|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Index for this page...
All The Following Items Were Posted On April 1, 2007 Spirit: This word is generally used in everyday speech by persons who cannot tell you in positive terms what they mean by it. If you ask them for a synonym, they cannot give it to you. They have only some vague idea of what they are referring to. Philosophically, the only precise meaning of the words "spirit" and "spiritual" is negative, not positive. What is spiritual is immaterial. God is spiritual, the angels are spirits, and the human intellect -- the intellect, not the soul -- is a spiritual power, which is to say it is immaterial. From Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon. Have you a copy of this book in your personal library? Read Max Weismann's review of this book by Clicking Here.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) "One of the nineteenth-century's most creative thinkers fashions a worldview in which Spirit drives the world; he severs philosophy from its empirical roots; he attempts to reinstate noumenal knowledge by making an end-run around Kant's epistemology; he revises human history and assures the world that progress is eternal." -- Professor James L. Christian. Read about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in The Radical Academy.
Source: Volume 1I of The Wisdom Seekers: Great Philosophers of the Western World, by James L. Christian. If you want an excellent and comprehensive history of philosophy, the two volumes in this set are among the best available. And I'm not just saying that because Professor Christian is a personal friend. I used his introductory textbook in philosophy -- Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering -- when I was teaching an introduction to philosophy course many years ago. It is an excellent introduction. J.D.
FOR THE RECORD 1. The Sun Never Sets On The U.S. Empire How many countries around the world have U.S. troops stationed in them? The answer is astounding. According to the latest Pentagon figures, the U.S. has more than a quarter of a million troops in 144 countries and 15 territories. That's "over 70 percent" of the world's 193 sovereign countries (according to the U.S. State Department). In addition, there are over 20,000 more military personnel on naval vessels in foreign waters. Sixty years after World War II, the U.S. still has troops in Germany (64,319), Japan (33,453), and Italy (10,449). Half a century after the Korean War, there are 36,263 troops in South Korea. The numbers are smaller in some countries, with some having only a handful of U.S. troops stationed (for example, 9 in Albania, 7 in Latvia, 3 in Laos). Still, those troops serve as projections of U.S. military and political power, and are potential tripwires for war. In total, there are 284,967 U.S. military personnel abroad. Furthermore, the number of countries with a U.S. military presence has increased in just the past few years. In 2004, there were "only" 135 countries with U.S. troops. This kind of world military presence has never been seen in history. It assures the U.S. will continually be involved in political strife around the world, and that our taxes will be heavy and our civil liberties continually in danger. The Founding Fathers, well aware from history of the dangers of empire, repeatedly warned against an interventionist foreign policy:
What would they think today? Sources: "Update on the Empire," by Laurence Vance; U.S. Defense Department; & Advocates for Self-Government. 2. Morality Hardwired Into Our Brains The ability to empathize with our fellow man is a basic part of the human brain, says a recent study, and those with brain damage in that area are much more likely to make decisions that hurt others when confronted with life-or-death situations. The study found that people with damage to their ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that processes feelings of empathy, compassion, shame, and guilt, have a diminished ability to feel social emotions even though their capacity for logical reasoning remains intact. Researchers from several universities, including Harvard and the University of Southern California, asked three groups of people -- those whose ventromedial prefrontal cortexes were damaged by strokes or tumors, those with brain damage to other areas of the brain that regulate other emotions, and people without brain damage -- to resolve imaginary situations. There was no difference among the response of the groups to situations that had no moral context, such as whether to turn a tractor in a certain direction to harvest more vegetables. There was also no difference between the groups in evaluating situations that caused no harm to someone else, such as whether or not they would cheat on their income taxes. Likewise, there was no difference in making decisions that would harm one person while benefiting another, such as killing an unwanted newborn. But when confronted with a situation where one person's life would be sacrificed in order to save others, such tossing one person from a bridge in order to save five other people, those with damage to their ventromedial prefrontal cortex were three times as likely to sacrifice one person to save others as those with normal brains or those with damage in other areas of their brains. The study indicates that people have an innate aversion to hurting others. "Part of our moral behavior is grounded . . . in a specific part of our brains," said Dr. Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California and one of the study's authors. Source: NewsMax Reports 3. Federal Court Denies Dying Woman Medical Marijuana Angel Raich has been using medical marijuana daily since 1997 to cope with the severe pain caused by an inoperable brain tumor, scoliosis, endometriosis, seizures, a serious wasting disease, nausea and other chronic conditions. She says marijuana is the only thing that relieves her agony and makes life possible. Her doctor not only approves -- he says she would "probably be dead without marijuana." But she also knows every time she smokes she is committing a federal crime. She lives in terror of the federal government arresting her and seizing her medicine. So she went to court, arguing that the medical use of marijuana should be legal for terminal and chronically ill patients. She took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. But two years ago the Supreme Court ruled against her, saying medical marijuana users and their suppliers could be prosecuted under federal drug laws -- even if, like Raich, they lived in a state like California which had legalized medical marijuana. Now she has exhausted her last constitutional challenge. