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Index for this page...
All The Following Items Were Posted On March 1, 2009 Duty: The word "duty" is used in philosophy as a synonym for moral obligation. As so used it requires us to understand wrong and right uses of the phrase "categorical imperatives." Immanuel Kant's use of that phrase is an instance of extreme rationalism in moral philosophy. [See Dr. Adler's discussion of "Casuistry" in the Archive.] A truly categorical imperative is one that is self-evident. It is derived from the understanding of prescription truth. All the main propositions of moral philosophy are prescriptive rather then descriptive. They are statements of what ought or ought not to be sought and done. In short, they are statements of our moral obligations and duties. The one categorical imperative is that we ought to seek everything that is really good for us, and nothing else. Seeking goods that are merely apparent good is permissible, but not obligatory. The categorical imperative, or first principle of moral philosophy, is self-evident. It is impossible to think that we ought not to seek what is really good for us, or that we ought to seek what is really bad for us. The words "really good" and "really bad" complicate the words "ought" and "ought not." If a moral philosophy is formulated entirely in terms of ends and means, it is utilitarian or pragmatic. It is an ethics without duties or moral obligations. The word "deontological" is philosophical jargon for an ethics or moral philosophy the principles of which are imperatives that prescribe duties. A moral philosophy can be both pragmatic and deontological. Aristotle's Ethics is both. Ends and means are certainly present in it, but it also contains principles that are prescriptive of duties or moral obligations. The moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant is wholly deontological. It rejects what Kant calls "the serpentine windings of utilitarianism." J.S. Mill's Utilitarianism contains the opposite error: it is purely pragmatic, and has great difficulty with the notion of duty or moral obligation. Source: Adler's Philosophical Dictionary: 125 Key Terms for the Philosopher's Lexicon. Have you a copy of this book in your personal library? If not, consider getting one. Read Max Weismann's review of this book by Clicking Here.
Morris Raphael Cohen (1880-1947), American philosopher Cohen's contributions have been many in the fields of social, political and legal philosophy. He described his view in general as realistic rationalism, a view that emphasizes the importance of intellect or reason as applied to what is, rather than in vacuo. He found the principle of polarity a fruitful means of resolving antinomies. The principle of polarity is a naturalistic version of Hegel's dialectics of nature, according to which reality and thought involve numerous opposites, such as action-reaction, motion-rest, life-death, truth-falsity. As a creative thinker, Cohen was not a great success. In fact, he came to view his life as utterly wasted. After his death on January 25, 1947, Cohen left his son, Felix, now also dead, little more than a mass of notes and unfinished manuscripts to read and eventually to edit. His best known works are Reason and Nature and Law and the Social Order. Here is a very brief passage from one of his works dealing with logic:
Excerpted from A Preface to Logic. Read more about Morris Raphael Cohen in The Radical Academy.
FOR THE RECORD 1. Nobody Read The Stimulus Bill, by James W. Harris The massive $787 billion 2009 "stimulus" bill -- possibly the largest spending bill in U.S. history -- was received by all Congressional members at 11 p.m. Thursday evening, February 12. The gigantic bill was 1,073 pages long, with an additional 421 page Explanatory Statement. Read the billFurther, portions of the bill consisted of hand-written last-minute insertions. As the small-government lobbying group Downsize DC notes, the bill is filled with:
Yet a mere 15 hours later, around 4 pm, the U.S. House passed it -- appropriately enough, on Friday 13th. The Senate passed it just 3 hours and 5 minutes later. Yes, that's right. Congress passed this complex, far-reaching, revolutionary bill in a matter of hours, without taking enough time to even learn what was in it, let alone read it, or even read most of it. The conservative Heritage Foundation declared: "[N]ever have we seen a bill more cloaked in secrecy or more withdrawn from open public exposure and honest debate." Downsize DC points out this happened despite:
and:
James W. Harris is the editor of Liberator Online, a publication of Advocates for Self-Government. His articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, and he has been a Finalist for the Mencken Award, given by the Free Press Association for "Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty." 2. Half of Britons Do Not Believe In Evolution, Survey Finds Half of British adults do not believe in evolution, with at least 22% preferring the theories of creationism or intelligent design to explain how the world came about, according to a survey. The poll found that 25% of Britons believe Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is "definitely true," with another quarter saying it is "probably true." Half of the 2,060 people questioned were either strongly opposed to the theory or confused about it. The Rescuing Darwin survey ... found that around 10% of people chose young Earth creationism--the belief that God created the world some time in the last 10,000 years -- over evolution. Source: The Guardian (UK) Across the centuries, many a person has uttered the phrase "There must be a full moon out there" in an attempt to explain weird happenings at night. Indeed, the Roman goddess of the moon bore a name that remains familiar to us today: Luna, prefix of the word "lunatic." Greek philosopher Aristotle and Roman historian Pliny the Elder suggested that the brain was the "moistest" organ in the body and thereby most susceptible to the pernicious influences of the moon, which triggers the tides. Belief in the "lunar lunacy effect," or "Transylvania effect," as it is sometimes called, persisted in Europe through the Middle Ages, when humans were widely reputed to transmogrify into werewolves or vampires during a full moon. Even today many people think the mystical powers of the full moon induce erratic behaviors, psychiatric hospital admissions, suicides, homicides, emergency room calls, traffic accidents, fights at professional hockey games, dog bites and all manner of strange events. One survey revealed that 45 percent of college students believe moonstruck humans are prone to unusual behaviors, and other surveys suggest that mental health professionals may be still more likely than laypeople to hold this conviction. In 2007 several police departments in the U.K. even added officers on full-moon nights in an effort to cope with presumed higher crime rates. Source: Scientific American 4. Brain Scans "Read Minds" With Suprising Accuracy Could MRI someday stand for Mind Reading Imagery? Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology can tell what people are thinking with startling accuracy, a new study found. Volunteers were shown two different patterns, then asked to picture one or the other. Using fMRI brain scans, the researchers predicted -- at better than 80 percent -- which of the two patterns each person was actively holding in memory 11 seconds later. By measuring blood flow, fMRI images reveal which groups of neurons are active. Some of the visual cortex's neurons are associated more with vertical visual patterns, and others with horizontal or angled patterns, explained neuroscientist Frank Tong of Vanderbilt University, who led the study. That distinction allowed the team to predict which pattern volunteers had in mind, even well after the images were removed from the screen. Source: National Geographic News 5. First Draft Of Neanderthal Genome Unveiled The first draft of the genome of a 38,000 year-old Neanderthal is complete, scientists have announced. Early glimpses of the genome, which was sequenced by Svante Pääbo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues, have already cast new light on the ancient human species that went extinct more than 25,000 years ago. "This will be the first time the entire genome of an extinct organism has been sequenced," Pääbo told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Chicago. Now study of the more complete genome will allow scientists to examine Neanderthals' relationship with modern humans as never before. A preliminary analysis of the sequence suggests that Neanderthals contributed few, if any, genes to humans via inbreeding. Source: New Scientist 6. Politics In The Guise Of Pure Science ... Dr. [Roger] Pielke, a professor in the environmental studies program at the University of Colorado, is the author of The Honest Broker, a book arguing that most scientists are fundamentally mistaken about their role in political debates. As a result, he says, they're jeopardizing their credibility while impeding solutions to problems like global warming. Most researchers, Dr. Pielke writes, like to think of themselves in one of two roles: as a pure researcher who remains aloof from messy politics, or an impartial arbiter offering expert answers to politicians' questions. Either way, they believe their research can point the way to correct public policies, and sometimes it does--when the science is clear and people's values aren't in conflict. But climate change, like most political issues, isn't so simple. While most scientists agree that anthropogenic global warming is a threat, they're not certain about its scale or its timing or its precise consequences .... And while most members of the public want to avoid future harm from climate change, they have conflicting values about which sacrifices are worthwhile today. Source: New York Times 7. Quote For The Month: Leave Michael Phelps Alone "(S)moking pot didn't prevent Barack Obama from becoming president. And obviously, recreational marijuana use Michael Phelpshasn't harmed Mr. Phelps, whose prodigious performances have garnered 14 gold medals, the most in Olympic history. If he can smoke pot and perform at such a superhuman level, then perhaps we should reconsider the effects of -- and punishments for -- use of the substance." -- Psychologist Stanton Peele, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2009.
COUNSELING CORNER: Avoid Putting Foot In Mouth . . . An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile. A representative from Israel began:
The Palestinian representative jumped up furiously and shouted, "What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren't there then." The Israeli representative smiled and said, "And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech."
A LITTLE OF THIS & A LITTLE OF THAT A Little Wisdom: The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision. A Little Advice: Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality. A Little Quip: Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it. A Little Proverb: If you want your eggs hatched, sit on them yourself. A Little Question: Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how it remains so popular? A Little Reflection: It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a new bomber. A Little Request: "All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy." A Little Admission: I started out with nothing... I still have most of it. A Little Observation: The enemy invariably attacks on one of two occasions: 1. When you're ready for them and 2. When you're not ready for them. A Little Warning: "We often give enemies the means of our own destruction." -- Aesop (620-560 BC), Greek storyteller. A Little Quote: "The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder, with the truth." -- Alfred Adler (1870-1937), Austrian psychiatrist. A Little Put-Down: Women don't make fools of men - most of them are the do-it-yourself types.
Some interesting & provocative articles on other websites: Learn Philosophy -- The classic discipline can help with contemporary dilemmas and modern careers, by Diane Cole: The questions are ripped from the daily head-lines: Should illegal immigrants be barred from enrolling in public universities? Should courts declare surreptitiously gathered DNA off limits as legal evidence? The 5th Element: We can trace the history of Chinese metaphysics to the Yellow Emperor. In 2700 BC, he associated everything with the five elements. Good heavens - Vatican rehabilitating Galileo: The Church has for years been striving to shed its reputation for being hostile to science, in part by producing top-notch research out of its own telescope. Research Finds We are Still Willing to Inflict Pain: It was one of the most infamous experiments in history, offering compelling evidence that almost everybody is capable of great evil. Almost 50 years on, it has finally been repeated by scientists - showing that people today are still willing to hurt others when prompted by an authority figure. Rethinking science and religion, by Howard Smith: Politicians, and everyday Americans, too, are thinking about new approaches to national policy. One that is ripe for reassessment is the appropriate role of religion in matters of science. Religion provides us, as individuals, with its ethical and human perspectives on civic decisions, including judgments on issues prompted by scientific discoveries.
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