests that religion is necessary and salutary
for public morality. The philosopher therefore is to take care not to disclose
any lack of belief. He is only to be concerned with any impoverished
interpretations of religion rather than religion as such.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Discourses on Livy</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">This appears to be a more measured approach to
republican teaching, possibly indicative of Machiavelli’s ultimate
position. The Discourses has stood the test of time to remain one of the
most important works in modern republican theory. It had an enormous effect on
republican thinkers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume, and particularly on
the American Founders.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Finally here are some selected quotes<span style="color: #181818;">: </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">On existence</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“The lion cannot protect himself from
traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a
fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“There is no other way to guard
yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the
truth will not offend you.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"> “Never was anything great
achieved without danger.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Because there are three classes of
intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what
others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the
showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the
third is useless.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“How we live is so different from how
we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is
done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Where the willingness is great, the
difficulties cannot be great.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">He who seeks to deceive will always
find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Men in general judge more by the
sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can
test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really
are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion.” <br />
<b>Cynicism</b><br />
“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“It is much safer to be feared than
loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to
the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but
fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“People should either be caressed or
crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you
cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it
in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“Since love and fear can hardly exist
together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than
loved” <br />
“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the
great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority
must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using
it, as necessity requires.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Statesmanship </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“The first method for estimating the
intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.” <br />
“Never was anything great achieved without danger.” <br />
“I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow
it.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“All courses of action are risky, so
prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and
acting decisively.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Develop the strength to do bold
things, not the strength to suffer.” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">“He who wishes to be obeyed must know
how to command” </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Conclusion</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">One might argue he has not abandoned a sense of
what is right to the vagaries of actual powerful rulers as in his later work
‘The Discourses”, since he writes of 'checks and balances' on power, the
powerful ruler and the people have a part in a constitution; liberty is
important but requires commensurate personal virtue to be effective.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Some have suggested because of his cynism
and advice in (The Prince) it </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">was
an attempt to satirize the conduct of the princely rulers of Renaissance Italy.
Others regard his ideas as even more dangerous than they first appear when
taken on face value. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In summing up Machiavelli one finds the first
comprehensive narrative on political science, concerned only with setting out
what human beings are like and how power is maintained, with no intention of
passing moral judgment on the state of affairs described.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Questions </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">What do you think about it all? Is Machiavelli an
advocate for power and how it is best used to further one's aims?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Or is Machiavelli being Machiavellian and is really
telling us how political power is exercised, so we can change into something
better?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Look at the behaviour of the most powerful people
in politics and economic life. Are they following ethical 'oughts' and
'should's' or are they exemplars of Machiavelli's characters?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Should considerations of what should be done, be
guided by moral principles but also by a bit of Machiavelli insight? A bit of
Bulldog to go with Piety?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My Response </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Machiavelli gave a good account as to the nature of
political power so that </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">much of it remains
relevant today. Like Nietzsche philosophy, he wanted one to understand 'the will
to power' is inherently within us so that we are better to understand and equipped to deal with our
existence. That’s why the most powerful people fall down and remain today exemplars of Machiavelli’s characters. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Questions </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">By holding up a mirror to ourselves, does he challenge
us to become better? Is that a reasonable interpretation? Does Machiavelli
ultimately ask us to rise above considerations of utility? Does he, of all
people, ask us to rise above what we have come to see as Machiavellianism? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">My Response </span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">I think it is a reasonable interpretation and
