Student: “Oh, Learned Master, how can one live a happy life?”
Master: “By living a virtuous life.”
Student: “Oh, Learned Master, how can one live a virtuous life?”
Master: “By getting rid of all vices.”
Student: “Oh, Learned Master, how does one develop a vice?”
Master: “Vice arises from uncontrollable desire”.
Student: “Oh, Learned Master, how does one develop a desire?”
Master: “Desire arises from uncontrollable passion”.
Student: “Oh, Learned Master, how does one develop passions?”
Master: “Passions originate in the senses” “Senses, due to their physical nature present impulses”. “Train your mind to recognize impulses to be transient.” “Getting rid of your vices, you will return to your original virtuous self.”
Fortune, I know your tricks. You gave me fame and shame, You gave me health and sickness, You gave me gains and losses, You gave me a body that will be lost, I am not fooled by you, not all.
What is given is not mine, What is taken is not mine, What is mine is that you can’t have, What is mine is ‘my character’, Guarded carefully from your control, Character that is always cheerful and calm.
I am a fellow passenger on the same train. I am a fellow drinker at the same bar. I am a fellow sufferer in the same crazy world. Why must you read what I write?.
I read the texts of great philosophers. Searching for clues to better this life. Learning and Sharing is what I do. Encouraging others to do the same thing.
What is the problem to be happy?
Spring and Summer did not cheer you up? Searching for a good reason why? Seasons came on time; they are not the reason why. One thing remained the same; You, who remained the same is the real reason why. Change yourself, accept the world as it is, to enjoy a better day. Days are numbered from the time you are born.
On first glance, it is difficult to imagine my knowledge is influenced by me.
We all believe knowledge of nominal world is gained through our sensory inputs (from the five senses -sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste). This knowledge is empirical knowledge. These inputs rely on instruments that are so individual, no two instruments read identical data from same event, for example, for someone who is color blind, world is in all shades of gray.
Now let me give an example to prove senses alone cannot provide all the knowledge.
Matt is at the baseball game; he saw John ready to bat at home plate. Matt went to get a drink from the concession stand. When he came back, he saw John is on the second base. Now there are two distinct sensory inputs, 1) John is on home plate 2) John is on second base. What senses cannot provide is causalityof events. Immanuel Kant explained this in detail and filled the gaps in theory of empirical philosophers. There is a real cause for John to move to second base from home plate. Our intuition provides answers for the causality to organize and make sense of enormous number of inputs, we receive from senses continuously. In this case, Matt assumes John had a double because of his high opinion of John’s batting record. In real world, this could be true, or John might have scored a single and reached second base on an error. Even in this simple situation, our intuition may serve us wrong.
What I know to be true is somehow tainted by my own influence. The more tainted knowledge I accumulate, the further it takes me in the path of erroneous conclusions. At some point in the journey, the reason will be so far removed from events, what was unbelievable a few years ago will become the hypothesis on which all future knowledge will rely. Thus, link between events and causality is broken and one will live in world that borders on delusion.
These days, social media is controlling information flow, one wonders how much of our intuition is corrupted by the constant biased messaging. One must reject any information, favorable or otherwise, that deviates too much from one’s own understanding. A study and through analysis with considering both sides of argument should provide better balance and peace of mind. One should not only read publications that present favorable topics, should also study what the opposition is arguing about.
Always remember that no one knows the nominal world in its true manifestation. Don’t throw the spear where you saw the fish, throw it where the fish will be. Use sensory data to arrive at reasonable conclusions with an unbiased intuition.
One of the earliest explanations is from the quotation of Diotima of Mantinea from Greek Antiquity (From Plato’s symposium).
