Historic Schools of Psychology

School/Major Proponents	Key Concepts	Current Status
Structuralism	The mind can be studied scientifically by using introspection to discover the basic elements of experience. Conscious experience can be broken down into objective sensations such as sight and taste, and subjective feelings such as emotional responses, will, and mental images like memories or dreams.	We do not encounter structuralists today, but cognitive and experimental psychologists study related topics such as sensations and perception, emotion, memory, and states of consciousness (including dreams).
Wilhelm Wundt
Functionalism	There is a relationship between consciousness and behaviour. Consciousness is fluid and streamlike. Experience cannot be broken down into objective sensations and subjective feelings, Funtionalists focused on how experience help us to function more adaptively in our environments.	We do not have pure functionalists today, but functionalism preceded behaviourism in its interest in how habits are formed by experience and help us adapt. Behaviour is seen as evolving: Adaptive behaviour is maintained, whereas maladaptive behaviour tends to drop out.
William James
Behaviourism	Psychology must limit itself to observable, measurable events – to behaviour, not mental processes. Organisms learn to behave in certain ways because of the effects of their behaviour.	Some “pure” behaviourists remain, but behaviourism more generally has contributed to experimental psychology, the psychology of learning, and methods of therapy (behaviour therapy). Although many contemporary psychologists argue that it is desirable to study consciousness and mental processes, the behaviourist influence has encouraged them to base many of their conclusions on measurable behaviour.
John B. Watson B F. Skinner
Gestalt Psychology	Gestalt psychologists focused on perception, thinking and problem solving. Whereas structuralists tried to isolate basic elements of experience, Gestalt psychologists focused on the tendency to see perceptions as wholes that give meaning to parts.	Gestalt principles continue to be studied in the field of sensations and perception. Other Gestalt ideas, such as those involving thinking and problem solving, continue to be studied by cognitive psychologists and experimental psychologists. Gestalt therapy – which aims to help people integrate conflicting parts of their personalities – remains in use.
Max Wertheimer Kurt Koffka Wolfgang Köhler
Psychoanalysis	Visible behaviour and conscious thinking are influenced by unconscious ideas and conflicts. People are motivated to gratify primitive sexual and aggressive impulses, even if they are unaware of their true motives. Unconscious processes are more influential than conscious thought in determining human behaviour.	Psychoanalytic thinking remains quite alive in the popular culture. Among psychologists, many discount psychoanalysis altogether, because many of its concepts cannot be studied by scientific means. Modern psychoanalytic therapists tend to place more emphasis in the roles of conscious motives, conscious thinking, and decision making.
Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Alfred Adler Karen Horney Erik Erikson

Source: Psychology: Concepts and Connections, Spencer A. Rathus, 2007

The First Noble Truth

The painting of  the nine scenes from the Book of Genesis on the Sistine Chapel ceiling was finally done and unveiled to the Pope.But the Pope wanted to change it to more ultramarine, with more flex of gold as he thought it looked “poor” without gold.So Michelangelo said to the Pope: ” The people depicted in the painting, they are poor too.They are struggling, suffering but you wouldnt know about that, would you?……..”

I am here to share with you one aspect of the buddhist PHILOSOPHY.

The First Noble Truth with its three aspects is:”There is suffering, suffering should be understood,and suffering has been understood.This is a very skilful teaching because it is expressed in a simple formula which is weasy to remember, and it also applies to everything that you can possibly experience or do or think concernong the past, the present or the future.

Suffering is the common bond we share.Everybody everywhere suffers.Human beings sufferd in the past,in ancient India;they suffer in modern Britain;and in the future,human beings will also suffer.What do we have in common with Queen Elizabeth?-we suffer.With a tramp in Charing Cross, what do we have in common?-suffering.It includes all levels from the most privileged human beings to the most desperate and underprivileged ones, all ranges in between.Everybody everywhee suffers.It is a bond we have with each other, something we all understand

