Effect & Affect

Effect: noun, something that is produced by an agency or cause; result; consequence

Affect: verb (used with object), to act on; produce an effect or change in

Lately it seems that everyone is focused on effects. The effects of events on the economy, the effects of drugs or violence on our children, the effects of gas emissions on the environment.

But where is the talk about affecting these things? Rather than complain that everything is getting worse, why not talk about planning ways to affect them for the better? It has always bothered me that people leave the cities because they're 'getting worse' but no one stays to make them better. If these are things we really care about, shouldn't we be doing something about them?

The best way to start making a beneficial chain reaction is to start affecting human beings. Then, not only will we affect a change ourselves, but we can teach someone else to do the same. Even if we just affect one person a year, teaching them to affect one person a year in the same way, each year the number will grow astronomically. A true chain reaction.

Freedom to Obey

I am still in search of the thing, or the word, or the concept of what it is that moves us from knowing something to choosing to do that something. (See other posts under Discussion)

Some describe freedom as the right or the ability to choose (what you're choosing is irrelevant, the subject for other discussions about morality or the like). Some think that freedom is linked to morality or society, the ability to choose what is right. Some would say that freedom is merely an illusion, that we think we have this ability to choose, but really all of our choices are predetermined, either by our biology or the divine.

My proposition is that choice, or freedom, is a decision to obey something. We can choose to obey or disobey the law. We can choose to obey or disobey our bodies. We can choose to obey or disobey a system of religion or philosophy.

Freedom then is distinct from independence. We can be free from one thing, but that means we are choosing to be dependent on something else. How we learn or decide to choose one over the other is still a mystery to me, but at least I think this clarifies some of the choices I make.

The Tao of Who?

The Tao of Pooh

The Te of Piglet

Yes, really, you read those correctly. Both of these books were a joy to read. Benjamin Hoff presented Eastern philosophy in a way that a very Western mind (mine) could understand. Whinnie the Pooh was a large part of my childhood, and I was charmed by these books, and reminded about quite a few good principles of living. Such as the virtue of being small, and that perspective plays a large part in contentment.

For more information (which hopefully leads to knowledge and understanding) about these books, follow the links above, or look here (also providing other fun info about Pooh bear).

Building Up Knowledge Pt. 2

A Little More Information

Will commented on part one that T.S. Eliot spoke about the "Knowledge Pyramid" idea in his poem "The Rock." Here is part of that poem here.

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

I think this helps highlight what I was searching for with my last post. I was seeking, firstly, the steps that take us from information, to knowledge or applied information. Eliot didn't see this as simply a ladder, or something that we only go up. There is a cycle. Ideas lead to actions and back to ideas. He also points out that we can slide back down the pyramid, losing wisdom or knowledge in the endless seeking of information.

So at some point we need to cease gathering information, and act, in order to rise up the pyramid. Or at least, to cycle between two steps of the pyramid.

What is it that brings a person to action? We act every day, but not always based simply on information. Sometimes we act on false information. Other times we act against the information that we have. I have met people that think a person's will is an illusion, and I have met others who think every small decision a person makes determines the shape of the future. I've been thinking a lot about the will lately. What is this thing, what influences it, and what influence does it have on other things?

Socrates In Love: Philosophy for a Passionate Heart

Here's how a current Socratic philosopher (Christopher Phillips travels the world and hold dialogues with whoever he runs into) explains the five Greek philosophies of love.

Arete is the goal of all of the Greek concepts of love, to respect the wholeness or oneness of life.

Eros: Principled Pleasures
Examples: Vegas, he and his wife
“Eros, to Socrates, is the merging of acquired judgment with our instinctual desire for pleasure. Eros is neither reason nor instinct, but both, entwined in the service of arete, to ensure that the pleasures we pursue are principled.”

Pleasure is mainly the fulfillment of a personal desire, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual. But to Socrates, erotic love (in a form that served arete) was not wanton, all consuming passion. It was tempered and principled, shaped by the truth we learn about ourselves both from self-examination and from loving interactions with others. These two forms of self learning were not exclusive, but intertwined. Other people act as mirrors to our own souls, and “the best mirror is of a lovingly judgmental sort.” So the highest form of eros causes a man to examine his own passions, sometimes by the passions of others, with the goal of becoming an even better love, so he can than go out and be a lovingly judgmental mirror for others.

Storge: Foreign and Domestic
Examples: criminal's mothers, patriotism
“Storge is familial love, a natural and spontaneous-what the Greeks of old would call instinctual-outpouring of warmth, tenderness, affection.”

Storge is a natural outpouring of warmth for one's own family. This love extends even those members of the family who have committed atrocities, as is evidenced by the mothers of some of the most frightening criminals. This is not a pampering love; it seeks to instruct the beloved in the best way to go. Yet it is not a controlling love; if the beloved chooses another way, it does not deny love but remains supportive through the beloved's choices. Yet the definition of family should not be limited to those we are born and raised with, but the highest forms of storge are evidenced in patriotism, and ultimately, a love for all humanity. It opens us up to the suffering our soldiers accept on our behalf whether we agree with the war or not. “If the disconnect is so great that most Americans have no sense of the sacrifice being made by their soldiers, it is a clear indication that ours has become a dysfunctional family.”

Xenia: Compassionate Hospitality
Examples: Katrina victims
“Xenia is “stranger love,” a type of love shown for and to strangers or guests-and featuring a solicitous warmth, hospitality and compassion for those with whom one typically does not have ready familiarity or close association.”

Xenia takes our love for family out further, giving us a love for everyone, because we are all part of the human family. This love is shown in giving hospitality to complete strangers in need, because we are all human and we will all be in need at some point. “There but for the grace of God go I.” The person in need today could be me tomorrow, and I would hope someone would help me. This too is a reciprocal love. The beloved in this case needs to love back by being willing to take the love offered without abusing it.

Philia: Mutual Stewardship
Examples: Belfast, Umma, Sangha
“As envisioned and practiced by the Greeks, philia is the type of loving sentiment that should undergird social relationships, even if the people involved do not know one another directly, but their lives intersect in some way because of common ends or some shared pursuit.”

Philia helps us admit our own needs, and that those needs can only be met by those around us. We must earn to overcome our differences and our pride to have these needs met, and to learn to meet the needs of others, “to find out why one's neighbor thinks differently rather than to find out how to show him up as an idiot.” This is the love that drives education, that fosters in us the desire to help others be able to think on their own, to survive in a world they didn't make and can't control.

Agape: Divine Love
Examples: Hiroshima, South Africa
“In Hellenic Greece, agape was considered the highest form of love, self-sacrificial and unconditional love that springs from an overflowing within.”

This is the unconditional, radical love that leads people to do things that on the surface appear completely irrational. But when this love is present, reason and emotion come together in ways that can change the world. This is the love exemplified by the forgers of new religious movements, though not necessarily the institutions who follow them and rely too greatly on reason, or fanatics who only follow their emotions. This love compels us to confront those we love, and shows us that hatred is not the opposite of love but a perverted attempt at love. This is the love that makes life worth living.

Socratic Love

These conclusions, a loose term, considering Socrates's views of love were always being recreated, were reached as he interacted with people. It is through other humans, and our interaction with them, that we get a glimpse of what love is.