Freedom to speak

 

This year has seen universities banning speakers, just in case it may offend a student! The insanity of paying the equivalent of a deposit on your first mortgage, for little to no real education, while those at the top of the educational food-chain are on rather substantial remuneration packages, for delivering less and less, eroding the true value of education under the guise of political correctness and protection of imagined civilities of some of it's student body, is surely the road to an Authoritarian, dystopian state, not unlike the imagining's of Equilibrium.

 

To which I place this quote from Salman Rushdie, no stranger to free speech himself:

 

"Now look, I'm in favour of good manners... But to equate good manners... with the liberty to say what one thinks, even if people don't like it, is to make a false comparison... Ideas are not people.

 

Being rude about an idea, is not the same as being rude about your Aunt... so if you don't like the book, close the book. If you don't like the movie, don't go to see the movie. You are as free as the makers.

 

They have the right to speak and you have the right not to listen, if you fear it will upset you... But what you don't have, is the right to use your alleged offended-ness as a reason to stop other people from speaking."

 

Students should be actively encouraged to attend speeches from characters that may be seen as offensive by some and used as a testing ground. Questioning or the orator, the Socratic method applied fully and openly, is the only way to advance thought. Banning a speaker on grounds of offended-ness and political correctness is one way to ensure the further dumbing down of a nation.

 

 





The zulu principle

The Zulu Principle

“This [was]… an idea I had after observing my wife read a four-page article in Reader’s Digest on the subject of Zulus. As a result, within a few minutes she knew more than I did about Zulus and it occurred to me that, if she had then borrowed all the available books on Zulus from the local library, she would have become the leading expert in the county.

If she has subsequently been invited to stay on a Zulu kraal (by an unsuspecting chief) and read about the history of Zulus at Johannesburg University for another six months, she would have become one of the leading experts in the world.

The key point is that my wife would have applied a disproportionate effort to becoming relatively expert in a very narrow subject. She would have used a laser beam rather than a scattergun and her intellectual and other resources would, in that narrow context, have been used to maximum advantage…

That way, you will become relatively expert in your chosen area. It is only necessary to be six inches taller than the other people in a room to see above everyone’s heads. Applying The Zulu Principle helps you grow these extra six inches.” 

Dress like a gentleman



Black is the new black! Black never goes out of fashion for a real man, for those aspiring to become men, aspire to wear black. It needs to be said, a man is never seen wearing white socks with black shoes! Here's some more pointers for the aspirational man.

• Wear Black.
• Oxford shoes, not Brogues.
• A well fitted suit.
• White, preferably Oxford Shirt.
• Tie (Not novelty).
• Keep jewellery to a minimum and no ear rings.

Poppins Parenting



The problem is, I know which are the 'right' answers, but as a parent, with stress, sleepless nights and so on, sometimes we all slip, have a faulty response to the situation and regret it later. (I often find myself apologising to my children if I've been caught in an unguarded moment).

We can't be Mary Poppins all the time, but we can try our best and not beat ourselves up for being human. 

Moral ambiguity

1. I don't want to put the world to rights, I just don't like people who put the world to wrongs.
2. You reap what you sow.
3. I have to warn you. I promised my mother a long time ago. I have to give folks a chance to walk away.
4. Don't do what the law says. Do what's right.
5. You don't start fights. But you sure as hell finish them. And you don't lose either.
6. Never forgive, never forget.
7. You are accountable only to your own conscience.
8. Do it once and do it right.
9. I try to do the right things. I think the reasons don't really matter. I like to see the right thing done.



Abortion - the Moral Landscape

 

MORAL STATUS

 

A living things is said to have moral status if there are moral restrictions on killing it or using it for our own purposes which are grounded in the nature of the creature. In other words, if it is wrong to use or kill the creature because of what it is, then it has moral status. Different organisms may have different levels or degrees of moral status. They might have:

• No moral status: There are no restrictions on killing or using it (such as grass, insects or bacteria).
• Partial moral status: There are some restrictions on killing or using it, (Such as Elephants, Dolphins, Gorilla's)
• Full moral status: there are many stringent conditions on killing or using it (such as include you and other people).

 THE 'FUTURE LIKE OURS' ARGUMENT

1. One of the reasons it would be gravely wrong to kill a person like you is that doing so would deprive you of a very valuable future.
2. Killing an embryo or foetus deprives it of a future like yours, one with similar human goods and experiences.
3. Therefore, it would be gravely wrong to kill an embryo or foetus.

THE 'HUMAN DIGNITY' ARGUMENT

1. The right to life, or dignity, is the most fundamental right a creature can have. If a creature has it, it must be by virtue of what the creature most fundamentally is.
2. We all agree that you have a right to life.
3. What you most essentially are is an individual human being.
4. 'Embryo' and 'foetus' are stages in the life of an individual human being.
5. Therefore the human embryo or foetus has dignity, or a right to life.

SENTIENCE AS A CONDITION OF MORAL STATUS

1. Moral status is about protecting a creature's interests.
2. Interests are things a creature can take an interest in.
3. Creatures need sentience to take an interest in something.
4. A necessary condition of having moral status then, is the presence of sentience, of being aware of things.
5. Applied to early human life: the foetus has no moral status until it has the capacity for sentience or consciousness, which is about half way through gestation.

 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL STATUS

1. A newly fertilized egg or an embryo is a partial realization of a fully-fledged human being.
2. According to gradualism, just as early human life develops in to a fully human being, slowly, step-by-step, early human life's moral status develops in to full moral status slowly, step-by-step, over the course of pregnancy.

SUMMARY:

1. A FUTURE LIKE OURS: early human life has full moral status, because embryos and foetuses have a future full of human good.
2. HUMAN DIGNITY: Humans in the early stages of development have full moral status simply because they are human beings.
3. SENTIENCE: early human life has partial moral status because only conscious beings have any moral status and embryos and early foetuses are not conscious.
4. GRADUALISM: early human life has partial moral status because moral status grows gradually along with foetal development.

THREE PERMISSIVE VIEWS OF ABORTION:

1. THE STRONGEST POSITION: Abortion up through the mid-point or so of pregnancy is always morally permissible because early human life has no moral status.
2. THE MODERATE POSITION: Even early in pregnancy, the embryo or foetus has partial moral status. Given this value, abortion is only morally permissible if continuing the pregnancy will significantly diminish the woman's well being (or for any reason, the pregnancy did not result from voluntary actions).
3. THE DOMINION POSITION: Even if abortion is the destruction of something with partial moral status, aborting is always morally permissible because of the dominion rights women have over their bodies and/or reproductive lives.



DEONTOLOGICAL APPROACH: Kant's categorical imperative would say not killing is a universalizable moral action.

 

Sources:

 

Margaret Little, Director, Kennedy institute of Ethics.

 

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-bioethics-georgetownx-phlx101-03x

3 Ways to Spot pseudoscience

1. Reliance on anecdotal rather then reproducible evidence.
2. Lack of causal explanatory frameworks.
3. An inability to falsify claims.