Category: Musings
Memory, truth, love; or, knowledge in the ethical response
What is the role of memory (or knowledge or epistemology) in ethics? Is learning or knowing necessary in being ethical? Here is a thought experiment on memory and relations or interactions. Going about the day in a mall while waiting for a particular time, you started feeling thirsty. You decided to go to a coffee…
On being disruptive
Cox defines epistemic agents as “beings for whom knowledge is salient to their formation of beliefs, their dispositions, and their actions”, this agency entailing “a preference for knowledge and both the ability and the will to be guided by it” (2024, 16). By this very definition, neither managers nor inforgs are true epistemic agents. For…
For philosophy
The temptation is to think about thinking (that is, to ‘philosophise’ about philosophising) instead of simply thinking. In a way, it feels like an attempt to ‘get ahead’ of philosophy, preemptively making the path rather than allowing it to show itself as one walks through it. One reads the works of the greats and works…
Observations
How does life happen? This is the question of the observer. After the journey of the seeker who longed to know the source of all things, Being sits down in the midst of everything and observes. It seems passive. Nothing seems to be happening. The Being is not doing. What are you observing exactly? The…
Philosophical value
I am tempted to titled this as On romanticising philosophy for the idea came from this notion of the apparent ‘uses’ or ‘values’ of philosophy. Now I do not intend to defend my love for philosophy, and it may perhaps be due my own experience in coming into philosophy that I found absolutely nothing wrong…
“What makes life worth living?”
At the root of many moral and ethical enquiries is the question “What makes life worth living?” The question comes in various forms, such as “What does it mean to live a good life?” or “How can one be a good person?” In the end, if it equates something good with something worthwhile, then the…
Related reading: On public philosophy
I thought I would touch on the idea of public philosophy in the previous essay, so I had these pages opened up. I was not able to get into them, but perhaps for some future reflection or something: I have more or less read those previously already but especially for number 3, I look forward…
Why not?
Why do anything? Answers to this question come in a range of qualifications that some may categorise similar to how ‘basic human needs’ have been categorised. Perhaps one does something to get sustenance, or to connect socially, to feel safe, to feel fulfilled, etc. Yet some circumstances may elicit a null answer: I do not…
On freedom
When one speaks of ‘freedom’ or ‘liberation’, an immediate thought might be the idea of the basic human rights, usually composed of aspects that address what a human person needs to survive. It is not uncommon that a rally for ‘freedom’ comes with slogans pertaining to higher wages, or ability to take paid absences from…