Can satan be forgiven?

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.--Isaiah xiv, 7.

First, Satan has been here for a long time. He "appears" as such as a result of a change. And we know that the change determines his "fall." On the other hand, despite personifying evil, satan is not destroyed. punished? Unless you regard "ruling this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4) as enough of a punishment  

How is God so lenient with Satan?  He could zap him out of existence. Instead, keeps him at arm's length.

Hint: What is Job's righteousness without Satan's trials?

Indeed it appears the devil is evil & there are several ways to look at this:

*Ontological: Good & evil are ontologically together. One cannot be thought without the other.
  
*Cosmological: History begins with goodness. Evil is a "perversion" of an original state, a virus that infects many but not all. In the distant future, after the end of history, evil will disappear, and the world will revert to its original state of bliss.

*Instrumental: (defended by Baruch Spinoza) goodness is what is useful to us, evil the opposite.

*Nihilistic: Nietzsche's transvaluation of all values aims to erase Christian, pietistic interpretations.

*Mythological: Good and evil are not antithetical but necessary opposites: In Egypt, there's Ra, Osiris, and Isis against Apep, the serpent, and Set, the ravager, father of deceit and lies. The Phoenicians opposed Baal to Moloch, and in India, Indra is opposed to Vritra. So, there is a deeper mythological archetype that brands this good/evil association as necessary.
___________

Now, my thought experiment: Could Satan be forgiven?

Well, it's conceivable, within the limits of god's omnibenevolence (all goodness).

1. To be forgiven, Satan would have to repent (we are in a reign of freedom; see how important free will becomes for the understanding of repentance). To repent means to change one's way, which is implicit in the very notion of identity. I take Sartre's definition of being-for-itself from Being and Nothingness: identity is not what it is, and it is what it is not.

2. Satan hasn't changed because he's chosen not to. His "fall" rests on this premise, but Satan doesn't have to (sempiternally) be this way. One cannot invoke Satan's "nature" to cause Satan's becoming without begging the question of Satan's identity.

What I'm getting at is that Satan's identity cannot be self-ruled. Once again, Sartre says, "l'existence précède l'essence" (existence precedes essence). Identity is what one finds and defines as one lives. Why? because identity is in time, and time is change.

Another point: Satan's identity, his evil nature, is related to the very exclusion of goodness. However, in order for Satan to reject the good, he must reason it, weigh it, and reject it (even in the heart of evil, there must be a space for guilt). Only that Satan's guilt is fed back as contempt (yes, Satan is pretty self-destructive).

Satan's evil (what we call "satanic") means a constant rejection of goodness. In a sense, Satan is not what he is. So, there is always more or less to identity than itself. This is more or less time and the unpredictable future. Satan's identity—as stereotyped and beleaguered as it is—is no exception.

3. Satan's repentance is a decision reversal from that primeval rebellious act. Though he cannot become Lucifer again (since time and history cannot be undone), one can only speculate that he becomes something other than Satan. This should be good enough for Satan and for God.

You see, it's not God's business to meddle in one's retraction as long as it is genuine. This has been principled since the beginning of creation. Sure, one may dispute Satan's capacity for such a decision to change, but if Satan is free, one should never rule out this possibility.

This angel-who-was-once-Satan wishes no more of his past. Now he will be content with God's forgiveness in oblivion.

Surprise!

(Will it be time for another proud & inexperienced angel to take his place?)

what to do about india?

we had a heated discussion last thursday. anton kept coming back at his idée fix: what to do about india?

the question rubbed some people in the class the wrong way. anton's relentless persistence seemed a form of ego-trip.

but india is part of the ONE, and we are part of the ONE. we shouldn't pretend india doesn't exist. we are an individualistic society. we've had a history of political isolationism.  if we all care for what is close to us. isn't that an excuse to inaction? of course not.

helping india is helping the ONE. helping west africa, syria, sudan needs is helping INDIA. helping our homeless and our poor right here in miami is helping the ONE.

in oneness/language india is really not that far. this is where epictetus comes in with his advice of doing what is most immediate to each one of us. there was a passionate argument from angie and destiny in this regard.

what ifs "close" is too comfy?

but speaking in onenes/language, geographical distance is relative. india as near as our own backyard.

how come?

oneness cannot be segregated.

yet, anton may rejoin: "if each part is as valid for the constitution of the whole, the oneness may present --as valid-- an appeal for india proper, over our own backyard."

