Human Thought & Reality: Discourses of Understanding
Humanity: Thought, Language, and Symbolic Expression
Human beings are unique because they are fundamentally thinking animals. While other animals perform various actions, only humans possess the capacity for complex thought and language, enabling them to translate their experiences symbolically.
Through linguistic thought, humans acquired and transmitted knowledge and skills, crucial for survival against dangers and success in hunting and gathering. Only humans can speak, reason, and imagine the future.
Read MoreThe Brave Little Parrot: A Buddhist Fable of Selfless Service
The Brave Little Parrot: Four Levels of Understanding
Literal Comprehension: The Parrot’s Heroic Act
Once, Buddha was born as a little parrot in a forest where various animals and birds lived. While all the creatures were spending a happy life, a storm and lightning turned the forest into a raging fire. Helpless animals and birds were trapped, creating a terrible scene where they cried for help. Seeing this situation, the little parrot started to put out the fire by dipping into the river and spreading
Read MoreCartesian Philosophy: Reason, Doubt, and Certainty
Descartes’ Cogito and the Criterion of Truth
The objective was to develop a philosophy by using only genuine reason. A system of interconnected truths, arranged so that the mind grasps fundamental truths as self-evident truisms, with others implied by the proposed premises. Descartes started from scratch and accepted only what his reason offered as indubitable.
To build this philosophy, Descartes believed a method was necessary. The method is not required because human reason is unable to find truth,
Read MoreSocial Class Structures: Goldthorpe’s Scheme vs. Marx’s Theory
John Goldthorpe’s Class Scheme: A Modern Perspective
John Goldthorpe sought to explain the workings of social classes in the late twentieth century. Through observation and empirical studies, he detected that Karl Marx’s scheme was too rigid. Consequently, Goldthorpe developed an explanatory model that could better explain contemporary society, specifically incorporating the concept of ‘social mobility,’ which Marx’s theory did not consider.
Factors Determining Social Class
Goldthorpe identifies two
Read MoreUnderstanding Citizenship: Rights, Identity, and Public Life
Understanding Citizenship: Core Concepts and Debates
Essential Features of Citizenship
Citizenship encompasses:
- A set of rights and duties.
- A peculiar form of community.
- Some rules governing coexistence.
Membership in Society or Community
Citizenship denotes a particular form of collective identity, an accession that you can be more or less broad, more or less inclusive.
Two more notes define membership, especially relevant in today’s philosophical-political debate:
- Identity: Citizenship goes beyond the
Philosophical Divergence: Plato and Marx on Society
Plato vs. Marx: Political Conceptions Compared
This comparison highlights key similarities and differences in the political conceptions of Plato and Marx.
Similarities and Differences in Political Thought
Social Change Dynamics
Similarity: Both philosophers argue that civil strife, wars, and class divisions, often grounded in selfishness, are the main dynamic forces for social change.
Difference: For Plato, the historical process follows a linear downward trajectory, leading to a deemed necessary hegemonic