The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.
- Russell Baker
Saturday, 19th December, 2009
Wednesday, 4th November, 2009
Laurence J. Peter on ‘competence’
Posted by Shane under quote | Tags: Laurence J. Peter |Leave a Comment
“Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.”
- Laurence J. Peter
Sunday, 4th October, 2009
George Bernard Shaw on ‘democracy’
Posted by Shane under quote | Tags: George Bernard Shaw |Leave a Comment
“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”
- George Bernard Shaw
Tuesday, 15th September, 2009
Nicholas Chamfort on Man as an Actor
Posted by Shane under quote | Tags: actor, Nicholas Chamfort, perception, role, self |Leave a Comment
“In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are.”
-Nicholas Chamfort
Friday, 4th September, 2009
Democratic Republic of the Congo – Rape as a weapon
Posted by Shane under Democratic Republic of the Congo | Tags: DRC, rape, rape as a weapon, sexual slavery, war |Leave a Comment
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.
Thursday, 23rd April, 2009
Nietzsche and nihilism
Posted by Shane under Nietzsche | Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche, hedonism, nihilism, post-modern, Western Society |[2] Comments
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. (more…)
Monday, 13th April, 2009
Review on the validity of the philosophical ‘mind’
Posted by Shane under Descartes, Hume | Tags: cogito ergo sum, David Hume, dualism, mind, Rene Descartes, tabula rasa |Leave a Comment
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. (more…)
Friday, 3rd April, 2009
Machiavelli: cynicism vs Cynicism
Posted by Shane under Cynicism, Machiavelli | Tags: Cynic, Machiavelli |Leave a Comment
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. (more…)
Monday, 2nd March, 2009
“… convictions are prisons and men of conviction are of no account whatever”; this is why “great minds are sceptical.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche