Eldon Taylor's Blog, page 5

Science Challenges Society

In this week’s spotlight I wish to discuss the chasm between our sciences and ethical concerns as they guide our public policies. We have discussed on this show the lack of ethical guidelines for matters such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, the use of machine learning for manipulation purposes, and so forth; but there are many other areas where science has reached a capability that the world is not prepared to deal with, and/or is ignorant of the possible ramifications given the deployment of some of these technologies. Given that is the case, what are we to do? Top Ethical ...

Thinking About Right Action

In this week’s spotlight I want to discuss the idea of right action. For the Buddha, right action was a series of restrain injunctions, from Moses we have ten prohibition commandments, from the Sikhs we are admonished against five evils, and so it goes from all religions. Right action defined as negative admonishments. Happiness or Ethics Now there are political theories regarding right action that instruct us that: “According to the theory of right action, the happiness or pleasure of a greatest number of people in the society is considered as the greatest good. According to this philosophy, an action ...

Success

In this week’s spotlight I want to discuss the notion of success. What exactly is success to you? Webster defines success this way, “The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” Well then, according to Webster success is no more nor no less than what an individual decides when they set a goal and achieve it. Financial Gain Many people today generally think of success in terms of financial rewards. Oh, we all recognize the success of a young athlete who wins a ball game, or a child who overcomes their fear of sleeping alone, and so forth, but we hang ...

Unconscious Circularity

In this week’s spotlight I’d like to discuss circularity through something known as hermeneutics, or the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation. Recently I had the opportunity to discuss with a friend our recent show with Professor Patrick Grim. At one point in our conversation, Grim suggested that he was becoming more and more inclined towards perspectivism, the idea that perception, experience, and reason change according to the viewer’s relative perspective and interpretation. Perspective I referred to the work of Nietzsche, in particularly his “Will to Power” essay and his view of perspectivism as a hermeneutical philosophy, or the ...

Happiness?

In this week’s spotlight we turn our attention to happiness. What is happiness? What makes you happy? Is happiness something we can hold on to—maintain throughout our lives; or does it come and go like shadows in the dawn? Do we have to know unhappiness in order to recognize happiness? Or is happiness just the absence of unhappy situations or circumstances? Happiness Defined Webster is not much help when it comes to defining happiness. Webster simply puts it this way, “Happiness: the state of being happy.” Perhaps one of the best definitions of happiness is set out by vocabulary.com this ...

A Truth Worth Dying For

In today’s spotlight I wish to address the notion of a truth and through the thinking of one of the world’s great philosophers, that of Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard learned a way of thinking—a way of life, from Socrates. Kierkegaard sought a “truth…for which he was willing to live and die.” A Life Worth Living Nowhere is Kierkegaard’s life intention captured better than in the words of Hans Friedrich Helweg who, about a month after Kierkegaard died, published an article entitled Hegelianism in Denmark. A large part of Helweg’s article focuses on a review of Kierkegaard’s master’s thesis, The Concept of ...

Fair or Unfair?

In this week’s spotlight I’d like to discuss the idea of fairness. What does it mean to be fair? Now most people are generally pretty certain they understand the difference between fair and unfair—that is, until you dig down into the grit. What do I mean by that? Perception There is an old story of a group of blind men and an elephant. As the story goes, when they encounter the elephant for the first time, they each touch a different part of the animal and come away with a different interpretation. According to the Buddhist text Udana 6.4, “Out ...

Ideas and Bullies

In this week’s spotlight, I want to discuss bullying, but not the schoolyard bullying we generally think of when the subject of bullying comes up. No, instead I want to address the idea that there is a great deal of bullying going on in our society over ideas. Heightened Arousal We live at a time when potential tragedy seems to lurk everywhere, and this fear only heightens our sense of arousal, our readiness for fight or flight. 2020 for many people has simply become a nightmare year and the nightmare does not appear to have a quick end in sight. ...

Indoctrination

In this week’s spotlight I wish to discuss the nature of indoctrination. Webster defines indoctrination this way: the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. Now when I say indoctrination, most people will think of matters religious or political, but I want to extend the conversation to all of those issues that we have culturally inherited. Think, for example, about your attitude toward animals. Our culture favors some animals over others. For example, dogs, cats, and horses typically escape a turn at the dinner table as the main course, while pigs, cattle, sheep, ...

Why Many Accept Their Shortcomings

I was recently asked why people are so resistant to the idea that their unconscious is active in every single thing they choose or do? In other words, why is it so hard to accept the fact that every one of us has two minds, and that these two minds don’t always agree with each other? In my opinion, that’s a very good question. Defining Free Will On a recent Provocative Enlightenment radio show, I spoke with Professor Patrick Grim about the idea of freewill. He is convinced that we must believe in freewill to live but we should give ...