Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
October 6, 2012
Idle thoughts and unanswerable questions on a Saturday morning:
The Number System seems to be continuous and infinite but every number seems to be discrete. But if any number is also infinitely divisible it must also be continuous. So are numbers simultaneously both discrete and continuous?
Or is a number just a label? Perhaps a number – if just a label and representing a singularity – is discrete and the divisibility of a number is actually undefined. It is number difference – not a number – which is infinitely divisible. So – for example – the number 10, as a label, is not divisible — it is the number difference between 10 and some reference number (10-0) which is. So is our Number System then a discrete thing and made up of an infinite and continuous quantity of number differences with each number difference being discrete? It would then be rational for there to be an infinity of discrete Number Systems.
So perhaps numbers don’t exist. Only number differences do and the numbers are their labels.
(more…)
Tags:Change, length, number, Number system, position, Spatial System, Stasis, Time, time interval, Time System, unanswerable questions
Posted in Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics | Comments Off on Are numbers discrete and time continuous? or is it the other way around?
March 13, 2012
Another idiot paper from a supposed Professor of Philosophy at New York University who claims that “human engineering deserves further consideration in the debate about climate change”.
He gets paid for producing this drivel.
Human Engineering and Climate Change by S. MATTHEW LIAO (NEW YORK UNIVERSITY), ANDERS SANDBERG (OXFORD), and REBECCA ROACHE (OXFORD)
The Atlantic carries a long interview with the idiot philosopher (whose ego is revelling in the publicity):
… the paper suggests that parents could make use of genetic engineering or hormone therapy in order to birth smaller, less resource-intensive children.
In your paper you suggest that some human engineering solutions may actually be liberty enhancing. How so?
Liao: That’s right. It’s been suggested that, given the seriousness of climate change, we ought to adopt something like China’s one child policy. There was a group of doctors in Britain who recently advocated a two-child maximum. But at the end of the day those are crude prescriptions—what we really care about is some kind of fixed allocation of greenhouse gas emissions per family. If that’s the case, given certain fixed allocations of greenhouse gas emissions, human engineering could give families the choice between two medium sized children, or three small sized children. From our perspective that would be more liberty enhancing than a policy that says “you can only have one or two children.” A family might want a really good basketball player, and so they could use human engineering to have one really large child.
Indeed! A family may wish to ensure that they don’t produce idiot children – large or small. Human engineering to breed out the possibility of producing idiot professors of philosophy could be more productive for the human race.
Tags:climate change, Climate eugenics, idiot philosopher, MATTHEW LIAO, New York University
Posted in Academic misconduct, Alarmism, Philosophy | 1 Comment »
December 30, 2011
A young friend recently faced a number of less than easy options regarding his employment and his career and our discussion turned to behaviour in the face of uncertainty and fears:
The fundamental characteristic of courage in actions is that the action remains central and fear is then the constraint or barrier to action which must be subordinated. I have heard it said that courage lies in confronting fear or defeating fear but this, I think, misses the central point. The focus of courage is on the actions not on the fears. Whatever purposeful action has been decided proceeds even though fear exists. Defeating the fear is not the focus where the action then becomes secondary or merely a by-product.
(more…)
Tags:behaviour, Courage, Cowardice, Fear, Foolhardiness, Judgement
Posted in Behaviour, Philosophy | Comments Off on On courage and foolhardiness
November 5, 2011
There were headlines last week because according to a new paper published in Physical Review Letters it may be that one of the “laws of nature” may vary across the Universe. Observations from two large telescopes pointed in different directions of the universe seem to show that the electromagnetic force which is measured by the fine structure constant, α, may be different in different parts of the universe.
Indications of a spatial variation of the fine structure constant, by J. K. Webb, J. A. King, M. T. Murphy, V. V. Flambaum, R. F. Carswell and M. B. Bainbridge, Phys. Rev. Lett., 107, 191101, 2011, http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.3907
Since the “laws of nature” and the “laws of physics” are merely expressions of observed regularities in our observable time and space they are – of necessity – empirical conclusions. Since we – as yet – have no idea “why” the “laws” we observe should be as they are and why the “fundamental constants” take the values they do, it seems to me unremarkable that there should be areas of time or space (not observed as yet) where these “laws” – as we have formulated them – do not hold exactly. There may well be errors of observation of course but observations made correctly must trump theories and models – no matter how simple or beautiful they might be.
