dissecting concepts of rationality.Sunday, April 29, 2007
"If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart."
-Lars von Trier, Danish film director.
What is meant by rationality when Lars von Trier made this statement? In Max Weber words, rationality can be easily replaced by "efficiency" or "logical consistency" and "empirical proof" but it doesn't fit so well in this context. Hence, the need to rationally develop the concept of rationality.
After going through several literature, I find that the definition given by Kizima in his work,"The Historical Process of Culture and the Problem of Rationality", is the most comprehensive one, that encompass all the hallmarks of rationality:
Becoming aware of the objective problem situation and formulating the problem requiring solution;
Defining the field of possible or desired solutions and making decisions about the proper program for problem solving;
Implementing the program, and controlling and correcting its course;
Analysing and evaluating results.
With that said, let us explore the applications of the rationality concept. The first is that rationality provides the fundamental framework for a systematic analysis of a practical or theoretical problem and paving the way for evaluative applications. It is a significant key to explaining the current social system and our social actions. In dimensions without rationality, anything becomes possible (in the theoretical sense). In that dimension, we could even take black as white.
As of now, my rational mind screams that my blog readership is dropping as a result of being classified in the heavyweight category.
insightful lessons from a geography of time (by Robert Levine)Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Scribbles:
1. Before I start, I want to apologise to you if you wasted TIME reading my previous blog entry. It was just a deliberate (and unsuccessful) attempt to revive my inactive blog, which I felt was moving into a deep slumber.
2. The blog entry was also a violation of the objectives of my blog, which is to entertain and educate my readers. This justify my decision to apologise.
3. For the sake of reference, I shall not delete the previous entry.
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Preface:
The main central idea of this entry is time. Together with time, other related issues such as pace of life, urgency and event times were beautifully discussed in a thought-provoking book entitled A Geography of Time (The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist), written by Robert Levine.
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The invention of accurate wristwatch and the widespread construction of public clocks in urban cities have intensified the relationship between time and man. I am sure you would be able to recall some of the more famous quotes describing this intricate relationship. An impressive description of this relationship would be the old Italian proverb that read, "Man measures time, and time measures man." Even though, time remains important in our daily lives, there was a lack of literature which critically examined this relationship or any thorough research on this topic. Hence, the brilliant observations and interesting field experiments of Robert Levine, all carefully captured in this book was a worthwhile read.
Among the wide range of findings, the most intriguing and acute discoveries/observations were the factors behind the pace of life in urban cities, the workings of the psychological clock and rules of the waiting game. Due to time constraint (see the relevance of time?), I would only briefly touch on these issues but I strongly urge any curious soul to pick up this book, if you are fascinated by the above issues.
According to a field experiment, Singapore was ranked as the 15th city in terms of pace of life among 31 urban cities. Switzerland came out top(fastest pace of life), while Mexico finished last. The experiment was based on a number of variables, including the walking speed of pedestrians, the working speed of postal clerks and the accuracy of public clocks. So what exactly affects the pace of life in a city? Is it economy of the country or the culture of the people? The suggested reply was the economic well-being, the degree of industrialisation, the population size, the climate and the cultural values of the people. A great irony was that the invention of time-saving machines resulted in even less free-time per day. An example was that the invention of the vacuum cleaner lifted the cleanliness standard of the people and in doing so, resulted in them using more time to use these machines. The startling revelation nearly knocked me off my feet and it cemented my interest to complete this book and to share this knowledge.
If the above paragraph isn't interesting enough to capture your attention, then I hope the next part does so. Have you ever played the waiting game with your partner and won? If your statistics aren't very glorious, then this could be a potentially useful book to hone your skills. Learn more about the rules of the waiting game and the skillful use of the siddharta move. Writer Alexander Rose once said, "Half the agony of living is waiting." Why not learn more about this waiting and alleviate your suffering?
Due to time constraints, I bid you goodbye. After all, time is money. Or is it? ;)
The Butler's DilemmaSaturday, April 14, 2007
this is basically a rip-off from
The Dilbert Blog.For the sake of convenience, I'll paste it here:
"Let’s say you’re the butler to a billionaire who lives alone. The billionaire dies in his sleep. You know he owns a large piece of jewelry that no one else has seen, and you have access to it.
If you steal the piece of jewelry, sell it, and give the money to an African charity, you can feed an entire village for a year. The village would otherwise starve. If you don’t steal the jewelry, it will go to his surviving family who has so much money they won’t care about it.
Obviously it is illegal to steal the jewelry and feed the starving village in Africa. But do you have a moral obligation to commit the crime for the greater good?
And if so, do you likewise have a moral obligation to steal anything else you can get your hands, from dead billionaires or living neighbors, if you can use the stolen property for the greater good?"
Interesting Answers:
1. moral obligation is a oxymoron.
2. the billionaire is dead, the Africans are living, and life is for the living.
3. corruption is rampant in Africa.
4. steal the gem and exchange it for money (to feed the village). then steal the gem back.
5. give a man a fish, and he would last for a day. teach a man how to fish, and he would last forever. why don't steal the gem and invest?
6. ask robin hood, and he would give you a satisfying answer.
ULTIMATE:
he steals the gem and finds out the next day, that the billionaire willed it to him for his loyalthy and good service.
Discovering JainismThursday, April 05, 2007
"I do not know if there is rebirth or not, or life after death. But, if it is true, I would like to be born in India as a Jain."
The wise words of prominent scientist, Albert Einstein, ignited my interest in Jainism. For those who are not familiar with this term, Jainism is a religion and philosophy that originated from India. Jainism is a little different from missionary religions, in the case that it does not actively seek faithful converts and more importantly, Jainism is not chauvinistic or supremacist. In the heart of Jainism is tolerance, acceptance and appreciation and this includes recognising and respecting differences. This ancient wisdom from India is increasingly important in our fragmented world as glaring differences threaten to divide our society and create destruction through the use of violence.
Jainism ask us to recognise and acknowledge the interdependence between of all souls that exist in our environment, regardless of its size, nature, gender, biology, religion or any other differences. This interdependence is founded on the principle that all souls have equal chance of gaining enlightenment, and the notion of enlightenment transcends the differences and labels that threaten to divide. Humans above all, with the most heightened consciousness places them in the best position to spot this interrelationship and appreciate them. From this fundamental platform, Jainism teaches that since all souls are regarded as equal, acceptance of diversity should be encouraged instead of denouncing such differences. This has huge implications in our world today as terrorism (conflict between religions), racism (conflict between races), and military violence (conflict between interests) continue to plague our society.
Another cornerstone of Jainism is its principle of non-violence. In fact, Jainism influenced the thoughts and actions of Mahatma Gandhi, an advocate of non-violence. The concept of non-violence stems from the belief that nobody wishes to be harmed by anything or anybody. By further extending this belief, there is no living being that has ever existed that wants to be harmed, and therefore we should not seek to harm in order to maintain this universal order. Some may confuse this teaching as not harming animals (becoming vegetarian), but this is not the case. Jainism recognises that some harm is unavoidable in life as there is always competing interests. What we can do is to lessen this harm and avoid causing unnecessary vice. In the words of Dr David Frawley, "non-violence is a call to action to make the world a more peaceful place."
Though not widely known, Jainism as an ancient wisdom has immense potential to heal our ailing world, where materialism, violence, racism and terrorism threatens to divide us into different camps, aiming for each other throats. With emphasis on individual responsibility, interconnectedness of all living systems, the principle of non-violence and the need to just live simply, Jainism proves to be an exciting spiritual journey, as well as a interesting philosophy, relevant to the 21st Century.
