Tag: behavior
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Judgement’s Penalty
Value judgements impede understanding In medieval times and in primitive societies an explanation for events was a matter of morality; of good and evil, right or wrong. A death, say by tuberculosis, was explained as the action of evil forces. Witches maybe. Or perhaps the death was explained as good; justice – retribution for a…
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Bubbles
Irrational Exuberance In a lovely talk to the Concept Exchange Society, economist Daniel Friedman told us about financial markets. He said that a financial market is a “marketplace where promises are bought and sold by strangers”. I like that image. A bond is such a promise; a promise to pay interest at fixed intervals and…
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Robots’ Feelings
Emotion algorithms To answer the question whether robots have feelings or not we must have some notion about the nature of feelings. What are feelings? Or emotions? Are they to be accounted for purely physically; the expression of electrochemical processes that take place within one’s body? Our psyche’s perception of the physiological activity taking place…
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Right Wrongs
Drowning in the ocean of injustice. Context: An atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in August of 1945. This event was the critical one which ended the Second World War. Some claim that it was an act of savagery needlessly killing many because the war could have been ended without that…
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Perspectives
Sadye Stories My mother’s name was Sadie. By some coup of whim I had thought she spelled it ‘Sadye’ when I suggested that name for our new born daughter to her mother. My precious wife, Elfi, acceded so our daughter became Sadye. Quarantine. Sadye was a 5 year old in kindergarten in 1997. The children…
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The Tick
The Tick August 1997 Perhaps it was a tick lodged in her skin; that tiny black spot on the left side of her neck. Perhaps it was only the crust on a healing skin wound. It’s hard to spot that devilish insect unless you inspect carefully. You get ticks playing in the woods and that’s…
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Privilege Wants
Peace is what the privileged want. The indignant want war. I consider myself privileged. Not because I am wealthy. I am not. Not because I have power to control others. I have no such power. I am privileged because I am not in pain, I am not disabled physically and I am not in financial…
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Is Good Evil?
The Mechanics of Acquiring Political Power Renowned books on how to attain or keep power are by Machievelli, (The Prince) by Sun Tzu (The Art of War) and by Saul Alinsky. Alinsky (1909-1972) was an effective organizer and radical and he wrote the book, Rules for Radicals (1971) N.Y. Over the years this has become…
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Emotion and Reason
“Les passions ont appris aux hommes la raison” Emotion has taught mankind to reason Marquis de Vauvenargues 1715-1747 What is it that captures us about these words? Emotion has taught mankind to reason. It is this. They appear to contradict common opinion which holds that emotion is the antithesis of reason; behavior is either emotional…
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Luftmensch
West Los Angeles in early July of 1977. I find myself caught in the force field of a magnetic man. His name is Arthur Doctor. A Jew. Born in Russia – in Vladivostok – but raised in Detroit. Sixty-two years old. Moderate height. Chunky. Pocked and wrinkled face, long flowing white hair – not quite…
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Need
Charming downtown Santa Cruz consists of just one street five blocks in length. Shops, restaurants and outdoor cafés border this attractive tree lined avenue. Street musicians abound as do beggars and near-beggars, those offering something in exchange for a contribution to their open coffer. One of them stood in a building alcove bordering the sidewalk.…
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Sunshine
The Worrisome Business Of Logical Consistency Sunshine Every Day The year was perhaps 1938. I was 7 years old then, living in a New York City apartment with my mother, my father and my baby sister. The location was a plebian building with the august address of 35 Hamilton Place in Washington Heights. The upper…
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Free-Will-Free
“We must believe in free-will. We have no choice.” ― Isaac Bashevis Singer The words, “free will,” as commonly understood, are without meaning. (Explanation here.) They are words that describe an illusion about reality. Like the word, sunset, describes the illusion that the sun is moving whereas, in fact, the sun is not moving. Rather…
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Autism
Window on Normalcy Mockingly calling ourselves the Concept Exchange Society we meet once a month to hear from someone who has spent time researching and thinking about a subject. We gather in a volunteer host’s home to hear the fruits of considered thought. This month’s speaker has given thought to autism, an isolating mental affliction…
