Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Of Philosophy
5th EDITION
Lidija Rangelovska
A Narcissus Publications Imprint, Skopje 2009
I. A
II. B
III. C
IV. D
V. E
VI. F
VII. G
VIII. H
IX. I-J
X. K
XI. L
XII. M
XIII. N
XIV. O
XV. P-Q
XVI. R
XVII. S
XVIII. T
XIX. U-V-W
XX. X-Y-Z
XXI. The Author
A
Abortion
Does one have the right to maintain one's life and prolong
them at other people's expense? Does one have the right to
use other people's bodies, their property, their time, their
resources and to deprive them of pleasure, comfort,
material possessions, income, or any other thing?
Example:
Example:
But does A's right not to be killed include the right against
third parties that they refrain from enforcing the rights of
other people against A? Does A's right not to be killed
preclude the righting of wrongs committed by A against
others - even if the righting of such wrongs means the
killing of A?
But why do we assign the critical act and its outcomes not
to the real - but to the ideal? Because the ideal is judged to
be preferable, superior, a criterion of measurement, a
yardstick of perfection. Naturally, we will be inclined to
regard it as the source, rather than as the by-product, or as
the finished product (let alone as the raw material) of the
critical process. To refute this intuitive assignment is easy:
criticism is always quantitative. At the least, it can always
be translated into quantitative measures, or expressed in
quantitative-propositions. This is a trait of the real - never
of the ideal. That which emanates from the ideal is not
likely to be quantitative. Therefore, criticism must be seen
to be the outcome of the interaction between the real and
the ideal - rather than as the absolute emanation from
either.
Achievement
Example:
I have moral obligations towards all other humans
because I share with them my affiliation to the human
species.
The State of Israel (Dir Yassin) and the United States (My
Lai) strictly prohibit crimes against humanity and
explicitly protect civilians during military operations.
Hence the rarity of genocidal actions by their armed
forces. Rwanda and Nazi Germany openly condoned,
encouraged, abetted, and logistically supported genocide.
Agent-Principal Problem
Politics, in all its forms, has failed. The notion that we can
safely and successfully hand over the management of our
daily lives and the setting of priorities to a political class
or elite is thoroughly discredited. Politicians cannot be
trusted, regardless of the system in which they operate. No
set of constraints, checks, and balances, is proved to work
and mitigate their unconscionable acts and the pernicious
effects these have on our welfare and longevity.
But the ethos and myth of "order out of chaos" - with its
proponents in the exact sciences as well - ran deeper than
that. The very culture of commerce was thoroughly
permeated and transformed. It is not surprising that the
Internet - a chaotic network with an anarchic modus
operandi - flourished at these times.
Anger
Animal Rights
Even this is way too fuzzy. Many people love snakes, for
instance, and deeply empathize with them. Could we
accept the assertion (avidly propounded by these people)
that snakes ought to have rights – or should we consider
only organisms with extremities and the ability to feel
pain?
Historically, philosophers like Kant (and Descartes,
Malebranche, and Aquinas) rejected the idea of animal
rights. They regarded animals as the organic equivalents
of machines, driven by coarse instincts, unable to
experience pain (though their behavior sometimes
deceives us into erroneously believing that they do).
Live and let live is what evolution is all about - not the
law of the jungle. The survival of all the species that are
fit to survive is preferred to the hegemony of a few
rapacious, highly-adapted, belligerent predators. Nature is
about compromise, not about conquest.
Anti-Semitism
Ignacio Silone
The Anti-Semite:
The Anti-Semite:
The Anti-Semite:
It is false to say that Jews are first and foremost Jews and
only then are they the loyal citizens of their respective
countries. Jews have unreservedly fought and sacrificed in
the service of their homelands, often killing their
coreligionists in the process. But it is true that Jews
believe that what is good for the Jews is good for the
country they reside in. By aligning the interests of their
adopted habitat with their narrower and selfish agenda,
Jews feel justified to promote their own interests to the
exclusion of all else and all others.
The Anti-Semite:
What can I say? I agree with you. I would only like to set
the record straight by pointing out the fact that Jews are
actually under-represented in the echelons of power
everywhere (including in the United States). Only in Israel
- where they constitute an overwhelming majority - do
Jews run things.
The Anti-Semite:
The Anti-Israeli:
The Anti-Israeli:
The Anti-Israeli:
All this changed after the Six Days War in 1967 and, even
more so, after the Yom Kippur War. Militant Messianic
Jews with radical fundamentalist religious ideologies
sought to eradicate the distinction between state and
synagogue. They propounded a political agenda, thus
invading the traditionally secular turf, to the great
consternation of their compatriots.
The Anti-Israeli:
The Anti-Israeli:
The Arabs, who first welcomed the Jewish settlers and the
economic opportunities they represented, turned against
the new emigrants when they learned of their agenda of
occupation, displacement, and ethnic cleansing. Israel
became a pivot of destabilization in the Middle East,
embroiled in conflicts and wars too numerous to count.
Unscrupulous and corrupt Arab rulers used its existence
and the menace it reified as a pretext to avoid
democratization, transparency, and accountability.
The Anti-Israeli:
Even now, it is not too late. Israel can transform itself into
an important and benevolent regional player by embracing
its Arab neighbors and by championing the causes of
economic and scientific development, integration, and
opposition to outside interference in the region's internal
affairs. The Arabs, exhausted by decades of conflict and
backwardness, are likely to heave a collective sigh of
relief and embrace Israel - reluctantly at first and more
warmly as it proves itself a reliable ally and friend.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
They also ignore, at their peril, the fact that only a very
thin line separates self-mutilation - whether altruistic
(Jesus) or "egoistic" - and the mutilation of others (serial
killers, Hitler).
Brain, Metaphors of
(Diego Rivera)
(Montaigne, On Cannibalism)
Do dead people have rights and can they claim and invoke
them while they are still alive? Is the live person the same
as his dead body, does he "own" it, does the state have
any rights in it? Does the corpse stll retain its previous
occupant's "personhood"? Are cadavers still human, in
any sense of the word?
