philosophy – mostly philosophy

Is anything illogical called madness?

November 28, 2020November 19, 2020 maylynno

Indeed it is, mainly in the West but not everywhere. The concept of illogical as the opposite of madness comes from the long philosophical tradition which culprit was in the 18th century, the century of Enlightment and Reason. Then, illogical means irrational, emotional, intuitive, imaginative and any other state of mind or idea that didn’t fill the logical criteria.

However, life is not logical.

If one has to apply logic in their day to day life, it would appear this way: wake up, work, eat, sleep, wake up, work, eat, sleep etc. again and again in the same repetitive actions for the next decades. Taken to this level, life in itself is put aside.

The most beautiful moments happens outside of logic, in moments of foolishness and carelessness. If love has to be seen through the eyes of logic, it would become the most idiotic human experience. Call it madness, love is the most beautiful !

To call madness anything illogical is to step out of life because there is a dimension (if not dimensions endlessly stretched out) beyond logic.

What is a strong will?

November 26, 2020November 17, 2020 maylynno

We hear a lot these words. Commonly known as mental strength, a strong will is acting with intentions towards a goal by overpassing inner and outer limits.

Most of the time, inner limits are the real limits whose determination distinguishes a “strong” will from a “weak” one (only if the word “weak” can be an adjective of the will). In other words, it takes decision, discipline and consistency to have a strong will.

But is it really all the work of a free will? Or is it the action of a certain type of will? Maybe is it something deeper?

Perhaps, a “weak” will is a choice of a free will to be irresponsible.

The 2nd wave of the lockdown

November 24, 2020November 15, 2020 maylynno

Talking again about the lockdown is not a pleasant subject; what else can be said? What more advices can be given to overcome it? None of us saw the lockdown coming again.

The lockdown is in between fighting the pandemic and the full control of the State over people. Whilst the quarantine is necessary for saving people, it is at the same time a political act. So, it is health versus freedom. According to a study done by the Kennedy Institute of Ethics of the Georgetown University in 2014:

“Implementation of medical quarantines in America brings into conflict various legitimate arguments regarding who, if anyone, should have the authority to restrict movements of citizens. Quarantines are not new, but they exist now in a world with new dangers and new opportunities for abuse”.

How to fight the pandemic without individual freedom restriction?

The full study is on link below:

Quarantine: The politics are as real as the science

Is intelligence a moral value?

November 21, 2020November 14, 2020 maylynno

As always, philosophy is the science of definitions. A philosophical writing, long or short, must include definitions of main concepts so analysis can be possible.

Intelligence is the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new situations. It is the synonymous of reason and logic. Intelligence is also applied to animals, plants, and technological objects (think of smart phone for example).

For a long tradition inherited from Christian catechism, intelligence is referred to as a moral value: an intelligent person is an ethical person; a bad person is not intelligent but clever and cunning. Which leads us to the following question: so a bad person, for a example a criminal, can never be qualified as intelligent no matter how intelligent they can be?

In order to promote ethics, moral values and Good (which is not a bad thing), religions made of intelligence a moral value. However, in its definition, intelligence is cleverness, smartness and cunningness since it is the ability to deal with a situation.

Intelligence is only an intellectual capacity, hopefully to be used for the good of humanity.

2020 the Halloween year

November 19, 2020November 14, 2020 maylynno

Worldwide, everyone is wearing a mask; even the Venetian carnival couldn’t imagine it. The eyes without a face syndrome had become synonymous to citizenship. By uncovering the failure of the world medical system, facing a pandemic is a confusion between a patronizing totalitarianism and medical emergency.

Until now, the origin of the pandemic is still unknown. However, what is clear now, it the fault of capitalism in its current form, at least for the last 10 years. When absolutely everything is salable, including people’s health and freedom, then Covid19 did us a great favour in spite of its ugliness. The virus demystified what we thought was the ultimate success. The “phantom of the opera” in its 2020 version.

2020 is the Halloween year: the US presidential elections anyone? The uprise of racism and fanaticism? Decapitation of a history teacher down the street? Corruption? Climate change and pollution?

