MIS VIDEO

Don't worry, be happy!

Philosophy and the Good Life

Jason Gavenda

Introduction
Mortimer J. Adler’s Philosophy and the Good Life examines man’s search for satisfaction in life through himself and the role that philosophy plays in achieving this happiness. I believe that philosophy is a necessary ingredient for the individual and for society to live a life that is mutually fulfilling as well as virtuous to both, one which primarily strives to attain a true happiness for all by doing what is good for oneself. First, I will define the “good life” and then describe the ways one can achieve such a life.

The Basics
Philosophy is defined broadly by Webster’s Online Dictionary as, “The rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics” (2008). An exploration of these three branches and their necessity to the definition of philosophy follows.
The first factor is existence; philosophy seeks the truth in origin of things. It offers types of parallelisms to which one can compare as particular situations arise. Existence as defined by Merriam-Webster is “a manner of being that is common to every mode of being.” Philosophy primarily deals with the conscience part of the rational manner of the mortal being.
Second, philosophy seeks to understand through the vehicle of reasoning. As stated in our lecture notes, “Every animal is mortal, every human being is an animal, so therefore every human being is mortal.” Statements such as these foster logical reasoning of thought which we hope will culminate in true conclusions, thus allowing us to gain knowledge of things.
Third, philosophy seeks to determine the ethics of things as to their right or wrong in a given situation. Ethics as defined by Wikipedia is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life (2008). It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is the “good life,” which is the life worth living or life that is satisfying and is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.

Defining a “Good Life”
The term “mutually fulfilling” can be used to describe the method in which an individual can obtain a truly good life. When one lives a mutually fulfilling good life, not only does one fulfill one’s needs, but one also fulfills those needs of others—but only if in fulfilling those needs of others one can also benefit the needs of oneself. This benefit may take the form of achieving that which is good, or a true happiness.
Perhaps Jesus of Nazareth illustrated this idea best when he instructed his people to, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This indeed is a philosophical approach that demonstrates that doing that which is intrinsically good to others can and will have an intrinsically good repercussion on oneself. That is, doing good for other can help one achieve true happiness, or a “good life”, so long as doing such good does not take away from doing good for oneself.
However, before we go any further we must define “needs” as they relate to the benefit of oneself and of others; these needs that are mutually fulfilling are needs that are necessary to that of a good life. These needs are not found in material possessions, such as posh estates or expensive linens. Mortimer J. Adler describes these needs in his 1974 essay Philosophy and the Good Life:
“Our needs are the same, whether our needs represent our wants or not. For example, being animals that vegetate, we all naturally need food. Being social animals, we all need friendship and love. Being persons with freedom of choice, we all naturally need freedom. Even though we don’t want these things—though most of us do—we would need them. And we would all need them, because we are human, though what one man wants for himself and his family may differ from what another man wants.”

These needs as Adler describes them are those needs of which philosophy can help bring out intrinsic, thus resulting in an achievement of true happiness. However, Adler cautions us not to take this too far by stating,
“…the basic moral obligation of each of us is not to others but to ourselves. One of the great mistakes in moral philosophy is the mistake of the do-gooder who thinks only of the good of others and not of the good of himself; and therefore really doesn’t think of the good of others very critically or competently.”

So as Alder says, by doing good for oneself we do good to others, ultimately resulting in a true happiness.
Irving Singer, in his Meaning in Life, reinforces this idea. Singer says that by doing good for ourselves in a healthy manner, “we act with assurance that people like ourselves are capable of creating sense and value in their lives” (1992, p. 42). He goes on to say that because people are able to find meaning in their lives, they avoid the “…misery and general chaos…” that would otherwise ensue (1992, p. 42).
Mortimer’s statements also help examine meaning as it relates to the individual person. For example, for a person to have meaning in a positive sense, one could volunteer one’s time to helping others. People who donate their time for the benefit of others experience a fulfilling satisfaction of giving. Wikipedia defines a volunteer as “someone who works for free for a community or for the benefit of natural environment primarily because they choose to do so” (2008). The word comes from Latin and can be translated as “will” (as in doing something out of one’s own free will). Wikipedia also states that “Volunteerism could be an act that would help strengthen one’s temperance.” However, this good act is act mutually beneficial for both parties, thus helping define the “good life.”