(Catholic Encyclopedia)
Causes, External
Child Labor
Chinese Room
Cloning
Unbalancing Nature
Effects on Society
Does one have the right to maintain one's life and prolong
them at other people's expense? Does one have the right to
use other people's bodies, their property, their time, their
resources and to deprive them of pleasure, comfort,
material possessions, income, or any other thing?
Example:
Example:
But does A's right not to be killed include the right against
third parties that they refrain from enforcing the rights of
other people against A? Does A's right not to be killed
preclude the righting of wrongs committed by A against
others - even if the righting of such wrongs means the
killing of A?
Communism
Competition
1. Collusive tendering;
a. Predatory behaviour
towards competitors;
b. Discriminatory pricing or
terms or conditions in the supply or
purchase of goods or services;
c. Mergers, takeovers, joint
ventures, or other acquisitions of
control;
d. Fixing prices for exported
goods or resold imported goods;
e. Import restrictions on
legitimately-marked trademarked
goods;
f. Unjustifiably - whether
partially or completely - refusing to
deal on an enterprise's customary
commercial terms, making the
supply of goods or services
dependent on restrictions on the
distribution or manufacturer of
other goods, imposing restrictions
on the resale or exportation of the
same or other goods, and purchase
"tie-ins".
'Intimidate' Competitors
Raise "mobility" barriers to keep competitors in the
least-profitable segments of the industry. - This is a tactic
which preserves the appearance of competition while
subverting it. Certain segments, usually less profitable or
too small to be of interest, or with dim growth prospects,
or which are likely to be opened to fierce domestic and
foreign competition are left to the competition. The more
lucrative parts of the markets are zealously guarded by the
company. Through legislation, policy measures,
withholding of technology and know-how - the firm
prevents its competitors from crossing the river into its
protected turf.
'Vertical' Barriers
Practice a "preemptive strategy" by capturing all
capacity expansion in the industry (simply buying it,
leasing it or taking over the companies that own or
develop it).
Consider life.
Note on Learning
But the Mills failed to realize that their laws relied heavily
on and derived from two organizing principles: time and
space. These meta principles lend meaning to ideas by
rendering their associations comprehensible. Thus, the
contiguity and frequency laws leverage meaningful spatial
and temporal relations to form the context within which
ideas associate. Context-effects and Gestalt and other
vision grouping laws, promulgated in the 20th century by
the likes of Max Wertheimer, Irvin Rock, and Stephen
Palmer, also rely on the pre-existence of space for their
operation.
I. Waste in Nature
But why the need for such transport and the expenditure
of energy it entails? Why do systems perpetually trade
raw materials among themselves?
Continuum
All the points in the Stick will retain their identity under
any transformation and under any physical action. If burnt
– they will all turn into ash, to take a radical example.
All the points in the stick will also retain their relationship
to one another, the structure of the stick, the mutual
arrangement of the points, the channels between them.
The integers in the set will not. Each will produce a result
and the results will be disparate and will form a set of
discrete numbers which is absolutely distinct from the
original set. The second generation set will have no
resemblance whatsoever to the first generation set.
Thus, we are better off asking "cui bono" than "is it the
right thing to do". Phenomenologically, "corruption" is a
common - and misleading - label for a group of
behaviours. One of the following criteria must apply:
Crime
PRACTICAL:
PRACTICAL:
PRACTICAL:
Consuming Distinguishing
Consensual Conflictive
Exogenic-Extrinsic Endogenic-Intrinsic
Death
Definition
(Margaret Mead)
And not for the first time. Napoleon justified his gory
campaigns by claiming that they served to spread French
ideals throughout a barbarous world. Kipling bemoaned
the "White Man's (civilizing) burden", referring
specifically to Britain's role in India. Hitler believed
himself to be the last remaining barrier between the
hordes of Bolshevism and the West. The Vatican
concurred with him.
The truth is that voters are powerless. The rich and mighty
take care of their own. Malfeasance carries little risk and
rarely any sanction. Western democracies are ossified
bastions of self-perpetuating interest groups aided and
abetted and legitimized by the ritualized spectacle that we
call "elections". And don't you think the denizens of
Africa and Asia and eastern Europe and the Middle East
are blissfully unaware of this charade.
Disease
PRACTICAL:
PRACTICAL:
PRACTICAL:
PRACTICAL:
Economics, Science of
I. Introduction
4. Homo Economicus
V. Consumer Choices
IX. Econometrics
But, if so, why the volatility in share prices, i.e., why are
share prices distributed? Surely, since, in liquid markets,
there are always buyers - the price should stabilize around
an equilibrium point.
Empathy
BUT
In sum:
And yet, this is not the real question. The serious problem
is this : WHY should anyone pay in his future for his
actions in the past? First, there are some thorny issues to
be eliminated. Such as determinism: if there is no free
will, there can be no personal responsibility. Another is
the preservation of personal identity: are the person who
committed the act and the person who is made to pay for
it – one and the same? If the answer is in the affirmative,
in which sense are they the same, the physical, the
mental? Is the "overlap" only limited and probabilistic?
Still, we could assume, for this discussion's sake, that the
personal identity is undeniably and absolutely preserved
and that there is free will and, therefore, that people can
predict the outcomes of their actions, to a reasonable
degree of accuracy and that they elect to accept these
outcomes prior to the commission of their acts or to their
omission. All this does not answer the question that
opened this paragraph. Even if there were a contract
signed between the acting person and the world, in which
the person willingly, consciously and intelligently
(=without diminished responsibility) accepted the future
outcome of his acts, the questions would remain: WHY
should it be so? Why cannot we conceive of a world in
which acts and outcomes are divorced? It is because we
cannot believe in an a-causal world.
