Tag: belief

Jewish group fights for chaplain monument at Arlington (via CNN Belief Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

If four guys die tough and three get memorials, then the fourth should get on too.

(That may be my best summary of an article yet.)

I am for the monument. If you are as well, please let your congressman know.

James Pilant

Jewish group fights for chaplain monument at Arlington By Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor Arlington, Virginia (CNN) – Three German torpedoes ripped through the icy waters of the Atlantic off the coast of Greenland. On February 2, 1943, the USS Dorchester was transporting 902 U.S. servicemen to war. Only one torpedo hit, but it struck a deathblow — killing scores instantly and resetting the ship’s course to the bottom of the ocean. Amid the chaos, survivors later recalled, four U.S. Army ch … Read More

via CNN Belief Blog

Could science prove that vanilla is better than chocolate? (via No Right to Believe)

On By southwerkIn ethics5 Comments

Philosophy does enter into business ethics. Our author here discusses the idea that we can derive moral standards from science. It is an interesting take on the subject. Very practical from the author’s point of view. He does in the end agree with the idea of the significance of science in morality.

I enjoyed it. Please read it. The author has many other posting about the nature of belief.

James Pilant

Science can undoubtedly help us get what we want, but could science ever tell us what we ought to want, or what we ought to value? Sam Harris thinks so: he argues that the only reasonable source of value in this universe is the well-being of conscious creatures, which is constrained by the laws of nature — placing morality under the purview of science. But if that were true — so goes one of the criticisms Harris engages — couldn’t we say the s … Read More

via No Right to Believe

Goods and needs (via Belief and the Environment)

On By southwerkIn ethics

I was visiting the web site, Belief and the Environment when I came across the following list.

… These are requirements of a healthy human being in childhood, in addition to physiological needs.

The list of twenty-six psychic needs as given in Suzuki is: (1) The need for love; (2) Friendship; (3) Sensitivity; (4) The need to think soundly; (5) The need to know; (6) The need to learn; (7) The need to work; (8) The need to organize; (9) Curiosity; (10) The sense of wonder; (11) Playfulness; (12) Imagination; (13) Creativity; (14 Openmindedness; (15) Flexibility; (16) Experimental-mindedness; (17) Explorativeness; (18) Resiliency; (19) The sense of humour; (20) Joyfulness; (21) Laughter and tears; (22) Optimism; (23) Honesty and trust; (24) Compassionate intelligence; (25) Dance; (26) Song.

In the about section, the blog identifies its purpose in the following way –

This blog examines issues of belief and the environment and their relevance for solving problems that face the world today. Human beliefs about the natural world are an important feature of the global environmental crisis. Beliefs control attitudes, and problems of attitude are contributing to our difficulties.

My Students (Revised)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Teaching

This is a shorter, more carefully revised version of my earlier “My Students” posting.

One of the things I like to teach my students is that they have no intellectual inferiority in regard to the Ivy League schools.

On the face of it, that may sound ridiculous, but it is not.

A great many of these heavily lauded (and immensely well paid) graduates of the schools blessed by the establishment have participated wholly and happily in the greatest financial debacle in history. Their well honed degrees disguised their incompetence, their stupidity, their lack of intellectual depth and their overwhelming sense of entitlement.

The fact that so many of these Ivy Leaguers journey off to cash in their degrees and their honor in various financial firms is a black mark against our educational system. You see, we depend on this system to produce the scholars, the politicians, and all those various professions which make nations function with honor and purpose. Instead we get a rush of graduates toward a predatory system of financial institutions.

My students would try to take care of their fellow citizens never forgetting where they came from and the struggle they must make to simply get a job in the current market. They deserve better. Nevertheless, from this crop is my hope, that these people, these individuals working to better themselves will be the leaders of tomorrow, not the children of the elite, not the well favored few, but my students.

It is not a matter of free will or gumption that keeps my students from being as successful as those. It is a well ingrained attitude, a lack of expectations, and a consistent contempt and suspicion of the educated. We can do better. We, the citizens, have a responsibility to our children to act the part of guides and supporters. I do not mean the blind support given whatever the merits. I mean a willingness to encourage excellence and the hard, difficult job of not submitting to the idea that some people are better. They are better when they prove it. My student can prove their excellence.

But learning is not just a matter of schooling. It is a life long endeavor. Most people stop when they put that piece of paper on the wall. But that is all they are, paper, wood pulp. If my students are to change this state, this country, and this world, there must be support and dedication to a lifetime of learning. A person who continues the task of development, of becoming, is inferior to no learner on earth, whatever their degree.

There are books and as long as there are books – as long as the great works of mankind – are readily available, any human being can become educated and developed. Any individual can build the power of understanding, a basic command of the ideas that govern this society, and a sense of purpose in their lives. But we have to believe. My students need that. My students need to walk in a community where people believe they are just as good, just as smart and just as capable as students from anywhere in the world.

All they have is the power of their minds and the determination of their hearts. If they only believe.

James Pilant