When we talk about our human suffering, it brings out our compassionate tendencies.But when we talk about our opinions, about what i think and what you think about politics and religion, then we can go into wars.In the past, most of the western propaganda made the Russians out to be titanic monsters or cold hearted, reptilian people, so they were never thought of as human beings.If you want to kill people, you have to make them out to be that way;you cannot very well kill someone if you realised they suffer the same way you do.you have to think that they are evil and that it is good to get rid of evil.With this attitude, you might feel justified in bombing and machine gunning them.If you keep in mind our common bond of suffering, that makes you quite incapable of doing those things

The First Noble Truth is not a dismal metaphysical statement saying everything is suffering.Notice that there is a difference a metaphysical doctrine in which you are making a statement about The Absolute truth and a Noble Truth which is a reflection.A Noble Truth is a truth to reflect upon.It is NOT absolute.This is where some people are confused because they interpret this Noble Truth as a kind of metaphysical truth of Buddhism, which on the contrary,is something it was never meant to be.

You can see that the First Noble Truth is not an absolute statement because of the Fourth Noble Truth, which is the way of non-suffering. You cannot have absolute suffering and then have a way out of it, can you?That doesnt make sense

Suffering and self view

It is important to reflect upon the phrasing of the First Noble Truth.It is phrased in a very clear way:’There is suffering’ rather than ‘i suffer’ .Psychologically, that reflection is a much skilful way to put it. We tend to interpret our suffering as ‘i’am really suffering.I suffer a lot-and i dont want to suffer.’This is the way our thinking mind is conditioned.

‘I am suffering’always converys the sense of’i am somebody who is suffering a lot.This suffering is mine;i have a lot of suffering in my life.’Then the wjole process, the association with one’s self and one’s memory, take off.

But note, we are not saying there is someone who has suffering.It is not personal suffering anymore when we see it as  ‘There is suffering’.It is not:Oh poor me, why do i have to suffer so much?what did i do to deserve this? Why do i have to get old?Why do i have to have sorrow, pain, grief and despair? i only want happiness and security.’This kind of thinking comes from ignorance whcih complicates everything and results in personality problems

To let go of suffering, we have to admit it into consciousness.But the admission in Buddhist meditation is not from a position of’ i am suffering’  but rather, ‘there is the presence of suffering’ because we are trying not to identify with the problem but simply acknowledge that there is one. It is unskilful to think in terms of:’i am an angry person;i get angry so easily;how do i get rid of it?’.That triggers off all the underlying assumptions of a self and it is very hard to get any perspective on that.It becomes very confused because the sense of my problems or my thoughts takes us very easily to suppression or to make judgement about it and criticising ourselves.We tend to grasp and identify rather than to observe, witness and understand things as they are. When you are just admitting that there is this feeling of confusion, that there is this greed or anger, then there is an honest reflection on the way it is and you have taken out all underlying assumption – or at least undermined them.

So do not grasp these things as personal faults but keep contemplating these conditions as impermanent, unsatisfactory and non self.Keep reflecting , seeing them as they are.the tendency is to view life from the sense that these are my problems, and that one is being very honest and forthright in admitting this. Then our life tends to reaffirm that because we keep operating from that wrong assumption.But that viewpoint is impermanent, unsatisfactory and non self.

greed,gullibility and herd mentality

      This is an “unforgettable story” from Warren Buffett:

      An oil prospector(lets call him John) died and went to heaven,

      St Peter said : Well, i checked you out, and you meet all of thequalifications. But there is one problem.  We     

                                   have some tough zoning laws up here, and we keep all of the oil prospectors over in that pen.

                                   And as you can see, it is absolutely chock- full.There is no room for you.

      John said: Do you mind if i just say four words?

      St Peter said: No harm in that

     So John cupped his hands and yells out , “OIL DISCOVERED IN HELL!!!”

     And of course, the lock comes off the cage and all of the oil prospectors start heading right straight down.

     So ,

     St Peter said: That’s a pretty slick trick.So now, go on in , make yourself at home.All the room in the world.

     The prospector paused for a minute,  then said :

    “No, i think i will go with the rest of the boys ……………….There might be truth to that rumour after all”

     So conclusion:They are all mindless enough to follow rumours and drill for oil in hell.

5000 Hits at last

A small milestone for Mindstorm! Do continue to write and read!