possibly a redeeming element to his philosophy. There seems to be an element of
Frederick Nietzsche’s style here where Nietzsche wanted to shock his readers
into thinking more deeply about spiritual and existential issues before finally
making. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Although Darwin didn’t actually make this statement
it is generally accepted today to use the word fittest or fitter as a
hypothesis to his work. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">However, to recap, he said a ruler must be as
cunning as a fox and as fierce as a lion. Machiavelli had an affinity with
nature and proposed we need to strive to be more adaptive in meeting changed
circumstances like nature. One might reasonably call that a form of
social Darwinism as nature doesn’t have any qualms about activity so long as it
ensures the survival of the fitter. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Hence I think one can say, Machiavelli concurs with
a form of social Darwinism that means leaders must constantly adapt to the
current circumstances just as does nature. That doesn’t necessarily mean the strong
always pray on the weak and so forth but more a matter of adapting to the
prevailing conditions. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Your ideas or answers are always greatly
appreciated.</span></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-44623451863084752452022-08-27T20:44:00.000+10:002022-08-27T20:44:09.810+10:00Thoughts on the philosophy of science. <p><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">According to John Gribbin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gribbin
the era of the scientific age proper took root from the 16th century.</span></p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":17x"><div aria-controls=":1ha" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":1ha" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":181" itacorner="6,7:1,1,0,0" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 659px;" tabindex="1"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size: large;">
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Up until that time philosophy was regarded as
science but thereafter they tended to go their separate ways. But the ancients
determined long before that many things lie outside physics so they coined the
Greek term meta- physics (translated as outside of physics) for discussions
reliant on intuition, reasoning and mysticism. There was no burden to
determine truth in the scientific way we consider appropriate in modernity.</span><br /></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hence the ancient pre Hellenic Greek philosophers
concluded that there can only be divine truths that are unchangeable and unknowable
by humanity. They used metaphor and myth to make sense of their
existence. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">This post seeks to talk about the philosophy of
science to invite discussions as to how far we should go in placing our faith
in science and whether or not meta - physics remains relevant</span>. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">A
pivotal figure ushering in the scientific age</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Thomas Bacon introduced the inductive methodology
to scientific theory. Previously scientific analysis was limited to the purely
deductive mode of reasoning. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Bacon's approach as the first empiricist might be
viewed as a bottom up approach. Think of it as analogous to busy bee
observations peering at the activity within the hive to validate a scientific
theory pertinent to the phenomenon observed. Hence science expanded under the
heading of empiricism. He also maintained some truths as a matter of
reason (logical analysis and proof) and others belong to faith and so we can
embrace the concept of double truth. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Bacon also introduced the idea of the Idols of the
Tribe, Cave. Marketplace and Theatre. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Moving into the modern era</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The philosophy of science became increasingly
involved as to how we see the phenomenal world and the reasoning as to
understand it and or justify a particular view. Fields such as psychology and
the social sciences increasingly came to rely on scientifically based
underpinnings.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But firstly one needs to define the
current terms used. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Theory </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The logical progression of a statement representing
a particular view of a subject matter or related phenomenon. Examples are the
origins of a particular type of artistic movement or media studies in terms of
how it applies in history e.g. Cubism , the body of knowledge that
applies to stresses in engineering - the construction of buildings and
bridges and so on. In the modern era many theories provide only a skeleton
outline whilst others lack any credibility. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Laws, Hypotheses and Scientism </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Recurring patterns in nature have formed the basis of
natural laws which have become absorbed into a scientific law which then
provides an explanation- such as the laws of thermodynamics. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hypotheses comprise a logical and feasible
explanation but lack the evidentiary validation involving observations and
testing. Once the hypothesis can be validated it can be considered a scientific
theory. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">During the 19th and 20th centuries, the so-called
'logical positivists', posited science as the only true system of knowledge
and regarded metaphysics as redundant since it was unable to be verified.
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Scientific theory </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hence the generally accepted distinction is it is
more carefully constructed and specific to the subject matter. Examples might
include the theory on the origins of the species, the behaviours of atomic and
subatomic particles or specific brain disorders and so on. For a scientific
theory to be acceptable it must be verifiable by observations. But certain
philosophers thought it must be more demanding. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Philosopher Karl Popper (1902-1994) and Physicist
Lee Smollin (1955) propose further qualification. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Popper proposed one should exclude those theories
which are irrefutable- e.g. where empirical evidence can’t be refuted.
