Augustine And Aristotle

Lately, I've been reading up on Augustine and Aristotle. I'm liking Augustine's ideas of good and evil, which has it that evil depends on good in a sort of parasitical way. So, without good there could be no evil. It beats the Manichean view of absolute good and absolute evil going toe to toe against one another.

I'm also getting into Aristotle's "Virtue Ethics" Kant tells us to follow certain rules. "Do your duty." He admonishes. He tells you not to lie and if you lie under any circumstances it's not moral. Something about that just doesn't ring right. Aristotle, on the other hand, tells us that we must build character. We do this by developing certain traits and those traits fall into a "golden mean." So, if we're brave it means that we're not reckless ans charge into frays needlessly, and it also means that we aren't cowardly and shrink for any conflict.

Teleologica

I get things wrong when i think of them and I always hit the mark when I don't. Whenever I think of what I'm doing I become so self-conscious that I trip over my own feet, both literally and metaphorically. When I keep my eyes on the path ahead and I savor the exploration of whatever it is I seek, I often make a bullseye without my intending to do so.

Religion Defined

Religion is best defined as the attempt to control people through their spirituality

No man is an island

The successful are built on either the cooperation of others, or on their backs

Fetishizing the World

I've been reading The Lord and the Rings and Philosophy and I am enjoying the essays in there a good deal. Not only am I picking up philosophical thought but I'm revisiting a favorite book of mine and really learning it.

One bit in there discuses how the main plot of the story seems to be de-fetishizing the world.. and then that leads into how modern culture is fetishized.

Anytime you see scantily clad people draping themselves over the hoods of cars or other appliances, fetishing is going on.

Apparently that is a common phenomenon in the modern consumeristic world since the relationship between craftsman and buyer is no longer as personal as it once was.

Responsibility Blues

One of the puzzling aspects of American culture is this negative reaction toward responsibility. It's not negative in the sense that people don't live up to their responsibilities, though there's that, too. It's like this; our teachers, our parents, and just about any figure of authority that wants to scapegoat someone else always moans about "people living up to their responsibilities." They complain and shake their fingers and lecture that we have "responsibilities" we must live up to before we go off and have fun.

Well, all true, but rather negatively phrased don't you think?

not all responsibilities have to be a torment. The ones that require us to go off the the dentist to have our children's teeth drilled into are not what I mean... but taking out the garbage, cooking, cleaning, are all things that I actually enjoy on occasion. If on everyone given time people will dump all the housework on me and go off to play nintendo and leave me by myself; on those occasions maybe responsibility sucks. If everyone pitches together and works as one, discusses the day, tells jokes, and gets into a community spirit; those occasions are the best.

So, if not all responsibilities are a chore, why don't we start talking up Responsibility and sell it as something that can be fun?

American might not have such a weak dollar today if we had done that.

Tuesday Bluesday

Well, OK. There's not to much to report.

I'm trying to organize my thoughts and activities a bit more. So, We'll see how that goes.

<3