The Third Philosophy: Of Mind and Matter

The Wax Argument

Let us take this wax. It has just been extracted from the honeycomb. It has not yet completely lost its taste of honey and it still retains some of the scent of the flowers from which it was collected. Its color, shape and size are obvious. It is hard, cold, easy to touch and, if tapped with a finger, it emits a sound. Thus it has everything that seems to be required for a body to be known as distinctively as possible. But notice that, as I speak, it is moved close to the fire. It loses what remains of its taste, its smell is lost, the color changes, it loses its shape, increases in size, becomes a liquid, becomes hot and can barely be touched. Nor does it still emit a sound if tapped. But does not the same wax remain?

I cannot perceive the wax correctly without a human mind.

~ Descartes

There are many objects and occasions that seem to happen without reason or justice in the world around us. As we wake up every single day, we are constantly thrown into an array of unusual phenomena and happenstance that pass either unnoticed or unexplained. In truth, our mind is the chief culprit in hiding the reality of the world from our hearts. For fear of sorrow and despair, the mind sometimes unconsciously blocks what we would not like to know in an effort to remain in an illusion of total freedom and control over our own fate and destiny. Such is the nature of the common mind.

“Men are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain.”

~ Aristotle

The uncommon mind, both rare and unique, seeks the truth for the sake of knowledge itself and marches with courage into the shadow of obscurity that hides the true nature of reality. Even with its initial hopes and vitality, the uncommon mind may also succumb to the pessimistic forces that persist indefinitely in the external world. Yet as surely as there are only a few winners in a race for many, there are a small number of people that accept reality as it is instead of bending the truth to create a Utopia of bliss in ignorance. The masses fail this test simply because the truth of reality is like a mirror that reflects back the crude ugliness and imperfection of the soul that looks into it. The common mind prefers to cower and hide from its own reflection.

“If an ass looks into a mirror, you cannot expect an angel to look out.”

~ Schopenhauer

Knowledge or ignorance is the ultimate choice given to the uncommon mind. For the common mind, it is sufficient to just invent illusions and superstitions to mask the peculiarities that occur in our daily lives. But the uncommon mind holds a choice. In ignorance, one gains the bliss of accepting the happenstances in life as random with neither reason nor meaning. For some people, it is wiser to choose ignorance over the illusion of absolute knowledge and absolute faith. It is ironic that the acknowledgement of one’s own ignorance is the needed prelude to the acquisition of knowledge.

To choose knowledge over ignorance may sound the better choice for most individuals. Why choose to not know the reason behind unusual objects and occasions? Would it not be better to know in sorrow rather than to be ignorant in bliss? For those who increases in knowledge more often than not increases in sorrow. When one sees the world as it is, without its facade of lies and its mask of beauty, one would feel the sorrow behind even happiness itself. Did not the book of Ecclesiastes state that all is vanity and a grasping of the wind?

“He who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”

~ Ecclesiastes

In the midst of ignorance, one finds knowledge as surely as one knows what is good only through evil. Even an atheist must first know God before saying that there is no God. And thus it is in the middle of two opposing positions that the uncommon mind must emerge victorious. In acknowledging that one must know darkness before one can know the light means that the knowledge of both must be present because they are inseparable as the two faces of the Greek God Janus. The common mind cannot accept this. The common mind cannot and will not acknowledge that all knowledge must be in relation to something else and thus, not a standalone truth by itself.

However, it is undeniable that one finds that he is bonded to many things in the world. As a human being we are both subject to life and death. We cannot change the fact that we are the creation of our parents no matter what we feel about it. Similarly, our parents must also be the product of their parents and their grandparents. In coming into this world, we are already chained by the principle of causality in that we are both an element of cause and effect to the external world. Even the natural world must abide by this law. Plants are eaten by the cows and the cows are in turn are eaten by the lions.

Nothing in the world that is observable to the senses is free from the chains that reality has set for it. While some objects and occasions are seemingly unconnected and appear as standalone realities by themselves, they are but linked by invisible chains that the mind has either not yet perceived or is incapable of understanding. The limitation of the mind to garner knowledge is no excuse for assuming that things are disconnected and of no relation to every other thing in the world. The mind is the one that is at fault when it fails to understand reality. Blame not reality for the failure of the mind.