That rules out psychoanalysis and irrefutable empirical data confined
to a specific analysis.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">His basis was that logically these truths are
confined to the data examined and not supportive of an overall theory.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Lee Smolin favoured virtuosity- ‘The Trouble with
Physics’, for fundamental physics. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">For Smolin a theory must be both capable of being
proven experimentally and also make a new prediction, to provide an answer that
disproves the old theory, whilst ensuring the new theory is verifiable. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Determining the Truth - as pragmatically seen from
different contexts.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The question that arises is whether or not it is
possible for two opposing views to be true, given they are seen or talked about
in different contexts. Pragmatically can we revert to a truth based on the
premise a truthful proposition is one whose outcomes can be demonstrated to be
so (true) over time within a designated context.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Provisional truths are also universal truths </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">For instance the general theory of relativity may
one day be proven to be flawed if it was found that objects can routinely
exceed the speed of light.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Similarly Darwin’s theory of evolution, doesn’t
correlate to rapid cellular development given the immense complexity arising
from a set of DNA instructions. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Furthermore species adaptations can rapidly occur.
By way of example O<span style="color: #111111;">kanee salmon spawning in Canada
- this species used to reach the ocean in their life cycle (and were huge), but
for decades dams have prevented that - they now live their lives in Kootenay
Lake and spawn to their birth-streams in the third year of life - turning from
silver to the red and green in a soon-to-spawn-and-die fashion<b>.</b></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In economics, their elegant theories are
routinely hijacked by our non-rational human responses. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In a pure programming experiment physicist Stephen
Wolfram- “A New Kind of Science and creator of Mathematica’, carried out
thousands of experiments to prove creative patterns kept evolving from
simple instructions, only possible in modernity given the use of very
powerful computers. Programs replicated simple instructions (cellular data as
he called it) which continued to evolve in a changing creative pattern when you
would expect to see the same pattern repeated. Those changing patterns
continued on over billions of cellular data and gave appearances of plants
and other life forms even though the basic instructions remained were
repeated. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The necessity to hold provisional truths to be true
to obtain the greatest good</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Whilst one acknowledges the provisional nature of
scientific truth those engaged won’t be effective unless the supporting
empirical evidence is acted upon. For instance a good psychologist has to
believe in the empirical data underpinning his profession if he or she is
to be positively helpful towards patients just as the same principles apply to
most professions. The same principle applies to most professions reliant on
validated empirical data. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hence, notwithstanding the provisional nature of
these truths, they are reliable enough not to invite hesitation and to feel
comfortable to try alternatives if one type of treatment is unsuccessful.
As far as medical science is concerned you treat the patient first
and apply the treatment as a secondary process. This sees medical science more
of an art than a science in practice. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But when it comes down to the more serious
medical issues nothing beats hard-nosed science as opposed to naturalism.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Modern day changes in the emphasis of philosophy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Given the undeniable success of modern day sciences
beginning with Bacon it is hardly surprising that both a materialistic and fact
dependent philosophical movement began to place emphasis on logic. Hence
logical form and essences took over in philosophy. In the form of
privileged representations.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">So, the use of intuition and concepts have fallen
by the wayside in philosophy. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The modern day appeal of science to reject
metaphysics is, amongst other things, principally due to a
deemed lack of self-correcting aspect of science. That may be more of a
perception than a reality. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In defence of Meta –physics </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In defending metaphysics one might turn for
inspiration to the pre Hellenic Greeks ( like Nietzsche ) who proposed that
only the GODs possessed divine truth- considered both unchangeable and
unknowable. From a Theistic perspective one might also believe only
absolute Truth with capital T is the province of GOD. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">So that earthly truth could only be tied to
mystical experiences and in the interpretations of myths and in storytelling- a
feeling to be in harmony with GOD(s) or not evident in your emotions. I think
there is an argument to say our ever increasing creative memories
remain dependent on the narrative that defines our
inescapable sense of self. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The search for meaning and our curiosity continues
to underpin modern day existence, just as we still relish those stories we
tell each other to help make sense of our existence. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Conclusion and questions </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ultimately science is aiming to find the truth and
there are many that believe our faith is well foundered in the evidence based
criteria and there is no room for any other methodology signalling the death of
meta-physics. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">1. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">So my question is: Is metaphysics no longer of any use in
modernity? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">2. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do you believe science is a totally rational science? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">3. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Is pure observation really possible? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">4. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Will the social sciences survive into the future to remain as sciences?