Wearing masks helped unmasking the perverted political systems.

The hypocrisy of the “politically correct”

November 17, 2020November 14, 2020 maylynno1 Comment

As much as provocation is less needed nowadays due to sensitive issues, the politically correct attitude is nevertheless as harmful. When a cat for example can’t be called a cat but “a furry four-legged domestic feline” then there is a problem.

The problem is that the purpose of discourse or art is deviated from its original objectives: expression, communication, truth. We are then left with sugar coated words and art that is lifeless.

Music can tell readdress the dilemma here. Let’s go back musically to not farfetched decades: the 80s and the 90s. Artists back then promoted all types of passions: love was a lot of love, anger was brutal, and sadness was depressive; joy was more than joyful and darkness was terrifying. Along this musical, poetic and visual process, all those passions (especially dark ones) went through sublimation. In Freudian terms, sublimation is a defense mechanism that reduces anxiety through the transformation of aggressive impulses into artistic, intellectual and spiritual activities.

Look at music now. Apart from happy few artists, music has become politically correct. Is it the result of our anxious world or did it help in provoking anxiety and violence?

White Man vs white men

November 12, 2020November 11, 2020 maylynno1 Comment

The White Man is a political concept better known as the Supremacist. The 20th century French philosopher Gilles Deleuze has referred to this concept as “The Face”. It is mainly the Westerner White Man politics that rules the international politics and its culprit is found in the Extreme-Right wing.

However there is a wide confusion between the political concept of the White Man supremacy and the white men who happen to be white genetically. Such confusion doesn’t help solve the problem of racism and fanaticism. Furthermore, considering every white fellow out there as a potential supremacist would turn them into scapegoats.

The question remains: what do we do then with nice white people?

From Mothers To Witches | Exploring Traditional Female Roles In Literature

November 5, 2020 maylynno

Written by Lay Sion Ng @ Issues Under Tissues Chinese Malaysian, American Literature at Osaka University, Japan. Traditional Female Roles in Literature: An Introduction In the earliest works of literature, the basic roles of females are frequently determined through their relation to men. The submissive ones were rewarded while the rebellious ones were […]
From Mothers To Witches | Exploring Traditional Female Roles In Literature

Walter Benjamin on mass distraction!

November 3, 2020November 2, 2020 maylynno

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a German philosopher who committed suicide for not being able to escape under sieged France. The text was below was taken from his books The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936), an essay on cultural criticism on mass reproduction that undervalues the uniqueness of art.

“The mass is a matrix from which all traditional behavior toward works of art issues today in a new form. Quantity has been transmuted into quality. The greatly increased mass of participants has produced a change in the mode of participation. The fact that the new mode of participation first appeared in a disreputable form must not confuse the spectator. Yet some people have launched spirited attacks against precisely this superficial aspect. Among these, Duhamel has expressed himself in the most radical manner. What he objects to most is the kind of participation which the movie elicits from the masses. Duhamel calls the movie “a pastime for helots, a diversion for uneducated, wretched, worn-out creatures who are consumed by their worries a spectacle which requires no concentration and presupposes no intelligence which kindles no light in the heart and awakens no hope other than the ridiculous one of someday becoming a ‘star’ in Los Angeles.” Clearly, this is at bottom the same ancient lament that the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator. That is a commonplace.

Distraction and concentration form polar opposites which may be stated as follows: A man who concentrates before a work of art is absorbed by it. He enters into this work of art the way legend tells of the Chinese painter when he viewed his finished painting. In contrast, the distracted mass absorbs the work of art. This is most obvious with regard to buildings. Architecture has always represented the prototype of a work of art the reception of which is consummated by a collectivity in a state of distraction. The laws of its reception are most instructive.

The distracted person, too, can form habits. More, the ability to master certain tasks in a state of distraction proves that their solution has become a matter of habit

Reception in a state of distraction, which is increasing noticeably in all fields of art and is symptomatic of profound changes in apperception, finds in the film its true means of exercise”.