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.

We usually hear about them and discuss them during our educational lives but while other just goes through the motions of having to be aware of them, there are also people who want to extend their line of knowledge by simply looking for related work. Much of this has been helped by the optimization practices as offered by Los Angeles SEO when they offer affordable search engine optimization today.

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.

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

Experimental philosophy is still a relatively new field of study, which started last 2000 when a group of students decided to apply experimental procedures used in psychology to philosophy. According to the Experimental Philosophy Society “experimental philosophy involves the collection of empirical data to shed light on philosophical issues.” This empirical data is usually gathered through surveys wherein the participants are ordinary people. This is obviously a much different approach than the traditional analytical philosophy wherein philosophers based their arguments on premises they come up with. As can be expected, criticism regarding experimental philosophy abound.

Despite the resistance of many philosophers to experimental philosophy this emerging field in philosophy is also being welcomed quite warmly, not only among seasoned philosophers but among people from other field of studies. The reason for this is that due to the nature or experimental philosophy (data collection) those from related fields of study can contribute much. As the mission statement of the Experimental Philosophy Society states, “it is expected that the membership of the society will include faculty, students, and interested amateurs not only in philosophy but also in psychology, anthropology, sociology, law, and other related fields.”

Right now areas of research in experimental philosophy include consciousness, cultural diversity, determinism and moral responsibility, and intentional action. For an updated list of research using experimental philosophy visit the X-Phi wiki. You can even add your paper, as long as it uses experimental philosophy of course.

With John Calvin’s birthday coming up in a few days, he was born 500 years ago on June 10, 1509, I though it would be fitting to do a post on the Calvinist theology.

Calvin is best known for the theological system that was named after him – Calvinism. Note that while Clavinist churches are still in existence today not all the churches adhere to all the classical features of Calvinism. As a theology what makes classical Calvinism distinctive is that it teaches the sovereignty of God in salvation and in life. The five points of Calvinism include:

The doctrine of total depravity – The inability of man to follow God and save himself due to inherent sin.
The doctrine of unconditional election – States that God’s choice in who is to be with him is based on his mercy alone and not on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith of the chosen people.
The doctrine of limited atonement – Says that atonement is only for those chosen by God even though he has the power to save everyone he has chosen not too do so.
The doctrine of irresistible grace – Says that those that God has chosen will be brought to faith in time and that these people would not be able to resist the call of the Gospel.
The Perseverance of the saints – Asserts that those that God has chosen has “eternal security” and that those that fall away from the faith are apparently not among the chosen.

As mentioned earlier, there are lots of variations of Calvinism today with modern variations being embraced more and more in North America. With his birthday coming up this would be good news to Calvin were he alive.

December is still more than six months away which means we have quite some time to wait before we can see the movie Agora.

According to Wikipedia, “Agora is an upcoming 2009 historical drama film directed by Alejandro Amenábar, written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil, and starring Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella. It was screened Out of Competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It will then get a general release on December 18, 2009.”

The movie is about the love story of astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria (Rachel Weisz) and her slave Davus (Max Minghella). It is more than a love story though because it also shows what went on during Hypatia’s time in the 4th century when religious persecution was rampant among Christians and Jews. Racehl Weisz says empathically of the story, “It’s the true story of a fourth-century woman and, in some ways, nothing much has changed. We’ve evolved in so many ways, and in others we haven’t evolved at all. We can go into outer space and travel to the moon; we can cure certain diseases; but we still kill each other in the name of religion. It seems so primitive to still be doing that.” How true.

The real Hypatia was a Greek scholar from Alexandria in Egypt. Aside from being a philosopher and astronomer she was also the first notable woman in mathematics. Hypatia died in the hands of a Coptic Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil.

Humour. Humour is very important and the philosophy of humour is a very interesting topic but today’s post isn’t about that, instead here’s a link to a site that will allow you to indulge yourself with a philosophical argument with none other than the great Socrates. Yep. You’ve got that right. If you wish to match your wits against Socrates then head on to The Socrates Argument Clinic.

A friendly reminder: If you don’t win the argument you’ll need to drink the hemlock but if you win Socrates will drink it for you. Of course it is really difficult to win against Socrates but there are some who have won.

If you wish to take more than the free argument clinic though you’ll be disappointed since the link to the InterQuest homepage no longer works.

Have a good time arguing with Socrates!

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Socrates said that the “unexamined life is not worth living”. In this case we can definitely say that the Examined Life is worth watching!

Examined Life is a film showing eight renowned philosophers in turn walking and sharing their thoughts with writer and director Astra Taylor. Featured philosophers in Examined Life include Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor.

The film was done with the premise that “philosophers have long done their best thinking when directly engaging with the outside world, not in isolation from it,” and since walking means going out and Neitzsche once claimed that “only ideas conceived while walking have any value” then it’s easy to see why Taylor chose to give us a peek into the philosophers thoughts while they were literally out on the streets.

The film has been receiving praise for bring philosophy to the figurative (aside from the literal) streets, making it actually understandable and even interesting for regular people. Ok so interesting might be too strong for some people but at the least she got the philosophers to open up in a manner that steers clear of too much big terms. In the end, interested or bored, reviewers agree that the discussions with each philosopher will leave you thinking a bit deeper about different things in life. So if your brain needs a little jump-start or you want to indulge in a variety of philosophy lessons without having to pore through lots of books my advice would be to watch Examined Life.

The Department of Philosophy of the University of Guelph will be inviting a speaker every year to their campus hold an event called The Guelph Lecture in Philosophy. This is the very first year that the event will be held. The inauguration of the Guelph Lecture in Philosophy will be held on March 21 from 2 to 4pm at the Rozanski Hall in Guelph. The lecturer, Peter Singer, will speak on “Ethics and Animals”. Everyone is invited to come and listen to the lecture. NO ADMISSION FEE.

Peter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. He is best known for his book Animal Liberation, which is credited by some for the formation of the animal rights movement as we now know. With a utilitarian approach to ethics he asserted the principle of minimizing suffering in his book and argued that animals have rights and these rights should be based on their ability to feel pain. Singer’s latest book, The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, is fresh out of printing. Though I haven’t got hold of a copy yet but it promises to be a riveting read based not only on the topic itself and Singer’s reputation but from the first few paragraphs shown in the book’s website.

With such a distinguished guest it is no wonder Prof. Andrew Bailey of Guelph’s Philosophy Department feels that they are indeed fortunate.