We all want to be a success in life. It doesn’t matter whether success for you means a high-powered career, great relationships, finding yourself, achieving a particular dream, or getting a PhD. The truth though is that the path to success is filled with obstacles, so much so that many find themselves frustrated and unable to continue their journey in achieving success.

One of the things that is often pointed to for failure is lack of motivation. People tend to think that if they get motivated enough they will be able to face the biggest obstacles and find a way beat them down or go around them. There is truth to this matter. Without motivation people will just not even start something, especially if they know that it will be difficult. However, the problem with motivation is that it is a feeling. Of course there is a solid reason for that feeling but still, like any other emotion, it comes and goes. What this means is that when the emotion goes away or subsides a bit there is a huge tendency to lie back and just give in to inertia. We end up giving up when we don’t feel so motivated anymore and then start again but only when the motivation comes back.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that motivation is a bad thing. In fact we NEED motivation. We need to get fired up in order to start the path to success. However, my point is that motivation is unreliable and it is not enough. By all means pump yourself up and find reasons to motivate you but do not make the mistake of solely relying on motivation.

On my next post I will be discussing the thing that we can rely on even when the emotion subsides.

What’s your new year’s resolution for this year? Or are you among those who vow not make resolutions since no one seems to be able to keep them anyway?

I for one do make mental “resolutions” but since I find myself making these resolutions periodically just to see how my “self-improvement projects” are going I don’t really count them to be just my resolution for the new year. I have to admit though that the end and/or start of each year is a time when I am more prone to reflect. The same goes for birthdays, anniversaries, death of a loved one (or even just an acquaintance), and other major life events.

So what is it about such events that triggers our need to think back and evaluate how we live our life? Is it the (re)realization of our mortality? Our frailties? Our shortcomings? Or maybe our hopes?

Whatever it may be the important thing is to keep on striving to improve oneself and one’s life. In the process, hopefully we can also add something positive to those around us and inspire others to change for the better. Let us just not fall into thinking that things can be wiped out like a clean slate but be optimistic that despite shortcomings and negativity in the past we can still make real changes for the better.

Happy New Year everyone and may you find the strategy and motivation that will see your resolutions come true this year!

Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. ~Hal Borland

Just the other day I mentioned how I ended up celebrating World Philosophy Day with my family. It got me thinking about family and how things have changed over the years.

When I was younger my family for me was simply my dad, my mom, and my siblings. Things were much simpler then. I didn’t even question the role of the family, never though about. A family just was and no one can make it any different. Then I started growing up. I had my first classmate in 4th grade whose parents were divorced. I heard from my older sister how one of her friends was the 2nd family of their dad. My concept of family was shaken and a philosophical debate raged in my head, the process of which I wasn’t aware of. I realized then some families just wasn’t – JUST WAS. I didn’t know what to make of that.

Then I went to high school and things got even crazier. I met a friend who shared to me one time during a quiet night how her own uncle used to rape her when they visited his house. Now this totally flipped my world around. I got really mad and kept on pushing my mom asking her how bad things like these can’t happen. I never told her what the real case was though. I learned then that not family members fulfill their roles and some family you can end up hating. I also learned that even when you are the child sometimes you have to be the one to shield your parents from the truth. That was when I started growing up.

Now, I have my own family and each day I am re-learning the beauty of family. Things don’t always go the way they should but we just have to sort things out in our mind. I sometimes wish things would be black and white and the horrible side of some families can be wiped clean but then again my definition of family has changed. It’s not family is just is, it’s not just the family you are born in, it’s who we choose to bring in our lives and chooses to bring ours in theirs. It’s the good with the bad and hopefully more good than bad.

Till now there are days when I keep turning the concept of family over and over in my head but what I have learned is that more important than the concept is simply being there with and for our family. And THAT is my family philosophy.

World Philosophy Day has come and gone and I’m left wondering how most people ended up celebrating it.

I ended up celebrating it with my family albeit the most philosophical question we ended up discussing that day was “Where should we eat?” and a spirited defense from each one on why we should eat at each person’s preferred place (By the way I didn’t win. The kids as always won and we got fried chicken.). It was a day well spent though because though they didn’t know it I decided to practice my philosophy of FAMILY FIRST on World Philosophy Day.