& in the end this point is also valid. no one can disown it. the only exception being that doing your dharma here, in liberty city or little haiti or little havana, is as valid.

from oneness we get pluralism: there is no one exclusive path in the ONE. as the gita counsels:

As people approach me, so I receive them. All paths lead to me.

so?

have the courage to do what you need to do.

7 steps to follow for your philosophy paper!

1. Introduction: Your introduction should be clear, provocative and provide a road map to your research paper. It doesn’t have to be as specific as detailing what each section will contain, but it should certainly describe what you’ll be examining, analyzing, and proving. Readers begin forming judgments about a research paper after just viewing the introduction, which is why it’s so important to make it shine.

2. Clear Thesis: A good thesis statement expresses your main idea, perspective or position. It is not a statement of known fact. For extra help with writing a thesis statement, visit Questia’s 9-step writing guide.

3. Organization: “Writing Papers Grading Criteria” from Writing-tipstoday.com suggests that your paper be checked for: presentation of references, clarity of language style, spelling, punctuation, grammar, length and overall presentation.

4. Integrating Sources: Professors expect sources—that’s what puts the “research” in “research paper.” Moreover, they expect you to integrate those sources and fuse them with your ideas, equally. If you have 10 sources and only use two, for example, a professor will notice and grade you down.

Just as important, make sure you are using reliable research sources. Ask your professor ahead of time whether your sources are okay—most will not accept sources such as Wikipedia or blog entries; some will only accept sources from approved journal databases.

5. Be Concise: Wordy, bombastic writing will impress no one, especially not your professor. The longer it takes them to understand what you’re saying, the less clear you’ll be and the quicker your grade will drop. If you think you might be rambling, consider having a roommate, peer, or friend read your research paper and offer feedback.

6. Originality: Your writing should be your own. In other words, anything not in quotations should be your ideas and analyses, not anyone else’s. It’s not uncommon for students to pursue the same research topic, but most professors will try to ensure that each one is unique. Many instructors request the thesis ahead of time so they can evaluate it, as well as verify that each student is working on a different research paper. To avoid plagiarism, check out the tips Loraine Blaxter offers in How to Research.

7. Editorial Style: Many professors require a certain research paper format such as APA, MLA, or Chicago. This isn’t a suggestion, and your professor may lower your grade if you don’t follow the correct style. Some grade more harshly than others, but style is especially important in your parenthetical references and on your works cited page. Questia helps you to format your citations, bibliographies and works cited pages in multiple writing styles to help you do well on your research paper.

so, what have you learned from the gita? (second post for comment, due wednesday 11pm)

the battle for berlin, 1945

fight this battle!

midterm behind us, next, bring your dhammapadas for tuesday 's reading

facebook link for midterm reviews!

this is the new facebook link for midterm reviews. 

metaphoring autopoesis

what i mean by metaphoring is entertaining spiritual possibilities with the aim of producing worshiping dispositions. (worship here means just devout attention.)

devout means deliberate & disciplined.

attention means focused and persistent.

buddhist ecology (not what you think)

i found this great article by aspiring buddhist and evolutionary biologist david barash for aeon. 

Part of this sensitivity to nature is a Buddhist grasp of suffering, whose existence constitutes the first of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. It is no coincidence that Henry David Thoreau, America's first great environmentalist, was also a student of Indian religion and the first translator of the ‘Lotus Sutra’ into English. In this classic teaching, Shakyamuni Buddha compares the ‘Dharma’ — the true nature of reality — to a soothing rain that nourishes all beings.

a buddhist idea of self can shed light on a more progressive (darker) view of ecology:

Each of us arises in conjunction with others, dependent on and inseparable from those others. Trying to locate an inviolate particle of selfhood within anyone (or indeed, in any living thing) is not like finding a solid pit inside an apricot. It is more like peeling an onion: we are layers within layers, with nothing at the centre. Or, like an eddy in a river, each of us can be identified and pointed to, but nonetheless, there isn’t any persistent ‘us’: just a constantly moving pattern of flow, with everyone composed entirely of non-self stuff, all of it passing through. For Buddhists and ecologists alike, we are all created from spare parts scavenged from the same cosmic junk-heap, from which ‘our’ component atoms and molecules are on temporary loan, and to which they will eventually be recycled.

let's be sincere about our doubts:

High on the list of such absurdities are the phenomena of iddhi, supernatural events that are supposed to be generated by extremely skilful and committed meditation. They appear often in Buddhist texts, and I don’t believe a word of them. Higher meditators are claimed to possess various supernatural abilities, becoming invisible on demand, walking through walls, on water, through the air, hearing people and other beings very far away, mind-reading, recalling past lives, even possessing ‘divine eyes’ that permit them to see the arising and passing away of karma.

barash admits the absurdity of it all. ecological poesis has an inseparable noir component.

