Philosophy Scrap by George Hernandez

Scrap notes on philosophy that I am parking here for exploring, refining, and sorting later.

Monism, Dualism, Polyism. Viewing the elephant. Yin-Yang. Opposite dualities. Problem-Solution dualities.
Mythology and Stories
Invention, Discovery, Exploration, Rediscovery
Creation, Reworking, Recreation
Essence of Humanity:
- Seeking patterns
- Stories
- Adventure
- Exploration
- That which is forbidden
- Gossip
Different orientations:
- goal (power, fame, fortune)
- action (process, work)
- academic (ideas, theories)
Important lessons for work from school: problem solving, team work, life long learning
Rhetoric and Arguments
- 5 Canons of Western Rhetoric by Cicero:
  1. Invention, eg court
  2. Arrangement, eg concert hall
  3. Style, eg clothing
  4. Memory, eg hard drive
  5. Delivery, eg internet
- 4 Aims/Purposes in Modern Western Theory of Discourse (Note if arranged in a triangle, Literary is in the center):
  1. Referential, Subject, eg News
  2. Persuasive, Reader, eg Advertising
  3. Expressive, Writer, eg Editorial Page
  4. Literary, Language, eg Comics, Articles, and Plays
- Other Rhetoric Theories/Methods
  - Eastern
  - Mid Eastern
  - African
  - Pacific Islander
  - etc
- All theories utilize:
  - Logos - quality of information, content, wisdom-reason
  - Ethos - perception, speaker, character-morals
  - Pathos - emotion, audience, suffering-empathy
Here are 2 verses that form the foundation of fundamentalism Christianity:
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life…He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16).
- “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:3-6).
- In short the rules are: you're going to hell unless (1) you believe that Christ was the son of God and (2) you never back slide on this. You sin and stuff as long as you meet those 2 items.
Love connectors/languages book:
- words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, physical touch.
- Renamed: affirmation, bonding time, exchanging gifts, service, touching.
- Additional: fun time, chill time.
Rambling v Walking
Family Drift and Dysfunctionality
Insanity
Loss of Identity
Cultural time: American is now., Japanese is wait, Filipino is whenever, and Hispanic is later.
Inner muses: emotion, memory, empathy, hunch, and ancestral memory.
Creativity restates the question. Creativity is a sustained process. Creativity reduces complexity to simplicity, thus arriving at greater and more beautiful complexities.
The sound, feel, and character of different languages.
Corporate America
- Customer Service
- Face or Phone v e-mail
- Details important
- Constantly stay on top
- Diversity is necessary
- Image and credibility is vital
- Honesty is vital
Education: A good school is great, but even the best won't necessarily help some.
Gifts: don't worry about giving or receiving & whether the gift is appreciated or appropriate.
7 intelligences by Howard Gardner of Harvard: math/logic, language, music, spatial (painting and sculpture), body kinesthetic (dance), understanding others, and self-understanding.
Mysticism
- Don't confuse Fundamentalists with Traditionalists/Conservatives. Fundies are relatively new, they are reactionists, i.e. they are reacting to a perceived threat on their way of life.
- Via wikipedia: '
  
  Deism is belief in a God or first cause based on reason rather than faith, distinguishing it from theism. Deism is usually synonymous with "natural religion" in 18th century Enlightenment writings. Deism originated in 17th century Europe, gaining popularity in the 18th century Enlightenment especially in America as a modernist movement inspired by the success of the scientific method. Deists emphasize the exclusive application of reason and personal experience to religious questions. Deism is concerned with those truths which humans can discover through a process of reasoning, independent of any claimed divine revelation through scripture or prophets. Most Deists believe that God does not interfere with the world or create miracles. Some other religions, such as Roman Catholicism, believe also that the existence of God can be known via reason rather than faith, but also claim that miracles and revelations happen.
  
