Aristotle, one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy has written many works regarding politics and his interpretation of such. In the book, Nicomachaean Ethics, Aristotle’s foundations for his political projects were based on the presumption that ethics and politics were closely related. In a sense of reverse thinking, he says that the main purpose of politics is to empower or entice citizens to become honest and empower them to do or perform noble actions. This has been greatly contested by many Western civilizations of today who see politics as a sort of undertaking based on greed and self-interest which might be true no only for these areas but anywhere else in the world.

He also defines the aim of politics in the creation of a society with high regards for moral standing. Modern politics is defined as a governance which protects us from each end every body else outside the system with the use of military and policing forces. This has normal people on one side who abide by the rules set by the political leaders and all who are against the said order to be outcasts to be protected from. Much of Aristotle’s ideals are lost in the modern world of politics with very little so-called honorable constituents going into the system to truly represent society as a whole. Some even do it for mainly personal reasons making politics a bridge to personal gain. Today’s modern society sees the kind of molding as counter productive seeing it as a form of making people think out of their own accord. Much is to be learned from the fathers of modern philosophy whose ideals and studies has given rise to all current political systems though not much is left of the ethical part of the ideals.

As we have seen in the past posts, more and more philosophy students are finding work in the most unlikely places like manufacturing and design. Their analytic mind that questions every detail is proving to be invaluable in and out of the workplace further establishing their place. The move of industry and commerce to more philosophical approaches allows them better customer satisfaction for they look into the possible questions that are to be asked and formulate the solutions and answers into the products as they are designed minimizing the need for support and follow-up processes lowering costs. Products that speak for themselves are the best weapons of industry simplifying the support structures needed for their product base allowing development of better and more human friendly gizmo’s and gadgets. We will surely see more and more industry leaders adopting the philosophical approach to their business for unstable markets that can have the power to make or break an institution needs innovative ways to promote and make products better while lowering overhead costs considerably. The products we see today on the market are product of intensive research and developments in their functionality and lifetime which has suffered greatly in times past due to industry shaking events on the global scale that are forcing more and more business hung out to dry and close shop. Hopefully the adoption of better philosophy in their approach and outlook for the future will have an impact on their futures which applies to all scales of businesses from the smallest home based units to the biggest multi-national firms that are tackling diverse markets as they enter new market areas.

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.

The victims of extremism ate many and widespread; orphans, widows and many more who have lost loved ones as a result of their beliefs and actions. The IRA of Britain has claimed many a lives in their quest for independence from British rule in a bid to proclaim themselves a legitimate governing body to administer their own people. The Islamic fundamentalists who are now center stage in world politics for their bold and daring attacks on people killing themselves and others of their own faith considering them as collateral damage and as acceptable casualties. They have repeatedly attacked governments in Algeria, Iraq, and elsewhere in the world just to prove their point. The influence they have on their people is so great that they have convinced them to take their own lives for the sake of belief and the promise that their sacrifice is for the common good.

Since time immemorial, there are people who have fought to maintain their sovereignty from conquering parties may they be people or governments that they have twisted and turned the definitions of their religion into one that is solely directed to killing and many other atrocities. A quick glance at news headlines from around the world would give you an idea of how great the problem is and that there may be no easy solution to such incidents. Many have demands that are considered unacceptable, or simply impossible that they go on a never ending cycle of killing and maiming innocent people. One of the most recognized extremist Adolf Hitler, used the political might of German society as a way of expressing his view of a world ruled and owned by the Aryan Race. This has resulted in the death’s of millions of people not only Jews as they waged their war against other not belonging to their race that it sparked the second world war.

Many such groups and political arms have and are still in the ranks of society that they are considered threats to not only to national security by many countries, but to world wide security as well. Fear of a new Nuclear Holocaust looms in the air as many of the world’s nuclear arsenal go missing as Soviet Russia fell and many of it’s former member cities declaring their sovereignty from the main Socialist republic founded by Joseph Stain. The threat of a so-called contaminating bombs that do not aim to result in a huge nuclear blast but to rather spread nuclear material causing massive deaths due complications of exposure to radiation from the material dispersed by the said device. This has been on the priority of governments around the world that was heightened by the attacks on America of the infamous 9/11 when many died as a result of extremist activities.

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.

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.

The Philippines is indeed a gold mine for information technology professionals but the fact remains that they need to consider the fact that technology is more than purely educating people. One thing that they sorely lacking is implementation, an instance that has become one of the reasons why some countries always become last.

Locally, the Philippines fail to realize the value of Internet marketing. They pretty much discuss the importance of globalization but rely heavily on individuals using old tactics such as traditional travel or long distance communications to strike deals. By the time they agree on something, chances are that other global partner has long been a success.

The apprehension and common belief of local top executives is that they are afraid to pry away from the current trends of being successful. Current practices such as Internet Marketing and Blog Marketing are sound topics we see on the web and yet most of them choose to ignore it. One reason is that they are only looking for a local market and not the global opportunity.

It is apparent that not all people appreciate the value of globalization. They know it theoretically but the whole essence is sorely lacking when it comes to actual implementation. So in the end, it is a large opportunity lost not only because of arrogance but because they lack the confidence in allowing technology into their ventures.

The current business issues speak a lot. While many are looking at recession and possibly business closures, others are sitting comfortably and waiting for the expected boom from Internet technology. It is happening right now. They just choose to refrain from stepping out of their comfort zones.

If the US government can easily decide and fight for providing aid to the business sector, expect a lot of issues to come up. For one, any business for that matter can simply declare financial instability and seek financial assistance from the US. That is as simple as that and the value of truly engaging in business may yet lose its luster. A Bush Blunder? Perhaps. The intention was good but that fact is that if you lack the business knowledge to understand the mechanics of proper business operation ethics, chances are you have made a decision out of impulse.

President Bush cannot be entirely blamed. He is simply looking out for the welfare of his country. But while that is obvious, it is also a move which many foresee as lacking in deliberation and analysis. You can pass on the bill to Congress for approval. But wait a minute. Who are the people in congress? Political figures too right?

So if common sense were to be inserted, who in his right mind would not vote for the bill? They are part of the whole mess and if they are not careful, they may be placing themselves close to recession and economic turmoil. And if you are in that concerned country, where would you get the liberal mind to vote against it?

The world is watching and surely many sectors are keeping quiet. It is a move many are criticizing. Only time will tell on whether their own personal philosophies will indeed be ratified as far as doing business is concerned.