Sound bites to live by

[coberst]

Sound bites to live by.

I read a lot of different stuff and as I read sometimes I stop and record something that really strikes my fancy. Perhaps you might find in these quotes or summarizations something useful for exciting your imagination or curiosity.



Echoing the words of Nietzsche, I say to you: "Become what thou art!"

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can

change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead



Quote: "All men, like all nations, are tested twice in the moral realm: first by what they do, then by what they make of what they do. The condition of guilt, a sense of one's own guilt, denotes a kind of second chance. Men are, as if by a kind of grace, given a chance to repay to the living that it is they find themselves owing the dead."

"Coming to Terms with Vietnam," by Peter Marin, Harpers, Dec. 1980.



Cognitive needs - knowledge, meaning, etc.

Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Transcendence needs - helping others to achieve self actualization.

Overview of Maslow's Self-Actualizing Individual

Maslow believed that "What humans can be, they must be."



Breen depicts an America whose basic values and instincts were rapidly crystallizing: its brashness, its optimistic faith in the future (hence, the desire for credit), its acquisitive culture, its tendency to see material items (china bowls in 1770, flat-screen TVs now) as badges of success and status. Today's consumption binge, which erodes savings, expresses the same impulses. Perhaps absurdly so.



It is Christianity or masculinity values that have given us the impression that we can and should "conquer" nature, a conviction that shows up in ecologically unsound technical designs; for others it is capitalist values that have turned technology into an instrument of domination.



Technology, in short, will always be a non-social, objectivating relation to nature, oriented toward success and control.



“The noblest exercise of the mind within doors, and most befitting a person of quality, is study.”

William Ramsey , Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry, 1904



“Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”Carl Sagan



“We are all enamored with science. Science is fundamentally the ‘scientific method’ in action. Method is what makes the natural sciences so marvelous.”

“We can understand a prejudice only after having got rid of it, [in our self].”

Popper informs us that “it is only in attempts to explain his work to somebody who has not done it that he can acquire the discipline of clear and reasoned communication which too is part of scientific method.”

If I cannot develop the self-discipline inherent in the ability to communicate I cannot hope to deal with prejudice in myself and in others.

If you find all this a bit cryptic and I have failed to communicate my meaning you can study the matter in “The Open Society and its Enemies” Chapter 2, Vol. II, by Popper.



Sound bites and bumper stickers, alone, are adequate only for the unenlightened.

Our educational system prepares us for the job market. Enlightenment begins where formal education ends. If I am unwilling to become self-enlightened I shall never be more than a producer and consumer.

Search for meaning through self-actuated study can provide a purpose similar to the purpose believers find in religion. Understanding resulting from study, leading to meaning and purpose, is perhaps a legitimate foil to religion.



Another sure sign of propaganda is when a story changes, or reverses itself, after a sufficient number of facts become known



Superstructure describes the symbolic universe. This includes all the shared meaning, ideas, beliefs and values that are common to a particular culture or society. Superstructure also includes a set of shared ideologies. Superstructure is commonly divided into cultural components and mental components. For Marxists, the superstructure is based on the base (or infrastructure). The superstructure describes the culture and institution of a society. The superstructure always includes the legal and political relations of a society, such as the state. There is disagreement to what extent artistic creation and culture in general should be included in the superstructure.



Be Real

Each different understanding of a situation provides a commitment to what is real about a situation. Each such real commitment is a version of a commitment to truth.

What we mean by “real” is what we need to postulate conceptually in order to be realistic, i.e., in order to function successfully to survive, to achieve ends, and to arrive at a workable understanding of the situation we are in. (Example—“verb”, “concept”, “image schema”, “energy” “charge”—none can be directly observed but play a crucial role in our understanding). “Philosophy in the Flesh”





Eric Hoffer (1951) put it in The True Believer, the very purpose of a doctrine is "to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world" (p. 75),



Determine causality (a positivist view) rather than to attain understanding (a phenomenological view)

Philosophy cares about concepts, meaning, reference, knowledge, truth, reason and value

All of these ‘sayings’ resonated for me. Do any of them strike your fancy?

[lady cop]

Coberst...sorry i missed your birthday on the 8th, i hope you enjoyed it. health and happiness to you.