Well-Being 1. The Concept Popular use of the term ‘well-being’ usually relates to health. A doctor’s surgery may run a ‘Women’s Well-being Clinic’, for example. Philosophical use is broader, but related, and amounts to the notion of how well a person’s life is going for that person. A person’s well-being is what is ‘good for’ them. The philosophical use of the term also tends to encompass the ‘negative’ aspects of how a person’s life goes for them. ‘Happiness’ is often used, in ordinary life, to refer to a short-lived state of a person, frequently a feeling of contentment: ‘You look happy today’; ‘I’m very happy for you’. Over the last few decades, so-called ‘positive psychology’ has hugely increased the attention paid by psychologists and other scientists to the notion of ‘happiness’. When discussing the notion of what makes life good for the individual living that life, it is preferable to use the term ‘well-being’ instead of ‘happiness’. 2. Thoughts such as these led G.E. 3. 4. 4.1 Hedonism 5.
how am i not myself? In the fantastic I ♥ Huckabees, we watch Jude Law’s character devolve from a self assured cocky jerk (putting it mildly) into a man in the grips of a nervous breakdown and identity crisis, all while the words “how am I not myself” repeat endlessly in his head. Is it possible for you to behave in such a way that “you’re not being yourself”? Is the question meaningless or an incredibly piercing and thought provoking thought experiment? In a recent article, Joshua Knobe discussed two alternate notions of what we normally think of when thinking about a person’s “true self”. But I think what we’ve set up here to this point is a false dichotomy between the idea that your true self is your genetics and instincts and that your true self is your values and commitments. I think that Alexandre is right on with this. This gets us to a much more fundamental point in this conversation, which in a sneaky way has already led us astray from the very beginning. What do I mean by this?
Cambridge Nights | Conversations about a life in science Value Theory 1. Basic Questions The theory of value begins with a subject matter. It is hard to specify in some general way exactly what counts, but it certainly includes what we are talking about when we say any of the following sorts of things: “pleasure is good/bad”; “it would be good/bad if you did that”; “she is good/bad for him”; “too much cholesterol is good/bad for your health”; “that is a good/bad knife”; “Jack is a good/bad thief”; “he's a good/bad man”; “it's good/bad that you came”; “it would be better/worse if you didn't”; “lettuce is better/worse for you than Oreos”; “my new can opener is better/worse than my old one”; “Mack is a better/worse thief than Jack”; “it's better/worse for it to end now, than for us to get caught later”; “best/worst of all, would be if they won the World Series and kept all of their players for next year”; “celery is the best/worst thing for your health”; “Mack is the best/worst thief around” Pleasure is good. 1.1 Varieties of Goodness 1.1.2 Attributive Good 2.
nietzsche 1. Life: 1844–1900 In the small German village of Röcken bei Lützen, located in a rural farmland area southwest of Leipzig, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born at approximately 10:00 a.m. on October 15, 1844. The date coincided with the 49th birthday of the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, after whom Nietzsche was named, and who had been responsible for Nietzsche's father's appointment as Röcken's town minister. Nietzsche's uncle and grandfathers were also Lutheran ministers, and his paternal grandfather, Friedrich August Ludwig Nietzsche (1756–1826), was further distinguished as a Protestant scholar, one of whose books (1796) affirmed the “everlasting survival of Christianity.” When Nietzsche was nearly 5 years old, his father, Karl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–1849) died from a brain ailment (July 30, 1849) and the death of Nietzsche's two-year-old brother, Ludwig Joseph, traumatically followed six months later (January 4, 1850). 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
We Are All Princes, Paupers, and Part of the Human Family - Facts So Romantic I recently discovered that my 10-times-great-grandfather bought a good chunk of Brooklyn from the Lenape Indians. He was one of the first Dutch landowners on this continent, a man who had run a laundry bleaching business in Holland but had traveled under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company to become a farmer in the New World. The deed in question, written in Dutch in 1636, is the first record of any land being sold on Long Island. Pretty neat, right? Chances are, if you have a famous ancestor far enough back that finding out about them is a surprise, you share them with a small city of other people. Now, there’s another important implication of these studies: Most of the people you are descended from are no more genetically related to you than strangers are. Now, there’s another important implication of genomic ancestry studies: Most of the people you are descended from are no more genetically related to you than strangers are. Luke Jostins”>
Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy 1. The Meaning of the Term Zen The designation of this school of the Buddha-Way as Zen, which means sitting meditation, is derived from a transliteration of the Chinese word Chán. 2. There are basically two methods utilized in meditation practice in Zen Buddhism to assist the practitioner to reach the above-mentioned goals, together with a simple breathing exercise known as “observation of breath count” (sūsokukan); one is the kōan method and the other is called “just sitting” (shikan taza), a form of “single act samādhi.” According to Hakuin (1685–1768), who systematized kōans, there are formally seventeen hundred cases of kōans, and if sub-questions are added to them, a total number of cases comprising the system would be roughly three thousand. On the other hand, the Sōtō school, of which Dōgen (1200–54) is the founder, does not rely on an elaborate kōan system to learn to become a Zen person, but instead follows a method called “just sitting” (shikan taza). 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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. Indeed, to the extent that philosophy in the past has sought to provide certain answers to virtually any question at all, philosophy itself proves to be bullshit - all philosophical arguments ultimately come back to at least one unprovable premise, usually unstated, and can be refuted by simply asserting ``I don't agree with your premises.'' The way out is to give up the idea of certain knowledge. Axioms by Robert G. Dedication No book is written in a vacuum. Notice Copyright Notice Copyright Robert G. Lulu Press www.lulu.com
Is Death Bad for You? - The Chronicle Review By Shelly Kagan We all believe that death is bad. But why is death bad? In thinking about this question, I am simply going to assume that the death of my body is the end of my existence as a person. (If you don't believe me, read the first nine chapters of my book.) People sometimes respond that death isn't bad for the person who is dead. Story 1. Story 2. Story 2 is worse. In thinking about this question, it is important to be clear about what we're asking. Maybe nonexistence is bad for me, not in an intrinsic way, like pain, and not in an instrumental way, like unemployment leading to poverty, which in turn leads to pain and suffering, but in a comparative way—what economists call opportunity costs. Despite the overall plausibility of the deprivation account, though, it's not all smooth sailing. If death has no time at which it's bad for me, then maybe it's not bad for me. Suppose that on Monday I shoot John. Should we just reject the existence requirement? Hmm. Wait.
Memento mori Artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death The outer panels of Rogier van der Weyden's Braque Triptych (c. 1452) show the skull of the patron displayed on the inner panels. The bones rest on a brick, a symbol of his former industry and achievement.[1] Memento mori (Latin for 'remember that you [have to] die'[2]) is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.[2] The concept has its roots in the philosophers of classical antiquity and Christianity, and appeared in funerary art and architecture from the medieval period onwards. Pronunciation and translation[edit] In English, the phrase is pronounced , mə-MEN-toh MOR-ee. Memento is the 2nd person singular active imperative of meminī, 'to remember, to bear in mind', usually serving as a warning: "remember!" In other words, "remember death" or "remember that you die".[4] History of the concept[edit] In classical antiquity[edit] In Judaism[edit] In early Christianity[edit] Philosophy[edit] [edit]
Funny monkey experiment Posted on February 7, 2012 in Humor If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . Thanks for visiting! Rate this Post Loading ... So... Check this out on our Partner Network Jean-Paul Sartre 1. Philosophical Development Sartre was born in Paris where he spent most of his life. After a traditional philosophical education in prestigious Parisian schools that introduced him to the history of Western philosophy with a bias toward Cartesianism and neoKantianism, not to mention a strong strain of Bergsonism, Sartre succeeded his former school friend, Raymond Aron, at the French Institute in Berlin (1933–1934) where he read the leading phenomenologists of the day, Husserl, Heidegger and Scheler. Though Sartre was not a serious reader of Hegel or Marx until during and after the war, like so many of his generation, he came under the influence of Kojève's Marxist and protoexistentialist interpretation of Hegel, though he never attended his famous lectures in the 1930s as did Lacan and Merleau-Ponty. Sartre had long been fascinated with the French novelist Gustave Flaubert. In his last years, Sartre, who had lost the use of one eye in childhood, became almost totally blind. 2. 3. 4.
The Meaning of Life (or, What's it all about?) Now available in Spanish! (Traduccin de hsu - midipaj@arrakis.es ) Let's step back a moment... Why do you want to know the meaning of life? Often people ask this question when they really want the answer to some other question. If you're questioning the meaning of life because you've been unhappy and depressed a good bit, click here. On a related note, if you want to know the meaning of life because you feel useless and worthless, click here. If you want to see our answer so that you can prove your intellectual prowess by poking holes in it, click here. If something awful just happened to you or someone you care about and you don't understand why bad things happen to good people, click here. If you would like to help the world but most of the rest of the world seems completely insane, click here. If you wonder why there is so much hatred in the world, click here. If you wonder why there is so much violence in our society, click here. The Meaning of Life - Part II