Pairs of events that are each other's cause and effect are
accorded a special status. But, that one follows the other
(even if invariably) is insufficient grounds to endow them
with this status. This is the famous "Post hoc, ergo propter
hoc" fallacy. Other relations must be weighed and the
possibility of common causation must be seriously
contemplated. Such sequencing is, conceptually, not even
necessary: simultaneous causation and backwards
causation are part of modern physics, for instance. Time
seems to be irrelevant to the status of events, though both
time and causation share an asymmetric structure (A
causes B but B does not cause A). The direction (the
asymmetry) of the causal chain is not of the same type as
the direction (asymmetry) of time. The former is formal,
the latter, presumably, physical, or mental. A more serious
problem, to my mind, is the converse: what sets apart
causal (cause and effect) pairs of events from other pairs
in which both member-events are the outcomes of a
common cause? Event B can invariably follow Event A
and still not be its effect. Both events could have been
caused by a common cause. A cause either necessitates
the effect, or is a sufficient condition for its occurrence.
The sequence is either inevitable, or possible. The
meaninglessness of this sentence is evident.
Here, philosophers diverge. Some say (following Hume's
reasoning and his constant conjunction relation between
events) that a necessary causal relation exists between
events when one is the inevitable outcome (=follows) the
other. Others propound a weaker version: the necessity of
the effect is hypothetical or conditional, given the laws of
nature. Put differently: to say that A necessitates (=causes)
B is no more than to say that it is a result of the laws of
nature that when A happens, so does B. Hempel
generalized this approach. He said that a statement of a
fact (whether a private or a general fact) is explained only
if deduced from other statements, at least one of which is
a statement of a general scientific law. This is the
"Covering Law Model" and it implies a symmetry
between explaining and predicting (at least where private
facts are concerned). If an event can be explained, it could
have been predicted and vice versa. Needless to say that
Hempel's approach did not get us nearer to solving the
problems of causal priority and of indeterministic
causation.
Euthanasia
But this is not the case. The sanctity and value of life
compete with a host of other equally potent moral
demands. Even the most devout pro-life ethicist accepts
that certain medical decisions - for instance, to administer
strong analgesics - inevitably truncate the patient's life.
Yet, this is considered moral because the resulting
euthanasia is not the main intention of the pain-relieving
doctor.
In all four cases, the decisions our doctor has to make are
ethically clear cut. He should administer pain-alleviating
drugs, except when the patient risks dying (in 1 above).
The (possible) shortening of the patient's life (which is
guesswork, at best) is immaterial.
Conclusions:
" ... concern for their welfare, respect for their wishes,
respect for the intrinsic value of their lives and respect
for their interests."
Conclusions:
The suicide violates not only the social contract but, many
will add, covenants with God or nature. St. Thomas
Aquinas wrote in the "Summa Theologiae" that - since
organisms strive to survive - suicide is an unnatural act.
Moreover, it adversely affects the community and violates
the property rights of God, the imputed owner of one's
spirit. Christianity regards the immortal soul as a gift and,
in Jewish writings, it is a deposit. Suicide amounts to the
abuse or misuse of God's possessions, temporarily lodged
in a corporeal mansion.
As Dworkin states:
Conclusions:
Conclusions:
Conclusions:
Existence
BUT
Experience, Common
Expectations, Economic
Eugenics
The more rapidly the world changes, the greater the value
of mutations of all sorts. One never knows whether
today's maladaptation will not prove to be tomorrow's
winner. Ecosystems are invariably comprised of niches
and different genes - even mutated ones - may fit different
niches.
I. Resource depletion;
II. Roll back the welfare state in all its forms and guises;
Euthanasia
But this is not the case. The sanctity and value of life
compete with a host of other equally potent moral
demands. Even the most devout pro-life ethicist accepts
that certain medical decisions - for instance, to administer
strong analgesics - inevitably truncate the patient's life.
Yet, this is considered moral because the resulting
euthanasia is not the main intention of the pain-relieving
doctor.
In all four cases, the decisions our doctor has to make are
ethically clear cut. He should administer pain-alleviating
drugs, except when the patient risks dying (in 1 above).
The (possible) shortening of the patient's life (which is
guesswork, at best) is immaterial.
" ... concern for their welfare, respect for their wishes,
respect for the intrinsic value of their lives and respect
for their interests."
The suicide violates not only the social contract but, many
will add, covenants with God or nature. St. Thomas
Aquinas wrote in the "Summa Theologiae" that - since
organisms strive to survive - suicide is an unnatural act.
Moreover, it adversely affects the community and violates
the property rights of God, the imputed owner of one's
spirit. Christianity regards the immortal soul as a gift and,
in Jewish writings, it is a deposit. Suicide amounts to the
abuse or misuse of God's possessions, temporarily lodged
in a corporeal mansion.
As Dworkin states:
From My Correspondence
First, that the world is finite and also close to its end. To
say that something that did not happen cannot be true is to
say that it will never happen (i.e., to say that time and
space – the world – are finite and are about to end
momentarily).
Still, the argument can be made that the flying saucer did
exist – though only in the minds of those who drank the
contaminated water. What is this form of existence? In
which sense does a hallucination "exist"? The
psychophysical problem is that no causal relationship can
be established between a thought and its real life correlate,
the brainwaves that accompany it. Moreover, this leads to
infinite regression. If the brainwaves created the thought –
who created them, who made them happen? In other
words: who is it (perhaps what is it) that thinks?
But why?
To summarize:
Fascism
This populist strand did not sit well with the overweening
existence of a Duce or a Fuhrer. Tensions erupted now
and then but, overall, the Fuhrerprinzip held well.
But even here the Butler model can be validated. The first
order desire of the donator is to avoid anxiety feelings
generated by a cognitive dissonance. In the process of
socialization we are all exposed to altruistic messages.