Ecology is many things: a science, a world view, a cautionary tale. It can be nearly incomprehensible in its mathematical thickets, downright tedious in its verbal pomposity, theoretically abstruse yet dirty-under-the-fingernails practical, often ignored and derided although desperately needed as a voice for basic planetary hygiene and a practical corrective to human hubris. It has been called the ‘subversive science’, since it subverts our egocentric insistence on separateness, and with it, our inclination to ride roughshod over the rest of the natural world.

methinks some of this can still be salvaged as metaphoring auto-poesis.

Notes on Buddhism

... l'homme n'est pas ce qu'il est, il est ce qu'il n'est pas.-- Jean Paul Sartre

Buddhism is a spiritual movement founded by Siddharta Gautama in India in the 6th century BC, the first multi-cultural spiritual tradition in the higher civilization of the Eurasian world.

Buddhism lasted in India for some 1500 years, until it disappeared from India as that country became progressively dominated by Islam. Buddhism moved then to Ceylon, China (first century AD), Korea (fourth century AD), and Japan (sixth century AD); eastward into Burma, Thailand (third century AD), Cambodia (fourth century AD), Indonesia (third century AD) and the other countries of southeastern Asia with the exception of the Philippines. It became the dominant spiritual movement in Tibet (eighth century AD), and Mongolia (thirteenth century AD).

The teaching of Buddha was handed down to succeeding generations in the form of a threefold refuge: the Buddha, the teaching and the community. These are three aspects of the Buddha reality.

1- The teaching itself is a form of Buddha presence. The teaching is supreme insofar as it is in virtue of the teaching that a person is guided to experience the saving illumination concerning the nature of sorrow and the way to release from sorrow. 2- The community has a certain priority since it carries and sustain the entire Buddhist tradition. 3- The doctrine would have had no inner development or preservation or propagation except through the community. Yet supreme over everything is the Buddha reality.

The Message

Buddha's teaching was transmitted orally to his disciples.

1- The theory, 2- the path and the 3- sangha. 

Reality

Reality is composed of dharmas (components) or a succession of microseconds of existence. Buddha departed from the teachings of must Hinduism by not having a precise eschatology (a theory of final things). Life is a stream, a river, of manifestations and extinctions. There's nothing permanent and thereby no fixed self. To make clear this concept Buddhism puts forward the theory of five constituents 1- rupa or corporeality or physical form, 2- feelings or sensations (vedana), 3- ideations (sanna), 40 mental formations or dispositions (sankhara), and consciousness (vinana). Human existence is only a composite of these aggregates.

Karma

Buddhists accept the notion of karma, however, this presented a problem with their notion of no-self. How could one prove that one can reincarnate with a no self, i.e. with no permanent subject? Some scholars have considered this to be unsolvable. The relations between existences has been compared to the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is very different in every moment. A sort of ever changing identity.

The Four Noble Truths (hinting at the path)

There are four noble truths. 1-The truth of sorrow, 2-the truth that sorrow originates within us from the craving of pleasure, 3-the truth that this craving can be eliminated and 4-the truth that a methodical path must be followed to obtain this goal. Otherwise human beings would remain indefinitely in samsara.

The Eightfold Path

Hence Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination or paticca-samuppada whereby one condition arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions. Given the awareness of this law, the question arises as to how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of births, suffering and death. There must be a purification that leads to overcoming this process. Such a liberating purification is effected by following the Noble Eightfold Path constituted by 1-the right views, 2-the right aspiration, 3-the right speech, 4-the right conduct, 5-the right livelihood, 6-the right effort, 7-the right mindfulness and 8-the right meditational attainment.

Nirvana

The aim is to be rid of the delusion of the ego, freeing oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who succeeds has achieved enlightenment. The term is nirvana translated as dying out
But nirvana is not extinction. And Buddha repudiated this. Buddhists search for salvation, not annihilation. Although nirvana is often presented as negative, it can be seen as the ultimate goal for salvation in Buddhism.

near death experience (as studied by science)

don't miss this article in science daily about so called NDEs (near death experiences).

