Athena

You can't possibly know that. I do know something about science and science has studied this question. There is not complete agreement but many animal...

Absolutely! My thoughts on that are being explored in a different thread. In this thread, we base our laws and policies on what we imagine to be true....

Nicely put. I especially like the distinction between being and inanimate things. That lead me to find "THE ANIMATE AND THE INANIMATE" by WILLIAM JAME...

I must add we can not think as the humans who first left Africa thought, nor how humans at any time in history prior to the 21 century thought. We can...

I don't know your course of study but by nature, you are a geologist or related science such as anthropology. I believe we are in the "resurrection" o...

I grew up with the notion that songs and stories and inventions are in the universe waiting to be manifest by someone. Such as an idea that its time h...

All Greeks came to a concept of a higher authority. "Logos" is a Greek word meaning reason, the controlling form of the universe made manifest is spee...

But the Internet is vital to our evolution. It is not something we should curse but a manifestation of intelligence far beyond anything humanity has e...

Gandi is a great example of non-cooperation with unjust power. But what followed has been as poorly thought out as the hippie movement. You write beau...

Exactly, the pope and the church do not rightly have all the authority to make laws, and kings who do not understand the higher law, do not have the q...

Parents do not have the power of social pressure. This is unfortunate when society is becoming amoral and immoral, and everyone is ruled by their feel...

It seems a week does not go by without hearing of yet another person killed by police, and another riot that threatens civil order. I think we live in...

We do not directly experience "God" so we can not know God. We can know the manifestation of God, Tao, logos because we experience that. We can know s...

What matters to me is what my children and their children and their children's children will experience. Socrates gave his life for a future better th...

Socrates did not hold himself superior to civil society, but he did have a concept of a higher authority. We use the word "God" for the higher authori...

I really like your post. Confucius explains the importance of virtues and Tao is the way. I think it is unfortunate Western civilization became so sep...

Absolutely and so did the philosophers and anyone who wanted to be educated. That would be an important part of liberal or classical education. Cicero...

I was impressed by what Cicero had to say about the law. This quote refers to "God" so I need to say he predates Christianity. A better word for his c...

That is a good point. Our bodies know a lot that we are not aware of. On top of that, most of our driving is done automatically. Our brains take a lot...

I totally welcome creative thinking, we could not land on the moon or explore Mars without it. Right now too many people behave like the church of old...

There are laws of nature and then there are man-made laws. I think it can be argued many human laws are just stupid ideas and not really laws. Democra...

The answer to the question is no. No sensation, no reasoning of any kind is possible. Rocks do not reason. No reasoning no argument for validation is ...

Well, Pfhorrest, it is my understanding there are two ways to have social order, law and authority over the people, or culture. All mythologies give p...

:lol: Anyone who works that hard will need a vacation to recover.

Oh ouch, labor-intense societies do not enjoy a lot of free time. Before we perfected our machinery, people, including children, worked 12 to 14 hour ...

I want to see if I understand you correctly. When millions of people want T-shirts that increase the value of the T-shirt. If only a few people wear h...

You summed that up very efficiently. What needs to follow is taxing this labor, because when machines replace humans who must pay income taxes, the go...

What is a social institute? Would that be a school?

Okay, and people don't just naturally know how to get to the top. They may never get off the bottom. What needs to be done for people to move up the p...

Except knowing what will bring pleasure and what will bring pain may be a matter of maturity and may depend on education for good moral judgment.

By communicating with each other. The gods argued until they had a consensus on the best reasoning. Democracy is an imitation of the gods. The love is...

Your experience is true for everyone. Coming from my family and the political talk at our dining table, my sister and I were groomed to be political a...

:gasp: You do not speak with education for democracy. Liberty is not the freedom to do anything we please. It is only the freedom to decide what is ri...

I started reading your links and I am favorably impressed. Actually, I am delighted with your timely effort. We are in a bit of crisis right now becau...

As I understand, the US modeled its education after Athens education for well-rounded individual growth. It prepared everyone for good moral judgment ...

Now that would be worthy of a great civilization! Poverty does not have to mean ignorance. With libraries and other resources, we can educate ourselve...

I like the four aspects offered by Jung. Self-awareness seems very important to me and thinking of the four aspects can help us develop self-awareness...

The answer to that last question might depend on everyone's education. Ideally, in a democracy we argue until there is a consensus on the best reasoni...

The only thing in your post I have experience with is developing public policy. The year I took public policy classes was the most depressing year of ...

I believe we made life much better than it once was. Most civilizations have advanced so much they name their children at birth and the people expect ...

My father who was an engineer on the Apollo that went to the moon said we avoid thinking as much as we can. I think I would love knowing nothing and w...

Those were some very interesting questions! I think if we don't take radical measures to reverse global warming, we are all on a sinking ship.

I was hoping you would say that. I am a little nervous about some people's apparent preference for a strong authoritarian leader. I am watching the re...

Maybe and maybe not. That is why we have democracy. We attempt to choose the best leader and we agree to follow while standing ready to take on the re...

Surely a person who enjoys singing is a singer, just as a bird is a singer if it has a song to sing. But this does not mean the person sings well, nor...

That was nice.

Eisenstein spent his last years seeking the unified force. If he thought that was worth his time it might be worth our time. I gave my answer to why I...

:chin: Some people believe science can be applied to the god question and some do not. But certainly, we can apply philosophy to the god question. Now...

Well, Miltiades was certainly good-looking. His daughter had more wisdom than Pericles and he should have respected her! :rage: Those men's egos got a...

What an interesting thing to say! I never gave that thought but it is certainly worthy of thought. Can you verbalize more about that thought?