Drawing attention to the ordinary perception and the confusions that arises from quick and passionate responses to things, explained the limitations of ordinary people. If these limitations are to be overcome, one must be instructed and shaped with habitual exposure to what is beautiful and encouraged to love them. By learning to observe the real beauty in objects, one will soon realize beauty of one form is akin to another. When beauty of form in general is one’s pursuit then one will realize the beauty in every form is one and the same, realizing this one will abate one’s violent love for only one form and recognizes the common beauty in all forms. One will eventually progress to understand beauty of mind is the more honorable than the beauty of outward form. (Notes from Great Ideas of Philosophy – Professor Daniel N Robinson)
To consider a thing to be beautiful,
Is beauty being all in beholders eyes?
Does beauty of an object depend on innate features of that object?
What was Diotima referring to instructions and habitual exposure?
A trained mind will appreciate a specific beauty of an object. Children of a musician will learn and appreciate music better than others. Associates of a painter will understand the beauty of a painting or a sculpture better than others. Followers of a wiseman will soon realize the transient nature of all things observed and find same beauty in all objects.
Thus, with habitual exposure one develops native, sensuous and reflective power which expresses itself in sound aesthetic judgements.
Let us consider the theories put forward by David Hume and Immanuel Kant on the topic of beauty.
David Hume writes, beauty refers to the way senses respond to objects and how mental operations will then fashion esthetic judgements of them. In his 1757 Essay on the standard of taste wrote “A thousand different sentiments excited by same object are all right. Because no sentiment can represent what is really in the object. It only marks certain conformity or relation between the object and faculties of mind. Beauty is a not a quality in things themselves, it exists merely in minds that contemplate them, and each mind perceives a different beauty”. He did agree that amid all variety and forms of taste there are certain universal tendencies and sentiments in humans.
Immanuel Kant identifies these characteristics to be present in a sound judgement including a sound aesthetic judgement – Judgement must be independent, judgement is universal, the object being judged has necessary aesthetic properties and that objects has a purpose though not serving a purpose.
Independent Judgement – no utility value, no political, no religious, no extrinsic values
Universal judgement – shared by all comparable competent persons. (Music performance should be judged by trained musicians)
Object’s necessary aesthetic properties – properties relating to the aesthetic pleasure arising from it. (A soprano singer does not necessarily have to be a great dancer)
Object should have a purpose thought not serving a purpose – Photo of a landscape has a purpose even though it may not serve any purpose (like a photo in sales brochure)
Thus, an Object is not beautiful because it pleases, it pleases because it is beautiful.
G.E.Moore’s in his book Principia Ethica (1903) refers to objects of beauty remains beautiful even when there are no observers. Example is the beauty of rectangular triangle, even when there are no physical triangles the Pythagorean formula will remain true.
After learning these three theories, let us examine our everyday behavior and acceptance of what is beautiful.
Our judgement of beauty is skewed by our Religion, Politics and Morals beliefs.
Iconic forms presented by religion will be accepted as beautiful and reject any other form that opposes religious beliefs.
Politics will persuade us to accept a hat, a flag, a map, or a painting as beautiful.
Morals will make us reject a painting that is morally offence though it is beautifully painted.
We need to free our judgements from these three erroneous influences and to judge with open mind after sufficient study and exposure to the topic.
As habitual exposure influences judgements, with habitual exposure to hatred, jealousy and pessimism will makes one cynical, envious, and depressed. Groups and families must stay optimistic in all situations. Just like a musician’s children have a good chance to become a musician, an optimist’s children will become optimists.
Let us project beauty with noble simplicity and quite grandeur, as the renaissance marble statues did not use the accents of color to be beautiful.
I am writing about something that we all know and by providence provided freely and equally to everyone. Which is measurable and accountable, however we can neither save nor borrow any of it.
If you don’t feel hungry and skip the meal, vegetables can be saved for later. If you don’t go to the market and shop, money can be saved in the wallet. If you don’t take your car out for a drive, petrol can be saved in the tank.
You might have guessed by now; I am talking about ‘time’.
Time is on the same journey of your life more faithful than your best friend. Your shadow may leave you sometimes, time will continue to be with you. As you exhaust a minute another is provided till the last minute of your life. One can’t reach into next minute nor can reach back into the one that expired.
