A new site for Ulverston - http://www.visitulverston.com

Now completely independently of the council a private individual is producing a web site for tourists that is something that is already special and will get better as more and more is added to it and others chip in to help. Let's hope it makes a real impact next season.

Have a look at www.visitulverston.com

If you like it, refer to it on your web site or blog so that it sails to the top of a Google search for "Ulverston" where you may think it deserves to be.

The more references to it, the higher it will rise in the Google ratings.

Is hope too much to hope for?

This next Tuesday, 16th March, this is our topic.

Here are some notes on our topic:

"It was originally planned that I would argue that Hope was not a desirable state/sentiment .

My preparation has focused on this, so it would be useful if people were prepared to argue in favour of Hope.

Do we think hope is a "good thing"?

Being hopeful is seen as positive while hopelessness is seen as a state of despair.

Many statements reflect this:

"it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive",

"every cloud has a silver lining"

"while there is life there is hope".

1 Corinthians 13 talks of Faith, Hope and Charity (or Love) as great virtues which suggests that there is little doubt as to the Christian position.

If so why?

What does hoping achieve?

Does hope contribute to our happiness, does it motivate us, does it create success?"

.

Equality : to be discussed Tuesday 2nd March

Here are the questions that the group leaders would like us to think about before our meeting :

• What is equality?
• Do we have equality before the law?
• Do we have equality in the right to "come and go"?
• Are women equal in our society?
• Is it possible to have equality and still allow the employer discretion?

Spring is round the corner

Taken mid March , last year!

Philosophy Revitalised

We had a very successful planning meeting just before Christmas for our fortnightly program in the year 2010.

We have a new web site which will be used to keep local people and the world beyond aware of what we are doing.

Two of our meetings this year have examined why we do Philosophy or as we prefer to express it "Exploring the World of ideas".

We concluded that Philosophy was not so much a subject with answers, but a process with loads of questions.

Outside, at the end of one of the meetings, one of our group moved us onto the place for action.

"Too many liberals are accused of philosophising . . . .and doing nothing."

We concluded that action was an important part of the process.

To me a very important part that helps sort our thoughts out!

Process:

1. We examine our emotions and decide what is important to us.

2. Based on these premises we use logic and reason to evaluate what follows from these beliefs.

3. We take action based on these beliefs and check how we feel emotionally about these actions.

4. We then go back and examine our emotions and decide what is important to us as in 1. above - and so on!

Onion Skin society in the Future?

With the chaos in our society that will ensue in the future as a result of Global Warming, are we changing to the Onion Skin approach?

That's what I'm developing!

Qualities of Wisdom

It was reported that we have had a discussion about nameless individuals who had demonstrated wisdom.

The qualities that we recognised as wisdom are:

detachment
clarity
common sense
self-confidence

“all of a piece”, perhaps the same as integrity.

This person knew where he was, he had tranquility, self-possession and charisma.

a healthy, balanced, approach to life
trustworthiness

He always paid bills when they were received on the basis that any delay would make it more difficult to pay. This foresight I call prudence.
He always repaid injury with kindness because he was sure that there must have been a cause and he did not wish to reopen old wounds. This was patience.
He steadfastly refrained from writing books on the basis that they could be falsified. The footprints do not necessarily represent the person who trod in them. He gave verbal instruction and this showed discretion.

The qualities of the village elder or grandfather:
knowledge obtained from life
judicious acts
disinterest in the outcome, there is no axe to grind.

knowledge gives a wider field for the use of wisdom
judgement comes from interpretation and analysis of life-experience
a demonstration of wisdom by sharing with others through actions

intuitive understanding gained by thoroughly internalising knowledge
the capability of applying knowledge
an ability to correctly proportion wants to possessions and ambitions to abilities

the ability to communicate sensitively
knowledge with the intelligence and ability to apply it
the ability to deal skillfully with situations and the emotions of both themselves and others
good conduct: bodily conduct; verbal conduct and mental conduct

To make a wise action one must have:
the necessary information and knowledge
judgement about that knowledge
a broad adjustment and a realistic perspective on life

Meeting Tuesday 5th August

We discussed the following, except for item 8 and 10 !

