Archive for the 'Philosophy' category

Useful Pessimism…

February 29, 2008 9:25 pm
Pessimists Mug
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I was listening the other night to the latest issue of the Mars Hill Audio Journal and Ken was interviewing the author of “The Loss of Sadness” which made me think of this unique novelty product that I recently purchased for a friend (see image on left).

The pessimist’s mug never leaves any room for debate… the glass is certainly half empty.

Beyond pessimism, is there room for a healthy sadness for a beverage lost?

The disposition of sadness is often viewed as a symptom to be alleviated and it is predominantly treated as such by modern medicine, which is Allan Horwitz’s thesis of sorts. At one point he made the most amazing statement… it goes something like this and I am butchering it…

“…one very good result of viewing the glass as half empty is that you may find motivation to fill it up again…”



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First Things First…

January 21, 2008 5:15 pm
First Things Issue

My favorite magazine doesn’t have any pictures, I must be grown up now.

…to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.

Mars Hill Audio…

5:13 pm
Mars Hill Audio

Imagine being able to sit in on candid one on one conversations between respected thoughtful Christians as they share their search for transcendent meaning and practical cultural relevance.

MARS HILL AUDIO is committed to assisting Christians who desire to move from thoughtless consumption of contemporary culture to a vantage point of thoughtful engagement. We believe that fulfilling the commands to love God and neighbor requires that we pay careful attention to the neighborhood: that is, every sphere of human life where God is either glorified or despised, where neighbors are either edified or undermined.

Moral Dilemma…

5:01 pm
Sigmund Freud
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There was a time when the discussion of morals and values was a very simple endeavor for me… went something like this…

Christians have morals because God gave them to us in the Bible, everyone else is lost without any moral direction until they realize their depravity and get a hold of a Bible and read it for moral instruction.

I still think this simplistic process has a certain amount of merit to it, but I now believe it is hardly the end (and for most, neither the beginning) of the discussion concerning the uniqueness of mankind’s moral dilemma. Reading through the thoughts of folks like Mr. Freud certainly bring the topic into a whole new world of debate and exploration.

I was recently referred to the following article by a friend of mine, whom had often engaged this discussion topic with me.

NYtimes Article, The Moral Instinct ( PDF version)

I was specifically interested in the moral dilemma questions this article posed from recent studies and surveys on the moral instinct. I will be coming back to this post over the next few days to formulate my answer with explanation to each situation.


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