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Tag Archives: Buddhism
The Paradox of Choice
Katja notes that Barry Scwartz’s Paradox of Choice is the TED talk (see below) she hears praised most often, in which Schwartz summarizes, with great force and clarity, the argument he advanced in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, and goes on to muse:
Why should we fail to adapt? Even if [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged ethics, happiness, materialism, modernity, philosophy, physicalism, poverty, rationalism Leave a comment
Preface to Mansfield Park
This post is the first part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
Preface
Philosophy is hard. In the Buddhist tradition meditation practitioners are warned that they must engage in study [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Christianity, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Kant, Mansfield Park, modernity, philosophy, rationalism, religion, Romanticism, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Free Will, Super Freakocide and Mansfield Park
(See below for updates.)
Horgan on Free Will
On his blog at the Centre for Science Writing ,John Horgan has been looking at Free Will, ethics and science, his latest post skewering an Einstein quote using a quintessential classical physics analogy (lunar orbits) to suggest that Free Will is an illusion.
I agree with John’s broad thesis, about [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Christianity, climate change, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, Rowan Williams Leave a comment
After Virtue: First Thoughts
I said I would have a look at Alastair MacIntyre’s After Virtue once I had completed the Mansfield Park essay. I have now in a manner completed the essay (though I am tweaking it as I post it) and have had a chance to have a quick look at After Virtue. Here are my initial [...]
Posted in classics Also tagged Alasdair Macintyre, dependent nature of reality, ethics, Marxism, philosophy, Stalinism, sunyata, Tibetan Buddhism Leave a comment
Cheapening Life
Galen Strawson has an article Why I have no Future over at The Philosophy Magazine. It is sad to say, but as modern moral philosophy goes I think it is quite unremarkable. It opens.
If, in any normal, non-depressed period of life, I ask myself whether I’d rather be alive than dead tomorrow morning, and completely [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged death, ethics, philosophy, physicalism, rebirth, reincarnation Leave a comment
On Anger
The articles on this blog have taken an angry turn lately, which is to say I have been highlighting the complete uselessness of anger. This conviction is informed by my Buddhist study and practice where anger is almost semantically tied to negative (i.e., counter-productive) action. As always the intention is the key point, anger [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged anger, compassion, ethics, love, non-violence, Obama, politics Leave a comment
Sentimental Compassion
Mark Vernon has a post, The hard edge of compassion, where he comments on the retuning of the terminally ill Megrahi to Libya by the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, on compassionate grounds, wondering whether compassion should be shown to a man who killed so many and turning to the great historical champions of compassion.
Jesus [...]
Free Will, etc
Madeleine Bunting has an article in yesterday’s Guardian, In control? Think again. Our ideas of brain and human nature are myths, where she ponders the rising tide of books on consciousness ‘radically challenging the most fundamental assumptions on which human beings operate’.
Perhaps that sounds a little overblown, but it’s not. Who, dear reader, do you [...]
Posted in 1 philosophy, topical Also tagged autonomy, causation, free will, materialism, physicalism, Romanticism Leave a comment
True Love
Mark Vernon, has posted the fourth instalment in his series on Plato at the Guardian where he tackles Platonic love.
At the outset Mark wonders whether Iris Murdoch’s interpretation of Platonic love might not be relevant because she was both a professional philosopher and a successful novelist, despite not being acknowledged as a Plato scholar. I [...]
Posted in 1 philosophy, topical Also tagged ethics, Jane Austen, love, loving kindness, philosophy, Plato, religion, secularism Leave a comment
PunkPhilosophy.com
Reflecting after leaving this comment on John Holbo’s Persausion and Reason book website, I realised just how spikey and thoroughly outrageous my posts must appear. It came to me that this was really a kind of Punk Philosophy.
I am hoping to avoid getting physically lynched (Johnny Rotten’s fate) and every other similarity, bar this one. [...]
Posted in commentary Also tagged ethics, Jane Austen, Johnny Rotten, philosophy, punk rock Leave a comment
The Dalai Lama on Obama