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In his Republic, presents an allegory of the value of philosophy and the nature of knowledge that is popularly known as Plato’s Cave: to the unenlightened mind, the world is filled with confusing ideas, like shadows on the wall of a cave, that only reflect truths not yet discerned. Michael Ramsey’s stop-motion animated presentation of this story won first place at the USA Film Festival Short Film and Video Competition in 2008.
Link -via Nerdcore (which has a different animated short narrated by Orson Welles)
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Calvinist preacher Roger Williams emigrated from England to the colonies with a wave of Puritans in 1630. He was fleeing religious strife, but found controversies in America as well -with the leaders of his own sect.
Williams did not differ with them on any point of theology. They shared the same faith, all worshiping the God of Calvin, seeing God in every facet of life and seeing man’s purpose as advancing the kingdom of God. But the colony’s leaders, both lay and clergy, firmly believed that the state must prevent error in religion. They believed that the success of the Massachusetts plantation depended upon it.
Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible, for it required people to interpret God’s law, and people would inevitably err. He therefore concluded that government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God. A society built on the principles Massachusetts espoused would lead at best to hypocrisy, because forced worship, he wrote, “stincks in God’s nostrils.” At worst, such a society would lead to a foul corruption—not of the state, which was already corrupt, but of the church.
The philosophy Williams developed to deal with the struggle came to be called “the separation of church and state.” And although the concept is a part of what the United States is about, people have argued over what it really means ever since. Smithsonian has an extensive article on Roger Williams and his ideas. Link
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Zac Gorman figured out what Mario is really all about. Link -via Laughing Squid
Philosophical debates are really a lot more interesting when resolved by lightsaber duels, which is why OneMinuteGalactica rewrote the script to Episode IV with quotations from French existentalist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The producers include these handy viewing instructions:
And obviously this will make no sense if you understand French. If you do know it, hit yourself in the head repeatedly before watching this. And then hit yourself repeatedly when you’re done watching.
via Nerdcore
Previously by OneMinuteGalactica:
What to Do on a Space Date
Spock Learns about Anger Management
This handy chart was created by Landon Schurtz, a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Oklahoma. I’m curious about what would constitute a personal foul in debate.
As someone who works from home, I can vouch for the accuracy of these nuggets of wisdom posted at Buzzfeed. This one in particular, which is a concept I struggle with. You might laugh, but when you work on your own schedule, there is a constant tug-of-war between better quality and getting anything finished at all. Amirite? Link
Raynor Ganan discovered, to his dismay, that Google Image Search tends to identify “John Locke” as a LOST character, rather than as an English philosopher. It was this discussion that prompted his investigation:
i was trying to explain jeremy bentham’s panopticon to my 5 year-old nephew this weekend and he was like, “geesh uncle ray, i already know all about that because of lost.” and then i was like, “look here half-pint, just cuz the producers of that television programme copy-pasted philosophers’ names for their characters’ names to spice up the mystery (despite the fact that the relationship is tenuous at best) this does not mean that you know the first thing about jeremy bentham or his panopticon.” and then my 5 year-old nephew turned on the waterworks and his mom made her way over to us and gave me disparaging looks.
Link via Geekosystem
A bit of philosophical fun from animator Malcolm Sutherland.
First Joker commits a crime, then Batman catches him and locks him up. Then, Joker invariably escapes and the cycle starts anew. So, wouldn’t it be far easier if Batman just killed his archnemesis? What’s stopping him?
That wasn’t an idle comic store chit-chat – rather it was an example given by philosophy professors to introduce coursework:
William Irwin, a philosophy professor at King’s College in Pennsylvania, edits the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, which includes titles such as Batman and Philosophy, and X-Men and Philosophy.
He says there’s nothing unusual about using popular references to illustrate complex theories.
"This is what philosophy has tried to do from the very beginning," he says. "Philosophy starts with Socrates in the streets of Athens taking his message to the people and speaking in their language – agricultural analogies and common mythology."
Katie Connolly of BBC News writes about the growing use of comic book characters to teach philosophy: Link – via Cliff Pickover’s Reality Carnival
Philosophy, besides being a good major of choice for fast food workers (kidding! No hate mails please – those fries will get cold if you don’t bag them right away), makes for a pretty good blog reading.
You’d think that after a few thousand years of thinking, all philosophical problems would be solved, but that isn’t so. Road Tickle has a list of 4 unsolved philosophical problems for you to ponder. For example:
Sorites Paradox
What’s the problem? Language uses many poorly defined predicates. A fine example is measurement; assume that you define a heap of sand as having one-million grains. You then establish that taking away a single grain doesn’t unmake the heap and it is still defined as being heap. If you accept both of these as fact then what does your definition of a heap actually mean? When does it stop being a heap?
By not giving the heap an precise definition you are simply stating that the heap does or does not exist in some form. Meanwhile, you realize you’ve been sitting and counting individual grains of sand for the sake of a hypothetical question.
What’s the answer? Defining a change in the object require you to set specific boundaries. If you can say that a heap of sand is only a pile of sand if it contains nine-thousand or fewer grains then you can say that a pile is only a heap when it contains more than nine-thousand grains.
At least, that’s one answer. Sorites paradox is what’s referred to as an unsolved problem in philosophy, meaning there is no one method of approaching the question as to solve it universally. Because it’s hinged on definition and perception, the answer is going to vary from individual to individual without a commonly accepted answer overlapping.
Rene Descartes’ health may have been troubled, but his genius was completely intact. His survival led to an amazing perspective about why we are here, and the truth behind that notion.
Thus the whole of philosophy is like a tree. The roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emerging from the trunk are all the other sciences, which may be reduced to three principal ones, namely medicine, mechanics and morals. By “morals” I understand the highest and most perfect moral system, which presupposes a complete knowledge of the other sciences and is the ultimate level of wisdom.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by lannaxe96.
In this video, Douglas Wolk explains the ideas expressed in 18th Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgment using superhero comics. Wolk, a comic critic, is the author of the book Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Run time: 5 minutes.
via Comics Alliance | Wolk’s Blog | Background on Kant | Previously on Neatorama: Kant Attack Ad
Blogger Kenny Pearce is developing a bibliography of works of science fiction that are particularly noteworthy for expressing a philosophical worldview or premise. He presents several categories, such as Mind, Solipsism, and Sex and Gender. Some of the stories that he lists are available online, like Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” — a confrontation with entropy.
Pearce asks readers for suggestions. What would you add to the list?
Link | The Last Question | Image: NIH
Do you use Twitter or Facebook?
I really get the most out of Twitter when events like the Iranian elections went down. (the only reason to like Twitter, aside from this).
Chuck Klosterman has a seriously cool interpretation. Enjoy.
I’m more of a Facebook type that just shares links. Have a nice weekend.
Hit Play or go to You Tube
Philosopher AC Grayling shares his nuggets of wisdom in The Guardian’s highly enjoyable This much I know series:
Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.
I’m not sure it is possible to think too much. You don’t refresh your mind by partying in Ibiza.
Life is all about relationships. By all means sit cross-legged on top of a mountain occasionally. But don’t do it for very long.
Every professor of philosophy needs a nine-year-old daughter. Mine has a habit of saying, "Daddy, that is a very silly idea." She is always right.
Link (photo: Karen Robinson) – via Reality Carnival
Way back when, I linked to a satirical political attack ad allegedly by Friedrich Nietzsche against fellow philosopher Immanuel Kant. Apparently, Søren Kierkegaard’s supporters jumped into the fray and offered this vicious attack ad against both Kant and Nietzsche.
Via The Corner
Previously on Neatorama: 9 Bad Boys of Philosophy