 In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat. This is paradoxical, since the brain typically ceases functioning within 20-30 seconds of the heart stopping and doesn't resume again until the heart has been restarted. Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events.

so? as they say:

Further studies are also needed to explore whether awareness (explicit or implicit) may lead to long term adverse psychological outcomes including post-traumatic stress disorder.

what's your favorite gita theme? (post for comment)

there are specific themes in the gita:

"fight the battle," action in inaction, the importance of karma yoga, one's duty,  the idea of karma vs dharma, the gunas, salvation, spiritual discipline, ignorance of avidya, maya, etc.

what's your favorite (if it's not here bring it forth),

go ahead.

problems with your submission so far...

these are some of the problems i've found,

1- you've researched very little and it shows. without conscientious research you cannot put together a good paper.
2- your counters are generally flimsy, many showing bias, which is not good in principle. remember: your paper is as good as the counters you present!
3- avoid too many points and arguments,  for a 1,500 words you have to maximize the best arguments and counters. prioritize your best arguments!
4- say things clearly! read it out loud and see if you understand what you've written. the art of argumentation is about clarity and elegance.

VICES

excessive superfluous wordiness (use more sentences instead of long prepositional phrases),
tedious repetition (begging the question)
vagueness in your statement (beating around the bush)
hyperbole (big words don't mean a thing),
emotional outbursts,
belittling your counter, instead of proving it wrong is a form of ad hominem.

Today we're reading from the Bhagavad Gita

Are we delusional silicon-based artificial intelligences in a matrix-like forgery rather than carbon-based organisms in the genuine universe?

Click here to find out. 

list of student assistants for all philosophy classes

MWF 9am
Ciara Albury
Esaie Jean Charles
Audi Laguerre
Amanda Torres

MWF 10am
Liz Amor
Jonathan Valdes
Diana Regalado
Ariel Canino

TR 9:50am
Ziqi Wang
Sarah Telemaque
Patricia Suarez
Diego Garcia

TR 11:15am
Rut Silva
JP
Brandon regalado
Melany Dasilva

T 5:40pm
Viviana Banaszak
Sebastian Game
Damian Flores
Ana Maria Toaca
Athina James

what's a student assistant (SA)? 

a leader! 

someone who's able to communicate and interact positively and effectively with their classmates. 

SAs possess sound judgment and strong organizational skills. 

they speak, read and write english fluently. 

SAs are benevolent, hard working and altruistic. 

i'm proud to have them. assistants are supposed to help the class with homework, information about assignments, questions about concepts, etc, & if possible, organize a review before exams. i've had student assistants organize a group of students and help them review material (this is the best kind of help i can think of and i'll definitely reward it).

a (yoga) socio-political manifesto

atRifF  

Nature has priority.¹ It's here first and sustains everything.

The guiding principle is ahimsa. Non-violence translated into deep & skeptic ecology, i.e, the interdependence of human and non-human life in a world out of joint. We cannot understand ourselves if we estrange ourselves from nature, but we're already estranged!    

Socio-political should start bottom-up, not top-down.² We don't need to wait for the top to change. As actors close to the local/regional nodes of action, we can acquire the know-how to build connections and mobilize public opinion to challenge institutional and social alienation.

* From the bottom ---> up: The initial transformation is individual but it doesn't stop there. We are ONE: There is no true path without some form of dharma/activism.³ 

* The aporia of human anthropocentric emancipation: We need to see non-human life under a different optic. The Greeks of ancient times didn't realize that non-Greeks were persons. American plantation owners in the late-18th Century didn't realize that blacks were not inferior brutes. The majority of Americans don't realize that non-human animals are more than just foodstuff. We have an obligation to treat animals with dignity⁴ (our present animal farming needs to be transformed from intensive farming ----> extensive farming).

* The aporia of pollution vs. development: Blaming corporations in order to feel safely excluded from the pollution cycle, while feeding the very thing we try to prevent. We are the world's worst polluters!⁵

* Though it may be a little late, the move towards eco-conservation is a social imperative. Let's fight to stop deforestation, to protect sea life from extinction (due to overfishing), ensuring ecological diversity for future generations. Yes, it seems daunting, but it begins by understanding, doing & telling others. 