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">5. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Can idols of the mind intrude into scientific thinking? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">6. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do some scientists have such an emotional investment in their theories
their desire will be to protect their reputations above anything else?
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">7. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Are some truths a matter of reason (logical analysis and proof) and
others of faith? Or should all truths be subject to the same standard? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">8. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Is it true there is a necessity to hold provisional truths to be true to
obtain the greatest good? <b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">9. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Do you agree with the proposal by Karl Popper to exclude the social
sciences and empiricism based theories from scientific theories? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">10. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Can we accept a pragmatic concept
of truth – does it hold any merit? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;">11. <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Should we limit ourselves to just
science? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">You are invited to provide answers to any of these questions which will be greatly
appreciated. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"> </p></div></div></div>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-78443926597693817432022-08-17T02:01:00.000+10:002022-08-17T02:01:23.075+10:00Double Truth <p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">It is true that seemingly valid </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">religious truth arising </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">from revelation </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">might differ from a philosophical perspective based on reason (as separate sources of knowledge) to provide contradictory truths without detriment to either.</span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In other words the question is: </span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Are some truths a matter of reason (logical analysis and proof) and others of faith? Or should all truths be subject to the same standard. </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Here is my response and your answer would be most welcome.</span><br /></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Truth as seen in different contexts. </span></b><br /></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I think it is possible for two opposing views to be true, given they are seen or talked about in different contexts. In other words there is a relativity to truth depending on the context.</span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Perceptions better served by a pragmatic truth concept </span></b></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">In relation to their being some truths more dependent on analysis and proof versus one taken on faith I think that’s more a matter of one’s perception, as the dividing line between the secular versus spiritual (faith) is blurred. </span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rather, my suggestion is to revert to a pragmatic truth based on the premise a truthful proposition is one whose outcomes can be demonstrated to be so (true ) over time within a designated context.</span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The problem with the idea of a double truth proposition</span></span></b></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">So that, as I see it, the problem with that idea of a double truth (which proposes we separate scientific truth from revelation as in faith ) is to ignore Truths relativity. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">That is a truth with a small t if you will and not a large T for absolute truth that doesn’t exist. Of course there are many things we are entitled to take for granted that are true because we have faith in the underlying science that has proven them to be true to become integral to our existence.. </span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Provisional Truths apply universally </span></b></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The scientist holds true to provisional truths, trusting in the works of those whom he has come to rely upon until such time as those propositions can be proven to be contrary to previously held beliefs. In a religious sense one might argue its faith based premise involves a leap of faith unconnected to rational thinking but it is nevertheless only sustained if outcomes can be demonstrated to be true over periods of time. Similarly such beliefs are only provisional as our beliefs will change over our lifetime or at the very least into the next generation, just as they do for society, to rediscover or renounce what is believed to be the truth by each subsequent generation.</span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">All truths must be subject to the same standard. </span></b></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">The same rigors of assessment need to apply equally to both although the scientific method is obviously more tangibly evident as in utilizing a rigorous analysis reliant on observation to provisionally verify a theory. But Science and the scientific methodology to ascertain the truth and religion in its quest for the truth are the tools for philosophers and not their masters. </span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-40053694335269216532022-08-08T18:37:00.004+10:002022-08-09T01:56:18.298+10:00Neoplatonism and Infinity <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">For anyone interested in diving more
deeply into the fascinating thought world of Neoplatonism this link as per
below provides a comprehensive insight. The inspiration for
Neoplatonism and its correlation to Hinduism, may have arisen from visits by
the ancient Greeks who you may recall were a seafaring and mercantile nation.
