by John Clark Philosophy is in decline. You hear it all the time. The evidence is regularly trotted out: fewer graduates; no jobs; no prospects; a lack of interest from the culture, etc. It’s become a tedious verity. But hold on, how can that be? The oracle of the humanities cast out of public discourse, […]
In this article I want to show you how a few can control the masses. They don’t need tanks or soldiers, they do it through the mind. Fear has been the power tool par excellence for thousands of years, but so has conditioning. This means of mind control causes the masses to think and act […]
The internet, Google, Wikipedia and social media has made crime of dilettantes a common phenomenon The crime of dilettantism is rising in this modern age of information and technology No one knows a thing but claims to know everything Do we need Socratic method to be reinforced of saying “I know that I know nothing” […]
Whether animals do think remains a subject work within the science community. It is more known that animals operate by instinct if such word alone refers to those animal behaviours outside the operation of mere instinct, such as some behaviours displayed by common animals like the dog. To think like a goat is a metaphor […]
I’ve often read that journaling is an effective practice for clearing your mind and focusing on the things you can control (while relieving your mind of the things you cannot control). For those of you that journal, what is your “strategy” for how you organize your thoughts on paper? When I sit down with a […]
Wellbeing is defined as “the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.” However, it is important to realise that it is a much broader concept than moment-to-moment happiness. It is most commonly used in philosophy to describe what is non-instrumentally or ultimately good for a person. … According to the view known as welfarism, well-being […]
“As they say that love conquers all, though only in the remembrance of the heart’s function. To never forget the greatest importance, is above all what plagues the mind. Reconfirmation. To remind oneself of the greatest treasure, as that is to preserve the heartbeat. Why does it beat? If to love is to feel who […]
“I ask every American to join me in this cause. Uniting to fight the common foes we face: Anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, hopelessness..” was the clarion call given by the new US President soon after his swearing-in. That’s more like a sermon delivered by a spiritual master extolling his audience to […]
Do you agree with this quote? “To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” […]
People have spent the last few months, since multiple lockdowns taking place all over the world, on self wellbeing. Social media is flooded with videos on yoga, meditation, routines, diets, fitness, wellbeing. For this is very helpful, however isn’t the time to redirect this energy on kindness and empathy towards others?
One can’t be happy alone. It has been said centuries ago, happiness is not solely an individualistic purpose as much as it is also a collective one. Greek philosophers for example thought of politics as eudemonistic (eudemonia, in Greek, means happiness). According to them, politics should aim for high moral values, the highest being the city’s happiness or well being.
Politics these days is far from it’s original definition. Perhaps it is time, people take themselves and others in charge by being empathetic and kind to one another, for empathy is a natural human tendency. After at least a century of praising completion and ambition, it is hard for everyone to be empathetic and less selfish again.
Below, the philosopher and economist Adam Smith wrote about empathy as the main pillar of social cohesion: