Tag Archives: Philosophy

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I don’t know

Daily writing prompt
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
View all responses

Boethius, when faced with such a misfortune, that is, being a prisoner, stripped of wealth, honours, friends and with death not far away, wrote the consolations of philosophy. In this great work, lady philosophy tells him of vanity of regret for the lost gifts of fortune. I hope, faced with such a scenario, reason shall be my guide and philosophy my consolation. I hope the wisdom of Mahabharata, where Krishna advises Arjuna that victory and defeat are the same, that he should seek detachment; to learn to see with the same a mound of earth and a hip of gold, a cow and a sage, a dog and a man who eats the dog, will be useful in the circumstances.

In short, in all honesty, it will need a giant step in renunciation, and detachment. I am not sure I have this in me now and I don’t want to find out, if i can help it. This is the kind of loss that madness is made of. In the Mysterious stranger by Mark Twain, we actually have almost a similar scenario. He makes a man mad and have him believing he is the king. In all ways, he is the happiest man, freed from all desire and apart from the dead, he is almost immune from being hurt.

So maybe, only death or madness should be preferred in a situation where one loses everything.

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A reply to a reply

A month or so ago I wrote a post as a response to an article that had appeared in The Elephant that had been authored by a friend of mine. I shared with my friend my response and he has now penned his response and shared with me. In this post I would like to briefly respond to some of the questions he raises and clarify my position where it wasn’t clear.

My friend says he has met many an avid atheists who in their sunset days begin to talk about god as supporting Platinga’s assertion that there is a god-shaped vacuum in human hearts. First I want to agree with him that it is impossible to settle this matter one way or the other here. Having said that, I want to add that the claim that avid atheists have turned to god in their sunset years doesn’t add any validity to the claims of the religious about the existence of gods or supernatural beings. This claim was made against Antony Flew, Voltaire and others and so it is one to take with a pinch of salt. My friend says

While Makagutu states that I made an argument about “the God-shaped vacuum”, I only made a statement about it, and there is a vast difference between a statement and an argument.

but I did no such thing. This is what I wrote

The argument that we all have a god shaped hole is not only weak but it is also evidently false. Platinga didn’t offer any demonstrations for it. Nor did Augustine. They just threw it out there hoping it will stick.

Clearly, I wasn’t referring to my good friend’s statement but to the argument generally.

On the question of whether these people read their bibles, I will only say we stand on very opposite sides of the question. My friend believes the bible

I believe that “All Scripture [the Holy Bible] is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work

A position I don’t hold and which I don’t think is open to determination.

To this

Makagutu’s response to my answer to my second question, namely, whether there is any difference between political and religious fanaticism, is unclear, so I hope he will make it clear in due course

my answer then and now was that there is no difference between religious and political fanaticism. Both, usually are adopted without reflection and justified post facto.

I find the suggestion that self regulation would help avoid such fanaticism and incidents like we continue to witness in Shakahola to be unrealistic. My friend thinks it can work. There is no more to say to it. He says I have engaged in ad hominem by referring to his position as an academic and claiming that there are expectations I (we) have of a person in his place. My apologies. I am however not sure whether that makes the claim fallacious. No need to distract from the argument. In deed, I agree with the good doc that to have written that is to expect him to think as I do. I don’t think to make a suggestion that so and so should have said or done such and such is an act of intolerance. It is something we do all the time with no ill intent.

Have a happy Sunday everyone.

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I am, therefore I think.

Descartes famously wrote, I think, therefore I am. He could as well have said, I feel or I eat therefore I am. But there are many animals that eat, that feel and shit but are not Descartes. As the title of this post suggests, it is time to rewrite the dictum to I am, therefore I think. It is the awareness that we think, the awareness of the I that is quite distinctive between us and other animals of which we are not aware of their cognition, but this is all for another day.

I love philosophy. Some of friends think it useless because it gives us no answers. But that is the beauty of it. Anyone looking for certainty should look to Math. Not philosophy. Wisdom, the love it, makes a whole difference in the world of feeling in which we live. Maths is good too. When I want to balance my bills, I turn to math.

So, the supreme Court upheld the results of the last presidential election. We will soon be swearing in the 5th president. I am conflicted about the incoming government. Maybe philosophy can help resolve the conflict and contradictions in my head. But this too, is for later.

So what was this post really about? Nothing serious.

Annihilation or immortality? Which is worse, all things considered.

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Of ancient philosophers

You have heard the saying or if not, read, that the best thing in life is “not to have been born and the second best is to exist sooner”. Epicurus is one of his discourses asks why didn’t the author of such utterance take his life sooner? He should therefore not be taken seriously. I don’t know what then would be said of the antinatalist movement.

