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Melissa Mazzanti

America and the 'Fun' Generation - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...30iht-currents.html

shared by Melissa Mazzanti on 02 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • In the history of language, words rise and fall. We make and remake them; they make and remake us.
    • Melissa Mazzanti
      Melissa Mazzanti on 02 Apr 14
       
      How do words catch on?
  • turning away from an arguably aristocratic idea of the intrinsic worth of things: from pleasure, with its sense of an internal condition of mind, to fun, so closely affiliated with outward activities; from excellence, an inner trait whose attainment is its own reward, to achievement, which comes through slogging and recognition.
  • “Pleasure” carries a hint of the sublime; it speaks of a state of mind that comes organically, that need not be artificially induced.
    • Melissa Mazzanti
      Melissa Mazzanti on 02 Apr 14
       
      Reminds me of Epicureanism a little bit
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • If “pleasure” comes from being and from talking through ideas, “fun” comes from doing and, often, switching off the brain.
  • “Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.”
  • It comes in doing specific things. It is more about checking boxes than fulfilling inner potentialities.
    • Melissa Mazzanti
      Melissa Mazzanti on 02 Apr 14
       
      What achievement is considered by many people today.
Daryl Bambic

Russell, Bertrand: Ethics [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy] - 0 views

www.iep.utm.edu/russ-eth

russell ethics

shared by Daryl Bambic on 02 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Russell’s view is that the good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge
  • neither love without knowledge
  • knowledge without love
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • but love is in a sense more fundamental, since it will lead intelligent people to seek knowledge in order to find out how to benefit those whom they love.
  • “scientific knowledge and knowledge of particular facts.”
  • All moral rules must be tested by examining whether they tend to realize ends that we desire.”(374)
  • In his youth, Russell took the utilitarian view that the “happiness of mankind should be the aim of all actions”
  • dignity of which human existence is capable is not attainable by “devotion to the mechanism of life”, and that unless the contemplation of “eternal things” is preserved, humankind will become “no better than well-fed pigs.”
  • He believed that (1) “good” is the most fundamental ethical concept and (2) that “good” is indefinable
  • a priori certain propositions about the kind of things that are good on their own account.
    • Daryl Bambic
      Daryl Bambic on 02 Apr 14
       
      A priori meaning without empirical evidence, from reason and logic.
  • Russell, on the other hand, gives no such list of things which are good in themselves,
  • regard consequences or results as of vital importance for judging an action as right or wrong. In other words both are teleologists or consequentialists, like the utilitarians.
  • mpact of the First World War, which Russell passionately opposed
  • of human passions similar to that of psychoanalysts. Russell started believing that fundamental facts “in all ethical questions are feelings”, (Russell 1917, 19) and that impulse has more effect in moulding human lives than conscious purpose.
  • d we ought to act so as to maximize the balance of happiness over unhappiness in the world, and says: “I should not myself regard happiness as an adequate definition of the good, but I should agree that conduct ought to be judged by its consequences.”
  • According to him, once “good” is defined, the rest of ethics follows:
  • According to Russell, when we assert that this or that has value, we are giving expression to our emotions, not to a fact which would still be true if our personal feelings were different.
  • he first of these sentences, which may be true or false, does not, says Russell, belong to ethics but to psychology or biography
  • he second sentence which does belong to ethics, expresses a desire for something, but asserts nothing; and since it asserts nothing it is logically impossible that there should be evidence for or against it, or for it to possess either truth or falsehood.
  • Russell adopts as his guiding principle David Hume’s maxim that “Reason is, and ought, only to be the slave of the passions.
  • esires, emotions or passions
  • nly possible causes of action. Reason is not a cause of action but only a regulator.
  • The world that I should wish to see,” says Russell, ‘is one where emotions are strong but not destructive, and where, because they are acknowledged, they lead to no deception either of oneself or of others. Such a world would include love and friendship and the pursuit of art and knowledge.” (11)
  • esires are not “irrational” just because we cannot give any reason for them.
  • wondering once again whether there is such a thing as ethical knowledge.
  • since it must involve appeal to the majority,
Megan Levine

America and the 'Fun' Generation - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...30iht-currents.html

fun hedonism philosophy pft

shared by Megan Levine on 30 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • And now a count can declare the victors: “achievement” and “fun.”
  • term “excellence”
  • dropped out of favor, also elevenfold. As “fun” gained influence, mentions of “pleasure” fell by a factor of four.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • In the history of language, words rise and fall. We make and remake them; they make and remake us.
    • Daryl Bambic
      Daryl Bambic on 02 Apr 14
       
      Language is the philosopher's primary tool.  What do you think that the rising influence of 'fun' means for how we think about pleasure?
    • Natasha Campbell
      Natasha Campbell on 03 Apr 14
       
      I think that overtime, we become influenced by certain attributes, or things throughout the day which makes us perceive certain things as entertaining... With new technology, and the way our world changes, we could view different things as pleasure in contrast of what people thought of as appealing way back when.
  • turning in American culture, and one that has influenced the world. It is a turning away from an arguably aristocratic idea of the intrinsic worth of things: from pleasure, with its sense of an internal condition of mind, to fun, so closely affiliated with outward activities; from excellence, an inner trait whose attainment is its own reward, to achievement, which comes through slogging and recognition.
  • Merriam-Webster defines “pleasure” as “a state of gratification
  • fun is “what provides amusement or enjoyment;
  • excellence” as “the quality of being excellent,” which in turn means “very good of its kind: eminently good.” “Achievement,” meanwhile, is “a result gained by effort.”
  • “Pleasure” carries a hint of the sublime; it speaks of a state of mind that comes organically, that need not be artificially induced.
  • un,” though almost synonymous with “pleasure” for contemporary speakers, often involves artificial inducement
  • If “pleasure” comes from being and from talking through ideas, “fun” comes from doing and, often, switching off the brain.
  • Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.”
  • “Excellence” evokes Aristotle with its overtones of virtue. Anyone can achieve
  • but how many can truly be excellent?
  • “Achievement” is a word more likely to come from American leaders today, and, like “fun,” it is outward in nature. It comes in doing specific things. It is more about checking boxes than fulfilling inner potentialities.
  • The achievement culture permeates life today
  • n American culture of instantaneous celebrity teaches young people that fame is an end in itself rather than an incidental symptom of excellence in craft.
  • But with that change has come another: what would seem to be a growing intolerance for merely being, and an anguished insistence on doing, doing, doing.
    • Daryl Bambic
      Daryl Bambic on 30 Mar 14
       