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her. "The court has just sentenced me to death," she said after the ruling. "My doctors agree that medical cannabis is essential to my very survival, and the government did not even contest the medical evidence ... If we don't have a right to live, what do we have left?" Yet the Court's decision, though despicable, was surprisingly sympathetic and left some room for hope. Wrote the Court: "For now, federal law is blind to the wisdom of a future day when the right to use medical marijuana to alleviate excruciating pain may be deemed fundamental. Although that day has not yet dawned, considering that during the last ten years eleven states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, that day may be upon us sooner than expected." Until that day arrives, though, perhaps no one has summed up the current state of affairs better than San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, commenting on this case: "I think the federal government, in this case, is no better than a thug. I think that prosecutors who go after medical marijuana cases are criminals, morally if not actually. I think all the people who have participated in giving people ridiculous three-strike prison sentences for marijuana-related crimes are hypocrites and fools. It's an obvious and complete injustice. They all know it. They should all be ashamed of themselves." On a more hopeful note, this week New Mexico became the 12th state to rebel against the federal government by legalizing medical marijuana. Governor Bill Richardson -- a Democratic presidential candidate and a strong supporter of the measure - thus becomes the first presidential candidate to have signed into law a bill legalizing medical marijuana. Sources: Associated Press; SF Chronicle; Ethan Nadelmann. 4. Key Internet Censorship Law Struck Down Again The ACLU, EFF, and a coalition of plaintiffs achieved a victory for online free speech when U.S. District Court Judge Lowell Reed ruled that a key Web censorship law violated the First Amendment and issued an order permanently blocking its enforcement. Passed in 1998, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) sought to restrict minors' online access to "harmful to minors" material -- that is, material that's sexual and inappropriate for those under the age of 17. Congress enacted COPA after the U.S. Supreme Court found its predecessor, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), unconstitutional. COPA was intended to be less sweeping than the CDA by censoring only "commercial" communications on the Web, thus ignoring email and all other forms of Internet speech, and by providing liability "safe harbors" for websites that restrict access by minors. But these limits didn't save COPA for many, many reasons. For instance, Judge Reed found that COPA by its terms includes free websites that make money via advertising or through book sales of goods -- thus affecting EFF member-plaintiff Bill Boushka, who writes about and advertises his book about gays in the military on his website. COPA has two fundamental flaws. First, it's aimed at material that's completely legal for adults -- but as the judge found, there's no reasonable or feasible way to only restrict online access by minors without harming adult access. Second, it's less effective and more harmful to speech than parents' voluntarily managing their children's online access. That doesn't make "censorware" praiseworthy, but it does render COPA constitutionally infirm. Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation You Owe $175,000: "The official national debt figure, now approaching $9 trillion, reflects only what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed. It does not reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road. Those future obligations put our real debt figure at roughly fifty trillion dollars -- a staggering sum that is about as large as the total household net worth of the entire United States. Your share of this fifty trillion amounts to about $175,000." -- libertarian U.S. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX). Source: "The Coming Entitlement Meltdown." One Thousand U.S. Foreign Military Bases?: The U.S. officially had 737 military bases in 130 foreign countries in 2005. However, even that number, staggering though it is, is far too low, according to historian Chalmers Johnson. Johnson notes that number omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, and other countries and provinces. It also omits foreign bases in other countries that host U.S. troops. "If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases overseas, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure." Source: History News Network. "A public university cannot penalize students financially for hosting a controversial event. UCLA's change of heart was crucial; after all, if a debate at a university can effectively be shut down by threats from those who want to prevent vital issues from even being discussed, where in America is it safe to debate the pressing issues of the day?" -- Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), commenting on the reversal of a critical decision by the University of California&endash;Los Angeles (UCLA) that forced a student organization to cancel an immigration debate in response to threatened protests. Source: http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/7868.html.
COUNSELING CORNER: Why men are just happier people . . . What do you expect when:
No wonder men are happier!
A LITTLE OF THIS & A LITTLE OF THAT A Little Wisdom: A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. A Little Advice: You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future. A Little Question: Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them? (From George Carlin, of course.) A Little Put-Down: Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film. A Little Proverb: Happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you got. A Little Reflection: I don't have a problem with willpower. It's won't power I have a problem with. A Little Observation: Death and taxes are inevitable; at least death doesn't get worse every year. A Little Quote: "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry." -- Winston Churchill, British prime minister during WWII A Little Definition: Honest Politician - One who, when bought, stays bought. A Little Admission: I'm not a complete idiot - some parts are missing. A Little Quip: Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn't there the first time you need him, chances are you won't be needing him again.