They are internalized by us (some even to the extent of
forming part of the almighty superego, the conscience). In
parallel, we assimilate the punishment inflicted upon
members of society who are not "social" enough,
unwilling to contribute beyond that which is required to
satisfy their self interest, selfish or egoistic, non-
conformist, "too" individualistic, "too" idiosyncratic or
eccentric, etc. Completely not being altruistic is "bad" and
as such calls for "punishment". This no longer is an
outside judgement, on a case by case basis, with the
penalty inflicted by an external moral authority. This
comes from the inside: the opprobrium and reproach, the
guilt, the punishment (read Kafka). Such impending
punishment generates anxiety whenever the person judges
himself not to have been altruistically "sufficient". It is to
avoid this anxiety or to quell it that a person engages in
altruistic acts, the result of his social conditioning. To use
the Butler scheme: the first-degree desire is to avoid the
agonies of cognitive dissonance and the resulting anxiety.
This can be achieved by committing acts of altruism. The
second-degree desire is the self-interest to commit
altruistic acts in order to satisfy the first-degree desire. No
one engages in contributing to the poor because he wants
them to be less poor or in famine relief because he does
not want others to starve. People do these apparently
selfless activities because they do not want to experience
that tormenting inner voice and to suffer the acute anxiety,
which accompanies it. Altruism is the name that we give
to successful indoctrination. The stronger the process of
socialization, the stricter the education, the more severely
brought up the individual, the grimmer and more
constraining his superego – the more of an altruist he is
likely to be. Independent people who really feel
comfortable with their selves are less likely to exhibit
these behaviours.
God, Existence of
Axiom Number 1:
An Interactive Framework
Home
I. Exposition
What if the brain in vitro (in the above example) could not
communicate with us at all? Would we still think it is
possessed of a self? The biological functions of people in
coma are maintained. But do they have an identity, a self?
If yes, why do we "pull the plug" on them so often?
Interim conclusion:
III. Repression
Impeachment (arguments)
DC: "It was clearly not the intention of the Fathers of our
Constitution to include perjury in the list of impeachable
offences. Treason is more like it. Moreover, to say that the
President will receive a fair trial from the hands of his
peers in the Senate – is to lie. The Senate and its
committees is a political body, heavily tilted, currently,
against the President. No justice can be had where politics
rears its ugly head. Bias and prejudice will rule this mock
trial."
AC: "Let us ignore the legal issues and leave them to their
professionals. Let us talk about what really bothers us all,
including you, I hope and trust. This President has lied.
He may have lied under oath, but he definitely lied on
television and in the spacious rooms of the White House.
He lied to his family, to his aides, to the nation, to
Congress…"
DC: "So you agree that there are lies and there are lies?
That lying is not a monolithic offence? That some lies
are worse than others, some are permissible, some even
ethically mandatory?"
AC: "Unless your lies are so clearly lies that you provoke
rumours regarding what is true, thus inflicting a double
blow upon the public peace that you were mandated to
and undertook to preserve…"
DC: "The American people does not seem to think so, but,
prey, continue…"
AC: "Do you agree that the President of the United States
is party to a contract with the American People?"
DC: "Absolutely."
DC: "I took the pains of noting down everything you said.
You said that the President has engaged in sexual acts and
there can be no dispute between us that this does not
constitute a problem. You said that some of them were
highly unusual. This is a value judgement, so dependent
on period and culture, that it is rendered meaningless by
its derivative nature. What to one is repulsive is to the
other a delightful stimulus. Of course, this applies only to
consenting adults and when life itself is not jeopardized.
Then you mentioned the age disparity between the
President and his liaison. This is sheer bigotry. I am
inclined to think that this statement is motivated more by
envy than by moral judgement…"
Incest
1. Collusive tendering;
'Vertical' Barriers
Innovation
Insanity Defense
"You have all I dare say heard of the animal spirits and
how they are transfused from father to son etcetera
etcetera – well you may take my word that nine parts in
ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and
miscarriages in this world depend on their motions and
activities, and the different tracks and trains you put
them into, so that when they are once set a-going,
whether right or wrong, away they go cluttering like
hey-go-mad."
This is why the insanity defense often sits ill with mental
health pathologies deemed socially "acceptable" and
"normal" - such as religion or love.
Consider the following case:
This is the theory. But the facts are tellingly different. The
less the cost of production (brought down by digital
technologies) - the fiercer the battle against piracy. The
bigger the market - the more pressure is applied to clamp
down on samizdat entrepreneurs.
Governments, from China to Macedonia, are introducing
intellectual property laws (under pressure from rich world
countries) and enforcing them belatedly. But where one
factory is closed on shore (as has been the case in
mainland China) - two sprout off shore (as is the case in
Hong Kong and in Bulgaria).
But this defies logic: the market today is global, the costs
of production are lower (with the exception of the music
and film industries), the marketing channels more
numerous (half of the income of movie studios emanates
from video cassette sales), the speedy recouping of the
investment virtually guaranteed. Moreover, piracy thrives
in very poor markets in which the population would
anyhow not have paid the legal price. The illegal product
is inferior to the legal copy (it comes with no literature,
warranties or support). So why should the big
manufacturers, publishing houses, record companies,
software companies and fashion houses worry?
Disintermediation
Market Fragmentation
Amazon sued Barnes and Noble - and has since settled out
of court in March - for emulating its patented "one click
purchasing" business process. A Web browser command
to purchase an item generates a "cookie" - a text file
replete with the buyer's essential details which is then
lodged in Amazon's server. This allows the transaction to
be completed without a further confirmation step.
Internet, Metaphors of
Examples abound:
A CD-ROM shopping catalogue interacts with a Web site
to allow the user to order a product. The catalogue could
also be updated through the site (as is the practice with
CD-ROM encyclopedias). The advantages of the CD-
ROM are clear: very fast access time (dozens of times
faster than the access to a Web site using a dial up
connection) and a data storage capacity hundreds of times
bigger than the average Web page.
