PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 31st January at 8:00pm: Staying Young

Dear Friends,

This Wednesday we are discussing: Staying Young

My idea in proposing the topic was to identify some basic and
fundamental philosophical issues that can pave the way to really staying
young.

Staying Young
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/staying-young.html


NEWS


- Book by Asuncion

Title: Timeless Joyce

Author: Asuncion Lopez Varela Azcarate

Description: 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of
James Joyce's Ulysses.


This book is a celebration of Joyce's text and of the aspects that make
his masterpiece timeless.


Structured under the inspiration of Brancusi's spiral image, 'Symbol of
James Joyce', the volume shows Joyce's play in two movements: a
centripetal move towards unity, using myth, analogies and
correspondences and a centrifugal force, with a cunning mixture of irony
and unanticipated turns, where the dream of unity is shattered and the
text resonates in multiple directions, manifesting its diversity through
forms of duplicity and double coding. ……….more details from the AMAZON
link or NEWS link

Available at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Joyce-Hundred-Years-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B0CNWWQRR3


Past News:


-Milton looking to share a flat

-Diego: Manifesto: The Beehive Complex: Dare to Dance in the Dark and
Rejoice in the Most Astonishing of Illusions.

-Un giro en el aire Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)

-Julian Martelli passed away early in October this year, 2022

-Jorge Free Distribution: Evolution of Thought and its Influence on
Society and Technology

-Oscar: "Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas"


Details here:

NEWS

https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html


Please let me know if you need the Skype link: preferably by WhatsApp.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com


PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 31st January at 8:00pm: Staying Young

Staying Young

 

Staying Young

 

Topic and Notes by Lawrence

 

 

The idea behind this topic is linked to life expectancy and quality of life. We can also go a step further and by young we also mean open minded, curious and motivated. There is not dispute that the condition of our body does determine our physical being, but what about our mind?

 

 

The challenge, however, and assuming we still have a reasonable physical constitution, is to keep an alert mind and moved by curiosity. Basically, staying young also means we still have the motivation to learn and discover new experiences. So what are the philosophical issues regarding staying young?

 

 

As a working theory, I want to argue that there three issues involved: political philosophy, ethics and epistemology.

 

 

Political philosophy is the domain that ought to help us with wealth distribution and physical well being. While political philosophy covers a number of subjects, wealth distribution gives people a chance to experience self fulfilment and economic mobility.

 

 

At a more complex level, political power also has the duty to provide education despite this idea being too wide and open to interpretation to fully cover in these nots. The key function of education is to help us develop skills in thinking and assimilating information and knowledge.

 

 

As I have argued already, the most important factor that will help us stay young is our health. And by health I do not only mean access to healthcare when needed, but also access to healthy nourishment such as wholesome staples (processed staples are not necessarily healthy).

 

 

Unfortunately, only a handful of countries and political systems have robust and efficacious health care systems that is accessible when people need it and not when people can afford it.

 

The British Medical Association estimates that the 2024/2025 health care budget will be £186.7 billion pounds sterling (Department of Health and Social Care Budget - https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/funding/health-funding-data-analysis ). Excluding, for our purposes, the effects privatisation has on this budget.

 

 

However, compare the health care budget with the £570bn estimated to be held in tax havens by British residents; also known as overseas tax evasion (How much UK tax is evaded via tax havens? 22/7/2022 - https://www.taxjustice.uk/blog/how-much-uk-tax-is-evaded-via-tax-havens).

 

 

I agree that in 2024 these figures from the UK might be at the extreme end of morality, especially political morality and ethics, but this imbalance is not exclusive to the UK alone. What is clear is that the competing forces of wealth and healthcare are certainly an issue for people in the 21^st century in their endeavour to stay young.

 

 

I have already mentioned that education is an important factor for our state of mind and mindset. In theory, education should help us prepare for our state of mind in the future. In reality, our state of mind also depends on the conditioning we experience in life especially in a work environment. Society we live in is also a factor in our ability to learn and be curious.

