Comments

  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Short & sweet from a Rabbi to a fool:

  • War & Murder


    Not morally equal at all. One group (B) tries & intends to strike only or mainly military sites. It minimizes civilian deaths & injuries, as best it can.

    The other group of thugs murders & slaughters civilians with abandon.
  • Virtue of Truth
    "There is no existence for the unreal and the real can never be non-existent. The Seers of Truth know the nature and final ends of both.
    Know That to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded. No one is ever able to destroy that Immutable."

    Bhagavad Gita 2:16-17
  • Virtue of Truth
    For the unschooled person, the value to society & persons of truth is obvious:

    "the quality or state of being true: he had to accept the truth of her accusation.
    (also the truth) that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality: tell me the truth | she found out the truth about him.
    a fact or belief that is accepted as true: the emergence of scientific truths."
  • Philosophical dictionaries
    Still in print and online since 1942 - DD Runes editor. Very helpful to non academics for many topics & thinkers:

    http://www.ditext.com/runes/index.html

    Part of the Preface:

    The aim of this dictionary is to provide teachers, students and laymen interested in philosophy with clear, concise, and correct definitions and descriptions of the philosophical terms, throughout the range of philosophic thought. In the volume are represented all the branches as well as schools of ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy. In any such conspectus, it is increasingly recognized that the Oriental philosophies must be accorded ample space beside those of the western world.
  • Karma. Anyone understand it?
    Excerpt from Bhikku Bodhi's paper:

    The Buddha says:
    "Monks it is volition that I call kamma. For having willed, one then acts by body, speech or mind". What really lies behind all action, the essence of all action, is volition, the power of the will. It is this volition expressing itself as action of body, speech and mind that the Buddha calls kamma.
    This means that unintentional action is not kamma. If we accidently step on some ants while walking down the street, that is not the kamma of taking life, for there was no intention to kill. If we speak some statement believing it to be true and it turns out to be false, this is not the kamma of lying, for there is no intention of deceiving.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank


    An excellent way to live, for a nation or individual. The people of Israel have lived that way (not like a good Xtian of course) for decades. Now if Muslim leaders & their followers would do the same.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank


    Karma was defined by Buddha as cetana or intention or motive, not simple action alone. So the"good" motives of an individual or a nation or government can mitigate "bad" actions, and the converse is true - bad motives worsen bad actions or bad intentions weaken good actions. Here is Yogananda commenting on a line from Bhagavad Gita 10:38:

    I am the rod of the discipliners

    The rod is God's Law of cause and effect, karma, the ultimate discipliner. The errant man may escape the punishment of man-made laws, but karmic justice is inexorable, appeasable only by right actions which earn rewards of merit and ultimate pardon. The Bible also refers to the law of karma as "the rod": "Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." [Psalms 23:4.] The karmic principle is a source of comfort to those who understand its discipline and rewards as pointing the way to true happiness and liberation.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank


    The violent attack on Israel is far worse than the defensive reply with violence. Defense is permitted, attack is not. Killing in defense is not as bad karma as murder during an assault.
  • Speculation: Eternalism and the Problem of Evil
    Do not know which of the three notions of time are truest. Yet a reminder that the Vision of Er, at the end of Republic holds much wisdom, even nowadays:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Er
  • Virtue of Truth
    Nietzsche wonders 'where the urge to truth comes from'. The pressure of convention from society is one place, but that will hardly produce a 'love of truth' as Pascal & Demosthenes saw it. The latter sage has the right idea, our higher nature has some innate notions & virtues, like an attraction or search for reality or truth.
  • Virtue of Truth
    Falsehood is in a hurry; it may be at any moment detected and punished; truth is calm, serene; its judgment is on high

    Joseph Parker
  • Virtue of Truth
    The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.

    Emerson
  • Virtue of Truth
    Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.

    Dryden
  • Virtue of Truth
    Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

    Pascal
  • Currently Reading
    The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk and whatever of Irving Babbitt I can find. Babbitt's translation and the following essay about the Dhammapada by Buddha is nifty.
    Santayana is next, I read his Last Puritan as a child, so time to go deeper.
  • Complete works of the thinkers
    General sense, although they offer 20% off on this page.
  • What are Some important or cannonic secondary literature about Plato?
    This group in UK has wonderful texts, both translations from the Platonic tradition and their own introductory booklets:

    http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk

    The first three titles under the Students' Editions are excellent introductions to Plato:

    http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/other_books.html
  • Complete works of the thinkers


    This is only part of the Cambridge pubs. site, there may be other parts or other academic pubs. that will address your interests:

    https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/collections/philosophers/titles
  • Complete works of the thinkers
    Not sure if this old Harvard Classics series is still in print, but it is online:

    http://www.harvardclassics365.com/p/free.html