“We know the mind only as we know matter.”

~ David Hume

It is natural that the mind would lean towards materialism rather than idealism. Matter persists even when the minds that helped shaped it has already perished. The pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China are but a few testaments to the persistence and permanence that matter has over the individual mind. Was not David Hume correct when he said that we know the mind only as we know matter? Did not John Locke state that all our knowledge comes from experience and through our senses?

“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”

~ John Locke

But materialism itself is not the end all answer without the presence of idealism. Absolute and necessary truths do exist in an independent reality. The continuous flow of time itself is a testament to this. The data obtained through the senses and experiences amount to just raw data that is incoherent if the mind fails to coordinate and organize it into knowledge. Only the mind can understand the laws of causality and find the links between seemingly unrelated objects and occasions. Without the mind, all knowledge would be impossible. Without the mind, there would be no ideas, no thoughts and no identity.

“But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.”

~ Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was right when he stated that it is the mind that coordinates experiences, sensations, perceptions and conceptions into knowledge. Only the mind can find unity in diversity and obtain the knowledge of what is constant and necessary. Therefore it is the mind that is the active agent in synthesizing the thesis and the anti-thesis of reality. Although the mind will inevitably perish as the body dies, all knowledge of matter would come only through the mind. Without the effort of the mind to construct our knowledge of the laws and processes governing our world, our understanding of an independent reality would be impossible. Philosophical knowledge must not be bounded only by experiences and sensations but must also be both synthetic and a priori.

“How can we explain mind as matter, when we know matter only through the mind?”

~ Schopenhauer

Perhaps the most famous concept of the mind is the Cartesian tradition that represents the human body as a purely physical thing and the human mind as a purely non-physical thing. The ghost (mind) in the machine (body) can be translated into the mind inhabiting the body and controlling it. This form of dualism speculates that the mind and matter are two distinctive things. This stand is opposed to the more current view of scientific materialism that argues that what happens in the mind clearly depends on what happens in the brain. Recent studies and experimentation have indeed proven that brain damage may cause mental disabilities. This indirectly establishes the link between the brain (matter) and the mind.

While scientific materialism can demonstrate how certain sensations like pain can be induced through external stimulation, other more complex intellectual abilities like perceptions, memories and ideas are not so easily explained. Ideas exist only as intangible contents of the individual mind. One cannot be aware of the ideas of another individual as clearly as one is aware of his own ideas. Our perceptions and ideas are fluid and continuous with the constant flow of time. It is not likely that we would ever be able to understand the mind solely through the understanding of matter.

The Second Philosophy: Of Reality and Illusion

Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly

Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi.

~ Zhuangzi

The world is more than just a mere illusion wrought by the minds of men. Even if reality is a persistent illusion, the persistent aspects of reality are the factors that make the external world more than just a fantasy. We know that the external environment of the world persists even as the internal minds of men that view it perish. This is because there are certain concepts that always hold a certain degree of permanence independent of an individual’s senses, experiences and perceptions. These concepts are the foundations of reality itself.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

~ Albert Einstein

In order to know what is true and certain, the mind must first turn around and reexamine everything and anything that can be vulnerable to skepticism. Whether it is beliefs, ideas, dogmas or opinions, the mind must reconsider these preconceptions to determine their degree of permanence and recurrence in the world. Anything that cannot firmly stand on its own two feet must be first discarded as an illegitimate presumption lest it be taken as a false premise of which the foundation of an individual’s world view (Weltanschauung) is laid.

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

~ Carl Gustav Jung

As one proceeds to overturn all earlier acquired beliefs and make collapse the foundations of all perceived reality, one would realize that there certain things that cannot be doubted. The philosopher Descartes stated that if everything can be subject to doubt, would not doubt itself be undoubtable? If I can doubt, this would show that I am thinking and thus I exists. Hence the phrase: “I think, therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum). Descartes went on further and rationalized that because he is a part of the universe, his own existence would also prove the existence of the universe and of reality itself.

“I think, therefore I am.”

