Altruism Giving alms to the poor is often considered an altruistic action. Altruism or selflessness is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions and secular worldviews, though the concept of "others" toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism can be distinguished from feelings of loyalty. Much debate exists as to whether "true" altruism is possible. The notion of altruism[edit] The concept has a long history in philosophical and ethical thought. Individual variations[edit] A certain individual may behave altruistically in one case and egoistically in another situation. A 1986 study estimated that altruism was half-inherited. Scientific viewpoints[edit] Anthropology[edit] Marcel Mauss's book The Gift contains a passage: "Note on alms." Evolutionary explanations[edit] Giving alms to beggar children Some of the proposed mechanisms are:
How Do You Know You Exist? A Mind-Bending Animated Homage to Descartes Exploring the Conundrum of Reality – The Marginalian By Maria Popova “We don’t need to credit an all-seeing God with the creation of life and matter,” wrote Douglas Rushkoff, “to suspect that something wonderfully strange is going on in the dimension we call reality.” But what is the thing we call reality, exactly, and how are we even sure it is in the first place? This pleasantly mind-bending animation from James Zucker and TED-Ed turns our most fundamental sense of certainty on its head by directing Descartes’s inquiry at the most seemingly solid bastion of reality — the self: How do you know you’re real? When you’re awake, you know you’re awake. Complement with Alan Watts on what we really mean by “reality”, Mark Strand’s poetic ode to dreams, and a wonderful animated take on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which remains humanity’s greatest parable about the nature of reality, then find a necessary counterpoint in astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser’s beautiful case for living with mystery in a culture obsessed with certitude.
Encyclopedia of Earth axioms Contents Contents | rgb Home | Philosophy Home | Axioms | Other Books by rgb: | The Book of Lilith | Axioms is a work that explores the true nature of human knowledge, in particular the fundamental nature of deductive and inductive reasoning. It begins by embracing Hume's Skepticism and Descartes' one ``certain'' thing, and then looking for a way out of the solipsistic hell this leaves one in in terms of ``certain'' knowledge. The way out is to give up the idea of certain knowledge. Axioms by Robert G. Dedication This book is dedicated to the giants of mathematical and scientific philosophy upon whose backs it stands: Plato, Hume, Descartes, Gödel, Bayes, Shannon, Cantor, Cox, Jaynes, and many more, too many to count, actually. No book is written in a vacuum. Notice Although this book inevitably contains a certain amount of mathematics and science (often expressed as ``natural philosophy'' or ``mathematical philosophy'', it is not intended to be a mathematical or scientific treatise.
Positivism Positivism is the philosophy of science that information derived from logical and mathematical treatments and reports of sensory experience is the exclusive source of all authoritative knowledge,[1] and that there is valid knowledge (truth) only in this derived knowledge.[2] Verified data received from the senses are known as empirical evidence.[1] Positivism holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as is metaphysics and theology. Although the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought,[3] the modern sense of the approach was developed by the philosopher Auguste Comte in the early 19th century.[4] Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws, so does society.[5] Etymology[edit] Overview[edit] Antecedents[edit] Auguste Comte[edit] Antipositivism[edit] Main article: antipositivism In historiography[edit]
Scuolafilosofica - ...all we need is philosophy What are bacteria? | Bacteria Written by Dr. T.M. Wassenaar Bacteria are living things that are neither plants nor animals, but belong to a group all by themselves. See bacteria multiply in just a few hours in a 520 k time lapse movie. Bacteria are prokaryotes (single cells that do not contain a nucleus). Microbiology is the study of prokaryotes, eukaryotes (as long as the organism is microscopically small) and viruses. Bacteriology is the study of bacteria.