      What are the differences between pleasure and achievement according to the author?   Do you agree with him?
    • Natasha Campbell
      Natasha Campbell on 03 Apr 14
       
      Achievement is simply something we check off on our to-do list. It's not something we take great value in. As in pleasure, it's something that we treasure because it's something we don't get too often, because we're too busy being blinded by the 'fun' aspects of life. I agree with the author because I believe that many people today believe that they find pleasure in doing absolutely nothing, and to shut off their brains completely. I believe that discovering new things and letting your mind wander just enough is pleasurable. 
    • Megan Levine
      Megan Levine on 03 Apr 14
       
      Today, pleasure is something that is very rare to find, since it is overshadowed by "fun". However, achievement is simply something that can be checked off a list, and is very easy to accomplish. Anyone can achieve something; they just may have a harder time being excellent at something. We take great value in pleasure, but not in achievements. I agree with the author because I believe that our generation is so caught up in technology, and entertainment, that we sometimes forget to seek for pleasure in our lives. I also agree that shutting off our brains does not give us pleasure; it just shuts away all the problems that will resurface. It's okay to have fun, but finding pleasure is something that is much more valuable, in my opinion. 
Daryl Bambic

The Great Conversation: Aristotle's Useful Definition of Virtue | Associate's Mind - 0 views

associatesmind.com/...es-useful-definition-of-virtue

virtue

shared by Daryl Bambic on 15 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • One is a deficiency; the other is an excess.
  • enerosity is the mean between the vices of miserliness and profligacy.
  • the midpoint between cowardice and foolhardiness is courage.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Friendliness
  • Righteous indignation
  • to ac
  • to be
  • purposefully chooses the right path.
  • virtuously for its own sake,
  • certainty and firmness.
  • difficult task and is a long-term life goal
  • ecomes easier with practic
  • natural pleasure that comes with and from virtue
  • To be virtuous, be in the habit of choosing the mean
Daryl Bambic

The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle - 0 views

classics.mit.edu/...nicomachaen.1.i.html

aristotle ethics

shared by Daryl Bambic on 25 Apr 15 - Cached
  • Now we call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else, and that which is never desirable for the sake of something else more final than the things that are desirable both in themselves and for the sake of that other thing, and therefore we call final without qualification that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.
Daryl Bambic

Aristotle and the Good Life - 0 views

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aristotle happiness

shared by Daryl Bambic on 29 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • But it doesn’t follow that since his ideas on some things were silly, his ideas on all things were silly
  • reason a central place in human life
  • Money is clearly only a means to an end, therefore it can’t be the main good
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • But what really determines the quality of our lives is not our circumstances themselves but what we make of them
  • Success (or honour) can’t be the main good either, since (a) it’s too dependent on other people and the whims of fortune,
  • Pleasure is certainly not the main good,
  • lives that are fit only for cattle
  • He recognises three types of relationships: the useful, the pleasant and the ones based on mutual admiration.
  • main good for a human being is reason, since it is the characteristic human capacity, the one we don’t share with other animals.
  • theoretical (concerning the contemplation of unchangeable truths)
  • ractical
  • intellectual virtues
  • virtues of character
  • Excess and deficiency
  • unction argument
  • erything in the universe had a purpose
  • essential nature of a thing or creature: just like the purpose of an acorn was to develop into an oak tree, that of human beings was to develop their unique human capacities, the most important of which was the ability to reason
  • in true Aristotelian spirit, is a mean between ‘anything goes’ and a totally prescriptiv
Daryl Bambic

Purdue OWL - 0 views

owl.english.purdue.edu/...724

papers paper argumentative

shared by Daryl Bambic on 20 May 15 - No Cached
  • A thesis is not an announcement of the subject:
  • A thesis is not a title
  • thesis is not a statement of absolute fact:
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • our main idea/claim/refutation/problem-solution expressed in a single sentence or a combination of sentences.
  • Try to be as specific as possible (without providing too much detail)
  • Induction is the type of reasoning that moves from specific facts to a general conclusion. When you use induction in your paper, you will state your thesis (which is actually the conclusion you have come to after looking at all the facts) and then support your thesis with the facts.
    • Daryl Bambic
      Daryl Bambic on 20 May 15
       
      Replace 'facts' with reasoning and logic for a philosophy paper.  
  • general premises and move to a specific conclusion
  • syllogistic reasoning (the syllogism)
  • Major premise Minor premise Conclusion
  • relationship of the two premises lead, logically, to the conclusion.
  • If you disagree with either of these premises, the conclusion is invalid.
  • So the unstated premise is “Only rich people have plasma TVs.
  • may also call for action
  • The preacher's maxim is one of the most effective formulas to follow for argument papers: Tell what you're going to tell them (introduction). Tell them (body). Tell them what you told them (conclusion).
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