(more…)
Tags:Fine-structure constant, Laws of Nature, laws of physics, Variability of laws of nature, Very Large Telescope, W. M. Keck Observatory
Posted in Philosophy, Physics, Science | 1 Comment »
July 15, 2011
I like this practical (rather than philosophic) formulation:
A scientist observes and describes what is but which has not been observed before, or causal relationships between existing or new observations or – when necessary – creates the language to make such descriptions possible.
An engineer uses what is together with known causal relationships to create artefacts.
Where such artefacts are created for the first time he is also an inventor.
Tags:difference between a scientist and and engineer, engineer, scientist
Posted in Engineering, Philosophy, Science | Comments Off on The difference between a scientist and an engineer
July 10, 2011
The height of arrogance is when I am told by someone else that I should do something or not do something “for your own good”.
Be it a doctor or a lawyer or an environmental campaigner or a civil servant or a politician or a government, the phrase raises my hackles.
It presumes too much.
It does not convince.
It is dictatorial.
It imposes one person’s values on someone else.
It is a denial of the subject’s most deep-seated and fundamental value of deciding what constitutes “good”.
I am inclined to think that the most fundamental human characteristic is that
any – and every – human can determine what is “good”
The needs of others and surrounding society and definitions of basic human rights can circumscribe this but cannot – by diktat – take away this fundamental value which is I think integral to being an individual. By corollary any entity which cannot decide what is good and then distinguish between “good” and “bad” does not then qualify for the label “human individual”.
This leads me to paraphrase Descartes’
“cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am)
to be instead:
I decide what is “good” and can distinguish that which is “bad”.
Therefore I am.
Tags:Cogito ergo sum, definition of an individual, Descartes, for your own good, Human Rights and Liberties, Philosophy, Values
Posted in Behaviour, Philosophy | 2 Comments »
May 1, 2011
BBC:
The late Pope, John Paul II, has been officially beatified at a ceremony at the Vatican in front of hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful. Among those at St Peter’s Square is French nun Marie Simon-Pierre, who says she was cured of Parkinson’s Disease. Her apparently miraculous cure is part of the case for the beatification, the last stage before sainthood.
It comes amid criticism of the Church for the speed of the beatification and the clerical child sex abuse scandal. Much of the abuse occurred while John Paul II was Pope, from 1979-2005, and the Church has been criticised for not doing enough to punish those found responsible.
Police in Rome estimated that one million people had come to the city for the event, including large numbers of pilgrims from the late Pope’s native Poland.
St Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, was packed, with the faithful waving banners and flags as Pope Benedict XVI declared his predecessor blessed, or beatified. Rome has not seen crowds of this size since the death of Pope John Paul II six years ago when some three million pilgrims converged on the Italian capital, says the BBC’s Vatican correspondent David Willey.
Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe was among those attending the beatification. A Roman Catholic, he was given special permission by the EU to fly to Italy despite being the subject of a travel ban.
Recent beatifications
- Oct 2003: Mother Teresa, 1910-1997
- March 2008: Marianna Donati, 1848-1925
- Sept 2008: Michal Sopocko, 1888-1975
- Sept 2010: John Henry Newman, Cardinal, 1801-1890
Steps to sainthood
The process, which cannot begin until at least five years after the candidate’s death unless the pope waives that waiting period, involves scrutinising evidence of their holiness, work and signs that people are drawn to prayer through their example:
- First stage: individual is declared a ‘servant of God’
- Second stage: individual is called ‘venerable’
- Third stage (requires a miracle attributed to candidate’s intercession): beatification, when individual is declared blessed
- Fourth stage (requires a further authenticated miracle): candidate is canonised as a saint for veneration by Church
But the beatification, canonisation and recognition of Saints
is a highly political process – and always has been. It is the Catholic Church’s version of an Honours system and canonisation carries with it many benefits for the region or Order or community the Saint comes from. There are also certain business benefits which flow as a consequence of sainthood and usually associated with the viewing of relics, sales of souvenirs and the promotion of religious tourism.