* The aporia of technology vs. emancipation: What makes us human is a result of our cultural evolution: language, rituals, arts and technology. Yet, our anthropocentric-based culture is leading us to a dead end. Let's move from an anthropocentric to a bio-centric culture!⁶  Technology = Culture.Technology is not the enemy. Humans cannot live without technology. Yet, technology has the imperative to preserve the delicate balance of Nature. 

* We must learn to curb and manage our waste: Reuse, donate, recycle! Food is the primary ecological exchange of energy. Our corporate-driven, production-intensive food paradigm needs to be redefined, from fast food ----> slow food. ⁷ Let's switch our eating habits and bring back food sacralization. Let's turn environmental degradation and human exploitation into eco-erotics!⁸

* The aporia of development vs. under-development⁹: Our post-Capitalist global society is craft-deprived. Globalization has outsourced our manufacturing and trade/skills base. Let's get back to cooking, arts and crafts, organic horticulture,¹⁰ etc. We should balance our individualistic tendencies with cooperation & communitarianism!

* Let's change our cities, fighting urban decay with environmental sustainability, changing ugliness into beauty.

* Let's become eco-Romantics!¹¹ engaging in heritage conservation, infrastructure efficiency,  mass transit, regional integration, human scale, and institutional integrity.

* Let's transform our neighborhoods, building sustainable structures, limiting urban sprawl, reducing car dependence, promoting pedestrian friendly urbanism.¹²

What to do? 

Flipping Marxist formalism, let's turn the base into the superstructure. Our bid is for a different form of emergence: 

 anti-advertising, 

social graffiti,

urban farming,

nonviolence, 

anarcho-syndicalism, 

building consensus,

civil disobedience,

use social media to advance social change 

potlatch

ACT NOW!