~ Descartes

Archimedes looked for only one firm and immovable point in order to move the whole earth. To understand what reality is, one must find premises that are absolutely true under all circumstances. In the material world, there are fundamental units that cannot be doubted like space, time, numbers and velocity. One plus one would always equal to two under all circumstances. The mind cannot conceive a reality without the presence of these fundamental units.

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

~ Archimedes

Even if we step into another dream every time we awake from sleep, an independent reality persists as a constant and unchanging truth. Through imagination, we are able to conceive things or events that defy the laws of nature and physics. But even in doing so, all products of our imagination are but a combination of matter and ideas taken from a persistent and independent reality. For example, the ancient imaginary creatures of mythology are but the combination of ideas taken from reality. The Minotaur is but the combination of a bull and a man, while a mermaid, the combination of a fish and a woman.

For anything to exist in its entirety, it must be for the observing mind both a cause and effect or an action and reaction. All things ranging from the mind and matter must therefore be understood not as a stand alone structure but as a sum of its relations with all other things known to the mind. It is these relations that give meaning (raison d’être) to the existence of all things. Thus, it is impossible to understand or to imagine something that is absolutely independent of everything in existence.

“All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.”

~ Buddha

Even the relationship between the society and the individual falls into the boundaries of cause and effect. Every individual is the product of society and is chained to a reality set by his immediate environment. From the other end, society itself would not exist without the individuals that give meaning to its existence. When relations are concerned, a book is only a book when it is treated and perceived like a book. Should a book fail to be read by a human being who understands the language used in its construction, the book degrades or degenerates into a mere object or matter and thus no longer being perceived as a book. It is the human being, the creator of languages and its written forms that the book must exist for. Without humans, all books would lose their very meaning of existence.

The very sounds of our heartbeats show that we are the bounded by the flow of time and an independent reality. Like a clockwork toy edging closer to its end, the steady rhythm of our hearts prove that we are both alive and moving closer to our deaths. The mind cannot conceive the absence of its own existence. Whether we like it or not, we will inevitably find food when we are hungry and sleep when we are sleepy. Even in committing suicide must one first acknowledge that one exists before being able to die.

“What do we know?”

~ Montaigne

In the simple formula with which Montaigne summarized his conclusion, the question is: what do we know (Que sais-je)? The implied answer is: very little. Knowledge can only show the truth with the existence of an independent and observable reality. Without reality, all knowledge would break down and become meaningless. If one calms his mind and reexamines all previously acquired knowledge, both taught and caught, almost everything in the world can be subject to doubt. How then can we prove that reality itself is not an illusion? How can we prove that we exist in the flesh? It therefore an imperative that one who seeks knowledge must doubt everything that can be doubted and reconstruct reality from principles that hold true under all circumstances.

The First Philosophy: Of Knowledge and Ignorance

The Fox and the Grapes by Milo Winter

The Fox and the Grapes

A famished fox crept into a vineyard where ripe, luscious grapes were draped high upon arbors in a most tempting display. In his effort to win a juicy price, the fox jumped and sprang many times but failed in all his attempts. When he finally had to admit defeat, he retreated and muttered to himself, “Well, what does it matter anyway? The grapes are sour!”

~ Aesop Fables

The mind is like Pandora’s Box that keeps the secrets of human knowledge and intellect. It opens only to a selected few and remains closed to the common masses of society. Most of the time, the major portion of the mind’s vast and immense potential lies in wait for someone or something to harness it. Many of us fail to realize that all knowledge comes from the mind for it is the mind that weaves a web of which all data gathered from the senses are collected and synthesized. Yet the more we delve into the wide and lush fields of knowledge, the more we know of how much we do not know. Such is the nature of knowledge that, like a shy maiden, hides her face behind her veil.

Why should we, mortal beings of the flesh, go through such toils and torments for the sake of this elusive maiden that hides merely at the sight of our silhouettes? Is Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, so desirable that she is worth our efforts and patience to win her heart? Can we not choose the pleasures of ignorance rather than the pains of knowledge? For he who increases in knowledge also increases in sorrow. And it is not certain that the frog that leaves the well will be any happier than the frog that lives in the pond.