Elsewhere he says one would rather believe in the old myths instead of the determinism of the physicists.

Diogenes the dog threw away his goblet because he saw a young man drink water without one and he would not accept to be outdone in simplicity.

Plato was a book burner. Destroyed the works of Democritus. In fact, I think there is no mention of him anywhere in the many works of Plato and if it is, then negatively only.

The lives and opinions of ancient philosophers by Diogenes Laertius makes for very interesting reading.

Have a reflective weekend everyone.

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Some forgotten sayings of Socrates

The second year of this pandemic is coming to an end and if you are reading this, you are still alive having avoided death by the pandemic, death by the police and if you are a Kenyan death by a myriad of things from flash floods to hunger depending on where you live or how well you pray to the different gods. But before we get to the business of this post, I take this great opportunity to wish you all a happy and cheerful holiday season. Stay alive!

Leisure is the most valuable of possessions

There is only one good, knowledge; and one only evil, ignorance.

Riches and high birth have nothing estimable in them, on the contrary, they are wholly evil.

On why he was learning to play the lyre, he said, it was not absurd to learn anything that one did not know.

Those who bought things out of season at an extravagant price did not expect to live till the proper season for them.

What was the virtue of a young man? ‘To avoid excess in everything.’

Should one marry or not? Whichever you do, you will repent it, was his advice.

Young man, keep constantly looking at the mirror, for if you are handsome, you might worthy of the beauty, and if ugly, you might conceal the unsightly appearance by their accomplishments.

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against religious indoctrination in schools

Today is Mashujaa (Heroes) Day here at home. For those who do not know, this is the day, many years ago that the Colonial administration declared state of emergency in Kenya and began the arrests of those who claimed to be Mau Mau leaders and their sympathizers, The arrests began on the night of 19th October and proceeded for many days followed by trials of the leaders and the eventual jailing of some in Kapenguria and a draft of other measures. But that is not what this post is about.

In our primary and secondary schools, there is a subject on religious education indoctrination offered depending on your religious persuasion and the schools sponsor. So for example, schools that are sponsored by Muslims would offer Islamic religious education. But it is not education what they do. It should rightly be called indoctrination. It is taught as if those things in the Koran or the bible are really fact. In essence it is to make religious believers out of young impressionable minds.

And they are most often a captive audience with little opportunity for rebel. They can’t opt out without consequence. If you are unlucky and ended up in a school run by the catholics, they will try and make a catholic out of you, Mass is mandatory regardless of whether you are muslim or a believer in voo doo. It just doesn’t matter.

I argue here that it is not the role of educational institutions to indoctrinate our children. Whether children want to or not attend church cannot be made mandatory by school administration. Religious indoctrination does not prepare these young ones to be critical thinkers or good citizens. It only prepares them for church work or sheep. Mostly sheep. And this should be a private affair. If your parents are sheep, that is theirs, but children as impressionable as 4 year olds should only be taught that which can be known.

Schools should teach them social skills. Arithmetic. Science to the level of their understanding while all the time encouraging curiosity and critical thinking. If any philosophy is to be taught in schools, it should start at a level where they can now begin to process abstract concepts but only as preparation for being good citizens.

If you are of a different opinion, I would like to hear it.

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we have had this discussion before

But it is one of those I like having. Maybe I am predisposed to like indefiniteness. Or maybe because most if not our knowledge is provisional and open to revision when our ways of gathering data improves or when a challenge is mounted on current knowledge that shows our understanding of a given topic has been wrong or misguided.

It could also be possible that whilst some questions have been settled, there is reluctance to accept the answers. And this reluctance could be sustained by the fact many believe the old answers without reflection or are afraid that accepting the new answers would turn their worlds topsy turvy. For example, it is settled that asses never spoke nor snakes walking upright or men fish eating men and surviving whole for 3 days under water or that some man was born without a father and then committed deicide. These are just a few of the old answers that we cannot accept as true knowledge.

Tell me what you think.

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What sort of evidence are you looking for?

Is a question many atheists have been asked in one form or another. Many have given varied answers to the question and my contribution, though not new, is to say evidence that would be accepted by any reasonable person/observer.

But who is a reasonable observer/person?

Abstract philosophy and exercise is only suited for that person who is well fed and housed. The practical man or woman has use for philosophy to the extent to which it is relevant to their lives and until professional philosophers address issues of practical men and women, their works will remain in university bookshelves read only by other professional philosophers.