Hello Philosophy Society!

This week had great participation and turnout. We had a moment to see what everyone thought on a variety of topics. It is important for the training and skills the philosophy society is based on that everyone has an opportunity to practice communicating about complex ideas. We meet with the intention to learn how to communicate, be philosophical, and learn about the skills related to the good life.

Discussion 1: Age Old Wisdom

Does wisdom come with age? Philosophy is broken down into philo - sophia or the love of wisdom. To truly appreciate wisdom of all kinds means to not be ageist and discriminate people on the value of what they have to say based on their age. Younger people can teach us a lot because they may not have years of sociocultural biases that have accumulated through experience.

It is important to evaluate the merit of all wisdom based on the claim itself and not on the one who makes the claim. It would be a logical fallacy to dismiss a claim based on the age of the speaker for making a criticism, “you are too young to have anything of value to say” would be an ad hominem fallacy. The age of the person has nothing to do with the wisdom they may provide and the only way to know is to observe and critically evaluate the behaviour or the statements the person demonstrates.

Wisdom can come from experience in the sense that after repeated exposure to nature and our environment we can see patterns. Knowing these patterns, like dry flammable materials can easily catch fire if they are too close to a bonfire, can give us the wisdom to keep those materials far enough away from the fire so they do not combust.

In the context of ‘wisdom comes with experience,’ this would be relevant to our ability to process our experiences in such a way that we can derive generalizable information from those experiences. Some people with cognitive deficits or lifelong substance use disorders may be severely limited in the kind of wisdom they can derive from their experiences. Even so, it is still worth hearing them out just to test any prejudicial tendencies we may have.

Remember: Critical thinking is our ability to evaluate and assess claims, evidence, and beliefs.

Discussion 2: COVID Reflection

Living through COVID-19 was quite an unexpected and difficult situation for the entire world. We had to follow many mandates for the good of the global community and trust our scientific experts as they learned how to best deal with the situation. Many people died and many of us suffered from the virus itself.

We all have the opportunity to accept the resilience we have developed as a society and species. We fought through this virus and each of us who survived has become a stronger person from it. As difficult as it may have been, in those moments of dark loneliness, we prevailed as a people and came together in unity for our own survival.

Depending on how we view the situation, it can be a negative or positive appraisal of our experience. Developing an empowering and resilient attitude that humanity cannot be broken by a plague that could potentially wipe us all out is motivating that we can embrace whatever may come in our future. Each one of us that developed our scientific literacy and used our critical thinking skills to understand the implications of epidemiology were actively saving humanity from something we cannot see with our bare eyes.

Know that we have a right to be here in this universe simply because of our existence in itself. We are the cosmos awakened and conscious of itself. We can find balance within the environment that bore us and continue to grow as a species in this vast universe.

Discussion 3: Mistakes

Mistakes are part of life. It is important to understand the value of our mistakes. The acknowledgement of a mistake is the seed of learning. Without acknowledging that a course of action, behaviour or decision could have been done otherwise to produce a difference result, we are stuck in a perpetual cycle of our own condemnation. If we have the capacity for self-awareness, it is only an unhealthy self-esteem or self-concept (some call it the Ego) that can prevent us from growing from our mistakes.

Your mistake is not a representation of who you are in your totality as a person. It is your human nature growing towards an ideal that your mind has developed from your experiences. If you do not learn to integrate your mistakes in a healthy way you will not adequately be able to achieve your goals or desires. You will find yourself repeating these mistakes and making up irrelevant explanations to remove yourself from responsibility.

The pain and discomfort we feel from our mistakes is important. These negative feelings are part of that which is necessary for learning. Those emotions will motivate you not to do the thing again. It is difficult to know the balance of these negative feelings hence why some personalities, like narcissism, have such trouble with it.

If we can learn to be accepting and loving of ourselves, in light of the mistakes and the negative feelings that come with accepting them, then we can use these instances as fuel to become something great. It is only you who can bring your present self to your best future self.