 

 

Although this might not be a complete truism, for many decades modern education has focused on teaching “what is” rather than “how to learn”. Some education systems do include developing skills in people on how to learn; but this is still not yet a universal practice. Knowing how to learn also implies the ability for people to question the authority and politics of political institutions. The road to staying young is full of traps and spooky monsters, but this does not mean it cannot be done, as many people are succeeding to be these days.

 

 

The empirical question, however, is still how many people have the opportunity to stay young given human nature?

 

 

Best and take care

 

Lawrence

  

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

 

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

 

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype: Wed 31st Jan at 8:00pm: Staying Young

 

 

 

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype: Wed 24th Jan 2024 at 8:00pm: Does personality change over time?

Dear friends,

This coming Wednesday, 24th January, we are discussing: Does personality
change over time?

The topic was proposed by James and in my notes I try to identify the
philosophical background of what makes a personality.

Does personality change over time?
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/does-personality-change-over-time.html



NEWS link for all recent news:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html


NEWS
- Book by Asuncion
Title: Timeless Joyce
Author: Asuncion Lopez Varela Azcarate
Description: 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of
James Joyce's Ulysses.


This book is a celebration of Joyce's text and of the aspects that make
his masterpiece timeless.


Structured under the inspiration of Brancusi's spiral image, 'Symbol of
James Joyce', the volume shows Joyce's play in two movements: a
centripetal move towards unity, using myth, analogies and
correspondences and a centrifugal force, with a cunning mixture of irony
and unanticipated turns, where the dream of unity is shattered and the
text resonates in multiple directions, manifesting its diversity through
forms of duplicity and double coding. ……….more details from the AMAZON
link or NEWS link
Available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Joyce-Hundred-Years-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B0CNWWQRR3



Past News:

-Milton looking to share a flat
-Diego: Manifesto: The Beehive Complex: Dare to Dance in the Dark and
Rejoice in the Most Astonishing of Illusions.
-Un giro en el aire Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)
-Julian Martelli passed away early in October this year, 2022
-Jorge Free Distribution: Evolution of Thought and its Influence on
Society and Technology
-Oscar: "Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas"


Details here:
NEWS
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html

Please let me know if you need the Skype link: preferably by WhatsApp.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid Skype: Wed 24th Jan 2024 at 8:00pm: Does personality change
over time?

Does personality change over time?

Does personality change over time?

 

Topic by James

Notes by Lawrence

 

We know that experience is a valuable educator. And experience happens over time.

 

We might qualify experience in two ways: personal experience and the experience of others. It is reasonable to argue that we learn more from the experiences of others for example though education, family or society. However, there is an important difference between these two types of experiences.

 

Personal experiences involve our situational circumstances that include our thinking process, our emotions, past experiences and our decision making processes. When we get to know about the experiences of others, we are usually presented with a narrative of what happened to that person.

 

Of course, authors of literature, especially fiction literature, use language to create that emotional awareness in the narrative. However, factual type of experiences, such as history, technology, science, you get the idea, is usually devoid of emotions. This is certainly because in our society at least, we value facts over emotional feelings. Having said that, some scientific papers can be quite entertaining if you know the language of that science.

 

An example of a scientific paper that is quite emotional and interesting is the paper by Francis Crick and James D. Watson “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” published in Nature (pdf file here: https://dosequis.colorado.edu/Courses/MethodsLogic/papers/WatsonCrick1953.pdf).

 

My argument is that knowledge and information are part of what makes our personality or character. It is worth pointing out that when we act as a rational conscious being, we recall these experiences, knowledge and information in our deliberation when inter acting with others. For example, we might read an authoritative article on dinning etiquette before our high society dinner with the royals or president.

 

We might also take the initiative to gain new experiences or to acquire new knowledge. But this involves a certain type of personality such as motivation and curiosity that might not be part of the stock of behaviours of some people. Some people might have a personality of an angler; they wait for the prey to reach them, whereas others are hunters they go out in search of their prey.