Another example:
Note
D. Online Reference
E. Derivative Content
F. E-Publishing
All this did not prevent 95% of the Fortune 1000 from
installing intranet. 82% of the rest intend to install one by
the end of this year. Medium to big size American firms
have 50-100 intranet terminals per every internet one.
Examples:
In the future, these agents will cover also brick and mortar
retail chains and, in conjunction with wireless, location-
specific services, issue a map of the branch or store
closest to an address specified by the user (the default
being his residence), or yielded by his GPS enabled
wireless mobile or PDA. This technology can be seen in
action in a few music sites on the web and is likely to be
dominant with wireless internet appliances. The owner of
an internet enabled (third generation) mobile phone is
likely to be the target of geographically-specific
marketing campaigns, ads and special offers pertaining to
his current location (as reported by his GPS - satellite
Geographic Positioning System).
F. The Transport of Information - Internet News
These all are attuned to the user, his mental needs and his
information and entertainment preferences.
Internet, Myths of
The Internet tapped into this need to "plug and play" with
little or no training and preparation. Its architecture is
open, its technologies basic and "user-friendly", its users
largely anonymous, its code of conduct (Netiquette)
flexible and tolerant, and the "freedoms" it espouses are
anarchic and indiscriminate.
Yet, once past the login page, Gmail reverts to plain text,
non-encrypted pages. These can easily be tapped into by
hackers, especially when such data travels over unsecured,
unencrypted wireless networks ('hot spots"). To make
clear: while a hacker may not be able to get hold of your
username and password, he can still read all your e-mail
messages!
Interpellation
Notes
IIA. Locke
IIB. Hume
IIC. Kant
Iraq War
Live and let live (and live and let die) must replace the
West's malignant optimism and intellectual and spiritual
arrogance.
Justice, Distributive
They are different, they are narcissistic (they feel and act
as morally superior), they are everywhere, they are
defenceless, they are credulous, they are adaptable (and
thus can be co-opted to collaborate in their own
destruction). They are the perfect hate figure, a foil.
Narcissists thrive on hatred and pathological envy.
Leadership
The members of a nation might feel that they have lost the
ability to shape their future and that their security is
compromised. They will then select a leader who will – so
they believe, judged by what they know about him –
restore both. The means of restoration are less important.
To become a leader, one must convince the multitude, the
masses, the public that one can deliver, not that one
knows the best, most optimal and most efficient path to a
set goal. The HOW is of no consequences. It pales
compared to the WILL HE ? This is because people value
the results more than the way. Even in the most
individualistic societies, people prefer the welfare of the
group to which they belong to their own. The leader
promises to optimize utility for the group as a whole. It is
clear that not all the members will equally benefit, or even
benefit at all. The one who convinces his fellow beings
that he can secure the attainment of their goals (and, thus,
provide for their needs satisfactorily) – becomes a leader.
What matters to the public varies from time to time and
from place to place. To one group of people, the
personality of the leader is of crucial importance, to others
his ancestral roots. At one time, the religious affiliation,
and at another, the right education, or a vision of the
future. Whatever determines the outcome, it must be
strongly correlated with what the group perceives to be its
needs and firmly founded upon its definition of an
acceptable life. This is the information content of the
signal.
The enmity between the urban and the bucolic has deep
historical roots. When the teetering Roman Empire fell to
the Barbarians (410-476 AD), five centuries of existential
insecurity and mayhem ensued. Vassals pledged
allegiance and subservience to local lords in return for
protection against nomads and marauders. Trading was
confined to fortified medieval cities.
All people lie some of the time. They use words to convey
their lies while their body language usually gives them
away. This is curious. Why did evolution prefer this self
defeating strategy? The answer lies in the causes of the
phenomenon.
We lie for three main reasons and these give rise to three
categories of lies:
Life, Human
Life, Right to
But does one have the right to kill an innocent person who
unknowingly and unintentionally threatens to take one's
life? An embryo sometimes threatens the life of the
mother. Does she have a right to take its life? What about
an unwitting carrier of the Ebola virus - do we have a
right to terminate her life? For that matter, do we have a
right to terminate her life even if there is nothing she
could have done about it had she known about her
condition?
Collateral Damage
Moreover:
1. Good Judgment
2. Intelligence
3. Faithful
4. Affectionate
5. Financially Responsible
Marriage
But our conflicts are never really put to rest. They merely
lie dormant.
With luck and the right partner, this frame of mind can be
prolonged. However, as life's disappointments
accumulate, obstacles mount, the possible sorted out from
the improbable and time passes inexorably, this euphoria
abates. The reserves of energy and determination dwindle.
Gradually, one slides into an all-pervasive dysphoric
(even anhedonic or depressed) mood.
The stage is set for the next major dysphoria: the midlife
crisis.
They both want out. And out they go. The majority of
those who do remain married, revert to cohabitation rather
than to love, to co-existence rather to experimentation, to
arrangements of convenience rather to an emotional
revival. It is a sad sight. As biological decay sets in, the
couple heads into the ultimate dysphoria: ageing and
death.
Meaning
Consider games.
Games are useful. They teach and prepare us for real life
situations. Sometimes, they bring in their wake fame,
status, money, the ability to influence the real world. But
are they meaningful? Do they carry meaning?
It is easy to describe HOW people play games. Specify
the rules of the game or observe it long enough, until the
rules become apparent – and you have the answer.
Technical Note
References
Mental Illness
"You have all I dare say heard of the animal spirits and
how they are transfused from father to son etcetera
etcetera – well you may take my word that nine parts in
ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and
miscarriages in this world depend on their motions and
activities, and the different tracks and trains you put
them into, so that when they are once set a-going,
whether right or wrong, away they go cluttering like
hey-go-mad."
I. Overview
This is why the insanity defense often sits ill with mental
health pathologies deemed socially "acceptable" and
"normal" - such as religion or love.
She claimed that God had instructed her to kill her boys.
Surely, God would not ordain such evil?