Of course there are other bigger events that went on around the world in celebration of the event from September 16-20, 2009, the biggest of which is of course the international component of World Philosophy Day in Moscow and Saint Petersburg hosted by the Russian Federation that I wrote about last month.

UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, also issued a statement about the need for an international cultural dialogue. In Director-General Bokova’s statement she said:

“In the run up to 2010, declared by the United Nations General Assembly the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, it is more important than ever before to examine the current foundations for the free flow of discourse and practice, out of which world cultural diversity is woven.

Philosophy, along with the other social and human sciences, can help us renew the debate on how to engage in this dialogue, which could be defined as a dynamic chorus of social and cultural relationships and interactions open to the plurality of the world. As societies increasingly learn how to live in multicultural environments, we need to shed light on our joint capacity to bring together individual and collective imaginations.”

Now you may not have engaged in a cultural dialogue but everyday if you choose to appreciate and celebrate the diversity of cultures, whether by learning a bit more about another culture or your own, you will have done a real important thing.

As for those who didn’t get to celebrate the World Philosophy Day, why not declare your own day and do something to share and discussion your philosophies and/or practice your own views.

In my last post I talked about the “World Philosophy Day” and gave some suggestions on how you can join the celebration. I also listed some topics you and your friends can debate on or you can just muse over. The more I thought about it though, the more fun/interesting topic I came up with. Here’s a longer list of philosophical topics/questions I got from all over the net:

What makes something funny? – Here’s a discussion on the topic from PhilosophyForums.
Is there a God? – If you want a real debate it would be better to get two close-minded but intelligent people who are firm on their beliefs on this topic – a fundamental God believer (doesn’t matter what the religion is) and an atheist. Sit down and enjoy hearing them debate about the topic ALL day long.
Healthcare – This is an especially relevant debate if you are in the US right now. Of course, this won’t make for a light fun day.
What is music? – People enjoy and can’t bear different types of music. So how do we define music? How do we differentiate it from mere sound or even noise? Better yet, ask “What is good music?”
Whose side are you on – Jon or Kate? – I know the answer should be the kids but if you really had to choose between the two who would you side with? Makes for a totally useless but entertaining debate.

For more debate topics go to Conservapedia.

This year’s “World Philosophy Day” will be held on November 19. However the official international celebration of the Day will be held from November 16-19 in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia. The theme, “Philosophy in the Dialogue of Cultures”, was selected by the host in order to “foster the dissemination of philosophy in all its traditions.” Specific topics to be discussed in parallel round tables during the celebration are as follows:

* Liberating from the stereotypes concerning history of philosophy;
* Dialogue of rationalities;
* Cultural self-consciousness in the era of globalization;
* Philosophical images of human being;
* XXI century’s technological challenges;
* Values and the dialogue of cultures;
* Philosophy for children;
* Common cultural grounds of the national self-consciousness of the nations of CIS and Baltic states;
* Teaching philosophy in multicultural context.

The first World Philosophy Day was held last November 24, 2005 in Chile. It was instituted by UNESCO with the primary purpose of “making philosophy accessible to all.” With this in mind everyone is encouraged to participate in the celebration, wherever you may be.

Some ideas to celebrate World Philosophy Day:

*Invite a speaker to expound on any relevant topic.
*Read a philosophy book.
*Have a costume party where people are required to dress up as philosophers or a concept.
*Get together with a bunch of your philosophical (or just plain argumentative) friends and have a healthy debate on the following pesky topics (courtesy of David Bain’s article in BBC):
1.Should we kill healthy people for their organs?
2. Are you the same person who started reading this article?
3. Is that really a computer screen (person – since you’ll be in front of your friend) in front of you?
4. Did you really choose to do what you are doing right now?

Enjoy!