____________

¹ Aristotle's naturalism can be seen as a forerunner of eco-ethics, as expressed by his dictum Nature does nothing in vain. John Clearly, Aristotle and the Many Senses of Priority, (Southern Illinois University Press, 1988) p. 60. ² We don't have to choose between markets (Welfare Capitalism) or governments, as instruments of emancipation (Communism, planned-economy Socialism). Nor is there need to eliminate markets, trade, private ownership, the welfare state, or the institution of the corporation. What we need to do is bring about new practices for each of these institutions appropriate to a balance between prosperity and conservation. This is the force of emergence: Millions of people joining voluntary movements, discovering that the good life is more fulfilling than the endless cycle of accumulation and consumption. Professor Steven Buechler makes a similar (hopeful) point: "Movements can be crucial switching stations in the direction of history (...)  vital free spaces that promote democratization and restore a meaningful public sphere." See Steven M. Buechler, Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism: The Political Economy and Cultural Construction of Social Activism (Oxford University Press: 2000) p. 214.  Enacting Niyama at the social level can bring about a life of material sufficiency with cultural, intellectual, and spiritual abundance in balance with the environment. By osmosis, the social level can bring about needed changes in the political sphere. ³ One's embeddedness in a particular context: job, household/family, or community can lead one to recognize a problem, learn about community needs, and find a way to make life better through new -or reconfigured- social linkages.  ⁴ According to philosopher Tom Regan, animals have "inherent value" as subjects-of-a-life, and cannot be regarded as a means to an end. See, Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights, (University of California Berkeley, 2005) p. 245. ⁵ The United States has 4.2% of the world's population and produces 24% of the world's C0₂ emissions. ⁶ One must be careful not to write off culture, as if humans have fallen from paradise straight into some artificial exile of civilization. This is where the ancient Greeks can help. They understood that us humans are not completely "natural" but rather the site of a collision of nature and culture, which uniquely defines us. See Bruce Thornton, Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge (ISI Books, 1999) p. 96.  ⁷ "Slow food" goes against the received notion that cheap food = good food. Carlo Petrini, the man behind this movement defends the "unpolitical" idea that cheap food is really expensive, bad food, when compared with good, clean, carefully harvested food. He is right. In his book, Petrini advocates the idea of "gusto" (taste) and diversity. There is a correlation between slow food and health, which makes slow food more enjoyable. The locus for this revolucion is la osteria, a place where one can find "traditional cuisine run as a family business with simple service, welcoming atmosphere, good wine and moderate prices." See Carlo Petrini, Slow Food, the Case for Taste (Columbia University Press, 2003) p. 51-58. "Cheap food" is a Capitalist ploy to misrepresent real capital allocation and profit in the name of "abundance," hiding government subsidies for monoculture and intensive production which end up as profit for Big Business in food and energy. Take for instance American corn policies: We subsidize corn while (protect Monsanto's right to sell it to farmers as genetically modified seed). Coincidentally, corn is the foodstuff staple for raising cattle in the US (funded by whom?) and an energy commodity. Wonder why such a labor-intensive commodity such as meat is so cheap? Corn is heavily fertilized — both with chemicals like nitrogen and with subsidies from Washington. Over the past decade, the Federal Government has poured more than $50 billion into the corn industry, keeping prices for the crop — at least until corn ethanol skewed the market — artificially low. That's your Big Mac @ McDonald's, a $5 meal bargain, with 1,400 calories (more than half the daily recommended requirement for adults). ⁸ I thank my friend Gene Ray for his suggestion. I'd like to spin his idea of eco/erotics as an embodied striving for well-being that connects us with the animal and non-animal other (life). The opposite of eco/erotics is eros gone astray, a perversion of Nishkam Karma. A desire in the form of a will-to-control that aims to secure itself by mastering all around it. Ridden with anxiety, this eros reduces other to self. In fact, there are examples of such versions in modern times: Certain "peak" historic moments, when factors motivating nations and individuals, such as the desires for profit, security, and hegemony got transformed militaristic erotics. ⁹ It turns out that the mantra of "emancipated" Communist development in Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean throughout the 1960's-1980's consisted in mimicking the Capitalist "anthropocentric development" model: 1- constant growth, 2- domination of nature, 3- industrialization and technologization of production and society at the expense of environmental degradation, abandonment of agriculture (land reform in this case meant very little, since arbitrary and exploitative prices were set by the bureaucrats, not by the farmers), massive migration to the cities, urban unemployment and loss of crafts skills. The deterioration of nature brought by these mistaken policies, was invoked by the communist  bureaucracies as a step in the right direction for the attainment of development. ¹⁰ Who would think of pursuing horticultural studies in Miami, now, when the expected move of disenfranchised farmers is from the rural areas to the city? Precisely! This overall migration has to do with the switch from farmer-produced to corporate-produced agriculture. How can one reverse it? By encouraging a moresimple living. Diversifying instead of homogenizing food consumption; by making good, simple food (not gourmet food) a desired commodity, so that corporations are forced to alter their mode of production. Surely, one must be watchful of corporation's good intentions! It's all about awareness. Are people ready for it? After the subprime mortgage crisis, the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, andBP's gulf disaster, the answer is yes. ¹¹ The new eco-Romantic is committed to ecological flourishing, but she is neither anti-technology, nor naive in her political expectations about Messianic utopias. The traditional Romantic lived in a paradox he was blind to. (H)e deprecated technology from his studio in the industrial-brought comfort of the pre-Modern city. We must see the good and bad in technology. The Industrial Revolution cannot be simply undone (the remedy would be worst than the disease). It needs to be transformed. Technology can serve us in using the ecosystem resources more efficiently. On the other hand, there is a strong historical relationship between growth in economic output and growing human demands on the earth's finite ecosystem. We've pushed since 1950's the human burden on the planet's regenerative systems, its soils, air, water, fisheries, and forestry systems beyond what the planet can sustain. Anthropocentric "development" is not the answer. Pushing for economic growth beyond the planet's sustainable limits accelerates the rate of breakdown of the whole. It also intensifies the competition between rich and poor for the earth's remaining output of life-sustaining resources. ¹² See my  "Miami's Urban Mess.

kids, your chance to study robotics: robots that feel!

diane ackerman writes for SALON:

1- you've heard of google's robotics division? they own a medley of firms, including some minting life-size humanoids—because, in public spaces, we're more likely to ask a cherub-faced robot for info than a touchscreen.
2- apple and amazon are diving into advanced robotics as well.
3- the military has invested heavily in robots as spies, bionic gear, drones, pack animals, and bomb disposers.
4- robots already work for us with dedicated precision in factory assembly lines and operating rooms.

according to professor  Hod Lipson, all this is child's play. 

