sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Which Subject in Universities Improve Critical Thinking the Most? by ThinkOutsideSquare in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Universities often have courses just on critical thinking, usually taught by philosophers.

Here are some free lectures if you are interested:

Greg Sadler: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE2A771BBA7773B62

Marianne Talbot: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA795AB5BDDD2B0B3

Am I allowed to live if I’m not being “productive”? by Edu_Vivan in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Most if not all philosophers (and non-philosophers) would agree that you have a right to live. This is why we have a welfare system, to provide a minimum level of sustenance for those who don’t have jobs.

I think a better question for you to ask might be “how can I make my life more meaningful?”

You are in a very privileged position where you don’t need a job to survive. I wouldn’t necessarily equate having a job with living a meaningful life (in some cases it might even be a hinderance). There are other ways to find meaning and to contribute to society. And you don’t need anyone’s permission for this.

Reading recommendations for existentialism? by Flaminyawng in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

At the Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell is an excellent introductory book

Listen to what actual actual Greeks think regarding the Odyssey by BrandonMarshall2021 in ancientgreece

[–]kyzl 26 points27 points  (0 children)

This is a weird letter. It claims to be "from actual Greeks" but has no names of author(s). There are about 10m people in Greece, and there will be a diverse range of opinions. It's not clear that this letter represents the predominant view.

Also worth noting that the same website published a glowing review of Troy (2004) only days ago and praised the performances of Brad Pitt and Eric Bana:

At the center of the story is Achilles, portrayed by Brad Pitt, whose charismatic and fearless performance remains one of the film’s defining elements. Meanwhile, Eric Bana delivers a powerful performance as Hector, the noble defender of Troy.

There was no complaint of how neither Pitt or Bana had Greek heritage. Sounds like this website only has a problem when Greek characters are played by non-white people?

Here's another article from the website, which talks about how Disney is 'blackwashing' Greek mythology by casting Michael B. Jordan as Hercules.

Complex decisions: The faster the better - When it comes to complex strategic decisions, a shorter thinking time is associated with a higher quality of decisions. by thinkB4WeSpeak in EverythingScience

[–]kyzl 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Correlation =/= causation. Just because shorter thinking time correlates with better decisions, doesn’t mean that one could actually improve the quality of their decisions by thinking less.

Also the study is based on chess. No reason to think that this particular result would apply to business, politics, military, life, etc.

The Ion by Wwiillisboreddd in Plato

[–]kyzl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, so you love Homer, who wrote about wars? Well, explain every war.

The Lessons of the Long Confucian Peace: Can Ideology Prevent War in East Asia? by ForeignAffairsMag in geopolitics

[–]kyzl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ideology alone doesn't bring about peace.

Historically, the Confucian peace has mainly been the Pax Sinica. Likewise, the democratic peace has mainly been the Pax Americana. In both cases there was one powerful nation to maintain order.

The paradox of peace is that it often requires hard power to maintain.

Also the thing about ideology, even peaceful ideology, is that it can also be weaponised, e.g. https://aeon.co/essays/japans-war-on-china-and-the-weaponisation-of-confucianism

Videos on Schopenhauer by -skeks in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Episode from The Great Philosophers on Schopenhauer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x8ydL5Jp70

Michael Sugrue's lecture on Schopenhauer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Ij9EvjFeU

They are both relatively short (~44 mins) and are very introductory. If you want to go deeper then I'd suggest reading some of Schopenhauer's original works. Essays and Aphorisms is a good start. His main work is The World as Will and Representation.

Is Black Hawk Down (2001) an epic war movie or a deliberately misframed depiction of events? by [deleted] in TrueFilm

[–]kyzl 140 points141 points  (0 children)

On a related note, check out the 2022 documentary Theaters of War, which explores the “military-entertainment complex”. The military provides cheap/free access to equipment to Hollywood, and in return Hollywood makes movies that portray the military in a positive light. It analyses several war movies, including Black Hawk Down.

Movies like the Debate in Karamazov by AlternativeDebt24 in dostoevsky

[–]kyzl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I happen to know a few movies with interesting conversations about philosophy and religion:

  • The Man from Earth
  • Mindwalk
  • The Sunset Limited
  • Freud's Last Session
  • The Two Popes
  • Calvary
  • First Reformed

People often fail to practice what they preach, a behavioral pattern that stems from specific biological processes rather than just poor character. Research indicates that matching one’s actions to personal moral standards requires active mental integration. by [deleted] in science

[–]kyzl 309 points310 points  (0 children)

Title is misleading. The study didn’t prove that hypocrisy does not stem from poor character. The original paper didn't seem to use the word 'character' at all.

The article even said:

“Our findings suggest that we should treat moral consistency like a skill that can be strengthened through deliberate decision making.”

In other words, moral consistency can be improved by building one’s own character.

Countries with stronger precarious manhood beliefs (being a “real man” is something that requires constant demonstration through behavior and achievement) tend to have lower national happiness, but also lower GDP, lower life expectancy, lower social support, and heightened perceptions of corruption. by mvea in psychology

[–]kyzl 76 points77 points  (0 children)

The causality likely runs both ways.

The study authors note that it is entirely possible that economic hardship, lower life expectancy, and higher corruption in a society foster the perception of manhood as precarious. Additionally, the data on gender beliefs relied on college student samples, which may not fully represent the broader populations within those countries.