 

Depending on our social circumstances, we learn new experiences and new behaviours to fit within our circle in society. At this level of personal circumstances, we do change our personality. But our attitude towards other people might also change depending on our experience of other people.

 

Unfortunately, there is also another cause when our personality changes over time. Physical or medical changes to our body that might affect how we behave in general and with other people in particular. We are all familiar with all the various diseases that can change our character over time; and I am not just talking about having a bad cold over the weekend. This is an affliction that we have to endure as biological beings.

 

From a philosophical perspective, we might ask ourselves whether we have a moral duty to discover why some people change especially when we perceive the change to be abrupt and maybe uncharacteristic of that person. And what if a person changes so much that they become a danger to others or themselves: what ought we to do in this situation? At the social level, what if a person changes so much that they become intolerable and obnoxious?

 

There is no doubt that we do change over time, but what concerns us most is the kind of change that happens to people.

 

Best and take care

 

Lawrence

 

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

 

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

 

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

PhiloMadrid Skype: Wed 24th Jan at 8:00pm: Does personality change over time?

 

 

Sorry forgot the link: PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Respecting Nature

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Respecting
Nature


Sorry forgot the link:

Respecting Nature.
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/respecting-nature.html




Sorry forgot the link: PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024
at 8:00pm: Respecting Nature

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Respecting Nature

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Respecting
Nature



Dear Friends,


Our next Skype meeting is on the 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm and we are
discussing: Respecting Nature.

 
The topic was proposed by Norma and in my notes I try to identify the
source of our disrespect towards nature. 

Respecting Nature.
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/respecting-nature.html

NEWS link for all recent news:
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html


NEWS
- Book by Asuncion
Title: Timeless Joyce
Author: Asuncion Lopez Varela Azcarate
Description: 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of
James Joyce's Ulysses.


This book is a celebration of Joyce's text and of the aspects that make
his masterpiece timeless.


Structured under the inspiration of Brancusi's spiral image, 'Symbol of
James Joyce', the volume shows Joyce's play in two movements: a
centripetal move towards unity, using myth, analogies and
correspondences and a centrifugal force, with a cunning mixture of irony
and unanticipated turns, where the dream of unity is shattered and the
text resonates in multiple directions, manifesting its diversity through
forms of duplicity and double coding. ……….more details from the AMAZON
link or NEWS link
Available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Joyce-Hundred-Years-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B0CNWWQRR3


Past News:

-Milton looking to share a flat
-Diego: Manifesto: The Beehive Complex: Dare to Dance in the Dark and
Rejoice in the Most Astonishing of Illusions.
-Un giro en el aire Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)
-Julian Martelli passed away early in October this year, 2022
-Jorge Free Distribution: Evolution of Thought and its Influence on
Society and Technology
-Oscar: "Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas"


Details here:
NEWS
https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html

Please let me know if you need the Skype link: preferably by WhatsApp.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com



PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 17th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Respecting
Nature

Respecting Nature

 

Respecting Nature

 

Topic by: Norma

Notes by: Lawrence

 

Nature is a big topic to study. And respect encompasses a meaning from admiration to moral obligation. We have no problem admiring nature, but do we have a moral obligation to respect nature? Indeed, can there be moral obligations towards non sentient beings?

 

Today, in 2024, we accept that some sentient beings deserve, and indeed we do have, moral obligations towards animals. Moreover, maybe we also have a duty not to damage and harm what we call nature.

 

Unfortunately, as in many philosophical and scientific issues, our problem about nature starts with a language problem with our idea of nature being something based on millennia of dogma and indoctrination that somehow we, as human beings, are not part of nature. As if there is some categorical difference between human beings and nature: nature in this case means not pertaining to human beings. At the outset I will argue that there no such categorical difference.

 

A quick look at the meaning of nature we find terms such as “physical world” and the contrary of this qualified by, “as opposed to” or “not made by people”. The disassociation of nature from human beings has the effect, intentional or as an unforeseen consequence, of excluding any moral obligation towards nature. I argue that this is not just because, in our mindset, nature is different from human beings but rather that nature is inferior from human beings.

