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There are over a dozen philosophers we have known throughout the years and most of them own different proverbs and studies of interest to people who are fully aware of what is going on today. Indeed, they have given logical acclamations something to think of.

Much of what we believe in today when it comes to principles and the like are sure to be something that many of us would agree to be one and true. It would be truly amazing to note and depict what they are other less heralded points have to deliver.

The BBC released an article some time ago regarding the comparison between the satirical cartoon The Simpson’s by FOX Broadcasting, as a philosophical embodiment of human nature. I happened to come upon the article and the study they conducted and found it to be quite enlightening regarding the relationship between the philosophy of man and the said TV show.

Many of us can remember the said TV series with the wisecracking and always smart-alecky remaking Homer who has made history. All of the family members have gone through the necessary life’s phases, which were done in a most human representation as possible. For that, we commend the creators and writers who continue to provide us with a rather unorthodox view of life even though the characters are cartoons.

Cartoons have gone a long way when cartoons were mere short stories in newspapers. Today, cartoons can be found on any part of the globe that tackle all issues and subject matter. They are a way of trying to get a message out to people that a sense of humor is still the best human thing that is free and can be shared to all. Indeed, cartoons have become part of human culture so much as they have become parts of our lives. All of us have watched and seen them (whether you like to admit it or not) and they have had an impact on how we view the world. This impact can be seen in the appeal of these programs to our kids and even the not so young who still continue to watch and adore them as a daily routine making life a little less cumbersome.

All around the world, people are wondering what tomorrow may hold for them. For the little who do prosper, a million continue to suffer. This has been a trend seen by many for many years. Go to the most secluded areas on the planet and ask anybody of what they are thinking of and they’ll say that tomorrow will tell me that. As the saying goes, “ Today I am pondering about yesterday, and by tomorrow I’ll be ready for today”.

We humans have a way of finding definition on our terms whatever experts tell us. True to this, lawyers can prove something terribly wrong to be righteously correct, politicians tell us that war is needed to keep the peace while peace does not exist within. People act as if they know what is happening and why it is happening even if they do not understand the reasons. A person acts blindly based on his own interpretation of the events around him. To some America is the culprit and to some the Communist’s are, both should be noted have played key parts in the development of the world as it is today. Capitalism and democracy might not be for everyone but it is surely longed for many. The basic right to freedom and the ability to express it is still void in many states. Many people suffer without voices and many more will suffer without anybody knowing about it.

Turn on the Television, radio and read the newspaper and we see in bold letters all the worst things that are happening around the world. What about the good things that have happened in the past 24 hours like news about the many children who have learned to read and write, what about the child who got his sight for the first time since birth? These are news that are considered not to be significant due to their lack of commercial importance, commercial importance that means people will not get anything for telling these types of headlines. Scholars argue about their beliefs over the internet claiming rights to works they publish on blogs, Author’s publishing works and claiming royalty and crying piracy and a violations of their intellectual rights. Hello people, isn’t that what the so-called .NET was supposed to be for. The .NET framework is a social network which means everybody has the right to say whatever they may choose to and use material they get to aid in their study or in their aims to get a better understanding of the world around them. Want intellectual right’s protection, publish your work in print and not online. Social networks are there to promote the ideals of freedom to do and say whatever you may wish. The stand of many people are contradictory, they move to the net (on the social network) as a way to reach more people but want their work to be exclusive which is at the same time against the basic principle of a social network, which is which.

Make up your mind people for the world is truly opening up and you need to stand up for something or nothing at all.

I came upon another blog that referred to a group of segments of the BBC News Agency in one of it’s programs/special reports about democracy and it’s implications on world society as a whole. The discussion on Philosophy News was a true and timely battle of the minds that asked, “Can democracy work for the whole world?” This is a very challenging question which was showed in the programs many discussions on what it means to people from all walks of life from all corners of the globe.

For those who have been enjoying democracy, they should be thankful to their forefathers for the great job that they have done in establishing and propagating the idea of democracy. For those who are now only getting a taste of what it is and what it can do, well that’s not a very simple matter to contend with. Most of the former communist countries, who have started to embrace Western culture and some form of democracy it is a very scary story indeed. A society that has evolved to be a workforce that does all the leaders of their countries tell them to can be intimidated by the prospect of having to choose whatever and whoever they wish to become. Like the children in China who are now being taught in school of the concept of democracy who were dumbfounded by the ideals and differences that it had to their own society.