Key Ingredients for Happiness
“Moral virtues” as defined by the Catholic Encyclopedia (2008) are virtues which “perfect the appetitive faculties of the soul, namely, the will and the sensuous appetite. Moral virtue is so called from the word ‘mos’, which signifies a certain natural or quasi-natural inclination to do a thing.” By living up to the standards of moral virtues, one can expect to live a life that is indeed one of truly fulfilling happiness.
As mentioned earlier, temperance is an example of a moral virtue. Temperance acts as a type of restraint limiting excessiveness of various activities that could lead to that of a less happy and fulfilling life. Temperance provides the ability for moderation when it comes to abstaining from certain foods and chastity when it comes to sexual encounters. In addition, temperance can take the form of sobriety when it comes to the consumption of alcohol or drugs.
Another example of a key ingredient for happiness is the moral virtue of fortitude. Fortitude, as defined by the Catholic Encyclopedia (2008), “removes from the will those obstacles arising from the difficulties of doing what reason requires.” Fortitude, as defined by the class notes on Nichomachean Ethics, is “strengthening one in a reasonable and right fashion to act against difficulties and dangers to attain some good or to protect those goods one already has.” For example, one who is deeply anchored in fortitude can overcome the most difficult of situations. Fortitude gives one the strength to pick up the pieces from that of a devastating tornado, much like it gives one the ability to carry on and go on with ones live after the loss of a loved one.
Although most people will find it difficult to live a life strictly adhering to these moral virtues, and therefore will consider themselves imperfect, Irving Singer reassures us that perfection is simply “a device for extrapolation beyond the status quo and that only rarely—if ever—can we hope to experience a pure example of it” (1992, p. 96). However, by using these key virtues to better oneself, one is well on his way to living that of a happy and good life for not only himself but his society as well.

Stumbling Blocks
Charles Gore, in his book The Philosophy of a Good Life writes,
“Everywhere mankind appears—even in the rudest tribes—as having some sort of standard of a good life—the life which binds man to his fellows, or conversely a life the obligations of which he cannot ignore without falling under obloquy and punishment” (1930, p. 17).

This obloquy Gore talks about could be construed to be that of desire, which hunts all mortal beings. There are occasions when our desires, passions, and pleasures overtake our rational thinking, making us become beast-like with irrationality and causing us to be burdened by those things that are intrinsically bad for our lives. These beasts of burden seem good at the moment of doing, yet cause our vision to become so myopic that we lose sight of that which is good and focus on that which is bad. This results in a change of our moral compass from that which is destined for the good life to that which is on a course to the bowels of an unfulfilling and less than desirable life.
The song “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones is about such ill desires and the struggling that takes place to quell them. The opening lines that demonstrate this principle follow:
“I’ll never be your beast of burden,
My back is broad, but it’s a hurting,
All I want is for you to make love to me.
I’ll never be your beast of burden,
I’ve walked for miles, my feet are hurting,
All I want is for you to make love to me.”

From these lyrics we can see how the singer grapples with his desires of passion but proclaims that his desires are genuine. Thus, we see the internal, or perhaps moral, compass that points toward good but is easily manipulated off course. These animalistic urges essentially suffocate one’s free will and thus block achievement of true happiness. As such, man must be able to identify what actions are good for oneself and what actions are actually more detrimental in the long run. That is, man must strive to resist the temptations and evil urges that may appear to provide satisfaction or happiness at first but actually result in destruction.

Final Thoughts
As Irving Singer says in his book The Meaning of Life,
“Even if there is no meaning of life, or if this meaning is unknowable, or if the entire question is nonsensical in some respect, we may nevertheless hope for illumination about the circumstances under which human beings are able to achieve a meaningful existence” (1992, p. 38).

As Singer describes, this achievement of a meaningful existence can happen if one lives that of a happy and fulfilling life. But in order to make this happy and fulfilling life possible, one must strive to live by the moral virtues. By following these moral virtues, one can benefit oneself and thus ultimately benefit that of society in a positive way of living by promoting that of the good life enriched in true happiness.


References
Adler, Mortimer J. (1974, May). Philosophy and the Good Life. The Australian
Director. Retrieved March 25, 2008 from http://radicalacademy.com/
adlerdirectory.htm.

Fortitude. (2008, April). The Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 16, 2008 from
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm.
Moral Virtues. (2008, April). The Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 16, 2008
from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm.

Ethics. (2008). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved April 19, 2008 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics.

Gore, Charles. (1930). The Philosophy of the Good Life. London: J. M. Dent & Sons,
Ltd.

Philosophy. (2008). Webster’s Online Dictionary. Retrieved April 14, 2008 from
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/philosophy.

Singer, Irving. (1992). Meaning in Life. New York: The Free Press.

Volunteer. (2008). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved April 19, 2008 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer.

The BIG THREE, who is faster? Msn, Yahoo or Google?

In this blog we will discuss the performance of the big three search engines.What we are going to do for this simple test is use a key word and find out how long it takes the big three to return the results, we will also see how many page is they have returned



















Photo courtesy of http://www.leeboothroyd.co.uk/

I used Catasauqua as my search word, being it's my hometown, I thought I would see how many relevant sites it would return and how long it took to return them!

Using Google to search for Catasauqua, it returned over 850,000 sites relativity instantaneous. Google featured a map of the town and also offered some alternative searching phrases.