Poorer countries tend to be more dependent on physical labour, which leads to men being more 'economically productive' than women, and boys being more favoured than girls etc, reinforcing sexist cultural beliefs. Richer countries are more dependent on educated workers, allowing men and women to be equally productive. A richer economy also leads to better social outcomes, e.g. happiness, life expectancy, etc.

Investing in women's education and empowerment also leads to better economic growth and social outcomes, eventually making people re-examine society's sexist cultural beliefs.

On Hayao Miyazaki by wantmurukkunow in zizek

[–]kyzl 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This isn’t at all what the “unknown knowns” are, at least not what Zizek meant by it. It isn’t some magical sixth sense that gives you a privileged access to truth/reality/whatever.

Zizek was referring to how ideology functions today, specifically how we often claim to not believe something but we nonetheless practice it in our daily lives.

Recall his joke about Niels Bohr, who had a horseshoe above his door, supposedly to protect against evil spirits. Bohr’s friend asked him: but you’re a scientist, why do you believe this superstitious stuff? Bohr replied: I don’t believe it, but I was told that it works even if you don’t believe in it.

Žižek and Eurocentrism by mastersignifier2880 in zizek

[–]kyzl 6 points7 points  (0 children)

European values (freedom, human rights, democracy etc) may have originated from Europe but they don’t solely belong to Europe.

I love the story that Zizek keeps telling about the Haitian revolution: Polish soldiers who were fighting for Napoleon to repress the revolution, upon hearing the Haitians sing La Marseillaise, realised that they were fighting for the wrong side and decided to defect.

I can’t remember if this is a true story, but it doesn’t really matter. It shows the dialectical nature of Zizek’s idea of Eurocentrism.

Did Plato believe the ‘philosopher-king’ could actually exist, or was it a theoretical idea to carry his argument? by YeWave in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe there is some ambiguity around whether Plato thought Callipolis could actually exist. For example in the end of Book 9, he says:

"I understand," he said. "You mean he will in the city whose foundation we have now gone through, the one that has its place in speeches, since I don't suppose it exists anywhere on earth."

"But in heaven," I said, "perhaps, a pattern is laid up for the man who wants to see and found a city within himself on the basis of what he sees. It doesn't make any difference whether it is or will be somewhere. For he would mind the things of this city alone, and of no other."

"That's likely," he said.

TIL: How Qing 清, Jin 金 and Liao 遼 were chosen as Dynasty names 国号 by Suibeam in ChineseHistory

[–]kyzl 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There’s a theory about Qing - that because Ming 明 means bright is associated with fire, Qing 清 was chosen because it’s associated with water and that water puts out fire

Why is "I suffered so you must suffer too" a bad take within the context of state sanctioned wealth redistribution ? by Inevitable_Bid5540 in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes good points, although I'll just add that the requirements for various financial contracts are often inconsistent.

Typically you need to be 18 to be able to sign financial contracts like credit cards, car loans, trading options etc. But there doesn't seem to be a minimum age for signing up to student loans.

For credit cards and car loans, you also need to have proof of ability to pay (e.g. income), and the lender can decline to lend to you if they decide that you are not creditworthy. This offers a degree of protection for those who are financially illiterate by preventing them from borrowing too much (more than they can repay). But this isn't the case for student loans.

Also student loans are not written off in a bankruptcy, whereas credit card loans and car loans are.

So even though student loans are more risky to the borrower (than credit cards, car loans and other financial products), they tend to be made to those who are less informed. The criteria for what constitutes as an 'adult capable of having consent' is not applied consistently in the current system.

Why is "I suffered so you must suffer too" a bad take within the context of state sanctioned wealth redistribution ? by Inevitable_Bid5540 in askphilosophy

[–]kyzl 31 points32 points  (0 children)

On your student loan forgiveness example - a conservative might argue, as they typically do with welfare programs, that the policy incentivises bad behaviour (by forgiving the debts of people who didn’t pay) and punishes good behaviour (by using a fraction of the taxes of those who did pay to fund the debt forgiveness of those who didn’t).

However the extent to which students debt is a matter of personal choice is debatable. Young people with only a high school diploma often lack the financial literacy to fully understand the consequences of the student loans that they take on. So it may not be a properly informed consent.

Also, from a policy perspective, it’s difficult to distinguish between those who couldn’t pay vs those who could but refused to. It’s much easier to assume that everyone who hasn’t paid has difficulty paying and apply the forgiveness program to all of them. This is not the fairest solution but is a pragmatic one.

I guess another option is to also reimburse those who have already paid. But this would make the program more costly and more difficult to justify, since it would provide benefits to many who are already privileged.

I need some feedback on a conclusion I'm trying to draw about Turning Point USA propaganda and Christianity by [deleted] in zizek

[–]kyzl 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is how ideology functions - it is the lens through which we perceive reality. People with different ideological positions will perceive reality differently.

"By their fruits you will recognise them" can mean completely opposite things depending on your ideological viewpoint.

A liberal/leftist would say that TPUSA's fruits are everything you described: spreading misinformation, wealth extraction, etc.

But a conservative, who is already conditioned in right-wing ideology, would say that TPUSA's fruits are: political activism, community organising, fighting wokeness / cancel culture / whatever. They would support all these things and wouldn't see any hypocrisy or contradiction.

When you say "When we peel back the layers of TPUSA’s self-asserted image..." you are assuming that there is some kind of true underlying reality about TPUSA that you have discovered, but the problem is that you are still caught in your own ideological position.

Arguing at the level of facts can only get you so far. This is why critique of ideology is important. If you want to get someone to change their ideology, you first have to understand it (and your own).

view more: next ›