Disembodied... Never Disengaged!
Philosophy, Politics and Society, all in one place.
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Book Review: Civilization from Alfred North Whitehead’s The Adventure of Ideas
Posted on October 13th, 2009 No commentsIn Whitehead’s discussion of civilization in the book The Adventure of Ideas he argues that “[t]he most un-Greek thing that we can do, is to copy the Greeks. (353)” This argument comes from the historical look at all civilizations looking towards perfection by trying to copy the past. For Whitehead, this is a great perversion of the real point of civilization, which is not a static system that is called perfect but rather a system constantly in flux that is perfection. Whitehead explains that a civilized society exhibits five basic qualities and then goes on to explain these qualities, although he does so in an awkwardly ordered fashion – explaining three before he even talks about civilization. The five qualities are Truth, Beauty, Adventure, Art and Peace.
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The Ethic of Life: Process Philosophy and Environmental Stewardship
Posted on February 17th, 2009 No commentsAccording to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “when we view reality in terms of dependent origination… [i]t challenges us to see things and events less in terms of black and white and more in terms of a complex interlinking of relationships” (41). Dependent origination, and process philosophy in general, forces us to look beyond the egoism and anthropocentrism so rampant in our world today and instead recognize the intrinsic value of all life. This recognition is more than just an intellectual endeavor, however, as it must become a driving force behind a new ethical system, an ethic of life. If events are defined by relationships and if relationships are defined by life, then the entirety of the world and of our own, individual experiences are predicated upon life existing. By exploring the notion of dependent origination and process philosophy’s take on life, I will begin an investigation of a new ethical system. This ethical system will certainly apply to all parts of our lives, but I will specifically look at the impact on environmental ethics and animal rights in order to give a perception of just how much of a change this process ethic would be from our current system.
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Evolving Freedom: The Metaphysics of Free Will
Posted on February 17th, 2009 No commentsThe history of philosophy, as far back as one would wish to take it, is littered with theories, critiques and counter-theories on the free will of human beings and its relation to a broader explanation of reality. Despite free will being one of the most thought about topics in philosophy, a consensus on its existence, its relation to laws of nature and more has yet to be reached. One of the greatest challenges of modern times is reconciling the experience that is free will with the science that is “laws of nature” and evolution. The goal here, then, is to reconcile both scientific “laws of nature”, which includes biological evolution, with free will and give an account of how free will arose out of the evolution of life. In order to accomplish this mission it will first be important to explore what exactly laws of nature really are. Once that is completed, the account of evolutionary free will, including new thoughts on evolution itself, will present a viable case for the free will of at least humanity, if not much more.