The reason is that the best and the brightest - when shut
out by the members of the ruling elites - emigrate. In a
country where one's job is determined by his family
connections or by influence peddling - those best fit to do
the job are likely to be disappointed, then disgusted and
then to leave the place altogether.
There are three ways out from the blind alley to which the
MinMaj Rule inevitably and invariably leads its
adherents. One exit is through ethnic cleansing, the other
via self determination, the third is in establishing a
community, a majority of minorities.
I. Introduction
Miracles
I. Historical Overview
God has allegedly created the Universe, or, at least, as
Aristotle postulated, he acted as the "Unmoved Mover".
But Creation was a one-time interaction. Did God, like
certain software developers, embed in the world some
"backdoors" or "Easter eggs" that allow Him to intervene
in exceptional circumstances and change the preordained
and predestined course of events? If he did, out go the
concepts of determinism and predestination, thus
undermining (and upsetting) quite a few religious
denominations and schools of philosophy.
In summary:
From a correspondence:
Moral Hazard
Introduction
Narcissism, Collective
But how does the narcissist avoid the realisation that what
he loudly decries and derides is actually part of him? By
exaggerating, or even dreaming up and creatively
inventing, differences between his qualities and conduct
and other people's. The more hostile he becomes towards
the "nearly-he", the easier it is to distinguish himself from
"the Other".
Narcissism, Cultural
Other Works
Lasch said that this was the First deadly Sin of the civil
rights movement. It insisted that racial issues be tackled
"with arguments drawn from modern sociology and
from the scientific refutation of social porejudice" - and
not on moral (read: religious) grounds.
Nazism
Leibniz was ridiculed (by Voltaire) for his "the best of all
possible worlds" assertion (God selected the best of all
possible worlds because, by his nature, he is good). But he
prevailed. A necessary truth – logicians say today – must
by necessity be true in all possible worlds. When we say
"it is possible that something" – we mean to say: "there is
a world in which there this something exists". And "this
something is necessary" is taken to mean: "this something
exists in all possible worlds". The prominent logician,
David Lewis postulated that all the possible worlds are
actual and are spatio-temporally separated. Propositions
are designations of sets of possible worlds in which the
propositions are true. A property (being tall, for instance)
is not a universal – but a set of possible individuals
carrying this property, to whom the relevant predicate
applies. Lewis demonstrated rather conclusively that is no
point in using possible worlds – unless they exist
somewhere. A logical necessity, therefore, would be a
logical proposition which is true in all the logically
possible worlds. According to Lewis's S5 logical modality
system, if a proposition is possible – it is necessarily
possible. This is because if it true in some possible world
– then, perforce, in every possible world it must be true
that the proposition is true in some possible world.
Models of T validity reasonably confine the sweep of S5
to worlds which are accessible – rather to all the possible
worlds. Still, all validation methods assume
(axiomatically, in essence) that necessity is truth.
Others, Happiness of
The flaws in all the above answers are evident and have
been explored at length in the literature. The assumptions
are dubious (fully informed participants, rationality in
decision making and in prioritizing the outcomes, etc.).
All the answers are instrumental and quantitative: they
strive to offer a moral measuring rod. An "increase"
entails the measurement of two states: before and after the
act. Moreover, it demands full knowledge of the world
and a type of knowledge so intimate, so private - that it is
not even sure that the players themselves have conscious
access to it. Who goes around equipped with an
exhaustive list of his priorities and another list of all the
possible outcomes of all the acts that he may commit?
I. Introduction
(1) That the human mind can alter the course of events
and affect objects (including other people's brains)
voluntarily (e.g., telekinesis or telepathy) or involuntarily
(e.g., poltergeist);
The more sexually active people are and the less safe their
desirous exploits – the more they are likely to end up with
a bundle of joy (the American saccharine expression for a
newborn). Many children are the results of sexual
ignorance, bad timing, and a vigorous and undisciplined
sexual drive among teenagers, the poor, and the less
educated.
Still, there is no denying that most people want their kids
and love them. They are attached to them and experience
grief and bereavement when they die, depart, or are sick.
Most parents find parenthood emotionally fulfilling,
happiness-inducing, and highly satisfying. This pertains
even to unplanned and initially unwanted new arrivals.
Parsimony
The parts define the whole, but they are also defined by
their context, by the whole. It is by observing their place
in the larger structure, their interactions with other parts,
and the general functioning of the whole that we realize
that they are its "parts". There are no parts without a
whole.
V. God as a Watchmaker
So, there are two ways of being "a part of the whole". The
classical, deterministic way (the part is smaller than the
whole and included in it) - and through a tautological
relationship (the part defines the whole and vice versa).
We started our article with this tautology and we end with
it. "Part", "Whole", do seem to be language conventions,
tautological, dualistic, not very practical, or enlightening,
except on the most basic, functional level. The oft-
resulting duality is usually a sign of the breakdown of an
inadequate conceptual system of thought.
Philosophy
2. Predictability
3. Simulation
4. Reversibility
5. Belonging
Polar Concepts
Population
There are too many of us. We are way too numerous. The
population load is unsustainable. We, the survivors, would
be better off if others were to perish. Should population
growth continue unabated - we are all doomed.
Doomed to what?
Or this:
Examples:
The fact is that, at least since the 1920s, the very existence
of Mankind is being recurrently threatened by
exclusionary ideas of progress. Even Colonialism, which
predated modern ideologies, was inclusive and sought to
"improve" the Natives" and "bring them to the White
Man's level" by assimilating or incorporating them in the
culture and society of the colonial power. This was the
celebrated (and then decried) "White Man's Burden". That
we no longer accept our common fate and the need to
collaborate to improve our lot is nothing short of suicidal.
