How do you get someone who doesn’t care about philosophy but loves TV shows like The Simpsons, South Park, and the Sopranos? Simple. Get them a book about the philosophy of each show. Yes there really are books about the philosophy of these shows. There’s The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer (2001), South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating (2007), and The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am (2004). All books from the popular culture and philosophy series of Open Court Publishing. Just from the titles alone you’ll get their attention.

So how about if they don’t watch TV and like music instead well then you can recommend any of the following:

There are also books for geeks, movie lovers, Harley enthusiasts and more. If you don’t find your topic of particular interest what’s great is that you can submit the topic to Open Court Publishing and they’ll consider whether it is worth doing a philosophy volume on. They prefer very specific topics so make sure you think up something really interesting and specific. So far they’re at the 38th volume and have 14 more topics in line. Do check out their site I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.

Philosophy is a very broad area of study so that if you’re interested in just one specific branch of philosophy other branches might as well be relatively alien for you. To remind us just how wide and varied the topics are that can be studied philosophically I’ll be going back to the basics and list down the main areas of study, which include the following:

Metaphysics – This area of philosophy deals with the nature of being and seeks to understand the nature of how and why things exist. It’s traditional branches are cosmology and ontology.
Epistemology – The study of HOW we know things, it is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. Epistemology is used by philosophers to decide or at least try to decide the limits and boundaries of what can and can not be known.
Logic – Logic is what’s used in all areas of philosophy to arrive at conclusions. Logic can be represented in symbols via mathematical logic though philosophical logic is still very much in use.
Ethics – Deals with morality. An area that is very much a cause for debate but is very important since it answers the questions of how we should act and react with other people. Aesthetics
Politics – The study of government and its relationship to its citizens and the communities that make up the government.
Language – Philosophical approach to the nature, origins, and usage of language.
Aesthetics – This is the study of not only beauty and art but seeks to explain how and why we classify things as beautiful as well as the degree to which we consider things beautiful.

Looking for just one book about Western Philosophy? If you are, I recommend that you check out Steven Cahn’s “Classics of Western Philosophy”. Whether you go to the library to borrow an old copy or get your hand on the latest (7th) edition you can will be hard-pressed to find an anthology that is more readable as well as affordable. In fact this book is becoming the text to use so much so that as Dr Vern Lindquist, an active reviewer/commenter in Amazon, said, “Classics” is itself becoming a classic.

Of course this not a book to read in one sitting with such a very broad range of philosophers and their representative ideas. The latest edition “presents complete texts or substantial selections from fifty-six philosophical masterpieces, in pre-eminent and thoughtfully annotated translations and editions.” According to the Amazon description the additions to the 7th edition include “selections from Plotinus’ “Enneads”, Schopenhauer’s “The World as Will and Representation”, Husserl’s “Paris Lectures”, Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations”, and a new selection from Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit”. Selections from Aristotle’s “Metaphysics” and “On the Soul” have been expanded, while Aristotle’s “Physics and Nicomachean Ethics”, Hume’s “Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, Mill’s “On Liberty”, and Russell’s “The Problem of Philosophy” have been further abridged.”

This is one book that’s a must for any philosophy student or anyone who’s interested in simply learning some of the most interesting and compelling ideas of the best western philosophers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ever wondered about the area about politics that makes it so ideal and pristine, Ethics. As it turns out, the very first philosopher to ever suggest the relationship between politics and ethics was the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius who emphasized personal and governmental morality. As we all know, most governments are founded on a set of rules or laws that have been refined and revised throughout that specific country’s history. The great civilizations of the ancient times such as the Egyptians and the Maya’s have their forms of governance patterned after nature and that in nature there is a supreme being that makes all things happen. This supreme being (which is embodied by a king or other form of ruler) can and has the right to revise and formulate laws as they see fit based on either personal preferences and historical facts (which is the written or oral history of the race or tribe which states or defines the role of the leader) however long the said culture might have existed. These cultures may have come and gone but their influence and views on how the world, life and self-governance happens is history. The English, French and other major civilizations of Medieval times went through several upheavals in government because of corruption and other related matters. The Greeks began the study of philosophy as part of their quest in understanding the why, what, where and who’s of life. Why did the sun set at night, why do the flowers bloom during spring and many other questions people might ponder about were thought of an explanation collectively by scholars and philosophers of the day.

