Newsletter

Welcome back to the Philosophy Society!

It has been nearly 10 years since the philosophy society has been active. The first group was in Thunder Bay Ontario, in coordination with Lakehead University. Now, the Philosophy Society has established itself in Toronto Ontario, beginning with being open to any student from Ryerson University. The Philosophy Society is not directly associated with Ryerson University and is an independent organization. However, it is available to any student who wishes to participate.

Weekly Events:

Every Wednesday from 6pm - 8pm the Philosophy Society will meet at the Imperial Pub’s second floor.

Critical Thinking and Social Science Discussion

Discussion 1: Ethics

We first talked about the differences in consequentialism and deontology. Consequentialism was first developed by Bentham and Mill whereas deontology or duty based ethics was discussed by Kant.

One philosopher present at the meeting was discussing how all of our moral sentiments are molded by how society shames or praises us. We will choose not to steal based on the consequences of being caught.

In response, another philosopher completely disagreed, supporting the deontological view, by stating that the views of others is not what it means to be ethical. Each person has a view of themselves or their soul and to steal would mean to taint one’s soul or damage one’s character. Being ethical is independent of any consequences but has to do with our duty to be a good person.

Achilles Justice commented how his view is that there are ethical events that include both virtue ethics, consequentialism and deontological properties. Due to our limited perspective, via the human condition, we are not omniscient. We never really know an ethical event but can make observations based on certain properties of that event which include actions, the actor, the situation, the consequences, and ethical principles. To be ethical means that in ambiguous situations, we ask ourselves which ethical principles apply to that situation and similar to Aristotelian virtues ethics, we develop the practical wisdom on how to conduct ourselves in the most ethical manner. Some situations will require training to learn how to sort through our feelings and practice making decisions that are the most ethical.

Discussion 2: Power and the Indigenous

This discussion began with the meaning of power as defined as the ability to influence others. This influence can be voluntary or coercive. We transitioned to the concept of government and the problems of power being abused from and within government.

Question: Is it the structure of government itself that leads to abuses of power or the user of government who abuses their position of power?

Principle: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Machiavelli

To flush out the meaning of this question, we looked at the issues revolving around the residential school systems relative to the indigenous population. The Canadian government coerced the indigenous population into the residential school system to assimilate them into western culture. This approach lead to the cultural genocide of the indigenous population of Canada.

Through our discussion we learned that the coercive element of the residential school system not respecting the cultural diversity of the indigenous population was central to the problem. The situation would be very different if the Canadian government or any group in a position of power provided optional education, access to resources and community based programs to marginalized groups. If the approach or attitude was, “We will provide you shelter, food and education that you can decide and choose to take part of whenever you wish.” would be a much more constructive paradigm if helping the indigenous population was the goal. Respect for autonomy is paramount and something to be learned from the mistakes of the residential school system.

Reflecting back to the quote from Machiavelli, some systems of power or the way a government is structured may necessarily lead to an abuse of that system. A predominant theme in Plato’s republic paraphrased as ‘who guards the guards’ has the caution of who regulates the person in power?

Some systems, by the very nature of how they are structured can lead to the possibility of abuse. Not every user of the system will succumb to being an abuser, but eventually an individual like a psychopath, narcissistic or antisocial personality will if given the opportunity. We can prevent the corruption of government via the way we structure the social organization itself, by not allowing any one person absolute power.

Another concept that was brought up in the indigenous context was the term privilege and how this idea is being used. There is a misconception in its use that actually legitimizes abusers. Privilege defined as “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group” (dictionary.com) It is important not to confuse privilege with abuse. Just because someone gets away with corruption or abuse does not mean that it is a privilege. To call abuse or corruption a privilege is in a way legitimizing the behaviour and enabling it conceptually. No one has the right to be abusive or corrupt irrelevant of their social status or what group they belong to. A privilege is a right or an allowance of action based on good behaviour, for example:

a) The child has the privilege of staying up until 9:30 pm to watch a funny show. If they do not go to bed at 9:35 pm, they will lose that privilege.

b) That man has the privilege of drinking at the bar but if he becomes aggressive he will lose that privilege and be barred from this pub.

To use the phrase ‘white privilege’ as a way to explain corruption or abuse in some ways conceptually legitimizes the behaviour. It is better to never use the term privilege in this way and simply call the action for what it is: corruption or abuse. Let us leave the term privilege for positive freedoms that anyone can partake in, instead of blurring the lines of unethical behaviour by a misconception. If it is abuse or corruption, just call it that no matter who is doing it. No one, no matter their ethnicity has the 'privilege' to be abusive or corrupt.

Going back to our initial point of power as influence and the question of legitimacy in government. We can reduce or even eliminate how corruption is formed by structuring our systems in such a way that they cannot be abused. If someone is getting away with abusive or corrupt behaviour, they will be developing a pattern due to the lack of consequences for that behaviour. This means that those lack of consequences enable recklessness and the oppressed can capture evidence of their abusive corruption that much easier.

If you are part of a group that is suffering from corruption and must regulate your behaviour to a finer detail, you are essentially developing a higher quality of training in how you are engaging in political systems and relating to others. The person getting away with corruption, due to the lack of environmental consequences, is building habits that will give the oppressed the ability to construct a case against them. If you are being oppressed, you can choose the attitude that this is the training necessary for you to fight corruption and the oppressors. Your environment is more challenging yet the quality of your performance will be higher if you choose to allow it as a form of practice. The person with an unfair advantage who gets away with corruption, necessarily does not have access to more stringent training and will be less skilled than the oppressed who faces their circumstances as a challenge.

Discussion 3: The Evolutionary Psychology of Attraction and Mating

Our evening finished off with a discussion about the differences in the sexes in terms of our instincts for attraction and mating. When we look at David Buss’ research on the evolutionary psychology of human mating we find that women and men have evolved to have very different preferences for mate selection. The wisdom in understanding this information means that as a woman or man in a heterosexual relationship, you have the ability to create attraction in the other for you simply by training yourself to meet those instinctual needs. The best man is the one who knows what his woman needs from him and never has to talk about it.The same goes for a woman. Much of our relationship problems can be avoided if we simply understood what our evolutionary past geared us to feel desire for.

We then transitioned to the discussion of healthy relationships. Having boundaries in our relationships is essential for our own health and the longevity of our partnership. If we say that we are in love, it makes sense to reserve our best selves for that person we are in love with. This means that in times when we are at our worst, we are best to rely on our own self-love to nurture our well-being instead of relying on our partner to do this for us.

First we must learn to love ourselves before we can love others. Loving ourselves means being emotionally mature and learning how to deal with our negative feelings in a healthy way. Putting emotional labour on our partner, for example, adds unnecessary negative feelings in the relationship that could be dealt with independently. There is a place to support each other, but as adults we have a responsibility to ourselves to deal with our own emotions in a healthy way. It is not fair to our partner to expect them to deal with our emotions for us. Relationships don't begin by showing the worst part of you to the other person.

The dating and courting phase is one where you show the best part of yourself. Throughout the relationship, if you do not have healthy boundaries, you will be toxifying the connection between you and the person you love with emotions that could have been sorted out on your own. Let us leave the best of ourselves for the best person in our life. The chances of a long loving relationship is much greater with that wisdom.

© Achilles Atlas Justice and achillesjustice.com, 2018-22. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Achilles Atlas Justice and achillesjustice.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.