Progress, Ideas of
The fact is that, at least since the 1920s, the very existence
of Mankind is being recurrently threatened by
exclusionary ideas of progress. Even Colonialism, which
predated modern ideologies, was inclusive and sought to
"improve" the Natives" and "bring them to the White
Man's level" by assimilating or incorporating them in the
culture and society of the colonial power. This was the
celebrated (and then decried) "White Man's Burden". That
we no longer accept our common fate and the need to
collaborate to improve our lot is nothing short of suicidal.
Psychoanalysis
Introduction
Anna Freud
And, yet, the debate was and is far from over. Wilhelm
Greisinger published "The Pathology and Therapy of
Mental Disorders" in 1845. In it he traced their etiology to
"neuropathologies", physical disorders of the brain. He
allowed for heredity and the environment to play their
parts, though. He was also the first to point out the
importance of one's experiences in one's first years of life.
Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist by training, claimed to
have cured hysteria with hypnosis. But despite this
demonstration of non-physiological intervention, he
insisted that hysteroid symptoms were manifestations of
brain dysfunction. Weir Mitchell coined the term
"neurasthenia" to describe an exhaustion of the nervous
system (depression). Pierre Janet discussed the variations
in the strength of the nervous activity and said that they
explained the narrowing field of consciousness (whatever
that meant).
"If you bring forth that which is in you, that which you
bring forth will be your salvation".
Psychophysics
Potentials of what?
The potentials are aligned along the field lines (=the levels
of excitation specific to these potentials). The connection
between them is through lingual energy but it is devoid of
any specific formal logic (mechanic or algorithmic). Thus,
if potential P1 and potential P2 pass through the same
excitation level on their way to becoming structures, they
will organize themselves along the same line in the field
and will become a hypercluster or a network when they
materialize. They can, however, relate to each other a-
logically (negation or contradiction) – and still constitute
a part of the same hypercluster. Tis capacity is
reminiscent of superposition in quantum mechanics.
Fisk (1980)
Myers (1982)
Minsky (1980)
Lazarus
Zajonc (1980)
Eisen (1987)
Gestalt
Epstein (1983)
Kilstrom (1984)
Eisen
Kilstrom (1984)
Data processing is a process in which stimuli from the
outer world are absorbed, go through an interpretative
system, are classified, stored and reconstructed in
memory.
Bauers (1984)
Psychotherapy
So, what are plots good for? They are the instruments
used in the procedures, which induce peace of mind (even
happiness) in the client. This is done with the help of a
few embedded mechanisms:
Public Goods
"We must not believe the many, who say that only free
people ought to be educated, but we should rather
believe the philosophers who say that only the educated
are free."
-- Epictetus (AD 55?-135?), Greek Stoic philosopher
Bibliography
It does not mean that these theories are absolutely true and
immutable. They are not. Our current scientific theories
are partly true and are bound to change with new
knowledge gained by experimentation. Our current
scientific theories will be replaced by newer, truer
theories. But any and all future scientific theories will be
falsifiable and testable.
Knowledge and belief are like oil and water. They don't
mix. Knowledge doesn't lead to belief and belief does not
yield knowledge. Belief can yield conviction or strongly-
felt opinions. But belief cannot result in knowledge.
Risk, Economic
Some risks and losses offset each others and are aptly
termed "natural hedges". Enron pioneered the use of such
computer applications in the late 1990's - to little gain it
would seem. There is no reason why insurance companies
wouldn't insure such risk portfolios - rather than one risk
at a time. "Multi-line" or "multi-trigger" policies are a first
step in this direction.
But, as Frank Knight noted in his seminal "Risk,
Uncertainty, and Profit", volatility is wrongly - and widely
- identified with risk. Conversely, diversification and
bundling have been as erroneously - and as widely -
regarded as the ultimate risk neutralizers. His work was
published in 1921.
Robots
True, but then, how can one guarantee that the robot's
behavior is fully predictable ? How can one be certain that
robots will fully and always implement the three laws?
Only recursive systems are predictable in principle,
though, at times, their complexity makes it impossible.
There are two ways to settle this very practical issue: one
is to endow the robot with the ability to conduct a
Converse Turing Test (to separate humans from other life
forms) - the other is to somehow "barcode" all the robots
by implanting some remotely readable signaling device
inside them (such as a RFID - Radio Frequency ID chip).
Both present additional difficulties.
Here is an exercise:
Example:
Romanticism
Probably not.
Science, Development of
Consider physics:
Scientific Theories
I. Scientific Theories
Introduction
A. Survey
B. The Evidence
I. Introduction
(1) How can we tell the artificial from the natural? How
can we be sure to distinguish Alien artifacts from
naturally-occurring objects? How can we tell apart with
certainty Alien languages from random noise or other
natural signals?
Consider life.
BUT
A. No one knows.
5 - Man or Monster?
Suggested Literature
Solow Paradox
The end result is the same: the private sector takes over
the medium from "below" (makes offers to the owners or
operators of the medium that they cannot possibly refuse)
- or from "above" (successful lobbying in the corridors of
power leads to the legislated privatization of the medium).
Speech
I. Introduction
II. Speech
Objective
Relational
Extractive
Stereotypes
"The trouble with people is not that they don't know but
that they know so much that ain't so."
Henry Wheeler Shaw
Somewhat less than two thirds of the girls were told not to
brag about things they do well and were expected to spend
the bulk of their time on housework and taking care of
younger children. Stereotypical thinking had a practical
effect: girls who believe that they are as able as boys and
face the same opportunities are way more likely to plan to
go to college.
Strings
The Universe
The Multiverse
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
D. DUALITIES
E. PARTICLES
G. BLACK HOLES
Suicide
Superman (Nietzsche)
Briefly:
Superstitions
I. Taboos
II. Incest
Both ignored the fact that the incest taboo is learned - not
inherent.
III. Suicide
IV. Race
V. Moral Relativism
Technology, Philosophy of
(II) But, the masses are not always content to await their
turn while the elites reap the considerable rewards of their
first mover status and old-boy-network clubbish
advantages. Sometimes the mob demands instant use, or
even control of primary technologies. Such revolutionary
spasms "compress" historical processes and render
primary technologies consumer technologies by dint of
the mob's ability to access and manipulate them.