Confucius is recognized worldwide as a philosopher whose works and theories have shaped the lives and governments of many Asian civilizations. His work in linking ethics (which is the study of how one should behave in relation to others) and Politics (which is the institution of governance) and how these two should begin at the personal level. The Romans have recognized the principle and was said to be one of the reasons why people got to the Senate. To be a good responsible citizen who is part of society, one must become part of the senate to show he has nothing to hide. This is true but man has a way of twisting and turning history and faith using it for personal benefit which can be seen as far back as recorded history can remember. Much of the works of the great philosophical fathers such as Socrates is known only through the writings of his student Plato who is also a philosopher who might have changed a few thoughts as he reviews and records them in writing. History is written memory of people and cultures that have long gone and much of our lives today will become the history of tomorrow. As the great Confucius would have put it, how have you lived today and what have you contributed to society. The good of the many, greatly outweighs the good of the one.

There have been many wars that the US has engaged in during the short span since the second world war. Vietnam, the liberation of Kuwait, invasion of Iraq and many more. Many of their enemies such as these terrorists whom they blame for the crashing of planes and subsequent demise of the twin towers, the World Trade Center (which was already targeted once from which they same was done by the same people so you would think they would have learned) and the deaths of many. These terrorists have capitalized on one thing that has led to many defeats such as the Black Hawk Down Incident in Somalia when they conducted a so-called flash raid to capture several key rebel leaders which ended in one of their most humiliating defeats since Vietnam, the leave no man behind policy.

This may have to do more of the moral implications and the opinions of their constituents when their fallen are left in the battlefield to be humiliated again and again by the enemy (and very much publicized by the ever present media who go where no media people have gone before capitalizing on the desecration and humiliation of dead people who should have otherwise been left alone out of respect and should be seen only by authorities and not the general public due to their graphic nature) Media has become an ever present entity on the battlefield which has given us front row seats in the bombing of the Iraqi capital in the “Shock and Awe Campaign”  (which also showed the first images of the smart-bombs or should we call them not-so-smart bombs that hit some unwanted targets causing some collateral damage(which could also have been the result of the Iraqi army lobbing shells at their own people making it look as if the smart-bombs missed). The morality being missed as they clamor to be the first to get there and break the news, in their never ending quest to bring the news(good or bad) straight to your TV as you are sitting down to eat dinner after a long hard day’s work The Military have had a policy of getting all their personnel out dead or alive as soon as possible to avoid a turning of tides at home where families can start complaining to the government that their son’s and daughter’s who went to war were not returned to them for a formal and decent burial which can have disastrous effects on their morale and the government’s political opponents agenda to use against it.

Many a soul on this earth, have gone through life without meaning. Some say that Philosophy is one’s search of meaning in one’s life and others say who cares. But one should always have a purpose for every second, minute, hour, day, month and year of life. Life is short though it may last a couple of decades, tis’ still short a time. Considering that the earth has been around for a couple of billion years, life truly is short.

What is life on this earth without purpose? A waste of borrowed time, for life without meaning is nothing and if it is nothing… then why live at all. We all have a purpose on this earth whether we like it or not. Some feel damned and some don’t, some are endowed and others are average whatever place you may have in the measures set by man on his fellow man you are unique. Unique, in a way that whatever you may think is important even if others don’t pay attention or don’t mind.

It doesn’t matter what others say about your purpose or destiny, that’s their view and their’s alone. Listen deep within and understand what is inside and not what others say, life is meaningless without purpose. What is happiness without sadness, triumph without defeat and so on and so forth. He had a way of assuring that we get both sides of the picture so we’d cherish them side by side.

Go simple, “ Do your ordinary duties, EXTRA ORDINARILY WELL”. Sounds nice doesn’t it? Feels even better…..