We commonly hear that ignorance is bliss. It is ignorance that bestows a great gift upon humanity in the form of presumed concealment. Through ignorance, we are able to protect ourselves from the things that we dare not know. If knowledge is the mirror that reflects the crude ugliness and mortality of the human soul, ignorance is the mask that hides the truth and bends reality into the image that is most appeasing to our eyes. Just as the dark conceals and the light reveals, so does ignorance form an eclipse over all knowledge of reality.

“Know thyself.”

~ Socrates

As long as we believe in our own existence and the existence of the reality around us, we should also believe that our lives are more than just a mere coincidence or a product of random selection. Like chess pieces on the board, each and every one of us have a purpose and a reason for being (raison d’être). Whether we play the role of puppet or puppeteer, we are all intrinsically linked by invisible strings that bind us to everything else in the world.

Perhaps knowledge will reveal to us the role we are to play in reality. Perhaps knowledge will make us bear the inevitable with a smile on our face and a twinkle in our eye. As Francis Bacon has stated, “Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its lost will not be felt.”  Knowledge begins by looking inwards into ourselves and into the very things that we presume to be true. We must first understand ourselves before we can ever hope to understand the world.

“Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.”

~ Sir Francis Bacon

After weighing both knowledge and ignorance in my mind, I yet again renew my earlier belief that knowledge is indeed preferable than sheer ignorance. Even though a rational human being would seek pleasure and avoid pain, would it not also be rational to first accept pain in order to gain greater pleasure in our later days? If so, it would be worth all the effort to wait in faith and in patience for the beauty and wisdom of knowledge rather than to bask now in the ugliness and idleness of ignorance.

Knowledge by far exceeds the beauty of everything else in this world. With knowledge comes the acceptance rather than the discrimination of all things under the sun. In contrast, ignorance fosters hateful and vengeful desires to destroy all knowledge the mind fails to comprehend. One should consider it unwise to be like the fox in the tale who muttered to himself that the grapes were sour after failing to obtain them. As a golden rule, one should not despise what one cannot get.

As the French proverb goes, to know all, is to forgive all. For only when we know, can we love. Even in hate, one must first know what is it he hates before starting to hate it. And even hate itself is a form of love. For when we hate something, that thing is forever in the mind of the hater as surely as a lover is always in the mind of his beloved. As love triumphs over hate, so will knowledge triumph over ignorance.

In its essence, the highest form of knowledge is a call to tolerance on the inconsequential things that the masses argue with great fervor and energy. Would not the world be a more peaceful and harmonious place if all men had knowledge? Why fight when we already know what must be done and what should be done? Would it not be futile to fight over things that have already been settled by knowledge and understanding? Would this not mean that knowledge is the highest virtue of all men?

The ultimate aim of knowledge is the revelation of the truth. The truth is the revelation of reality as it is, unchanged and untainted by what the mind wants it to be. The acceptance of the truth is the highest form of the attainment of knowledge and is crowned as the pinnacle of human intellectual achievement. As Schopenhauer put it, life is short, but the truth works far and long; let us speak the truth. The truth is more than just the common bag of beliefs and opinions that we hold so dear to our hearts. Throughout history, men have been prone to error and have invented many versions of ‘personal truths’ to suit their own personal desires.

“Life is short, but the truth works far and long; let us speak the truth.”

~ Schopenhauer

True knowledge must be more than just beliefs and opinions. To hold true, any form of knowledge that is developed by an individual mind must be independent from personal senses and experiences. As long as the conditions are similar, the same action should produce the same reaction. In short, one must be able to consistently replicate the results of an experiment before one acknowledges its relevance and reliability.

All in the name of “prevention”

       As our world once again faces the threat of an imminent flu pandemic, the accentuation of cultural biasness and diplomatic blocks join the fray,  adding to international misery.

      

As an issue that has  crossed sthe medical line into the realm of cultural sensitivity,background and  political discrimination, the prevention of flu pandemic has been used as an excuse to implement fiercely defended actions,which has apparently invited uproars due to their contentious nature.