Assertiveness

1. You arrive at a blind street corner at the same time as someone else and bump into them.

2.You’re in a queue and someone you know and like/ know but don’t like /don’t know pushes in front without reason

They give a reason that they’re in a hurry

3. You’re at a good restaurant and are served a leg of chicken that isn’t fully cooked – still pink – refuses to come off the bone

4. Travelling on a train, sleeping on a seat with another complete stranger on the other seat in the dark.
You wakeup to glimpse the stranger standing up against the window using passing lights to peer at what looks like your wallet which you had hidden under your pillow

5. You return home to find that the shirt, you’ve just bought has four buttons missing.

6. Someone is sitting in the train window seat that you had booked .
When asked to move they ignore you and look straight through you as though you’re invisible. When asked to move point out that there are lots of other window seats available. and two of your friends are trying to walk down the street through the middle of them.

7. At lunch time, school children aged 13/14 are congregating in Upper Brook Street, flicking chips across the street in a mock fight when you and two of your friends are trying to walk down the street through the middle of them.

8. You go to the cinema alone to enjoy a film that you particularly want to see.
Someone heads for the seat next to you with a massive tub of pop corn.
They ask politely whether the seat next to you is taken. . . .

9. Is this philosophy?

10. Does it matter?

Do we practice philosophy or otherwise

Chris suggests that perhaps we 'just' philosophize.

I suggest that we're being brainwashed into using American spelling by biased spell-checkers!

Geoff getting flippant.

Her thoughts were provoked by an article coming from the Philosophy-for-Children web site

This site seems to me well worth exploring ! Specially by grownup children like ourselves/me !

Materialsm

Looking ahead to my presentation in over a month:-

First thoughts to explore - what is it that makes us feel good?

Which will follow on from a previous theme below!

Geoff

The virtuous life is the good life

I'm thinking along the lines that the desired goal is to feel good about oneself.

I can't imagine anyone who would disagree with that.

As Denis pointed out yesterday (well that's what I thought when he commented), different people have different ways of feeling good.

Killing others that don't share your view of what is important is one way that people have operated in the past and presumably made them feel good.

Accumulating money is another.

So is the question - "Are some levels of feeling good, higher/more enjoyable than others?" ?

Do we have free will?

Do we have the strength of will to exercise it?

Who owns you?

Thoughts from Paris!

We sacrifice our control over ourselves all the time.

Some of us are more willing to do this more than others!

For me, I am often known as being blolshi and have been known to be 'Geoffrey awkward' because I am often very reluctant to surrender control to others unless they give me a good reason to do so!

Spirit - Soul

The talk and questions were very thoughtful and entertaining - lots of interesting background - thank you.

For me, I wondered whether the session came within 'philosophy' but rather within psychiatry.

I'm defining philosophy as starting from something someone believes in and exploring the consequences that follow logically from this.

As I find the word spirit doesn't mean anything for me, I find it difficult to follow what consequences there are.

It comes across as a religious belief and hence one that is self fulfilling if you believe it.

What was interesting/challenging for me was finding words that would replace 'spirit' which is where I would resort to words like depression (the lack of spirit) and being pro-active and recognising possible actions , expressions which I would associate with psychology.

Trying to understand this and find my way through this!

It's good to be challenged to use a different vocabulary!

Another fascinating session - thank you both.

Why did religion get serious?

The following thoughts arose while reading an article about the setting up of a project, involving 9 European Universities to examine religious belief and behaviour (religiosity). The project is led by Oxford and is called EXREL.