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A Case for Free Will
A Case for Free Will I have a friend whom I respect and admire as a rational man of intelligence and insight. He disdains belief in the supernatural. He rejects the idea of a God who intervenes in natural process. He subscribes to the notion that whatever happens is the result of natural cause. That…
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Sense of Volition
The Sense of Volition: Feeling that You Choose I have not read anywhere that, recognized to exist among organisms, there is a sense of volition. But such a sense must exist. And the notion carries a weighty philosophical import. It expresses the deterministic nature of free will. (See Nature’s Imperatives) By a ‘sense of volition’…
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Compassion
The Compassionate Emasculation of Robert von Grönegger It was billed as a celebration of his life; the passing away of Robert von Grönegger. A communal mourning. On an August afternoon of the year 2000. Perhaps fifty people were gathered in that wood paneled, beam ceilinged house sitting on a high rise overlooking the Bay. The…
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Genocide
The Weed’s View She rejoices in her gardening skills. In her garden she feels herself surrounded by a fragrant beauty that she, herself, nurtured. She had first cleared the ground of all weeds – a painstaking task. Each one had to be individually discovered and pulled out by its roots. So no descendant should have…
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Nature’s Imperatives
This drivable motion graphic embodies an idea. It illustrates the content of the earlier post called Free Will. The idea is that we live in a deterministic world. And free will, properly understood, is not in contradiction to this notion. Free will is behavior not evidently coerced. But all behavior is coerced. By coerced is…
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Off the Road
Getting Off The Road March 19, 2006 Saturday morning I live in the woods. In a redwood forest. I am driving along the road into the town of Sebastopol this morning. Enjoying the ride. It’s springtime. Flowering trees and green foliage everywhere. It’s a country road, one lane each way. And quite often in my…
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Free Will
Sequel to previous post: God Determines Almost 400 years ago, the venerable philosopher, Baruch de Spinoza (1634-1677), in his ‘Improvement of Understanding,’ wrote of free will: these are words to which no idea is attached. That the phrase, free will, has no meaning has been demonstrated by philosophers for several hundred years: Locke, Hume, Hegel,…
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God Determines
The ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus (around 300 BCE), introduced the world to a conundrum called the Problem of Evil. It says: Since evil exists, God doesn’t. Here is the entire proof: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able to prevent evil but not willing? Then…
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Waste
Throw-away virtue. Waste is a deliciously ambiguous notion. What is discarded and not used in the venture is waste. Food that is not digested. But waste is also a mark of prosperity. Where much is being done there is waste. Little being done, little being scrapped. So waste is a product of achievement. For those…
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Want
I Don’t Want What I Want Because he is Little Prince he may have anything he wants. He loved birds. So a garden sanctuary for birds was built for him. It was a concert hall of netting to allow the many birds free flight through the lush foliage. He had singing birds and colored birds…
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Texture
“What do you seek in life?,” was the question. “Texture,” said Clarissa, without hesitation, in her deep throated silken British voice as she sunned herself, settled on the lawn chair by the pool. She had studied philosophy at Cambridge. Her title of nobility was authentic. Lady Clarissa. She was 32 years old. Beautiful and intelligent…
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Focus Worry
Alarm is in the air. The financial crises. Job problems. Global warming. Overeating. Nuclear energy generation. Starvation and war in some places. Perhaps we can direct our dread; focus it’s power. Let’s concentrate our anxiety on the single most important issue. If we all worry together its gathered force can avert the threatening disaster. I…
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Restraint is valiant.
“Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.” Thomas Fuller Before this stepping stone suffered its blow it read: RESTRAINT IS VALIANT It takes valor to hold your tongue. The common view is that to do battle is valiant. But, in truth, to refrain from battle is valianter! The reward is the husbanding of…
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Ant’s World View
The interesting thing about suicide bombers is this: that they are so dedicated to their community – islam, anarchism in a former time – that they kill themselves for it. Let us distinguish the practice – facing death – from the mechanism which drives that practice. The drive is spiritual. A world view is required…