Discussion 4: Other’s Mistakes

When other people make mistakes it usually matters when we are hurt by them, they get in the way of our self interest, or appear socially inappropriate. How we treat others in these circumstances is very important for our patience and understanding yet acknowledging that the mistake occurred, can help the other person in their learning process. Some people may find it difficult to accept mistakes in general, hence one of the traits of narcissism is a resistance to feedback and criticism, the lack of emotional regard for others in psychopaths, or the lack of remorse in sociopaths.

It is important to give others the opportunity to accept responsibility for their mistakes and only in the instance of the three pathologies listed above ought we use social mechanisms like ostracization or exclusion as a punishment. Even when we have to remove someone from the group, it is important to always give that person the choice and opportunity to accept responsibility as the key to gaining group status. For example, ‘unless you apologize to Jenifer for how you made her feel and accept to learn to act differently that takes into account her feelings, you cannot join the club.’

Now, let us not forget the ultimate philosophical superpower: Critical thinking. The problem of gaslighting, where we impose false psychological illnesses and conditions on someone or when we simply misperceive something that has occurred can be corrected by the philosophical process. If we are open to discussion and the perspectives of others and use evidence and factual based means, we can rule out issues of distortions and the biases in our perceptions.

It is not true that what we see is always the case. We have to learn to accept that maybe we perceive things incorrectly and demanding that others submit to our view of the world is not helping anyone. A mistake is only true if it actually happened and could have been avoided. The event needs the possibility of being done otherwise and a sense of intentionality on the actors part. All of these factors and more are relevant in understanding what occurred in our process of creating a harmonious social group that is inclusive even in situations where someone does something we don’t like.

Be part of the solution, not the problem. Avoiding problems is not a solution. It is a new problem created as a pseudo-solution to the initial problem.

Discussion 5: Guardians of Power and Corruption

In Plato’s republic a problem identified is if the guardians of the city are put in place to protect the city from corruption, who is to protect the guardians from not becoming corrupt? The answer is that the guardian’s themselves must protect themselves from not becoming corrupt. This can be done in two ways. The first is that a guardian can protect other guardians by identifying corruption in others. The most important way is for a guardian to protect themselves from corruption. To protect oneself from corruption is to have the self-awareness that some situations in themselves can leave the possibility for corruption and hence one ought not put themselves in that situation. The other can be found in Aristotle's virtue ethics.

If we can identify with certain virtues, like Justice, and make that virtue part of our identity, it can become more important than specific instances where we could act in a corrupt way. We can learn to be the embodiment of a specific virtue through practicing its application in real life situations. The problem of self-interest, as seen in the game theory paradox of the prisoner’s dilemma, is a direct problem to the value of being virtuous.

Virtues are abstract ideas. Only certain kinds of people can appreciate the meaning of what these ideas are and how to apply them in real life situations. These people, which I call agents, those who have agency, are the leaders and guardians of our society. If you have the capacity to understand abstract and generalizable ideas, you have a duty to society to learn these virtues and embody them for those who lack the cognitive capacity to do so for themselves.

A guardian is one who uses their power to protect themselves and others who cannot protect themselves.

Discussion 6: People Kill People or Guns Kill people?

The U.S. is constantly plagued with gun violence. A premise that is used to justify gun laws in the U.S. is that it is not guns that kill people, but people who use guns to kill people. It is the intention of the person that is behind the finger pulling the trigger. Some people do not have agency or hold malicious intentions towards others. People who suffer from malicious psychopathology are a danger to society. Having a context where these kinds of people have access to weapons that can kill many innocent persons is a serious problem for any society.

Some forms of technology in themselves are problems because they are designed specifically to kill other humans like the AR 15 assault rifle or Nuclear weapons. Having this kind of technology in society only increases the risk to society in general; a utilitarian risk. In some moments, a person with agency may lose their capacity for autonomous decision making as seen in crimes of passion or when under the influence of substances like alcohol or cocaine. Having weapons that are really only made to kill large groups of people becomes a serious issue in circumstances where people who lack agency get them and have intentions to use them for malicious purposes. Nuclear weapons pose a threat especially in circumstances where the leader of a nation who has access to those weapons may lose agency themselves and there are no safeguards to prevent them from using the weapon.

Questions not discussed this meeting:

1) Should we save the people in North Korea?

2) If humans are too bad to each other and the environment, why should we exist?

3) Does truth or falsity exist?

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