Now the perplexing question – How do we attribute value to time?
Value of time changes based on activity and on individual.
Surgeon’s every minute is valuable while on surgery. Not as much while he is chatting with friends.
Quality of time changes over time.
As the surgeon gets older, while value remains the same, quality may deteriorate.
As life is moving by at a constant speed (never zips by), we need to do the following.
a) Identify our purpose(s) in life (Mother, Father, Teacher, Engineer, Artist, ….) b) Identify most values activities towards the identified purposes. c) Identify among the most valuable activities which does greater good. Act of greater good – Act that does good to greater number of people. d) Identify the activities that contribute actively, passively or in the opposite way. e) Distribute time to activities based on their value. Maximize the time for active contributors. Maintain time for passive contributors. Reduce the time for activities that are contradictory to the purpose.
Illustration with an example is in order. Let us continue with our example – Surgeon Dr. John. His roles – Surgeon, Father. His activities are surgery, basketball, and Netflix movie watching. This trivial example helps to illustrate activity classification. Surgery – Active contributor – Highest greater good (Increase activity). Parenting – Active contributor – Second greater good (Increase activity). Playing Basketball – Passive Contributor – (Maintain activity). Watching Movies – Contradictory to purpose – (Reduce activity).
If you are teacher then teaching is your greater good as your students will make great contributions in future. If you are a student then studying is the greater good as it provides the basis for all future contributions. Thus an activity that creates a value in the future could also be the best one to pursue most.
Each day as we use up the time that was allotted to us, though not knowing how much more is there, one needs to use time wisely by working with great efficacy and with little or no waste. Apportion as much as possible to the greater good, lest there will be regrets in future.
Hence, Every day, it is required of us to account how we spent time and to contemplate on how to increase it for the ‘greater good activities’ the very next day.
Measure of rationality = Variance between what one conceives as truth and what is the reality.
For example:
Rational person will not buy stocks during speculative bubbles.
Rational person does not fear end of the world with a pandemic.
Rational person does not go into a pandemic without preparation.
Measure of rationality:
Create a daily activity list for a week, go over that list categorizing the decisions as emotional or rational.
RI = (Rational decisions) / (Total decisions) can show Rationality Index.
EI = (emotions decisions) / (Total decisions) can show Irrationality Index.
RQ – Rationality Quotient = RI / EI ( This should be > 1. Higher the better)
Examples of behavior.
When you are thirsty drinking a glass of water is rational.
When you are thirsty drinking sugared soda is less rational.
When you are thirsty continuing the exercise is emotional.
Realistic appraisal of one’s strengths and weakness.
To become more rational, one must know one’s strengths and weakness. Learning is influenced by these traits. This exercise should not be done by oneself. Even if one does this, do not put too much trust in it. What you believe as your strength, other may notice it as your weakness. Our assessments are not original or final, behind each one there is a force of self judgement. Self judgements are children of past experiences that were victims of full of emotional bias with no provisioning for rationality.
Know thyself is easier said than done. Really ! “Know thyself by thyself ?”.
You need a group of friends, who can confide with each other and learn from each other.
At a minimum you need a teacher to study your behavior and provide the timely measure of recalibration.
Does my rationality need correction?
Yes of course, it is a continuous process. It happens consciously or unconsciously influenced by your strengths and weaknesses.
What was not imagined by a rational person a decade ago, happens like a routine event these days.
One should make changes to their rational self to accept activities like same sex marriages, binge movie watching, eating out, food delivery, amazon purchases, etc. Whereas events like High school shootings, gang looting, assaults on women, misbehaving leaders show the limits to which one can rationalize things.
One should carefully analyze everything rationally and make the necessary calibration.
Rational people have the best chance to succeed in long run.
Someone may appear to have gained from an irrational activity, however in long run only rationalize activities yield lasting benefits.
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