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Hume Studies Archival Project

Jul 5, 7:42pm  philosophy  http://www.humesociety.org/hs/search/sea...

The Hume Society

Jul 5, 7:41pm  philosophy  http://www.humesociety.org/

Qualia

May 9, 7:06am    (5 reviews)  philosophy  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia...

Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy

Apr 26, 10:00pm    (4 reviews)  philosophy  http://www.epicurus.net/

THE NEW REPUBLIC | Blogs

Oct 31, 2007 6:15am  philosophy  http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/open_univ...

Objectivism Online: A Marketplace for Ayn Rands Objectivism

Aug 10, 2007 8:16pm  philosophy  http://www.objectivismonline.net/index.p...

Kahlil Gibran - The New Frontier (Printable Version)

Mar 29, 2007 12:37pm    (1 review)  philosophy, kahlil-gibran  http://www.kahlil.org/frontierpf.html

Come and tell me who and what are you.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert.

Are you a merchant utilizing the need of society for the necessities of life, for monopoly and exorbitant profit? Or a sincere, hard-working and diligent man facilitating the exchange between the weaver and the farmer? Are you charging a reasonable profit as a middleman between supply and demand? If you are the first, then you are a criminal whether you live in a palace or a prison. If you are the second, then you are a charitable man whether you are thanked or denounced by people.

Are you a religious leader, weaving for your body a gown out of the ignorance of the people, fashioning a crown out of the simplicity of their hearts and pretending to hate the devil merely to live upon his income? Or are you a devout and a pious man who sees in the piety of the individual the foundation for a progressive nation, and who can see through a profound search in the depth of his own soul a ladder to the eternal soul that directs the world? If you are the first, then you are a heretic, a disbeliever in God even if you fast by day and pray by night. If you are the second, then you are a violet in the garden of truth even though its fragrance is lost upon the nostrils of humanity or whether its aroma rises into that rare air where the fragrance of flowers is preserved.

Are you a newspaperman who sells his idea and principle in the slave market, who lives on the misery of people like a buzzard which descends only upon a decaying carcass? Or are you a teacher on the platform of the city gathering experience from life and presenting it to the people as sermons you have learned? If you are the first, then you are a sore and an ulcer. If you are the second, then you are a balsam and a medicine.

~ Khalil Gibran (1925)
* * * * *

Striking how Khalil describes contemporary America in the first half of each of his questions. Has the question always been then same? I have wondered for many years.

Book II of Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Mar 2, 2007 8:35pm    (2 reviews)  philosophy, locke  http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/t...

This particular paragraph from Locke speaks to the thinness of human thought, and in particular, to contemporary American thought. I thought I would share it. If it makes little sense, you might read it in context at the link, read my comments, or ask me.

BOOK II: Locke's ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

Of Ideas

Chapter I

Of Ideas in general, and their Original

Paragraph 8: And hence we see the reason why it is pretty late before most children get ideas of the operations of their own minds; and some have not any very clear or perfect ideas of the greatest part of them all their lives. Because, though they pass there continually, yet, like floating visions, they make not deep impressions enough to leave in their mind clear, distinct, lasting ideas, till the understanding turns inward upon itself, reflects on its own operations, and makes them the objects of its own contemplation. Children when they come first into it, are surrounded with a world of new things, which, by a constant solicitation of their senses, draw the mind constantly to them; forward to take notice of new, and apt to be delighted with the variety of changing objects. Thus the first years are usually employed and diverted in looking abroad. Men's business in them is to acquaint themselves with what is to be found without; and so growing up in a constant attention to outward sensations, seldom make any considerable reflection on what passes within them, till they come to be of riper years; and some scarce ever at all.

* * * * *

[emphasis added] And thus it is, with the continuous onslaught of propaganda, consumerism, political rhetoric, and mass think that many many Americans (perhaps people all across the world) remain in this child-like trace of bewilderment, never truly considering WHAT they perceive nor experiencing any desire to comprehend it. The frightening part? The ignorant are mostly oblivious to what they are missing. Like children, Americans remain entranced and "delighted with the variety of changing objects."

And that, friends, is precisely where those "in the know" what us to be. It is the basis of power maintenance to keep the masses oblivious to their own ignorance.

It is also the agenda of the demagogues (Rush, Sean Hannity, Bill O and the rest of them) and the bulk of organized religion, who maintain their status and income by a similar maintenance of rhetoric designed -- knowingly and specifically -- to maintain YOUR opinion FOR you.

In the words of Winnie the Pooh: Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think, Think.

Synchronicity

Feb 20, 2007 7:30pm    (18 reviews)  philosophy  http://home.clara.net/heureka/books/sync...

American Philosophy -- Online and Text Resources

Feb 3, 2007 1:02pm    (3 reviews)  philosophy  http://www.erraticimpact.com/~american/s...