Laurence J. Peter on ‘competence’

“Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.”

- Laurence J. Peter

 

George Bernard Shaw on ‘democracy’

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”

- George Bernard Shaw

 

Nicholas Chamfort on Man as an Actor

“In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.”

-Nicholas Chamfort

 

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Rape as a weapon

Recently I was given the opportunity to speak to a group of my peers about one of my earlier posts: Democratic Republic of Congo – Women and War.

 

Nietzsche and nihilism

Did Nietzsche correctly predict Western society’s descent into nihilism?

Nietzsche saw nihilism as the emptying meaning from the world. It is a situation whereby the world is emptied of morals, truth, judgement and values. When he declared, “God is dead, and we killed him.” Nietzsche acknowledged the move to scientific thinking had supplanted faith. The loss of a higher power that could define absolutes meant that all morals, truth and values were now open to question.

 

Review on the validity of the philosophical ‘mind’

Introduction

In philosophy there have been two main schools of thought about the relationship between ‘mind’ and ‘body’. These were dualism, which originated with Plato and was later extended by Descartes and materialism, which was extended to its logical conclusion by Hume. This critique will briefly review the origins and logic of both schools.

 

Machiavelli: cynicism vs Cynicism

Is Machiavelli cynical?

According to dictionary.com[1], cynical, n. a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.

Based on this definition Machiavelli can validly be called a cynic as his philosophy stems from the assumption that people are inherently evil. Because of this evil nature people can, and will, do incredibly unpleasant things to each other purely out of self-interest. Additionally because being inherently evil precludes being inherently good, the concept of engaging in acts purely for the welfare of others, with no ulterior motive, is a logical impossibility.

 

Nietzsche on ‘conviction’

“… convictions are prisons and men of conviction are of no account whatever”; this is why “great minds are sceptical.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Justice Trevor Riley on drunken violence

Links to articles:

The Australian
The Age
Sydney Morning Herald
NT News
ABC
The West Australian

 

study resumes

It would appear that reading philosophy is not something that mixes well with having an extended family visit over Christmas.

University has now restarted so posts for the next while will be focussed on useful and interesting information found there. I shall return to Mr Nietzsche in due course.