minos4cats

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It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury, it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

Plato's Socrates

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BERTRAND’S TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. Do not lie to yourself

This goes back to Socrates who said “know thyself”. If you lie to yourself you prevent yourself from knowing yourself. Lying is the opposite of truth. Self-knowledge, like all knowledge, requires truth, it requires reason and evidence. If you cannot know yourself then you cannot help or improve yourself. For example, if a man who drinks a bottle of vodka a day tells himself that he does not have a drink problem, then he cannot solve his alcoholism. You can’t solve a problem when there isn’t one to solve. Furthermore, a person who cannot ‘see’ his own alcoholism is unlikely to be able to observe it in others and therefore help them. He will rationalise along the lines of: that guy who drinks a bottle of vodka a day can’t be an alcoholic because if he is, then that means I’m one – but I know I’m not one. Lying to yourself also means you’re more likely to think it acceptable to lie to others, which means people will find it difficult to trust you. Sound advice indeed. Do not lie to yourself.

2. Do not lie to other people unless they are exercising tyranny

This is an interesting caveat and I think a just one. Tyranny is defined as cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control. Under such conditions an individual’s choices, his freedom to choose, will most likely have been removed as a consequence; in which case lying is merely an act of self-defense or survival and morality is not applicable.

3. When you think it is your duty to inflict pain, scrutinize your reasons closely

Bertrand Russell was an anti-war activist, he championed anti-imperialism, and was even imprisoned for his pacifism in World War I. A pacifist holds that all violence is morally unjustifiable, even self-defense. The doctrine of pacifism makes no moral distinction between who initiates the violence and who is on the receiving end; both act immorally when they act violently according to pacifism. This is different to libertarianism, which is founded upon the non-aggression principle, where only the aggressor is deemed immoral.

I don’t think this commandment was intended to apply to someone acting urgently in self-defense in response to an act of aggression. In such moments we are not obliged to act in the sense that we think it is our duty to act in order to help someone else or act in alignment with the principles of a doctrine; we are acting instinctively as creatures whose modus operandi is to strive for existence.

Duty is defined as a moral or legal obligation and so with this commandment Russell seems to me to be referring to those in society who have particular power and means to inflict pain on others, and who have some degree or other of freedom to choose whether or not to do so. People such as soldiers, policemen, judges, and parents. I would argue that those who work for government are unlikely to critically examine their reasons for inflicting pain on others because not only do they believe it is their moral duty, but it is also their legal duty according to the government. It is their job to uphold the law. If they refuse to do their job they get fired. Thus there is a very strong incentive for the soldier, policeman or judge to just do what they are paid to do and to not ask why, or whether it is morally just.

Parents have complete freedom to choose to inflict pain upon their children – i.e. corporeal punishment – especially when their children are infants. Parents should critically examine their reasoning each time they believe it is their duty to inflict pain (emotional or physical) upon their children. If done properly it should result in the parent refraining from doing so.

4. when you desire power, examine yourself closely as to why you deserve it

The previous commandment referred to those who already have power, this one relates to those who desire it. For this commandment it’s important to define what we mean by power. Power, or authority, is either peaceful or violent. There’s the kind of power that can be described as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. This is generally the peaceful kind. This is the sort of power or authority a doctor has over his patients. The other type of power is political or social authority or control, i.e. the type exercised by a government. This is the kind of power that requires coercion and the threat and use of physical force.

If you have extensive knowledge of biology and medicine as a result of several years’ study, and generally act according to rational moral principles, then most would agree that you have shown the qualities worthy of being an authority on health. You deserve to have the power to profoundly influence people’s lives in the particular aspect of their health. In society one must possess certain qualities, which themselves require much effort to obtain, in order to be granted authority over people’s health by people – and even then those same people can refuse to comply with your directions.

The violent power of The Law can be obtained by anyone who wants it enough, and once they have it those they desire to control cannot refuse to comply. They must obey. The type of person attracted to this kind of power is someone who prefers it when others are prevented from disagreeing with them or refusing to comply with their directions. The type of person with such a preference is probably either utterly convinced they deserve the power they wield or else considers their worthiness of it inconsequential.

5. When you have power, use it to build up people, not to constrict them

Here the word constrict is obviously meant in the metaphorical sense, as in constricting freedoms. The phrase ‘build up’ is meant in the sense of developing a person, improving them, or generally having a positive effect on them. I can’t think of a more pertinent example here than parents. It’s all too easy for parents to use the power they have over their children for their own benefit or to restrict their freedoms in order to allay their own fears. I see it often; parents needlessly or excessively restrict the freedom of their children in some situation or other by force in an attempt to alleviate an irrational fear of their own or to satisfy some preference of their own.

It’s easy for parents to fall into the trap of thinking of their children as little slaves whose purpose in life is to do whatever they tell them to. This can happen because the quickest and easiest way to get an infant to comply is to use physical force. Refraining from using violence means you have to use reason, and that takes much more time and effort. Parents that don’t have the reasoning skills, time and reserves of patience and love to call upon will find this method very unappealing. The problem with using physical force is that it becomes less and less effective over time as a parenting method, and therefore the ‘dosage’ has to be continually increased. Violence leads to more violence.