John Paul reformed the sainthood process in 1983, making it faster, simpler, and cheaper. The office of “Devil’s advocate” – an official whose job was to try to knock down the case for sainthood – was eliminated, and the required number of miracles was dropped.
The idea was to lift up contemporary role models of holiness in order to convince a jaded secular world that sanctity is alive in the here and now. The results are well known: John Paul II beatified and canonised more people than all previous popes combined.
There are over 10,000 named saints and beatified people from history, the Roman Martyrology and Orthodox sources, but no definitive head count.
The Catholic Church teaches that it does not, in fact, make anyone a saint. Rather, it recognizes a saint. In the Church, the title of Saint refers to a person who has been formally canonized (officially recognized) by the Catholic Church, and is therefore believed to be in Heaven. By this definition there are many people believed to be in Heaven who have not been formally declared as saints (most typically due to their obscurity and the involved process of formal canonization) but who may nevertheless generically be referred to as saints. All in Heaven are, in the technical sense, saints, since they are believed to be completely perfected in holiness. Unofficial devotions to uncanonized individuals take place in certain regions. Sometimes the word “saint” is used to refer to Christians still sojourning here on earth.
Yesterday apart from a few minutes on the TV news I managed to avoid watching the massive political PR exercise represented by the Royal Wedding. Today I watched a few minutes of the beatification ceremonies and even if it sounds cynical, I could not help thinking that it was just another political and stage-managed PR exercise. No doubt the ritual and the pomp and the ceremony on display at both events fulfils some deep-seated human needs.
It is fortunate that Heaven lies in the realm of the infinite and there can be little cause to worry about over-crowding (and again I can’t help wondering if there are any cases of some unfortunate people who have been recognised and proclaimed as Saints but who – for God knows whatever reason – are languishing in the Other Place).
Tags:Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, Saints
Posted in Behaviour, Philosophy, Politics | Comments Off on Saints galore – but plenty of room in Heaven for many more
March 31, 2011
“Without fear being present, bravery and courage do not appear on stage.”
From Chapter 7, Essence of a Manager
Courage is the subordination of fear to purpose.
A manager is perforce required to take risk. Every judgment or selection or decision he takes results in actions with an uncertain outcome. The presence of risk and the uncertainty about results inevitably give rise to apprehensions and fears. It is a manager’s task to subordinate such fears and continue with judiciously chosen actions towards his objectives. Extending his capability for taking actions and stretching the envelope of actions available to him are key elements of his core competence. It is his courage which enables him to operate in new and untried areas which are outside his comfort zone and thereby generate a steady stream of brave actions.
A manager can create a “courage space” around himself and as this expands and grows and meets other spaces of courage a “culture of courage” can develop within an organisation. ……
It has always struck me that super-heroes must be particularly devoid of courage since their fantastic abilities must mean that they have little opportunity to feel any fear. ….
Tags:Courage, Courage in Management, Essence of a Manager, Fear, Management philosophy
Posted in Behaviour, Management, Philosophy | Comments Off on A “Culture of Courage” in management — from “Essence of a Manager”
February 28, 2011
The print edition of my book “Essence of a Manager” is due out later in March but is available for on-line reading from today at Springer.
Springer Science+Business Media
1st Edition., 2011, XIV, 175 p., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-642-17580-0
Due: February 2011
Tags:Essence of a Manager, Krishna Pillai, Management, Management philosophy
Posted in Management, Philosophy | Comments Off on “Essence of a Manager” now available on-line
February 21, 2011
“Success is transient. Just like profit or cash-flow – it is over once it has been recognised. Goodness lasts longer – it is like a balance sheet item.”
“To be able to deal with bureaucrats in India it is necessary to understand that it is the potential for blame which has to be minimised while the potential for personal gain has to be maximised”.
Tags:EOAM quotes, Essence of a Manager, India, Krishna Pillai, Management
Posted in Behaviour, Management, Philosophy | Comments Off on Success and goodness in management
The k2p blog 