His focus is on a self-aware species, Robot sapiens. Our own lineage branched off many times from our apelike ancestors, and so will the flowering, subdividing lineage of robots, which perhaps needs its own Linnaean classification system. The first branch in robot evolution could split between AI and AL—artificial intelligence and artificial life. 

i like this one:

Taste buds rise like flaky volcanoes on different regions of the tongue, with bitter at the back, lest we swallow poisons. How hard would it be to evolve a suite of specialized “taste buds” that bear no resemblance to flesh? Flavor engineers at Nestlé in Switzerland have already created an electronic “taster” of espresso, which analyzes the gas different pulls of ristretto give off when heated, translating each bouquet of ions into such human-friendly, visceral descriptions as “roasted,” “flowery,” “woody,” “toffee,” and “acidy.”

the long shadow of the american dream (how to create good study habits?)

a 25 year study led by karl alexander, professor of sociology at JHU shows a dramatic result:

The study followed nearly 800 Baltimore schoolchildren for more than a quarter of a century beginning in 1982. After more than 30 years, the study found that the majority of students stayed in the same socioeconomic class as their parents. Of the children from the lowest income groups, only 4 percent had a college degree by the age of 28. By the age of 28, 49 percent of the Black men from low-income backgrounds had been convicted of a crime and most of these were unemployed.

out of 800 subjects, only 40 made it to college!

the lesson? being the best student you can be must become a PRIORITY.

patanjali YOGA (post for comment #3)

well, that was an intense reading of patanjali's sutra!

right off my sleeve and in the mode of brain-storming:

1. the importance of a clear mind,

 1.41. When the agitations of the mind are under control, the mind becomes like a transparent crystal and has the power of becoming whatever form is presented. knower, act of knowing, or what is known.

2. the wheel of samsara, to each its own:

1.30. Disease, inertia, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, laziness, sensuality, mind-wandering, missing the point, instability- these distractions of the mind are the obstacles.

3. the importance of a ritual, of practice, of purpose in our lives.

2.2. This discipline is practised for the purpose of acquiring fixity of mind on the Lord, free from all impurities and agitations, or on One's Own Reality, and for attenuating the afflictions.

4. duck/rabbit,

2.10. These patterns when subtle may be removed by developing their contraries.
2.11. Their active afflictions are to be destroyed by meditation.

5. avidya is everywhere!

2.5. Ignorance is taking the non-eternal for the eternal, the impure for the pure, evil for good and non-self as self.

6. in the west, knowledge = power, but what knowledge? patanjali warns:

 2.6. Egoism is the identification of the power that knows with the instruments of knowing.

7. para-doxa (beyond the law)

4.12. The past and the future exist in the object itself as form and expression, there being difference in the conditions of the properties.

8. dense perplexity (as garlanded creepers & glossy undergrowth) comes before the epiphany,

 2.25. Liberation of the seer is the result of the dissociation of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.

9. just before moksha, wash the dishes! the sangha is here.

4:50. When the deities invite, there should be no attachment and no smile of satisfaction, contact with the undesirable still possible.

for this comment, let's try to bring forth what we've learned so far.

what's on your mind?

FYI all my MWF classes

i will not be in school this friday, september 26. do not report to class. just do the homework assigned.

gun control: one more topic to our list of research topics for the final paper

I am adding one more topic for research for the final paper: Gun control

a sample of a paper proposal (try to follow the portions in color)

Your proposal has 4 elements:

1- Heading, to the left which has: name, course & time, paper proposal.
2- Title, center. 
3- Content. The content has your argument a brief description of the defense and the counterargument.
4- References: It's early, but this is a start. Remember that your paper is as good as the references you provide. Usa Wikipedia to find out sources, but do not cite Wikipedia.

(All should be written in Roman New Times p. 12). 

Sample: 
_________________________

John Doe
PHI 2010
T, R 9:50am class
Paper Proposal

Factory Farming: Why Animals deserve a better treatment 

In this paper I discuss why current practices of animal farming are wrong. I object to the wide-spread intensive practices we find today in America's Big  Farm Conglomerates. In the paper, I discuss some of the most objectionable practices:

1- Animal restriction or prevention of normal exercise and most of natural foraging. 2- Restriction or prevention of natural maternal nesting behaviour. 3- Lack of daylight or fresh air and poor air quality in animal sheds. 4- Social stress and injuries caused by overcrowding. 5-  Health problems caused by extreme selective breeding and management for fast growth and high productivity. 6- Fast-spreading infections encouraged by crowding and stress in intensive conditions.

I argue against a counter that  1- factory farming practices are the result of a normal process of industrialization and 2- that modifying these practices will only make animal products more expensive. I'll try to demonstrate that the price we pay in terms of pollution to the environment, the spread of epidemics like mad cow disease. 