Teachers, actually, are another good example. Great teachers enable their students to develop by giving them the tools to do so; they teach them how to think, not what to think. Teaching what to think constricts a student’s ability to develop his own mind and reasoning skills.

6. Do not attempt to live without vanity, since this is impossible, but choose the right audience from which to seek admiration.

I think what Russell’s saying here is that it’s fine to seek some admiration but if the guild of thieves and murderers sends you fan-mail, then you’ve gone wrong somewhere.

7. Do not think of yourself as a wholly self-contained unit

I think what Russell’s getting at here is that it is a mistake to believe that we can exist happily without receiving emotional, spiritual and/or material support from other human beings throughout our lives. He may also mean that it is a mistake to believe that the development of our minds, our ways of thinking and our behavior are not influenced to some degree or other by the humans around us, especially in childhood.

8. Be reliable

This means to be consistently good in quality or performance; to be trustworthy and predictable. A reliable person will do everything they said they would. An unreliable person might only do some, or do all but only some of the time. Reliability is a highly valued quality both economically and socially.

9. Be just.

This means behave according to what is morally right. Almost all human beings prefer to avoid harming others in the course of living their lives and likewise prefer not to be harmed by others. Judging all possible courses of action against a moral criteria enables us to avoid courses of action that would harm others.  Morality is often abused and improperly used as a way to justify actions retroactively, i.e. to morally justify actions by their effects. Stay well clear of people who do this because in their minds any action can be just; and that’s dangerous.

10. Be good-natured.

This means have a cheerful willingness to be obliging. A splendid ideal.

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TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR BEGINNING PHILOSOPHERS

 1.      Do not feel certain of anything.

   2.      Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

   3.      Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

   4.      When met with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

   5.      Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always con­trary authorities to be found.

   6.      Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

   7.      Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

   8.      Find more pleasure in intelligent dissents than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

   9.      Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

  10.     Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's para­dise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

                                                                                          -- Bertrand Russell

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The person who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason… while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, philosophy greatly increases our knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt, and it keeps alive the sense of wonder by showing familiar things in an unfamiliar light.

Bertrand Russell

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The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrate

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Body of knowledge

We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom.

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Pragmatism, presents itself as an extension of historical empiricism, but with this fundamental difference, that it does not insist upon antecedent phenomena but upon consequent phenomena; not upon the precedents but upon the possibilities of action. And this change in point of view is almost revolutionary in its consequences.

[minos4cats]

I am not optimistic about Hong Kong's future, but I try to struggle and fight for my younger generation.

[minos4cats]

so i worked out how to make GLADoS’s voice and

yeah

[minos4cats]

若她涉世未深， 就带她看尽人间繁华； 若她历经沧桑， 就带她去坐旋转木马。

[minos4cats]

Philosophy reading list from KCL

Greek Philosophy

Plato, Meno or Phaedo in ed. Cooper, J.M & Hutchinson, D.S. (1997).Complete Works. Hackett

Aristotle, Physics in ed. Barnes, J. (1984). The Complete Works of Aristotle.Princeton

Ethics

Singer, P. (1994). Ethics (Oxford Readers). Oxford University Press

Smart, J.J.C. & Williams, B. (1973). Utilitarianism For and Against. Cambridge University Press

Metaphysics

Beebee, H. & Dodd, J. (2006). Reading Metaphysics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary. Wiley-Blackwell

Loux, M. (1998). Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy). Routledge

Modern Philosophy

Descartes, R. (1988). ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’, in Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings, translated by Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch. University of Cambridge Press

Hume, D. (2007). ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Other Writings edited by S. Buckle. Cambridge University Press

Political Philosophy

Kymlicka, W. (1990). Contemporary Political Philosophy: an Introduction.Clarendon Press.

Knowles, D. (2001). Political Philosophy. Routledge

Epistemology

Pritchard, D. (2006). What is this Thing Called Knowledge? Routledge

Morton, A. (2003 – 3rd edition). A Guide through the Theory of Knowledge. Blackwell Publishing     

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Philosophy reading list from Cambridge University

General introductions (in approximate order of difficulty) Edward Craig Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press) Thomas Nagel, What Does it All Mean? (Oxford University Press). Simon Blackburn, Think (Oxford University Press). Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford University Press). Some contemporary books on specific areas Metaphysics and the philosophy of mind Earl Conee and Theodore Sider, Riddles of Existence (Oxford University Press) Tim Crane, The Mechanical Mind (Routledge) Logic and language R. M. Sainsbury, Paradoxes (Cambridge University Press) Ethics and political philosophy Simon Blackburn, Being Good (Oxford University Press) Peter Singer, Practical Ethics (Cambridge University Press) Bernard Williams, Morality (Penguin) Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press) Great Dead Philosophers (Any edition; some of these are freely available on the internet) Berkeley, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous Descartes, Meditations Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Dialogues on Natural Religion J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism or On Liberty Plato, Meno and Euthyphro

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It just gets harder, waiting is always something you can’t get used to.

Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson (via tylerknott)

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The Wild Rose - Wendell Berry

Sometimes hidden from me  in daily custom and in trust,  so that I live by you unaware  as by the beating of my heart.  Suddenly you flare in my sight,  a wild rose blooming at the edge  of thicket, grace and light  where yesterday was only shade,  and once again I am blessed, choosing  again what I chose before. 

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SO SO SORRY

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Home sweet home!

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