Thursday 17 August 2023

The Origins of Human Morality

 

YouTube video: 95% of your behavior is primate behavior | Frans de Waal - from The Well

Article

The following article is an article authored by Professor Michael Tomasello in Scientific America.  Michael Tomasello is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University and emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

See Also

Book

A Natural History of Human Morality - by Michael Tomasello
 

YouTube Playlist 

YouTube playlist - Philosophy - Origin of Morality - Sam Au

Websites 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/morality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

Friday 4 August 2023

Is beauty good?

 

TEDx Talks - Own your face | Robert Hoge | TEDxSouthBank

In the article "Nietzsche - Your conscience is no saint", Nietzsche states that "Earlier societies (he is rather unspecific about which exactly) did not see things this way; for them, it was the successful, beautiful, powerful aristocratic people who were valued as good, while the rest were bad, in the sense of weak, deficient, or just not up to much."

The YouTube video above clearly illustrates that non-beauty does not equate to bad.  Conversely, beauty can be superficial, manipulative and does not equate good.  

However, there seems to be a natural desire in us to love cute and beautiful things, animals and people, and repulse against the opposites.  People want to be liked, accepted and the pursuit of beauty seems natural too.  

How do we reconcile our rational analysis that beauty does not equate to goodness and our natural desire for beautiful things? 

What do philosophers say about beauty?

The following Wikipedia page discusses the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty

A pdf file of the Wikipedia article (8/8/23) is here.

See Also

Radio Podcast 

Philosopher Zone - Beauty: aesthetic or moral ideal?   Guest: Heather Widdows, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick UK

ABC RN Sunday Extra - 

Websites

 #EverydayLookism - https://www.everydaylookism.com/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Beauty: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/ 

YouTube videos

TED - Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model. | Cameron Russell

What is free will?

  Photo by Khashayar Kouchpeydeh on Unsplash Philosophy Now Article Please find the following article: - What is Free Will? Some Questions f...