    

  In Egypt, “swine” flu prevention has been used as the justification for the culling of more than 350,000 swines. It is absurd to believe that such a massive reactive was triggered by a single namesake,especially when related to a country like Egypt,where 90% of the population are Muslim, leaving roughly 9%  of it as Christian. Moreover, any warning from WHO to stay away from pork or swine is totally unheard of.

   

In retrospect, mad cow disease which caused only a handful of death in America during 2008;a situation far less severe than the current bird flu crisis ,had managed to set off large scale demonstrations in the South Korea against the imports of beef from the US.It coincided with the appointment of the then new pro US prime minister Lee Myung Bak.Despite that the current new strain of flu virus is a much bigger threat than the mad cow disease,the streets in South Korea have been unexpectedly calm. the reason could be that it wasnt really the beef from US that the South Koreans were at odds with ………

Ignorance is bliss

In the first instalment of The matrix, Cypher is the traitor to Neo and the human race.So this is the dialogue between Cypher and the biggest antagonist,Agent Smith.

They were in restaurant(in the matrix world),and Cypher was having a steak…

Smith:Do we have a deal,Mr Reagon?…..

Cypher(Reagon): You know,…

                                I know this steak doesnt exist,….

                                 i know that ……

                                 when i put it in my mouth…

                                 The matrx is telling my brain that it s juicy…

                                  it s delicious…

                                 But…..

                                After nine years…

                                (he then put a piece of the steak in his mouth and chew it slowly)…

                                 Oooooh……

                                Ignorance is bliss…..

       

He then asked for his memory to be deleted and to put put back into the matrix

Weltanschauung – seeking truth with flawed instrument

      

 

THE WHEEL OF CHANGES

           A mere common acknowledgement of the inferiority of human understanding and intellectual possession per se, without a thorough identification or active visualization of how finite the character of human mind is, is far from being adequate for us to inculcate in ourselves the right mentality, to formulate a fundamental, yet challengeable premise, and thus, making the right effort to inch closer to the truth.

“Know thyself.”

~ Socrates

         A sensory frame crowned with an elusive mind. Mankind ‘s innate propensity to question and to pursue explanations for worldly happenings, all which eventually lead to the awakening of its instinct to seek comprehension of its existence at certain points in life ,independent of any preliminary exposure to metaphysics, is indeed, a double edged sword. As human beings, it is natural of us to query about phenomena so large that an air of doubt is inevitably cast over our ability to comprehend, individually and collectively. No matter how hard we try, the world, or reality we know is only restricted to how it presents itself from a human perspective. Even understanding which is purely rational  and achieved through deductive reasoning is subject to the contradictory nature of human language that sometimes fails to effectively convey abstract ideas resulting in contradictions, besides clashing with the theory of infinity(nothing is exactly “one” nor nothing is exactly “nil”,for,terms such as all and nothing).Our curiosity transcends our ability to fully understand our own existence, and yet, with our curiosity, we still succumb to the condition of not knowing what we do not know, and failure to contemplate the “forms” of abstracts and substances, often to the extent of causing ourselves confusion due to the incoherence of our own thoughts and actions. We often hold contradictory thoughts, which are then translated into contradictory deeds which are seemingly unrelated or even seem to exist in parallel and never overlapping ,but essentially the manifestations of a common element, just as not lying and yet keeping silence over truths, as not pilfering and yet turning a blind eye over lost goods, and as seeking to understand one’s own existence, and yet writing off other school of thoughts or philosophies without allowing oneself to be enlightened with their underlying wisdoms. Such inbred stumbling blocks and subtle internal conflicts often lead to the divergence of human beings from their wills and objectives.

“Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact”

~ William James

       As portrayed in Goethe’s Faust, Faust seeks knowledge with such passion that his insight that true human knowledge is impossible distresses him to the degree of contemplating suicide. However, with a rationally and theological guided aspiration and belief, the inconclusive understanding of human condition should not pose a discouragement against undertaking a lifelong endeavor to understand the purpose of our existence. At the moment, all line of thoughts throughout the human history, regardless of whether they are secular or religious in nature, or whether they are a result of pure deduction or empirism or a combination of both, eventually arrive at the point to believe in the existence of a definitive ,common truth to be shared by all human beings, such as the “categorical imperative” in Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant, the “real world/the real form as propounded by Plato, For Nietzsche, man can overcome his mediocre humanity when he aspires towards the “over man”, which is again, an absolute truth for him. Even such statement as “there is no absolute truth” is paradoxically, an absolute truth in its own sense. Not mentioned are other contemporary ideas such as existentialism or individualism which, similarly paradoxical, seems to be somewhat predicated on the imposition of limitation on presumed total freedom ,namely making provision to prevent extremism, in effort of rationalising their ethical positions.

