Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

In 399 B.C.E., the year Socrates was put on trial in ancient Athens, he met a prosecutor (for lack of a better word) on the steps of the Court of Archon. His name was Euthyphro, and, astonishingly, he was prosecuting his very own father for murder. He felt it would be "pollution" to allow his father to go unpunished; a stain upon his good name. They get to talking, and soon Socrates has the arrogant man in his grasp. This blog is about the nature of values according to Socrates, which is essentially Socratic dialogue. The question being explored, specifically, is whether goodness is goodness because the Ancient Greek gods want it to be so, or do they see goodness when they look upward, just like we humans do?

The post appeared first on .

This essay is fully titled: "Thinking Like Cathedral Builders: Outrageous Behavior, Freedom, and Hope" and is authored by John Abrams. It is one of the chapters in the book LIVING A LIFE OF VALUE. In this piece, Abrams, president and CEO of South Mountain Company, Inc. , a forty-year-old employee-owned design and building company located on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and the author of THE COMPANY WE KEEP: Reinventing Small Business for Community, People, and Place (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2005) writes wonderfully.

The post appeared first on .

"One always needs mentors as one cultivates virtues in life. Relationships matter for moral virtue" maintains Notre Dame Professor of Psychology, Darcia Narvaez. This blog is a very brief adaptation of her book Developing the Virtues, edited by Narvaez and colleagues Julia Annas, and Nancy E. Snow. Essentially the question is asked, "What is virtue, and how is it developed?" It has been a salient question at least since the time of Socrates, and certainly propounded by Plato's student, Aristotle.

The post appeared first on .

Paternalism is the idea that the State (one's country) has a right to determine some rules that citizens are obliged to follow because the State knows better and something important is on the line. So, stopping at a traffic light might simply be a law - and one that everyone can agree with. Libertarians, however, object to some laws made by lawmakers on the grounds that they are unnecessarily paternalistic, and sap the liberty of the individual. Wearing helmets during motorcycling is a good example of an issue that is debated between libertarians and those who feel that the individual is not necessarily the best decision-maker when it comes to things such as safety. Clearly, gun rights are the issue du jour. Here are some thoughts about who gets to decide what, how, and why.

The post appeared first on .

Those of you who know anything about my writings or political belief system might find the following surprising: Donald Trump and I share at least one value in common. Is it greed? Immorality? Do we both value self-aggrandizement at the expense of the community/country? No � at least, I hope not! Click through to find out which one I am referring to, and why.

The post appeared first on .

All due respect to Tom Morris, who is an intellectual titan. He wrote this piece in a LinkedIn post. At first I was very excited to repost it as a blog. It had a decent length, and the title � wow! � I figured it had to be good. Well, it wasn't, exactly. The issue with the post was not that it wasn't fair for Morris to use that title to draw readers to his works of fiction. I am fully willing to grant that his books are about wisdom in the indirect sense, and like many fantastic and hallmark examples of literature throughout the ages � Tolstoy, Austen, Hemingway, Jong � we can find much in them to enlighten and move us. Topics and ideas and nuances that shed light on major questions in the philosophical and personal growth realm. Morals, existence, values, wisdom, etc. My issue was simply that he was pointing to his books as examples of art that extol and explore issues such as wisdom. In my blog of the exact same name (hat tip to Dr. Morris), I would like to explore the question in a much broader and deeper way.

The post appeared first on .

There is a strain of experiments buoyed by theory that is in the category of social psychology - the branch of the study of human behavior that locates a human being in their social context. That is, people may have some individuality, some trait-like tendencies to think, feel, perceive, and act in a more or less typical way (i.e., based on their personality type). Social psychologists study how human beings function in relation to their environment. This essentially radical environmental approach doesn't mimic the approach of Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner - dyed-in-the-wool environmentalists - because the attempt is not to change behavior, but to analyze and predict it. Read on for a brief summary, some elucidating quotations, and one of the most shocking experiments ever to come out of a major university.

The post appeared first on .

I was recently watching an incisive, hour-long program on HBO called "One Nation Under Stress." It is an investigative piece by head physician/journalist at CNN, Sanjay Gupta. The takeaway I perceived was that America is a nation under significant stress. If we were an individual lifeform, we would be said to be ailing, in great danger. I want to briefly take a look at some of the signs and symptoms, and take a glancing blow at some causes of stress, and highlight some of the costs. True to form, I will point out that this is based in part on cultural-political phenomena, primarily. Stress underlies it all. My ultimate point is that this is a shame, because some of the best that we humans can do is to keep our values "in front of us" and focus on what makes life worth living, and not get ulcers and become alcoholics as we focus on the ever-present hum of chronic stress that plagues most of us. 

The post appeared first on .

Moral hypocrisy � basically making an exception of oneself when it comes to behavior that is wrong � is deeply embedded in political conservative ideology, in my opinion. In a written piece entitled "Why we are all moral hypocrites � and what we can do about it", researcher Jared Piazza, who looked into morality, highlights the following: "In one study, we had people consider which traits they rate highest in people who occupied different roles in their life � from staff at the grocery counter to teachers, judges and parents. Moral traits, such as being honest, fair and trustworthy, were valued more than other traits, such as being sociable or intelligent, across these roles. We have also found that people with a moral failing are typically seen in a more negative light than people lacking other traits." In this blog, I wish to think about politics in light of moral hypocrisy, inconsistency, bias, and a crass kind of moral reasoning that, not surprisingly, can be called quid pro quo.

The post appeared first on .

Guest blogger Paul D. Van Pelt opines on these concepts–important topics to consider in 2023!   Think of arrogance, ignorance and pride as on a continuum. Pride is often viewed as an attribute, as well it should be. We are proud of our families and lifetime achievements. In all good intention, we are sometimes proud […]

The post appeared first on .