I have tried yoga but like most people these days that do yoga I don’t really practice the philosophy of yoga. Nowadays, yoga has become an exercise fad. What many don’t realize though is that the breathing and postures practiced in gyms worldwide are but two of the eights limbs (aspects) of the Yoga philosophy. What this means is that because you know some poses doesn’t mean that you can claim to really know yoga. If you want to really do yoga you have to first understand all the eight limbs of yoga, which are the:

1. Yama: Self-control or restraint from violence, lying, excessiveness, stealing, and coveting
2. Niyama: Stresses things one should do—purity, contentment, austerity, study of the sacred texts, living with awareness of the divine
3. Asana: Physical exercises, postures
4. Pranayama: Breathing exercises
5. Pratyahara: Drawing inward
6. Dharana: Concentration
7. Dhyana: Meditation
8. Samadhi: Realization

Obviously the part of yoga that most people know about is the Asana and the Pranayama but if you wish to stay true to yoga’s philosophy, which is to seek universal truth and achieve equanimity in the process, one has to practice the other aspects of yoga as well. In the end, practicing yoga should result not just in a healthy body but a healthy mind as well.

We all know about copyright and the laws governing them but do you know about the copyleft?

According to the GNU website, “Copyleft is a general method for making a program or other work free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well.” The main difference of a product/program that is is “copyleft” from one that is simply not copyrighted or made available to anyone freely is that it ensures that all other programs and products arising from the original one remains free as well because “Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to further copy and change it.”

Now with such a nice spirit of sharing why isn’t everyone adopting this new way of thinking and “copylefting” their works? The answer isn’t always just plain economics since you can sell copylefted products thus allowing for a profit. What CANNOT be done is simply disallowing anyone else to your software in whatever way they want to. However, you have to acknowledge that the “copyleft” makes for minimal profit since the creator’s “power to control” his creation is limited to simply saying that others need to also share. No more decades of getting royalty from outdated but important works that were the basis of other works.

What’s interesting is that what many people don’t realize is that there are other ways out there to “copyright” [or not] your works. In this digital age knowing how to protect your rights/wishes or at least the rights of your users is a must if you really wish to attain your goals.

Blame is described in Wikipedia as “the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible.” Praise, on the other hand, is said to be “the act of making positive statements about a person, object or idea, either in public or privately. Praise is typically, but not exclusively, earned relative to achievement and accomplishment.”

They may be opposites in that one is negative and the other positive but they share a common thread, which is that assigning blame or giving praise to someone both means assigning responsibility to that person. Because of this the very tricky issue of “free will” has to come into play, after all how can anyone be held responsible for anything without free will. And so the classic debate that is still as ever goes on.

If you are interested in delving more into the free will, blame, and praise issue a must read would be Garrath Williams’ article “Praise and Blame”. There he “contrasts three influential philosophical accounts of our everyday practices of praise and blame, in terms of how they might be justified” including the Kantian approach (where the subject of free will is discussed), the utilitarian approach (discusses praise and blame in relation to their usefulness in terms of social benefits), and the Aristotelian approach (focuses on mutual accountability and moral education).

Having watched “Bicentennial Man” yet another time last week I found Stephen Law’s article, “Could a Machine Think?”, really apt for my mood. The article obviously delves on the complex issue that has become more and more relevant with the advances in technology. The day when robots with super advanced artificial intelligence becomes a reality is no longer something that we can consider to be far-fetched. These are days when things from science fictions are becoming a reality. And as that day approaches we know that the day when a dilemma of titanic proportions is also drawing near. Will robots become advanced enough to achieve self-awareness? If so, what do we do then? What will be the right moral standpoint? How will we accept it and how will the AIs react to how we receive them?

These questions are all discussed in a very engaging manner in Stephen Law’s “Could a Machine Think.” This article is written in a script style showing the discussion between a machine, Emit, and its owner, Geena. This article is a great read whether or not you are interested in philosophy because it reads like a story. However, the questions posed are ones that will really make you think and the points raised shows sophistication in philosophical argument.

The “Could a Machine Think” is just one of the articles available in “Think”, a philosophy journal published for the Royal Institute of Philosophy. What makes “Think” really great is that the journal is aimed at a wide audience making the articles both interesting and readable for everyone from philosophers to laymen. Free online articles can be found at the Cambridge Journals website. For full access to “Think” journals you will need to subscribe.