But maybe these ideas just arose independently. Neoplatonism died out in the
7th century as the ecclesiastical scholarly advancements reverted to Muslim
scholars (enhanced by translation to Latin of the works of Aristotle) before
it’s returned to its more fundamental roots. But Neoplatonism returned in the
early part of the 20th century emergent in Theosophy.https://theosophicalsociety.org.au/</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">But just as today's modern day
scholars may become smitten with Neoplatonism so can one if you are prepared to
delve deeply into those ancient abstract ideas, that to my mind represents an
amazingly modern day way of thinking relating to the concept of the Great Chain
of Being. Their ideas acknowledge the illusion of time. My question is, will we
in time be able to ask Dr Albert Einstein what he thinks about it ? </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Here is a
quote from him that was included in a letter to the family following the death
of Michael Besso included in the book ‘Disturbing the Universe” by Freeman
Dyson.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Einstein, said: Now he has departed from this strange world a little
ahead of me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">That means nothing. People like us,
who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and
future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion</span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">.</span></b><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://infinityonline.valzorex.com/neoplatonic.html" target="_blank"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt;">https://infinityonline.<wbr></wbr>valzorex.com/neoplatonic.html</span></a><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #2a55a0; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span face="Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #2a55a0;"><wbr></wbr> </span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9716997.post-28992267504065634942022-07-18T18:32:00.003+10:002022-07-18T18:46:55.536+10:00An Introduction to stoicism<p> <b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Introduction </span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Stoicism arose as ancient philosophy to influence the Greco -
Roman world, whose essential elements nevertheless remain relevant to us today.
The Stoics provide a recipe for living the right way by seeking wisdom and its
application to live a virtuous life embracing justice, courage and temperance.
Christianity was to adopt aspects in the first few centuries arising
principally from the many journeys of the apostle St Paul and his subsequent
followers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">St Paul as a scholar (being part of a wealthy influential Roman
family and taught by eminent scholars) was also a Roman citizen. So he was very
well versed in philosophy and engaged in discussions with the stoic
philosophers of Athens and their followers as is evidenced in references in the
Acts of the Apostles as is contained in Luke’s Gospel in chapter 17, written
circa 50 AD. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Many became followers of St. Paul’s, whilst others found the
idea of the merging of Greek rationally with Hebrew mysticism in respect to
Paul’s oft repeated phrase of ‘being in Christ’ a source of constant
confusion. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">St. Paul found common ground with the stoics was
in relation to the idea of freedom from the passions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">But stoicism also continued to influence western philosophy
throughout the Ages where aspects were refined or rejected such as Hegel’s idea
they placed too much emphasis on rational inward thinking to isolate one from
the reality of social life. In modernity it has provided food for thought in
lessons for coping with the pressures of daily living. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">For instance there is the public face of face book stoic philosophical groups (members numbering in the hundreds of thousands )talking about how to employ those practices to enhance daily living. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">It is also claimed that elements of the processes adopted by AA
have their roots in stoic philosophy incorporating ideas of "knowing
"derived from the external world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">An admirer and a critic was Frederick Nietzsche who embraced the
idea of love of fate even further but was critical of their dissent in the role
of the emotions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">The idea in stoicism of a GOD, imminent throughout the universe,
influenced Spinoza’s philosophy and his pantheism (God is in everything) which
was immensely inspirational to Einstein. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">In modernity stoicism is experiencing a minor renaissance in numerous articles demonstrating its application to daily living. </span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Note stoicism is not the same as the general
dictionary interpretations associated purely with resilience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Early stoic philosophy </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Zeno of Citium (305 BC) who resided in what is present day
Cyprus, was influenced by the teaching of Socrates and employed the same
dialectic method. Broadly, in attempting to sum up its earliest ideas it can be
described as having some similarities to eastern religions in respect to the
acknowledgment of a unified rational cosmic force to accept one’s fate and
embrace a calm mind so that one can be in harmony with it and overcome
adversity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">The work has been transmitted down the ages, principally through
the works of Cicero and that of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Its appeal stems
from the fact it purports to underpin a way of life - following on from the
idea of living the good life by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">There are different schools of thought in stoicism but the
underlying thematic is the aim to distinguish between what they
considered as ethically binding values and those that are neutral which in turn
informs you as to how to take responsibility for living the good life. In other
words, what you can change and therefore to concentrate your efforts and not