Free will? CONGRATULATIONS. You have just taken an action which is not determined by anything else (since the figure can be seen either way) and which you controlled (since you decided which way to see the figure). The observations not only suggest that you have free will (a useful thing to know in other, perhaps more earth-shaking situations), but reveal some additional interesting characteristics of this attribute. There is some chance that when you first saw the figure together with the two buttons, you did not in fact immediately see the arrows pointing in the direction in which you had decided to see them pointing. What this indicates is that the power of free will does not extend to determining what you see; what you see at any given time is determined by actions of your brain which you cannot fully control (and of which you are not aware). What you were, however, able to do is to withhold action until you did see the arrows pointing in the direction you had previously chosen.
Epicurus Ancient Greek philosopher For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to help people attain a happy, tranquil life characterized by ataraxia (peace and freedom from fear) and aponia (the absence of pain). He advocated that people were best able to pursue philosophy by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that the root of all human neurosis is death denial and the tendency for human beings to assume that death will be horrific and painful, which he claimed causes unnecessary anxiety, selfish self-protective behaviors, and hypocrisy. According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared. Epicurus taught that although the gods exist, they have no involvement in human affairs. Like Aristotle, Epicurus was an empiricist, meaning he believed that the senses are the only reliable source of knowledge about the world. Though popular, Epicurean teachings were controversial from the beginning. Life[edit] Death[edit] Texts
Questions d'épistémologie - Pouvons-nous connaître le réel ? « Que puis-je connaître ? » Pouvons-nous connaître le réel ?Nos représentations sont-elles le reflet du réel ?Comment connaissons-nous ? Dogmatisme, relativisme et pragmatisme, entre doutes et évidences Dogmatisme Le dogmatisme est la doctrine selon laquelle l’homme peut aboutir à des certitudes, marquées par leur incontestabilité (des dogmes). Rationalisme : certitude incontestable <= raisonEmpirisme : certitude incontestable <= expérience sensiblePositivisme : certitude incontestable <= scienceThéisme(s) : certitude incontestable <= Dieu Ces certitudes sont objectives, évidentes et universelles. En réalité, ces affirmations (« la source de la vérité est Dieu », « la source de la vérité est notre expérience sensible », « la source de la vérité est notre raison »…) sont de l’ordre de la métaphysique. Autrement dit, lorsqu’il est question d’évidences incontestables, la problématique ultime est d’ordre métaphysique. Sommes-nous des cerveaux dans une cuve ? Relativisme Pragmatisme Sémantique
RADIATION INSULATION The Apollo spacecraft was a masterpiece of temperature control technology. It had to be, to protect astronauts from temperatures that ranged 400 degrees above and below zero Fahrenheit. A prime element of the environmental control system that permitted astronauts to work inside the Command Module in shirtsleeves was a highly effective radiation barrier. Made of aluminized polymer film, it barred or let in heat to maintain a consistent temperature in an environment where ordinary insulative methods would not have sufficed. The key was aluminization of the material, which provided a reflective surface that kept more than 95 percent of the radiated energy from reaching the spacecraft interior. The radiation barrier has since been used on virtually all spacecraft, including unmanned spacecraft where delicate instruments need protection from extremes of temperature. Super"Q" and Cool Wall are registered trademarks of Quantum International Corporation.
11 ways you are thoroughly (but interestingly) wrong The folks at Your Logical Fallacy Is have compiled a list of 24 common ways that you and I are often mistaken in the way we think. I have to say that looking through their site is perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had being told how wrong I am. And not just wrong in a certain instance, but consistently and fundamentally flawed in the very way I think. Fun, right? I thought so. Included at the site is a free, very high-res poster for those of you who may have a reason to hang these as a reminder on the wall. (via MetaFilter) List of philosophers The alphabetical list of philosophers is so large it had to be broken up into several pages. To look up a philosopher you know the name of, click on the first letter of his or her last name. To find philosophers by core area, field, major philosophical tradition, ethnicity, or time periods, see the subheadings further below. General[edit] List of Women philosophers Lists of philosophers by core area[edit] Lists of philosophers by field[edit] Lists of philosophers by major philosophical Tradition[edit] Lists of philosophers by philosophical theory[edit] Lists of philosophers by era[edit] Timelines[edit] Lists of philosophers by language, nationality, religion, or region[edit] See also[edit]