A couple of minutes of interesting psychology/philosophy to start your day. 🙂
Continue readingTag: philosophy
Dead Wild Roses: On Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles
Defending against the Echo Chamber effect is difficult as we naturally seek familiar points of view that reinforce our own. Discourse has always been the key factor in helping people check their views against others and find the experts that they can put their confidence in. Engaging with others, especially
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A Selfish Argument for Making the World a Better Place – In a Nutshell
There are a few questionable assumptions that go along with premise of this video, but I do like the overall idea presented.
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Flowchart Helps You Evaluate any Argument
Figure 1 from Cook, Ellerton, and Kinkead 2018. CC BY 3.0 Complex issues with multiple influential factors can be difficult to process for some. Three researchers from George Mason University and the University of Queensland decided to help people evaluate arguments by combining their own knowledge into one handy flowchart.
Continue readingScripturient: Found in translation
Language translation fascinates me. It’s a mix of language skill, art, interpretation, science and, apparently, divination. Maybe even magic. Going from one language into another is far from a simple step of swapping words in dictionary manner – Flaubert’s le mot juste. Any fool can do that. Hell, even Google
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – You Choose the Meaning of Life
So many choices. For me, it really depends on the day but gravitate toward a nice blend of Kant and Aristotle.
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What Do I Want? (Or, What is to be done, if we are to have any future worth living?)
What do I want? Well, I would like to see us move immediately to a libertarian socialist society, along the lines that Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, Rudolph Rocker, or Murray Bookchin have described. Or better: an anarchist communist society, such as Kropotkin described. But I don’t see that as something that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Hundreds of Short Videos to Learn About Philosophy
Too many people think that philosophy is a practice for elites or people with too much time on their hands. Contrary to popular belief studying philosophy is easy and readily available. Studying philosophy helps with many aspects of life from logical thinking to mindful peace. Yes you can learn all
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Why I Won’t Use A Cellphone – Philip Reed
On the level folks, I do use a cellphone – a smart phone even. But I’m not sure I like it. I most certainly enjoy the GPS that comes with it, as finding those schools tucked away in suburban hell can be very tricky, even at the best of times.Â
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Bitcoin, Crypto-Currencies and Global Trends — Tipping Points Approaching Fast
Question: Cryptos — Which ones, and when? Answer: Two, and right now Waiting for the (painfully slow) transfer of funds from one Bitcoin wallet to another — both my own, in order to be able to buy Stellar Lumens with Bitcoins (since you can’t buy Lumens directly with fiat paper currencies, it being too
Continue readingScripturient: Shin Godzilla: the reboot
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that, of all the Godzilla films I’ve watched, I can recall the exact details of few. I cannot remember, just by looking at the title, which monsters were battling which. I need to look at the slipcase cover to see a picture to remind me
Continue readingScripturient: War for the Planet of the Apes considered
Pierre Boulle never imagined War for the Planet of the Apes, the latest film in the remade franchise. In fact, it would be fair to say the author of the original book never imagined any of the series, from the first in 1968 to the latest, released in 2017. They
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Is Reality Real- The Simulation Argument
It might explain what is happening in the US, if our alien observers accidentally split the stupid sauce on the hard drive… Filed under: Science Tagged: Philosophy, Reality, Science
Continue readingScripturient: Montaigne and The Block
I do love reading Michel de Montaigne. And writing about him. In 2014 alone, I wrote ten separate posts about him and his famous book, Essays. But since then, my reading habits moved on to other writers and topics. I hadn’t actually been reading Montaigne in the past few years,
Continue readingScripturient: The Dude, the Tao and the Dharma
I suppose it all began with Benjamin Hoff. Hoff was one of the first contemporary writers to attempt to distill Taoism in a lighthearted form for Westerners when he wrote The Tao of Pooh in 1981, a very successful book still in print. It was on the New York Times
Continue readingScripturient: Thrasymachus and The Block
There’s a character in Plato’s Republic called Thrasymachus who acts as a foil to Socrates by presenting a series of comments and arguments the old philosopher has to debate and counter. He (Thrasymachus) is based on an actual historical figure, a Sophist from the fifth century BCE. It’s unknown if
Continue readingScripturient: Marcus Aurelius and The Block
Perhaps the most famous work by any Stoic is the Meditations, written as a series of notes-to-myself by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. I’ve been reading a lot of Stoic works of late, and this remains my favourite. Although never meant for publication, just as reminders to himself, it’s full of
Continue readingScripturient: The hospital, the trolley and political ethics
In its decision about the redevelopment of the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital, Collingwood Council is evidently taking the track less travelled, trolleyology-wise. Seen as an ethical issue, our council has chosen to act against the greater good. Trolleyology is the somewhat humourous name given to philosophical intellectual exercises or
Continue readingScripturient: The dystopian present
If there is one good thing to come out of the election of Donald Trump, it has been the renewed interest in a certain genre of literature. Sales of dystopian novels have skyrocketed on Amazon, in particular what might be called “The Big Three” of dystopian tales: George Orwell’s 1984,
Continue readingScripturient: Empathy and The Dog Allusion
Empathy, writes Martin Rowson, is one of the things that make us human, make us civilized, allows us to interact without tearing one another’s throats out. Without it, we’d have no civilization; we’d be like the beasts of the fields. And we’d have no dogs or gods, either. Empathy is
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