EZP

Reply to The art of blogging in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I'm grateful for JoeUser.com and its ease of use. EZP

The Significance of Belief in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

However one believes is immaterial; that one believes in is the stuff of humanity. That one believes goes beyond the Cartesian principle. A sense of self could in lower forms exist -- admittedly primitive. A dog conceivably has a sense of awareness of itself, yet we do not ascribe thinking to a dog. On a human level, one believes because he has no choice. He cannot say I do not believe in myself anymore than Descartes could say I do not think therefore I am not. Without belief th

Illogical Trend in Politics JoeUser Forums

For two hundred years the Catholic Church never asked the government for a dime to assist the education of Catholic children. In the 50s or 60s they rightly received free transportation of children to its schools, which was little to ask in light of the thousands of children who were not burdening the public schools. It even would have been just to grant a token tax rebate to Catholic parents for their choice. Catholic schools always abided by the state educational req

A Note on Adultery in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

In defense of adultery the male-chauvinist advocates that man is by nature a polygamist and that the modern mores have denied him this bent. To expect a man to remain faithful on physical terms when he contracted to remain faithful only on spiritual terms is asking him to deny that he is essentially animal. After all, if he still loves his wife after an affair or a stay at the house of prostitution is he not still faithful? Moreover, is not the man now released of unnecessary tension and be

Oh, my Captain! My Captain! in Politics JoeUser Forums

Mar 16, 2003 Oh, my Captain! My Captain! Noble heart!....Why should anyone give chase to that hated fish!...Away! Let us away!—this instant let me alter the course! [Starbuck] What is it, what nameless, inscrutable thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural loving and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time, recklessly making me ready to do what in my own prope

September 11 Blues in Politics JoeUser Forums

No one can deny that in the ancient world religious beliefs were the threads of unification among peoples ravaged by primeval clans and tribes totally lacking a sense of justice. Yet there is clear evidence that most religions were formed by transvaluing surrender to God’s Will as surrender to the will of the handful of thugs and prophets claiming direct communication to heaven. Without this subterfuge, nations of might could never have materialized, just as the primeval clans needed

Social Security: A Constitutional Right—For All in Politics JoeUser Forums

'92 rrk Fears abound that there will be no social security when the X-generation reaches senior citizenship. If it comes to this, today's youthful generation would be partly to blame for failing to meet head on the shameless political dialogue blathering extensively today. It matters little what your party affiliation might be: political awareness hinges on very basic political truths in this constitutional government of ours. One very important truth is that the

Reply to Fetus in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

I've done it; you're eyes should be fine now--just don't let all your hair cloud them.

Liberal Strategy in Politics JoeUser Forums

An unrealistic liberal would obviously prefer Kucinich, Sharpton, or Braun regardless of the cost, just as he chose Nader in 2000. The realistic one — and no less liberal — is trying to decide among Kerry, Dean, Gephardt, and Clark in simple terms: beat Bush, and who can achieve it. Liberalism is pointless — Nader didn’t understand this — when a nation is split in half ideologically by two major parties. If it were divided by four — conservative and moderate on the right and liberal an

Reply to Are Conservatives Progressive? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Conservatives are progressive only to the extent that they progress toward the super ego, not a rational individual which essential in a democratic nation bent on developing honor and dedication to the general happiness and common good. rrk or ezp

FINANCING EDUCATION: A DISTRIBUTIVE PRINCIPLE in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

© RRK 1973 Long overdue is a system of financing education that is commensurate with the equalization clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and more importantly the implication in the Preamble in ''promot[ing] the general welfare and secur[ing] the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” What is not generally understood here is the given that every citizen understand and comply and that he partake in the grand promotion and security since the Constitution was desig

Reply to God on Trial in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

Thanks. I finally got the hang of it and paragraphing has been restored on all my articles!

There must Be More to It in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

©'82 rrk To classify perceptions for simplification is a temptation devoutly to be avoided; nevertheless, it seems inescapable when one views today's schools. The convenient microcosm whets the appetite of thought—after all, schools are made up of "classes". However, the point to the ensuing argument is that objectives in all of society hinges on the processing of youth. Unfortunately in this modern world youth comes already processed and prepackaged, and instead of rip

Reply to Why liberals keep losing... in Politics JoeUser Forums

It is interesting that you choose four issues that really do not address major problems such as social security, war of choice, infrastructure, civil rights, decent living wages.

God on Trial in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

God, a kindly mother or father, is without saying devoutly to be wished. Many of us would settle for the reality of the highly structured hierarchy of the Grecian divinities who in the main control the visible world and are protective. Alas, it is but a wish, a grand fantasy to give us hope that in the end there resides a high purpose to heretofore unspeakable sacrifices and atrocities of early and current development. We pray that our departed loved ones have not died just to be tagged by paleo

Fetus in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

There seems to be little doubt that a fetus is a fetus, an infant is an infant, a youth is a youth, an adult is an adult—all of whom comprise identity. Break any link and that identity ceases to be. That the catastrophic leanings of nature flagrantly violates this chain at will is hardly an argument that human nature should intervene indiscriminately. The argument that "Thou Shalt Not Kill" covers all instances because rightly mandated by God or some high moral principle is equally ab

Law, Morals and Mores in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

Law and order, based on the principle that the law exists for the protection or society’s institutions and not based simply on the protection of the individual, can lead to authoritarianism and self-righteousness dictated from above. As a rule, this is not a prevailing problem in criminal and civil law dealing with clear-cut infractions. In the gray area of morals and mores, however, law can be tenuous. Yet at the same time individuals and sub-societies prone toward cults and lifesty

TAKE THE “EL” TRAIN in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

©rrk 1972 Distant indeed is the twentieth century from the space in time of Academia where and when Plato stood tall facing his eager pupils gathered round the tree of pure knowledge that stretched its fragile limbs upward to the realm of ideas — the soul’s yearning for dwelling among the stars. Surely, Plato’s choice of site was no accident; though some would argue that Olympus would have been more appropriate, Plato would not have tolerated the vulgarity of Homer’s gods under the same roof

First Things in Philosophy JoeUser Forums

An Instance of Hard Fact: Motion or First Things First Setting aside the intramural dialogues of the epistemologists, and assume, as Bacon, Lucretius and other "primates”, that the universe is a fact, one may further structure that the universe is in motion by virtue of three dimensional-spatial reckoning that postulates “out there.” The subject arrives at three dimensional experience by sensing height, breadth, and depth: he looks down at the ant hill which in itself seems to