Trump. No, this isn’t a Trump article, nor am I going to spend too much time ‘bashing’ him. Rather, he is our starting point for today. You see, some people still think he’s a unique character. An aberration. I disagree. I think he’s more of a symptom of the times. Of our political dialogue. And therein, I will argue, lies the problem. I will not ‘bash’ or unduly criticize anyone or anything in this article. It is, for me, a…
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On the fifth of May, 1789, in France there was the start of an influential political process. It was on this day that King Louis XVI ordered a gathering of the “Assemblé Nationale”, and at that time rare meeting of the three different classes (nobility, clergy and citizenry) of Parliament, to discuss an impending bankruptcy of the French state. One day later, the third class, the citizenry who – despite being the largest class – had never been influential, announced…
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Even though I have already published my first article in this series, I thought I owed my readers an introduction to political philosophy in order to get them well and interested. It is an important and weighty subject, after all, and it is important that we are all clear on what exactly we are talking about if we want to effectively discuss politics, especially in the current times. Vital in discussing political philosophy, is considering what it comes from, what…
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A sailing merchant who was shipwrecked and read some of Plato’s works, a slave who was set free due to his enormous talents and intellect, a playwright and advisor to the emperor of Rome and the last good Caesar. What do these things have in common, you ask? Well, they were all stoics. The sailing merchant who was shipwrecked, was a man called Zeno of Citium. After being shipwrecked, he found himself wandering the streets of ancient Athens and wandered…
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Sticks. In the Fresh AiR Podcast, S01 E01, I referred to religion as just “one of many sticks we use to beat each other upside the head”. I also named a few other sticks, like race, wealth and class. On Twitter I had a discussion with one of the podcasts listeners about these sticks and whether or not we should endeavour to remove them completely. Because of this discussion, which was in the limited nature of the Twitter format, I…
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According to many philosophers, especially ancient philosophers, the secret to having a life worth living, is not only to examine your life, but to actively aspire to being a good person. What is a good person, though? Many may think about being a successful, charitable, kind, funny, and inspiring. How do you reach these goals? Of course, here too, there have been a lot of philosophers with varying opinions. Perhaps the most prevalent through history, were virtue ethicists. And while…
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“The unexamined life is not worth living”, quoth Socrates in Plato’s apology. By this statement, Socrates shows us the very essence of philosophy and science; To enrich our lives by understanding it, or at least have a kind of fascination with it. It should go unchallenged, that that which fascinates you in whatever way -even morbidly- is something that provides happiness, entertainment or some other kind of joy. In this series of articles under the heading “the life worth living”,…
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Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech. An essential and beautiful right, that we all use to near exhaustion. We all have our ideas, our opinions and things we think “must be said”, and we have the freedom to say them; to communicate our ideas, present our opinions and to say what “must be said” according to us. We are happy to do so, whenever, wherever and however we see fit. Though, we might be remembered sometimes of the episode…
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The ancient Greek philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca said; ‘Why weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.’ Though I do not agree with this particular quote, I must admit that the sentiment is useful. And when push comes to shove, that’s all that matters. In this piece, I will attempt to show you the use of honesty in leading an enjoyable life. The point Seneca was most likely making, and was in fact moderately famous for making,…
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