worry about things outside of your control.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Epictetus</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Epicitus’s was a slave and treated as a non-human tool which
left him lame and in ill health, unable to physically enjoy his eventual
freedom from slavery. He talked about overcoming pain and suffering by
accepting life and realizing serenity. In other words, to gain control of your
emotions so they don’t overwhelm you. He believed in a rational GOD presiding
over a deterministic universe whose rationally was shared with humanity who can
live in the world according to GOD'S will as that will was similarly echoed in
the will of nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Notes from: John Anthony Crook, Professor of Ancient History, University
of Notes from Cambridge, 1979–84. Author of Law and Life of Rome. From </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><b style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">notes by G. Eraclides- Darabin U3A Inc </span></b></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Marcus Aurelius</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Roman Emperor (AD 161–180), best known for his Meditations on
Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius has symbolized for many generations in the
West the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. A more intimate contact with the
thoughts pursued by Marcus, can be acquired by reading the Meditations. To what
extent he intended them for eyes other than his own is uncertain; they are
fragmentary notes, discursive and epigrammatic by turn, of his reflections in
the midst of campaigning and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">administration. In a way, it seems, he wrote them to nerve
himself for his daunting responsibilities. Strikingly, though they comprise the
innermost thoughts of a Roman, the Meditations were written in Greek—to such an
extent had the union of these cultures become a reality. Marcus was forever
proposing to himself unattainable goals of conduct, forever contemplating the
triviality, brutishness, and transience of the physical world and of man in general
and himself in particular; otherworldly, yet believing in no other world, he
was therefore tied to duty and service with no hope, even of everlasting fame,
to sustain him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Stoicism and Neoplatonism resource notes by G. Eraclides</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Meditations, the thoughts of a philosopher-king, have been
considered by many generations one of the great books of all times. Though they
were Marcus' own thoughts, they were not original. They are basically the moral
tenets of Stoicism, learned from Epictetus: the cosmos is a unity governed by
an intelligence, and the human soul is a part of that divine intelligence and
can therefore stand, if naked and alone, at least pure and undefiled, amidst
chaos and futility. One or two of Marcus' ideas, diverged from Stoic philosophy
and approached the Platonism that was itself then turning into the
Neoplatonism, into which<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">all pagan philosophies, except Epicureanism, were destined to
merge. But he did not deviate so far as to accept the comfort of any kind of survival
after death. Marcus was a statesman, perhaps, but one of no great calibre; nor
was he </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">really a sage. In general, he is a historically overrated
figure, presiding in a bewildered way over an empire beneath the gilt of which
there already lay many a decaying patch. But his personal nobility and
dedication survive the most remorseless scrutiny;</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">He counted the cost obsessively, but he did not shrink from
paying it. Selected Quotes from Marcus Aurelius: "You have power over your
mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">will find strength." ~ Marcus Aurelius</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious
privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." ~
Marcus Aurelius<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of
your thoughts." ~ Marcus Aurelius<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">"Think of all the years passed by in which you said to
yourself "I'll do it tomorrow," and how the gods have again and again
granted you periods of grace of which you have not availed yourself. It is time
to realize that you are a member of the Universe that you are born of Nature
itself and to know that a limit has been set to your time. Use every moment
wisely, to perceive your </span><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style", serif; font-size: 14pt;">inner refulgence, or 'twill be gone and nevermore within your
reach." ~ Marcus Aurelius</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just,
then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on
the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should
not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will
have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved
ones." ~ Marcus Aurelius<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">"The things you think about determine the quality of your
mind. Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts." ~ Marcus Aurelius<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Stoic philosophy - what was believed - with my responses? </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Question</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">: The rational universe is a unity
which imbues a (Logos) which are intelligible ideas on how to live. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">From the Christian perspective I believe one can separate the
universe from a creator GOD, so that whilst observing a largely deterministic
outcome of the Universe with possibly divine laws, it’s not a given one can
easily glean intelligible ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rather, one can exercise introspection and adopt a philosophy
that supports a meaningful calm way of life without necessarily holding true to
the idea of a rational universe as in GOD. The gift of life and our relative
freedom to transcend nature means we live in a kind of mystery that engenders a
sense of wonderment and reverence rather than be tied to the idea of a
duty from a cosmic universe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">2.<b> Question</b>: Knowing how this reality functions as a