“It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover.”

~Leonardo da Vinci

           After trying hard enough, I could ,subject to my personal level of understanding, vaguely draw links and visualise a convergence between these different conclusions(deemed truth) reached by various lines of ethical theories and philosophies, or perhaps i too, was trying to rationalize my own belief. However, the fact that I was able to rationalize the link in a logical manner,with the help of recent tentative scientific theory ,convinces me to believe that there is no reason to not expect that they would afford of themselves any help in making known the ultimate purpose, or the ultimate meaning of human life.( For instance, looking into the theory Big Bang alone leads me to the thought that human beings ane other lives all come from one single source). The following is my belief and my doubt, which in my opinion, is crucial in the formation of a basic premise for my ongoing metaphysical inquisition

My doubt of common theologies

             God, as in transcendent god, who created men in his own image, is not the kind of concept I am fond of subscribing to. If human attributes such as love, benevolence(Descartes),and even wrath(could be the reason of sufferings inflicted for violations of his divine will) could be applied to god, then wouldn’t human being be identical to god since god also experiences human imperfection? If it is argued that the divine power and supreme understanding of the omnipotent god is way beyond that capable of being achieved by human beings and therefore what seems to be an act of god out of wrath or anger in the eyes of human beings is not really what it seems to be, then wouldn’t the acceptance of such act be a contradiction to human beings acquired knowledge and commandment from the Holy Scripture believed to be descended from the very same god? How could and how fair is it that we are compelled to just accept such acts committed by god even if they places us in the such suffocating moral dilemma, as a result of our so-called god given thinking faculty. If we are just supposed to question things which are within our ability to grasp and on the other hand just accept anything deemed to be unexplainable and thus ineluctable, then why are we bestowed such capacity in the first place?Did god not forsee the happening of Holy Wars and other religious conflicts before passing his wisdom to the human world?

My belief

“… if everything that exists has a place, place too will have a place, and so on ad infinitum.”

~ Aristotle

            It fascinates me to a tremendous extent that the universe is observed to be neither definitively infinite nor finite. In fact, it is still expanding, which i believe is validated by the above statement. However, is it fair if I contend that even the god known to us, which is thought to be omnipresent, omnipotent, the ultimate overseer, also in turn, governed by a force or a power beyond itself? If this holds truth, then are we the creation of the supreme being which we have always been acquainted to or are we accountable to something beyond that? I won’t try to deny that I am hereby questioning the existence of a transcendent god,however kindly note that the term “questioning” implies that I only doubtful ,and therefore have yet to willingly write off completely the validity of such belief.

            I am more logically inclined to accept that god is the natural world/universe we are thriving in. It functions like a libra, balanced by a self regulating mechanism know to us as causality. However, our feeble mind doesn’t allow us to comprehend and anticipate how overarching and how far its implication could stretch in affecting our lives or even the happening in this universe. I do believe that Cities like Jericho, Sodom, and Gomorrah were all destroyed by the divine hand of God, namely by the repercussion of its cause(s), whereby itself being the effect and simultaneously the cause to the next effect. Taking into consideration such as the discovery of socalled cosmic energy and also the aura believed to be emitted by human body, and mind(MRI support this claim),it makes complete sense for me to believe, and from thereon challenge, that “god” is indeed, a force without personality and self governing. Any piece of science that rings a bell in me is the form changing and indestructible nature of energy, which further affirms my belief that the “god” we live in is always naturally striving to achieve,but never fully achieve an equilibrium .I even feel that hedonism and materialistic cravings are the alternative outlets created by human beings to exercise their inevitable and naturally driven intellectualism consequential of the seemingly unattainable and incapability of their mind to seek the explaination of their existence.