______________

All references should follow MLA protocol. Below find the general and Internet citation protocols:  

References in general MLA protocols.
MLA Internet references protocols.

on jainism & ahimsa (post for comment #2)

a lot of what we discussed yesterday (tuesday) had to do with determinism vs. free will, i.e., the role of moksha as a form of getting out of the law of karma. at one level jainism seems to endorse that view. but at a deeper level, i think there is no "out."  this is why i posted (below) a more detailed discussion about punyas and papas. please, read it to inform your comments for this thread. there, i address the paradox of radical libertarianism opposing determinism (only to let it in through the backdoor).

then there was the trimurti and the five basic ethical principles. the issue of intention (mens rea) and pleasure came up. we discussed that pleasure is a deep metaphor. i mentioned epicurus as a reference from the west (i like to cross-reference east with west). for epicurus, there are temporary and lasting pleasures, the latter are superior to the former, something jainism would agree with. you see, pleasure by itself is not a liability. pleasure is structural for homosapiens. the problem is when pleasure becomes exponential. the paradox of pleasure is to enjoy it to the point of letting sorrow through the back door.

Note: For this post, let's include our discussion on ahimsa, in light of gandhi's insights. 

remember: i'm closing this post next monday at 11pm. 
 

jainism: karma, punya & papa

Actions that bear positive results and elevate a person are called punya. 

Actions that lead to a negative fruit and degrade a person are called papa.

Imagine that every person has a spiritual "ledger" showing accrued punya credits and papa liabilities. A person who wins a lottery must have had a lot of punya accumulated due to many past positive actions. A person murdered must be experiencing the accumulated effects of past papa.

One's position in life, the family one is born into, one's economic position, one's health and strength, and even what country one is born into and who one marries are considered to be the result of punya and papa. This superdeterministic position recalls (though in a diametrically different position) in existentialism. Sartre (a radical libertarian) makes the point that one is responsible for everything that happens to oneself. Even an earthquake? Yes, because one is within the earthquake's radius. What if one doesn't know? One is responsible for one's own ignorance.   

Is a person born into a family of privilege and class a result of punya? As we know, riches don't guarantee goodness. Is a person born into a hellish condition of war and disease a result of papa? There are said to be heavenly and hellish realms "above and below" this earth that beings are born into as a result of high and low levels of punya and papa.

The expression "seventh heaven," for example, comes from a Hindu idea of heaven. Above this earth there are many levels of heaven and similarly, below this earth there are many levels of hell. The "seventh heaven" is the highest realm, but a heaven and a hell are never permanent.

Caveat: One may go to a heaven as a result of accumulated punya, but once that punya is exhausted through enjoyment, one will move to lower levels of existence (even hell). Think of my mentioning of Patanjali in regards to the implicit paradox contained in moksha.

Similarly, one may fall to a hell as a result of great papa, but once that papa is "burned off" through suffering one will begin to raise again to higher levels of existence.

Earthly regions are considered middle ground where there is both happiness and suffering and because most actions are neither all good or all bad, the results are mixed. Therefore, our lives are mixed in terms of happiness and suffering.

jainism: an introductory text

a good summary on jainism by Sri Jayatilal S. Sanghvi.

artificial cells in the lab!?

the news here.

did you know about dark matter?

big? small?

it may help a bit with our brahman/atman discussion.

you can't ignore a discipline that stands 26 centuries old

Physics for idiots (we're all idiots to some extent).

appearances are deceiving

is an elephant huge hulk with trunk and tusks similar to a hyrax a small furry rodent?

based on appearances you'd say "no." and yet, the hyrax is perhaps the elephant's closest relative. this is because of similarities in their re productive system, teeth structure and a common ancestor in the early fossil record a remote ancestor. in fact this remote ancestor is common to hyraxes, sea cows (dugongs and manatees) and elephants.

i give you a hippo and a whale:

they are cousins! the whale hind parts are now smaller and they are also internalized, but they used to be legs (it's called "atavism") and that is believed to be the result of a genetic code that will call for longer extremities to form. another change was that the nasal openings moved from the end of the snout to the top of the skull area. this is referred to as "nasal drift." those nostrils later evolved into blowholes so that they can get to the surface of the water, take in air, and then be submerged again with ease.

seen from an evolutionary-tree perspective:

did you know that dolphins and wolves are actually cousins!