whole, will help us understand how individual things, people, ought to act.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">As previously stated I am wary of holding true to a rational
universe but I do believe studying the stoic ideals can help one think about
differentiating between things one can change versus those beyond our powers.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">3. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Human beings must thus abide and live, by the rational will
(Logos) of reality, conform to the divine laws of nature/reality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">As above<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"> 4. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Each human being must accept (or learn to accept or master)
their rightful place in the overall scheme of things and carry out their
ordained (necessary) purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">I think there is merit in ascertaining what you believe to be
your purpose or commitment in life. However I do think one has to be careful
not to adopt a slave mentality as was rallied against by Frederick Nietzche and
risk adopting abstract values implicit in the idea ascertaining a so called
ordained (necessary) purpose. Herein I also believe lies the dangers of
Calvinism and the perils of holding views on predestination. The so-called
elect which was fervently rejected by the existentialists. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">5 <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Doing your duty is critical and thus the most rational thing to
do; it means carrying out the responsibility necessitated for you by the cosmic
intelligence, (or world soul, God, providence).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">As above. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">6. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Virtue is knowledge. You cannot be virtuous in ignorance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Knowledge and virtue are two different things. Certainly the
idea of studying the virtues can assist one in leading an ethical life but
that doesn’t mean those armed with such information will then decide to lead
a virtuous life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">7. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Living virtuously is the ultimate objective of life, the
ultimate good; the cardinal virtues thus ends in themselves (reason,
courage, justice, self-discipline or self-control).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response</span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Living the good life as they say has many connotations but
ultimately I think it can be argued it involves the virtues. However, the
question of morals and how to live is also a moving feast. Our ideas of what is
moral has changed as we gain more knowledge and the application of ethics as a
moral compass I believe has some merit. It is not nearly as clear cut as the
stoic philosophers proposed although many aspects as in normative ethics are
straightforward as to be a matter of common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">8. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Philosophy undertaken properly will lead you to the virtuous
life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Not necessarily but it is bound to help. There are
offshoots to apply in every field of endeavour involving the expanded
narrative associated with philosophy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">9. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">If you can attain the virtuous life for yourself, then you will
(or can) achieve a tranquil state of body and mind, free from the anxieties
that buffet human existence; you ought to aim for this detached state of being,
free of the pull of extreme emotions such as joy or grief, pain or pleasure
etc... which psychologically can destroy you or lead you astray from the
rational path.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">More a question of balance not to be overly consumed with the
emotions which tell us the truth about how we feel but not always the truth<b>.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">10. <b>Question</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Consistent with the virtuous life is the aim to be
self-sufficient, independent of others for your physical and mental needs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">11. <b>Question</b> Each person possesses a part of
the eternal divine reason (Logos).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">12. <b>Question.</b> All human beings are part
of (or should see themselves as) a cooperating, rational community carrying out
the obligation to fulfil the grand design of reality, the rational Logos.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Responses – </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Herein stoicism takes on a
pragmatic leap of faith whereas I see our life mystery and a sense of wonder
with the ability at times to transcend nature.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">13. <b>Question</b> -Ethical action (part of living
virtuously) transcends race, gender, age, class or other particular human,
tribal characteristics. It is a transcending, rational system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Ethics as in the nature of a moral compass is subjective and has
the potential to achieve such outcomes which are nevertheless at times
subjective.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">14. <b>Question</b> Everything is preordained
(predestined, fated).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">Mostly but there is a degree of freedom since I believe we can
transcend nature. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">15. <b>Question</b> Everything recurs, comes around
again and again, eternally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">My
Response </span></b><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;">As above. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #26282a; font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><b>You
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are invited to provide feedback or answer
any of the questions from your perspective. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Lindsay Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11030132436987752741noreply@blogger.com0