  Deism and Theism are closely related and this sometimes leads to controversy. The root of the word "deism" is from the Latin "deus", while the root of the word "theism" comes from the Greek "theos", both meaning "god" in English. In practice there are a range of beliefs encompassed by both Theism and Deism; however, Theism can include faith or revelation as a basis for belief while Deism can include only belief which can be substantiated through reason.'
Some ceremonies/rituals are so beneficial that they are practically essential, but the trick is how to implement them in a humanistic/secular and trans-non-secular way that is also financially viable. Analyze/synthesize study ceremonies/rituals historically and trans-religions/cultures.
- 0 Birth.
- 6 Baby-Child. 12 Child-Adolescent. 18 Adolescent-Adult.
- Marriage. In marriage support. Divorce. Post divorce support.
- Death. Death anniversaries.
- Ways to gather cyclically
  - weekly/monthly/seasonally/annually
  - 2-4-8-16-32-64
  - 5-10-20-40-80
  - 5-10-15-30-60
  - 0-K-12
  - 30-40-50-60-70-80-90-100
  - Pow Wows
Kant's noumenon ('an object as it is in itself independent of the mind, as opposed to a phenomenon. Also called thing-in-itself.'), and Kant's antonym phenomenon ('an object as it is perceived by the senses/perception').
In psychoanalysis you have people with their psyches & people in environments. The psyche is composed of 3 parts: The conscious ego (mind) mediates between the demands of the environment, the impulses of the id (body), and the standards of the superego (spirit).
- Ego. The mind part of our psyche. The ego experiences the external world ("reality") through the senses (phenomenologically), organizes thought processes rationally, and governs action. The ego is the most conscious part of the psyche and has the most immediate control of thought & behavior.
- Id. The body part of our psyche. The id is the reservoir of instinctual drives & the source of "psychic" energy. The id is dominated by the pleasure principle & irrational wishing. The id is our unconscious/subconscious. The id demands immediate satisfaction of primitive needs.
  - Some of the primitive needs include libido/eros, death/thanatos.
- Superego. The spirit part of our psyche. The superego is critical of the self/ego and enforces moral standards. The superego censors and restrains the ego. The superego is strongly formed by events & people in early in a person's life. The superego is our conscience.
'Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul and logos = word) is the study of mind, thought, and behaviour. It is largely concerned with humans, although the behaviour and thought of other animals is also studied; either as a subject in its own right (see animal cognition), or more controversially, as a way of gaining an insight into human psychology by means of comparison (see comparative psychology).

Psychology is conducted both scientifically and non-scientifically. Mainstream psychology is based largely on positivism, using quantitative studies and the scientific method to test and disprove hypotheses, often in an experimental context. Psychology tends to be eclectic, drawing on scientific knowledge from other fields to help explain and understand behaviour. However, not all psychological research methods follow the classical scientific method.Qualitative research untilizes more interpretive techniques and is descriptive in nature enabling the gathering of rich clinical information, unatainable by classical experimentation. Some psychologists, particularly adherents to humanistic psychology, may go as far as completely rejecting a scientific approach. However, mainstream psychology has a bias towards the scientific method, which is reflected in the dominance of cognitivism as the guiding theoretical framework used by most psychologists to understand thought and behaviour.

Psychology does not necessarily refer to the brain or nervous system and can be framed purely in terms of phenomenological or information processing theories of mind. Increasingly though, an understanding of brain function is being included in psychological theory and practice, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Psychology differs from sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science, in part, by studying the behaviour of individuals (alone or in groups) rather than the behaviour of the groups or aggregates themselves. Although psychological questions were asked in antiquity (c.f., Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia or "On Memory and Recollection"), psychology emerged as a separate discipline only recently. The first person to call himself a "psychologist", Wilhelm Wundt, opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879.' -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology
'Psychoanalysis is the revelation of unconscious relations, in a systematic way through an associative process. The fundamental subject matter of psychoanalysis is the unconscious patterns of life revealed through the analysand's (the patient's) free associations. The analyst's goal is to help liberate the analysand from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance, that is, past patterns of relatedness that are no longer serviceable or that inhibit freedom.

