philosophy

Recession or depression and its cause predictied. Conservative philosophy and far right is flawed and self-distructive. Financial manipulations by banks and deregulation needs to be revisited and focused upon.

http://www.pointofinquiry.org/ Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry, including The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology; Doubt: A History; The Happiness Myth, and her book of poetry, Funny, which Publishers Weekly called one of the most original and entertaining books of the year. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Hecht talks about the relationship of her book Doubt: A History to the books of the New Atheists, if media reception of the New Atheists was "gendered," and in what sense her book is "less evangelical" than theirs. She explains what she means by the kind of doubt she believes in, how it is broader and deeper than mere disbelief, and the ways in which doubt can feed belief. She explores the implications of doubt for scientific inquiry, and how doubt should be applied to the questions and the certitude that some scientists and skeptics express. She talks about the importance of art, poetry and psychoanalysis for doubting, and how such forms of introspection and expression increase the benefits of doubt. And she reveals some her favorite doubters in history, and what she learns from them.

Conspiracy writings Icke has published at least 20 books outlining his views, a mixture of New Age philosophy and apocalyptic conspiracism. American political scientist Michael Barkun, in a 2003 study of conspiracy theory subculture, writes that Icke is "the most fluent of conspiracy authors, which gives his writings a clarity rarely found in the genre." His talent for communicating with people led The Observer to call him "the Greens' Tony Blair." Icke's core ideas are outlined in four books written over seven years: The Robots' Rebellion (1994), And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995), The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World (1999), and Children of the Matrix (2001). The basic conspiracy theory is that the world is controlled by a network of secret societies referred to as the "Brotherhood," at the apex of which stand the "Illuminati" or "Global Elite." The goal of the Brotherhood is a world government, a plan that Icke says was laid out in the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Icke says are really the revealed plans of the Illuminati. Icke, in common with many other conspiracy theorists, says the methods of these conspirators include control of the world's economies and the use of mind-control techniques. The Global Elite controls the Brotherhood and the world using what Icke calls a "pyramid of manipulation," consisting of sets of hierarchical structures involving banking, business, the military, education, the media, religion, drug...

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/07/14/Ethics_of_Using_Biomedicine_to_Enhance_Ourselves Arthur Caplan, Director of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses ethical issues concerning genetic engineering and genetically handicapped children. ----- Arthur Caplan discusses Is it Immoral to Want to Live Longer, Be Smarter and Look Better? The Ethics of Using Biomedicine to Enhance Ourselves and Our Children as a part of The Ethical Frontiers of Science during the 2008 Chautauqua Institution morning lecture series. Arthur Caplan serves as the Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is the author or editor of twenty-five books and over 500 papers in refereed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy. His most recent book is Smart Mice Not So Smart People (2006). He has served on a number of national and international committees, including as the chair of the National Cancer Institute Biobanking Ethics Working Group; the chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning; the chair of the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability; the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy; the ethics committee of the American Society of Gene Therapy; and the...

David Vaughan Icke, born 29 April 1952, is a British writer and public speaker who has devoted himself since 1990 to researching "who and what is really controlling the world." A former professional football player, reporter, television sports presenter, and spokesman for the Green Party, he is the author of 20 books explaining his views. Icke argues that he has developed a moral and political worldview that combines New Age spiritualism with a passionate denunciation of what he sees as totalitarian and Orwellian trends in the modern world, a position that has been described as "New Age conspiracism." At the heart of Icke's theories is the view that the world is ruled by a secret group referred to as the "Global Elite" or "Illuminati," which he has linked to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic hoax. In 1999, he published The Biggest Secret, in which he wrote that the Illuminati are a race of reptilian humanoids known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie. According to Political Research Associates, Icke's speaking engagements can draw a substantial audience in Canada, with his organisers claiming as many as 1000 people attending one in Vancouver. During an October 1999 speaking tour there, he received a standing ovation from students after a four-hour speech at the University of Toronto, while his books were removed from the...

Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, an anarchist, and a libertarian socialist intellectual. In the 1950s, Chomsky began developing his theory of generative grammar, which has undergone numerous revisions and has had a profound influence on linguistics. Within that field, he has been described as "a hero of Homeric proportions, belonging solidly in the pantheon of our country's finest minds, with all the powers and qualities thereof. First, foremost, and initially he is staggeringly smart. The speed, scope, and synthetic abilities of his intellect are legendary. He is, too, a born leader, able to marshal support, fierce and uncompromising support, for positions he develops or adopts. Often, it seems, he shapes linguistics by sheer force of will." He also established the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power. His 1959 review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior challenged the behaviorist approaches to studies of behavior and language dominant at the time and contributed to the cognitive revolution in psychology. His...

If you were a big face on Mars what would you be watching?

01/24/2005: Stone Brewing CEO Greg Koch began shooting and posting "Greg's vBlogs" in January 2005, one month before YouTube went live. We've decided to upload and move over all those old vBlogs on YouTube. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment and rate the ones you like! Make sure to subscribe so you can relive the past along with us! ------------- GK talks a little on Stone's new brewery project and on quality as a philosophy.

Welcome to all the new subscribers! :) Some background on the biggest philosophical show on the web... http://www.freedomainradio.com

In a comparison of personal relationships, friendship is considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association can be thought of as spanning across the same continuum. The study of friendship is included in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and zoology. Various theories of frie