For now, the world is evolving as well as human society. The financial crisis of times past and the many natural disasters that have plagued us ever more frequently have opened many doors for people who have usually been left in the dark about the rest of the world. True to this, to ask the question of “Why Democracy?” is not only a very difficult one but quite sensitive for many a wealthy nations are still run under rule of a monarchial government. Some still follow time honored traditions that were reminiscent of the medieval ages when we had kings and queens and that succession was a right rather than a voted upon right.

Democracy might not be for everyone but it may be time that all of us embrace it for it allows us the freedom not only of society but of the global scene and the part that we can play in it if we were all allowed to participate. No society is ever self-sufficient for all those that have tried have miserably failed. We humans have a built-in drive to do what we want, when we want it and where ever we want it to be. Many say that there is no such thing as a democracy but we must always remember that democracy is a form of government that can be defined on paper and is subject to personal interpretation. So for now, democracy has still offered the best tools for the growth of countries around the world. The famous philosopher Kant predicted 200 years ago that democracies don’t go to war with each other but with those who do not embrace it and promote it. In a way this might sound true but a discussion on that must be left to another day. So till then enjoy life and embrace it for all the good and bad. It’s not about the trip, but about the journey that has passed and we currently are on….

I came upon an article on the EPhilosopher news regarding the Metaphysics of Ceteris Paribus Laws that made quite a lot of sense and was nice to ponder. The term Ceteris Paribus is Latin for all other things being equal stating the generalizations that science in all it’s history has placed upon certain aspects of science as a whole. But pondering the said term and it’s literal meaning it comes under great fire for many matters on this earth and even the sciences that aims to quantify it has evolved into a science of exceptions meaning that the rule doesn’t apply because….
This might be so for science is never constant as time is and that everything is evolving into something that we don’t know yet. Science has blessed us with many a wonder yet science itself seems to always re-define what it has already termed as known or defined. We humans have a never-ending quest for discovery and re-discovery and something that seems impossible should never be termed as so, someone just hasn’t figured out a way of doing it……
So the term Ceteris Paribus is a fundamental foundation for something that is termed to be an analytic truth which in science terms if definite, defined, final. Or is it???? Thanks to the people who continuously form, challenge and subsequently change the definitions of everything else for in the process we gain a little more understanding of our purpose on this earth which as scientists say is just one of millions if not billions of possible inhabited planets in our solar system alone(Let us just hope that the beings on those other worlds are thinking of the same stuff we are).

Many have said that the world of science and philosophy are worlds apart and cannot be understood or used to complement each other. These two fields seem to contradict each other at every angle but some do think they can be used together to allow a better understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Science as we know is based on fact or the search of an explanation for something through facts. Meaning why a candlestick burns scientifically is because of many known scientific processes like; oxidation, fuel, air, combustion and so on and so forth. But taking the standpoint of a philosopher pondering that fact would result in a totally different definition or explanation.

The merging of these two fields of study is not as far off as you think. Many of the fathers of philosophy were scientists in their own rights. These ancient people formed the basis for both philosophy and the sciences. Thales, who is considered to be the father of philosophy wondered about the universe from his time and the significance of man in that universe. He was said to have employed a form of research that can be en-likened to a scientific inquiry or study. The next ancient philosopher, Anaximander, focused more on the nature of the universe as a whole. He is credited to have made the first accurate sundial marking accurately the hours of the day on a sundial. He made elementary maps in his quest to find the relationships of the places he knew and their significance to his existence. One of the most famous philosophers was Pythagoras who was a philosopher and mathematician where he formulated some of the most elementary basis of mathematics and their relationships with the universe.
Many more ancient philosophers and scientists shared the same passion for a better understanding of the universe and the way we influence it or are a part of it. True to this, we can say that it may be theoretically possible to meld the two areas of science and philosophy into a new area of study where we seek answers and hopefully better questions to answers to them.

Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. Anger is also a fact of life, something viewed by most as negative and some as inescapable. The good news though is that more and more people are realizing that anger is something that can actually be overcome. It is inescapable as a spontaneous emotion but not inescapable as a lasting one.

