February 12, 2005 - 1:15pm
February 11, 2005 - 10:19pm

"My role - and that is too emphatic a word - is to show people that they are much freer than they feel, that people accept as truth, as evidence, some themes which have been built up at a certain moment during history, and that this so-called evidence can be criticized and destroyed." - Michel Foucault
February 11, 2005 - 5:39pm
By Howard Zinn
February 11, 2005 - 12:34pm
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
February 10, 2005 - 11:41pm
February 10, 2005 - 8:52pm
February 10, 2005 - 3:37pm
February 10, 2005 - 2:44pm
When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized most
vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men pursue
throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared to me
as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to
the ambitions of a pig. The ideals which have always shone before me
and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.
Strange
is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit,
not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. The
important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates
the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of
this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
It is
nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not
yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.
A human
being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in
time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as
something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his
consciousness. Our task must be to free
ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
The
foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to
any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the
authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action. A man's
ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education,
and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be
in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope
of reward after death.
I cannot imagine a God who rewards and
punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after
our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his
body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or
ridiculous egotisms.
Few people are capable of expressing with
equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social
environment. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds. All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph
of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence
reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.
Setting
an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only
means. We have to do the best we can. This is our sacred human
responsibility.
Note: This is a remix of Albert Einstein quotes
February 9, 2005 - 10:47pm
February 8, 2005 - 9:05pm
Stumbled across this fantastic weblog: Philosophy of Biology. The fact that I am not very familiar with biology (as a body of knowledge) makes this find all the better. Anyhow, the reader is undoubtably curious as to why this post is titled "monkey pornography"... well, read on:
Male monkeys will trade their juice for photos of female monkeys' hindquarters, according to a new study
forthcoming in Current Biology. I'm not sure how relevant this finding
is to the philosophy of biology, but at least our site traffic should
get a boost from having the word 'pornography' in a post title. [link]
Touche, Michael Sprague, touche...
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