Definition of Philosophy

The Ethics of Changing Jobs

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Jessica Alba gets solicited for some business by two employees of a bodyguard company while trying to enjoy a day at the park with daughter Honor Marie in Beverly Hills, Ca

Changing jobs is part of life. We all need to move on at some point in our lives. In this day and age, we can’t very well be expected to stay in one place for the rest of our lives. Yet even in cases like these, we are expected to think things through and to follow certain ethics.

Take this example. Company A has been in operation for several years. After 4 years of operation, most of its employees feel frustrated. They have gone as high as they could in the ranks and discontent is the general prevailing feeling. A competing company opens within the city, unknown to the upper management. This competing company offers a higher salary and better terms. The people within the company also deemed it necessary to try and hire the most skilled people in the original company.
Naturally, these things are kept secret from the original company.

The question now is the ethics involved – not from the perspective of the newly formed rival company but in the part of the employees who are being pirated, for the lack of a better word. Is there something wrong in them wanting to leave their current job for greener pastures? Isn’t that something normal and expected?

I’d have to say that leaving for greener pastures is all well and fine BUT leaving and immediately working for a rival company when you have an agreement with your current company NOT to work with a similar group until after 1 year of leaving is something else. Oh, did I leave that fact out in the beginning?

Here’s your question – would you do what these employees are doing? Or would you be more ethical (and perhaps less practical)?

Originally posted on July 20, 2011 @ 11:28 pm

The Philosophy Of Work In Americana

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Businessman on a Cell Phone

I have never really thought of work in a strictly philosophical light. Neither have I associated the philosophy of work with being an American. I suppose I am no different from my neighbor or my colleague. I go to work because it is part of life. It is necessary. Without working, I would not be able to live the life that I have now.

Yet those thoughts in themselves are already the start of some philosophical analysis. Why do Americans work? Why is work so much part of our lives? These things – and more – were brought to my attention when I ran across Jason J. Campbell’s article titled Americana and the Philosophy of Work. In it, he highlights how the “American culture is intrinsically tied to labor.” He states:

We are a culture of laborers and Americana habituates its citizens to the necessity of work. We are a culture of workers and therefore any attempt to understand Americana must be met by an equal attempt to understand how Americans work.

Generally stated, a philosophy of work is an attempt to locate the essential conditions wherein work is meaningful. In discussing how a culture goes to work and how their effort to work is meaningful, one must take note of the concept.

In discussing Americana, the vast majority of the population has to work because of an acute sense of economic necessity, that is, they work because they have to. Generally speaking, only the very wealthy or those who have retired have the “luxury” of working for its sheer satisfaction.

True enough. I myself believe that I am part of the former group described in the preceding paragraph. Why do you work?

Originally posted on August 29, 2011 @ 9:18 am

The Value of a Good Teacher or Speaker

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Knowledge is free but perking up your intellect can be done in many ways. Teachings picked up from classes or lectures will always be there but the method of delivering and interpreting them in a way so that an audience can properly understand and pick up the fine lines in them is another. In short, it takes a wise person to deliver the goods, opening the minds of listeners who are usually not that fast when it comes to understanding new terminologies and practices today.

This goes beyond business. It can cater to law, medicine or even environmental concerns. The main source of all knowledge are the books that we see, most of which we don’t read from cover to cover. Not all people are made to read books and in these cases, it seems that the need for a mediator in the form of teachers or resource speakers enlighten the subject matter a whole lot more.

Many say that expediting such terminologies is a talent. But if you look at it, it just needs practice and a lot of self-confidence. An audience can fare well and understand topics of various areas if they see that the one preaching it knows it to the letter. Further, enhancing discussions to make it interesting in their eyes is another, a strategy that can perhaps teach many that expanding a certain subject matter can be done by first ensuring that your audience is indeed listening.

Originally posted on June 28, 2011 @ 2:16 am

Philosophy for Kids

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“Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it?” ~ Michel De Montaigne On Education 1533-1592

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Instructing children in philosophy is exactly what Philosopher Leighton Evans and The Philosophy Shop intends to do. Leighton Evans is seeking to get primary schools in the UK to see not only the usefulness but also the feasibility of teaching kids to think philosophically. According to Philosophy Shop advantages to children will include “raised IQ, raised self-confidence and improved emotional intelligence.” As for the question of feasibility, though it may seem unlikely that kids from 7 to 11 years old will understand the principles of philosophy, Evans says that their age group is actually “well suited to this type of thinking. They are not burdened by the subject knowledge they are going to gain through school.” Furthermore, according to Dr Ieuan Williams children are “natural philosophers in that they ask important questions about the world and about human life and morality.” Thus their natural curiosity combined with their open-mindedness makes them ideal for thinking outside the box.

Philosophy Shop is not going to be the one conducting philosophy classes to kids but instead trains the teachers/philosophers how to use philosophy methods in the classroom and thus encourage a philosophical attitude among children.

Originally posted on July 13, 2011 @ 10:45 am