Robert Thurman, a leading author in Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy, delves deeper into the issue of anger approaching it using ancient Buddhism wisdom. The book “Anger” explains how anger, if guided by wisdom, can actually not just be tempered but actually wielded to bring positive results such as the easing of human suffering. This is actually something that the great Aristotle will agree with, after all he believes that anger is not necessarily evil but actually necessary for fighting evil. In fact Aristotle teaches that anger can be a virtue if one is angered by those that are wicked and so strive to not become like the wicked and even fight their evil deeds.

In every day life though what I believe we should start learning is simply letting go of toxic anger so as to be able to leave in peace. As Buddha and Marcus Aurelius teaches us, holding on to anger can hurt us more than its cause can.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ Buddha

How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. ~ Marcus Aurelius

There are no strangers to loneliness, after all we have all experienced how to be lonely at some point in our lives. Thomas Dumm recognizes this fact and delves on what it really means lonely in his book “Loneliness as a Way of Life”.

According to the Harvard University Press, Dumm “takes us beyond social circumstances and into the deeper forces that shape our very existence as modern individuals. The modern individual, Dumm suggests, is fundamentally a lonely self. This book challenges us, not to overcome our loneliness, but to learn how to re-inhabit it in a better way.”

This takes me back to one of my favorite poet’s work – Letters to a Young Poet (Letter Number Six). There Rainer Maria Rilke tells us to embrace solitude and why. Here’s a snippet from letter # 6:

But when you notice that it [solitude] is vast, you should be happy; for what (you should ask yourself) would a solitude be that was not vast; there is only one solitude and it is vast, heavy, difficult to bear…be attentive to what is arising within you…What is happening in your most innermost self is worthy of your entire love; somehow you must find a way to work at it…

And letter #8:

So you mustn’t be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.

Now if ever there was an expert in loneliness I would say that would be Rainer Maria Rilke.

In my last post I asked the question: WHY DO YOU GIVE?

As I mulled about the issue it became clearer that no one who gives does it purely for unselfish reasons. Now, I hope I am not being jaded about this but coming across Tovia Smith’s article “Selfish Giving: Does it count if you get in return?”, I found myself agreeing with most of her observations.

Tovia points out how nowadays businesses give to charity because they “have to”. It’s an image thing. But so what? They’re businesses after all and we do expect them to think about their bottom line. However, Tovia also points out that its pretty much the same with “high school kids signing up for their community service trip — the summer before their college applications are due. It’s simply what they have to do to be competitive.”

It sounds awful but if you really think about it these people are not the only “selfish” givers. Even those who do it because of their belief, as I pointed out in my last post, give for future rewards: in Buddhism and Hinduism its for good karma, for Christians it’s for God’s Blessing and whatever their reward awaits them in heaven, for Muslims the “Zakat” purifies their wealth and is done in obedience it Allah. While it is true that their primary reason for giving may not primarily be material rewards, and may not even be in this lifetime, they still do it for a reason other than giving.

So does anyone really give for the pure joy of giving? Maybe. Maybe not.

In my opinion this is not the point though. The point is that giving is “good” and as Rory Morton, dean of students at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge said, “…once they go do it [give/do community service], they get into it. And that’s good enough for me.”

The answers to WHYs are important but sometimes we have to stop asking and just be thankful that we can do something noble and good as giving and in top of that get something in return, whether that be material, spiritual, or emotional.

Giving is a concept that can be found in most religions – if not all.

It is espoused by both the Bible and the Qur’an. In fact if you look at the following verses you’ll be struck by the similarity of what the two religions tell their believers to do.

Giving shows the believers’ love for their God:

“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the poor, the orphan, and the captive.” (Qur’an 76:8)

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3: 17-18)

Giving in secret:

“If you give alms openly, it is well, and if you hide it and give it to the poor, it is better for you” (Qur’an 2:271)

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-43)

There are other similarities such as the concept of “tithing” wherein a portion of a person’s earning should be given back to the church.

Generosity is also encouraged in Buddhism and Hinduism. In Buddhism they have what they call dāna, which when translated means generosity. However, it means more than just the word but actually refers to the practice of cultivating generosity. To Buddhists the more they give selflessly in this life the better off they will be in the next life. A belief that even Christians whose “treasures are stored up in heaven” and Muslims also believe.

The question now though is this: With all the teachings of different religions telling us to give are you practicing what you say you believe in? Do you give? In what way? How much? And more importantly, WHY?

You can find more info on giving to HAITI at Google’s Haiti Crisis Response Page.