Some interesting & provocative articles on other websites: Are you really a liberal?, by Selwyn Duke: Writers such as myself devote a lot of ink to the species known as liberals. And when you carry your banners openly on the field of battle, you define yourself and relinquish any pretense at that most illusory quality, impartiality. This places you in the crosshairs, although you can take solace in knowing that your adversaries will always miss left. Are conservatives stupid?: Conservatives have taken a beating from the field of psychology. Recently, they've been called whiney, weak, less intelligent than liberals, maladjusted, dogmatic and simple-minded. Fortunately, psychology has a history of defending the maltreated. Will we rise to the occasion this time? Religion is good for the heart, cardiologist says, by Paul Storer: Patients who indicate that they have no religious convictions are three times more likely to perish during open heart surgeries than believers, said recognized cardiologist, author and speaker Dr. Bruno Cortis, reflecting upon the correlation between faith and health. Rand's philosophy provides insights, by Scott Miller: [Ayn] Rand argues for logic and pure reason. According to her, that is the way to lead a meaningful life. She goes on to apply that idea to nearly every facet of life, including work, love, family and politics. Rand's views almost always conflict with indoctrinated social norms, something that causes her to be dismissed without a second thought... Can business ethics be taught?, by G. Jeffrey MacDonald: Post-Enron, business schools are boosting ethics courses. But critics say book learning won't change much. Boosting Brain Power -- With Chocolate: Eating chocolate could help to sharpen up the mind and give a short-term boost to cognitive skills, a University of Nottingham expert has found. A study led by Professor Ian Macdonald found that consumption of a cocoa drink rich in flavanols -- a key ingredient of dark chocolate -- boosts blood flow to key areas of the brain for two to three hours. Veblen - A Political Economist for Today, by Jonathan Larson: [USA] Anyone wishing to make sense of the world will eventually have to spend some serious time studying the often dreary subject of economics. Economics is the only subject that people are so passionate about that they are quite willing to start wars and revolutions over the various interpretations of their economic worldview. The Murky Ethics of Implanted Chips: What if your boss asked you to have a chip implanted in your arm? Would you do it? What if it meant getting a higher salary? Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, small circuits consisting of a microchip and an antenna that generate a radio signal when triggered by a reading device, are implanted in millions of pets and livestock to keep track of them and return them to their owners if they are lost. Religion isn' t the sickness. It's the cure, by Wlliam Rees-Mogg: William Rees-Mogg on the moral failure of modernism. What Good is a Philosophy Degree?, by George Corbett: There's one question I always dread. "So what are you majoring in?" Because as soon as I tell them, they ask me, "So what kind of job do you expect to get with that?!" You see, I'm a philosophy major. I read books by old dead white guys about all the things no one else bothers to think about anymore. I read about morality and freedom and "being." I go over all the arguments for and against the existence of inalienable rights. Classical Philosophy Takes on Ethnic Conflicts, by Chris White: Recently I was fortunate enough to learn about some really exciting work that philosophers are doing on the question of ethnic conflict. What on earth, you might wonder, could philosophy have to do with ethnic conflict? I was wondering the same thing. But once you start to think that one of philosophy's concerns is with the question of causation, then it all becomes a bit clearer. What Iraqis Could Learn from France's Wars of Religion, by Liam M. Brockey: In recent months, public figures and scholars including Salman Rushdie and Tariq Ramadan have raised the question of whether Islam needs a Reformation, one akin to the great changes in Europe that began in the sixteenth century. The Reformation, for them, clearly evokes the kindling of intellectual fires that would eventually grow into the Enlightenment. Atheists Battle Against Religion, by Dan Harris and Paul Beban: [USA] Atheists Are Finding Their Voice and Finding an Audience, but Some Call it Another Form of Extremism. Moral monkey business - Scientists say morality grew out of biology, not philosophy, by Nicholas Wade: Moral philosophers do not take very seriously the biologists' bid to annex their subject, but they find much of interest in what the biologists say and have started an academic conversation with them.
|
|
|
Newsletter Front Page |
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
[Homepage] [Newsletter] [Search] [Support the Academy] [Link to Us] [Contact the Academy] [Citing Articles from Our Website] [Privacy Policy & Disclaimer]
Copyright 1998-99, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2004-05, & 2006-07 by The Radical Academy. All Rights Reserved.