Psychoanalysis was first devised in Vienna in the 1890s by Sigmund Freud, a doctor interested in finding an effective treatment for patients with neurotic or hysterical symptoms. As a result of talking with these patients Freud came to believe that their problems stemmed from culturally unacceptable, thus repressed and unconscious desires and fantasies of a sexual nature, and as his theory developed, he included desires and fantasies of an aggressive nature, as well. Freud considered these aspects of life instinctive drives, libidinal energy/Eros and the death instinct/Thanatos. Freud's description of Eros/Libido included all creative, life-producing instincts. The Death Instinct represented an instinctive drive to return to a state of calm, or non-existence. Since Freud's day psychoanalysis has developed in many ways especially as a study of the personal, inter-personal and intra-subjective sense of self.

The basic method of psychoanalysis is the transference and resistance analysis of free association. The patient, in a relaxed posture, is directed to say whatever comes to mind. Dreams, hopes, wishes, and fantasies are of interest, as are recollections of early family life. Generally the analyst simply listens, making comments only when, in his or her professional judgment, an opportunity for insight on the part of the patient arises. In listening, the analyst attempts to maintain an attitude of empathic neutrality , a nonjudgmental stance designed to create a safe environment. The analyst asks that the analysand speak with utter honesty about whatever comes to awareness while interpreting the patterns and inhibitions that appear in the patient's speech and other behavior.

Although psychoanalytic techniques have been used in a few cases to successfully treat psychosis (with great effort and major sacrifice on the part of the analyst), psychoanalysis is generally thought by analysts to be useful as a method in cases of neurosis and with character or personality problems. Psychoanalysis is most useful in dealing with ingrained problems of intimacy and relationship and for those problems in which established patterns of life are problematic. As a therapeutic treatment, psychoanalysis generally takes three to five meetings a week and requires the amount of time for natural or normal maturational change (three to seven years).' -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis
Miscellaneous fields in philosophy:
- Idealism
  - Kant's Transcendental Idealism
  - Objective Idealism
  - Absolute or Monistic Objective Idealism
  - Absolute Rational or Logical Idealism
  - Voluntaristic Idealism
- Phenomenology v Noumenology
- Ontology. Existence.
- Theology.
- Logical Positivism
- Universal Science = First Principles. EG: Non-Contradiction, Causality, Substance/Objecthood, Universals, Species, Elements, Identity, Change.
- Naturalism
  - Materialism
  - Monistic Substantive Naturalism
  - Dialectical Materialism
  - Critical Naturalism
- Existentialism
- Teleological or Goal Directed Systems
- Deontological or Ought Systems
- Power Theory, Jungle Law, Machiavelli, Survival of the fittest
- Stoicism
- Greek Eudaemonism
  - Platonic Eudaemonism
  - Aristotelean Eudaemonism
- Communism
- Naturalistic Humanism
- Idealistic Self Realization Theory
- Religious Perfectionism or Self Realization
- Objectivism. Ayn Rand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivist_philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruelty
Make separate section on spiritualism, mysticism?
(Meditation ~ Mindfulness ~ Be present ~ free form higher thinking ~ sati in Buddhism) v (Stilling the noise of the min ~ no mind ~ mushin) v (continuing mind ~ remaining mind ~ zanshin)
Wheel of Life: Fortunes go up and down, peak and valley, but the subject of the fortune (EG: your spouse) remains at the center throughout.
Chinese Phil
- Yin, Yang, Wuji, I Ching.
- Confucianism.
- Tao = Dao = Do = Natural Way.
Here is a list of nice Philosophy works.
- Alisdair McIntyre. After Virtue. Ethics.
- David Hume. A Treatise on Human Nature. Many topics from a skeptical perspective.
- JL Austin. Sense and Sensibilia. Philosopher's devils advocate.
- Mary Midgley. Beast and Man. Green Philosophy.
- PF Strawson. Individuals. 1959 on Descriptive Metaphysics.
- PF Strawson. The Bounds of Sense. Kant analysis.
ethikos (ηθικός), meaning 'theory of living',

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2007-10-27 02:08:16Z) (Auto noted: 2010-12-24 22:59:05Z)