“Primitive” religions are largely attempts to explain and control the environment. There are various spirits, gods and influences which determine or undermine the orderly running of things but may need propitiating from time to time. For example the Egyptians saw their main god (the sun) everyday, knew that they depended upon him for their existence, so made sure he came up every morning by carrying out appropriate ceremonies. We have a similar understanding, but call it science. The mystery is no longer there but the reality still is. Gods are seen as superior beings, with power over us, but are largely much the same as people. Add to this, in most cases, the question of what happens after death and you end up with a model which more or less fits most religions except:

The Judaeo/Christian/Islamic tradition.

Why is this? It is the only religion which postulates an eternal omniscient creator. A God who is completely beyond the comprehension of mere humanity, although a high proportion of believers probably still think in terms of a man with a white beard up there somewhere. Where did the idea come from? Why was it exclusively western?

Self Esteem

Where does it come from?

It seems that the harder the task the greater the self esteem that results when we've cracked it.

Aiming at the right difficult of task is clearly important.

Watching televison and climbing Everest would clearly be two extreme points on a continuum.

Don't do anything . . . depression results!

However thinking can be doing.

So what kind of thinking leads to self esteem/depression

Stem Cell Research

Is this philosophy or just a rant?

Some Thoughts on the Current Controversy about Embryo Research

The creation of human/cow “hybrid embryos”

1. The misinformation.

   A hybrid is produced by the combination of a male and female germ cell. The so-called hybrids under discussion are produced by fusing the nucleus of a human cell with the shell of a female cow germ cell. This is not a hybrid nor even chimera.

   Nor could it ever become an embryo. It is with luck a multipotent stem cell which might be persuaded to multiply, but, with the present state of knowledge, it could never develop into viable life.

2. The Facts

   Stem cells have potential to treat a number of debilitating and fatal diseases. More research is needed before any possibility of treatment arises. Sources of stem cells are rare and difficult to acquire, but the human/cow “hybrid” would be relatively easy to produce for research.

3. The Church

   Particularly the Catholic Church, but also many “right to life” literalists express horror at the obscenity of producing such “embryos” and then not allowing them to develop.

   Being charitable one might assume that they are simply misguided, but this still begs the question of why anyone pays attention to these protests. Life for the stem cells is not an issue (see above), though life for those suffering terminal disease might be!

   The Catholic Church in particular cannot be taken seriously on this point given the millions it has killed – the crusades, the inquisition, the genocide of the Cathars (largely because the Cathars actually practised Christianity) and the continuing undermining of attempts to counter the aids epidemic, suggest that the last thing the Catholic Church is interested in is the sanctity of life.

'Democracy' ?

Lifted from this page

Some reflections: -

What makes us so sure that the export of 'Democracy' to places like Afghanistan and Iraq is a good thing?

Democracy doesn't work in this country. It is cynically manipulated. Or the vast majority decline to get involved.

People vote for leaders that will make decisions for them so that they don't have to think for themselves.

The questioning minds that led to Greek Philosophy and spawned Democracy are a thing of the past with children and adults not encouraged to think. Education these days teaches them what they need to know - not to question. People give little spare time to think around the pros and cons of important topics - affordable housing, the raising of their children.

Gangs of young people turn to violence because they are told they are failures and feel excluded from society. We avoid engaging with them through fear - which encourages them to feel 'good' about themselves - this is their source of self-esteem - not what they have achieved.

Their parents have low self-esteem because they don't feel they are coping well with their problems, even their own children.

We need to encourage all people to talk to each other, debate issues, and have the belief that they have some effective input/control over their lives - to feel good about themselves and walk tall.

The export of democracy is a distraction - we need to sort ourselves out!

What kind of love is this?

Photo from a great blog - worth a visit

Do we want to live forever?

With Parliament debating measures that could help 'cure' diseases, I ask myself this question.

I'm puzzled by it.

I think it depends on my quality of life and how much my survival demands others to make efforts on my behalf.

We all take it for granted that we want to fight disease, but is this another of those illusions like thinking we need lots of money!

At the moment, part of me is inclined to take the consequences of taking no action if I get a major disease, but in practice, I immediately think that I must take care of myself if something is affecting my health.



From a great site with photographs by Mark Story. Some very interesting comments which gave me a perspective!