Using Yahoo to search for Catasauqua, it returned over 1.4 million sites relativity instantaneous. Yahoo featured no map of the tome but did feature some alternative searching phases.

Using MSN to search for Catasauqua, it returned over 350,000 sites relatively instantaneous. MSN featured no map of the town but did feature alternative searching phases.

• Yahoo: Results 1 - 10 of 1,480,000 for catasauqua - (0.25 seconds)
• Google: Results 1 - 10 of 883,000 for catasauqua. (0.22 seconds)
• MSN: Results 1-10 of 355,000 for catasauqua. (Time not given)

MSN proved to return the most concise results. However their site does lack a display showing search execution time.

Podcast: Cybercrime

Photo courtesy of http://www.britannica.com/

Please click here to listen to my podcast!

You can also play my podcast via the podcast player on the top left of my blog! That way you can stay on my blogsite!


National Public Radio did a piece on cyber crime entitled, "Cyber Sleuths Zero In as Web Fraud Takes Toll"

Please click here to read and listen to the piece




Sources for podcast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14961-computer-crime-a-growing-threat-warns-fbi-.html

Backpack Journalism : Jack of all trades master of none!

Photo courtesy of AgWired.com

To be a Backpack Journalist, you must be a jack of all trades. Backpack Journalists are writers, producers, reporters, and, most importantly, on-demand technical aficionados! You must be able to use the necessary technology to accomplish their duties, whether you are on the floor of the Amazon rainforest, in the desert of Iraq, or on the shores of the Zambezi. Technology has no boundaries anymore, so the report must go out.

Your equipment, should you choose to embark on such ubiquitous profession, shall include a laptop computer loaded with video-producing software, a cell phone (or, more preferably, a satellite phone), and a high-quality camera. All this should begin to get your feet wet as a mobile media Machiavellian.

Just having this gadgetry will by no means make you a Walter Cronkite. It will, however, enable you to get your news story out from practically any location on the spinning globe to an information-hungry society.

This kind of portability comes at a price, not only in terms of the costs of the equipment, but in terms of video quality, transmission capabilities, and local laws and regulations.
For starters you’re going to need a laptop—preferably a rugged one like the RNB-230 Max, which retails for about $4,675. However, this kind of durability is a requirement in backpack journalism. With its magnesium alloy case, shock-mounted hard drive, and spill-resistant keyboard, not even Anacondas in the Amazon can squeeze the information out of the secure shell of the RNB-230 Max.

You’ll need to load that rugged laptop with video-editing software such as Vegas Pro 8. At $550, this software will provide a solid foundation that brings the capabilities of editing SD or HD video with drag-and-drop functionality, mouse and keyboard trimming, and ripple editing. Features include ProType Titling technology, multicamera editing tools, and 32-bit floating point video processing!

Once your laptop is fully-loaded with the latest video editing software, you are going to need to communicate to and from any point on the globe in order to get your story out to the pubic. This is where the Motorola Iridium 9805a Satellite Phone comes into play. With calling plans starting at about $1,345, it is obviously not indented to make calls to your grandmother on Sundays. This is a serious communication tool that is necessary to get your word out no matter where on the globe the story takes you. The key with this phone is that you can use it to transmit data with an optional RS232 adapter IrDA Port, which enables you not only to send but also video to anywhere on the globe!

Finally, you’ll need a camera to capture the story for your audience’s viewing pleasure. The one you’ll want to take with you should be none other than the Canon GL2 mini DV Digital Video Camera. At $2150, it’s meant for serious business when reporting out in the field. Weighing it at a mere 2.2 lbs, it won’t break your backpack straps and will still deliver 20x zoom capabilities so you don’t have to get too close to the action. This is particularly important in hostile environments where your reporting may be considered more of an act of war than a freedom of press!

As you may now realize, being a Backpack Journalist requires many skills when it comes to properly utilizing sophisticated equipment. It also isn’t a cheap hobby if you want to do it right. And while the days and nights are long, your office is the outdoors, and the water cooler is the nearest stream, having the proper equipment allows backpack journalists to bring stories to people around the world. From hurricane coverage to the frontlines of the battlefield, backpack journalism is there!


Sources for the posting:

http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/today/vol/summer08/071508-gentile.html

http://www.gannett.com/career/bpj.htm

http://eastwikkers.typepad.com/eastwikkers_/2007/02/backpack_journa.html

http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/products/RNB230Max/

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro

http://www.exlint.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=12&pg=1

http://www.satellitephone.com/#meinav=iridium

http://salestores.com/ca79glmidv3c.html

Congrats Phils, I was 4 the last time!

Hi!

Hello All! Welcome to my new blog, well actually I started this blog back in 2005 and been on a sort of hiatus! Anyway, I'm working on getting my blogging skills back online, so bear with me!