 

We can even go further and argue that our mindset about nature includes the idea of servitude. This very same idea is found in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, “[1:28] God blessed them (humans), and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (https://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/genesis/documents/bible_genesis_en.html).

 

As we know from the same Book, humans did not keep their “dominion” or “subdue” to nature but wanted to practice their dominion over other human beings.

 

For our purposes, what matters is the use and implications of language that we employ to interact with nature. The issue is whether we do indeed have a moral duty towards nature, whether sentient or inanimate things.

 

In the twenty first century there is no doubt that human beings interpret “dominion” as indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources and the exploitation of human beings has never stopped. It is as if we pick and choose which parts of the holy books we follow. But it is the arguments of the holy books that presented the idea that somehow we are superior to nature. “Subdue” does imply the idea of using force to overcome thing.

 

The irony is that those who today mindlessly exploit nature are the very same people who promote this idea human superiority over nature. In English, dominion does not just mean control, as in the control of nature, but more important it means “sovereign” or “government”. And a moral government or sovereign does not mindlessly exploitation nature and citizens, but morally manage resources and citizens. Anything else is just oppression and dicatorship.

 

This means two things. The first is that nature must include in the meaning the idea of human beings. And the second is that “dominion” does not mean mindless exploitation but rather “ethical management”. Now whether ethical management implies theological ethics or rational ethics based on efficiency and cooperation is of minor import. What is important is that we ought to pay more attention to the language we use. What is clear, however, is that damaging nature directly and negatively affects human beings and the latter is the foundation of any ethical system against wrongdoing.

 

Best and take care

Lawrence

 

 

telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813

Email: philomadrid@gmail.com

http://www.philomadrid.com

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 13^7h December at 8:00pm: Respecting Nature

 

 

 

 

 

 

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 10th January at 8:00pm: Science and Technology + NEWS

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 10^th January 2024 at 8:00pm: Science and Technology + NEWS


Dear Friends,


Our next meeting is on the 10^th January 2024 at 8:00pm and we are discussing: Science and Technology. I proposed the topic and will try and have some ideas posted for my next email..

Science and Technology
https://www.philomadrid.com/2023/12/science-and-technology.html

 

 

NEWS link for all recent news:

https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html

 

 

NEWS

- Book by Asuncion

Title: Timeless Joyce

Author: Asuncion Lopez Varela Azcarate

Description: 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses.

 

 

This book is a celebration of Joyce's text and of the aspects that make his masterpiece timeless.

 

 

Structured under the inspiration of Brancusi's spiral image, 'Symbol of James Joyce', the volume shows Joyce's play in two movements: a centripetal move towards unity, using myth, analogies and correspondences and a centrifugal force, with a cunning mixture of irony and unanticipated turns, where the dream of unity is shattered and the text resonates in multiple directions, manifesting its diversity through forms of duplicity and double coding. ……….more details from the AMAZON link or NEWS link

Available at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Joyce-Hundred-Years-Ulysses-ebook/dp/B0CNWWQRR3

 

 

Past News:

 

-Milton looking to share a flat

-Diego: Manifesto: The Beehive Complex: Dare to Dance in the Dark and
Rejoice in the Most Astonishing of Illusions.

-Un giro en el aire Lucinda Maxwell (Teresa)

-Julian Martelli passed away early in October this year, 2022

-Jorge Free Distribution: Evolution of Thought and its Influence on Society and Technology

-Oscar: "Toranzo, 88 ilustraciones y coplillas"

 

 

Details here:

NEWS

https://www.philomadrid.com/2024/01/news.html

 

Please let me know if you need the Skype link: preferably by WhatsApp.


Best and take care
Lawrence


telephone/WhatsApp: 606081813
Email: philomadrid@gmail.com
http://www.philomadrid.com

PhiloMadrid Skype meeting: Wed 10^th January at 8:00pm: Science and Technology + NEWS