Teleology
In this text, we will use the word causation in the sense of:
"the action of causes that brings on their effects" and
causality as: "the relation between causes and their
effects".
Terrorism
Also Read
Time
Torture
I. Practical Considerations
Moreover, the fact that the torturer also has rights whose
violation may justify torture is often overlooked.
Summary Phase I
Summary Phase II
PHASE III
PHASE IV
Summary Phase IV
PHASE V
Summary Phase V
Turing Machines
The problem starts with the fact that the electric field is
unknown. It depends on the charge distribution of the
electrons which, in turn, can be learnt from the
wavefunctions. But the solutions of the wavefunctions
require a proper knowledge of the field itself!
Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao are prime specimen of the
purging tyrant. Stalin spent the better part of 30 years
eliminating not only the opposition - but the entire
Leninist-Bolshevik political party that brought him to
power in the first place. He then proceeded to cold-
bloodedly exterminate close to 20 million professionals,
intellectuals, army officers, and other achievers and
leaders on whose toil and talents his alleged successes
rested.
(iii) That the Universe would not have existed had it not
been for the existence of Life (or of observers). This is
known as the Participatory Anthropic Principle and is
consistent with some interpretations of Quantum
Mechanics;
(iv) That Life will materialize and spring forth in each and
every Universe that is compatible with Life. The strong
version of this assumption is that "there is an underlying
principle that constrains the universe to evolve towards
life and mind." The Universe is partial to life, not
indifferent to it.
All four are forms of teleological reasoning (that nature
has a purpose) masquerading as eutaxiological reasoning
(that order has a cause). To say that the Universe was
made the way it is in order to accommodate Life is
teleological. Science is opposed to teleological arguments.
Therefore, to say that the Universe was made the way it is
in order to accommodate Life is not a scientific
statement.
But the Mills failed to realize that their laws relied heavily
on and derived from two organizing principles: time and
space. These meta principles lend meaning to ideas by
rendering their associations comprehensible. Thus, the
contiguity and frequency laws leverage meaningful spatial
and temporal relations to form the context within which
ideas associate. Context-effects and Gestalt and other
vision grouping laws, promulgated in the 20th century by
the likes of Max Wertheimer, Irvin Rock, and Stephen
Palmer, also rely on the pre-existence of space for their
operation.
Consider life.
In human (artificial and intelligent) technology, every
thing and every action has a function within a "scheme of
things". Goals are set, plans made, designs help to
implement the plans.
VII. Summary
Yet, the two concepts are often confused because they are
both mediated by and reside on computers. The computer
is a self-contained (though not closed) Universe. It
incorporates the hardware, the data and the instructions
for the manipulation of the data (software). It is, therefore,
by definition, a virtual reality. It is versatile and can
correlate its reality with the world outside. But it can also
refrain from doing so. This is the ominous "what if" in
artificial intelligence (AI). What if a computer were to
refuse to correlate its internal (virtual) reality with the
reality of its makers? What if it were to impose its own
reality on us and make it the privileged one?
But Peter Weir, the movie's director, takes this issue one
step further by perpetrating a massive act of immorality
on screen. Truman is lied to, cheated, deprived of his
ability to make choices, controlled and manipulated by
sinister, half-mad Shylocks. As I said, he is unwittingly
the only spontaneous, non-scripted, "actor" in the on-
going soaper of his own life. All the other figures in his
life, including his parents, are actors. Hundreds of
millions of viewers and voyeurs plug in to take a peep, to
intrude upon what Truman innocently and honestly
believes to be his privacy. They are shown responding to
various dramatic or anti-climactic events in Truman's life.
That we are the moral equivalent of these viewers-
voyeurs, accomplices to the same crimes, comes as a
shocking realization to us. We are (live) viewers and they
are (celluloid) viewers. We both enjoy Truman's
inadvertent, non-consenting, exhibitionism. We know the
truth about Truman and so do they. Of course, we are in a
privileged moral position because we know it is a movie
and they know it is a piece of raw life that they are
watching. But moviegoers throughout Hollywood's
history have willingly and insatiably participated in
numerous "Truman Shows". The lives (real or concocted)
of the studio stars were brutally exploited and
incorporated in their films. Jean Harlow, Barbara
Stanwyck, James Cagney all were forced to spill their guts
in cathartic acts of on camera repentance and not so
symbolic humiliation. "Truman Shows" is the more
common phenomenon in the movie industry.
Volatility
But most market players follow the trend. They sell when
the VIX is high and, thus, portends a declining market. A
bullish consensus is indicated by low volatility. Thus, low
VIX readings signal the time to buy. Whether this is more
than superstition or a mere gut reaction remains to be
seen.
Ivo Daalder:
Not only was the link between worker and product broken
- but the bond between artisan and client was severed as
well. Few employees know their customers or patrons first
hand. It is hard to empathize with and care about a
statistic, a buyer whom you have never met and never
likely to encounter. It is easy in such circumstances to feel
immune to the consequences of one's negligence and
apathy at work. It is impossible to be proud of what you
do and to be committed to your work - if you never set
eyes on either the final product or the customer! Charlie
Chaplin's masterpiece, "Modern Times" captured this
estrangement brilliantly.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
1980 to 1983
1982 to 1985
1985 to 1986
1986 to 1987
1990 to Present
1990 to 1995
1993 to 1994
1993 to 1996
1996 to 1999
1999 to 2002
2001 to 2003
2007 -
Expert, Self-growth.com
2007-2008
"After the Rain – How the West Lost the East", Narcissus
Publications in association with Central Europe
Review/CEENMI, Prague and Skopje, 2000
Write to Me:
palma@unet.com.mk
narcissisticabuse-owner@yahoogroups.com
My Web Sites:
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