Abyss of human mind : Qasim Aziz's Blog

Dialogue on Cruelty and Kindness

2018-10-13T23:10:00.001-07:00

A: They say, Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. While Kindness maybe motivated by hopes of reciprocity later and cruelty maybe spurred by revenge/ sense of being wronged (in which case it’s not cruelty?) but at the end of the day what makes some people kind and others cruel?

B: Empathy.

A: Empathy implies hope of reciprocity - what else? Also, what logic for cruelty - that’s the queetion.

B: In my opinion, empathy does not “necessarily ” imply reciprocity. Kind parents can still feel empathy towards their “cruel” children. Cruelty, on the contrary, is absence of empathy. The inability to feel how others feel or might feel. That makes “indifference” the worst form of cruelty.

A: May be, but we empathise because we have suffered ourselves and we know how it feels - I think there’s always a subconscious hope/desire that if I help Sb tomorrow will help me - humans wish to be rewarded. Cruelty maybe absence of empathy but the question then is why do some empathise (if that’s the determinant) & others don’t ?

B: what you are referring to is often termed as “psychological egoism” in philosophy. Meaning humans are always motivated by self interest. By this logic, even the most altruistic of acts (sacrificing one’s life) can be explained by some subconscious motivation rooted in self interest (e.g desire to leave a legacy, praise by others, desire to be loved in return etc) Therefore, its impossible to challenge such a line of thinking.

Regarding your second question that why some people empathise and others don’t. My perspective is that kind people have a much deeper and strong understanding of their own emotions. Therefore, helping them to feel what others might feel. On the contrary, cruel people are generally not truly in touch with their own emotions..therefore, resulting in disregard of other people’s emotions. Quite often we come across cruel people who are capricious, impulsive, extremely hard to predict. This is so because they don’t seem to understand what “exactly” do they want. To sum up, the question is not a matter of choice but a matter of understanding (and lack of it).

A: That’s an interesting perspective except it absolves & exonerates the cruel actor for responsibility for his actions - doesn’t make a lot of sense.

B: Yes. It won’t make sense if one looks at it from the perspective of “justice”. The question was about the difference between cruelty and kindness. And ironically kindness or a “kind” interpretation of other people’s actions may not always be the most just. Similarly, a very “just” interpretation of “cruelty”, may not always be very kind.

Story of my life

2018-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

My life is a story, "struggling" to write itself.

Sanity

2012-11-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

Sanity is a responsibility otherwise many people would have lost it easily.

Pecularity of Lovers.

2012-10-18T06:26:00.005-07:00

'After another moment's silence, she mumbled that I was peculiar, that that was probably why she loved me but that one day I might disgust her for the very same reason.' #Albert Camus

Man as a fallen Idol.

2012-09-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

I am a modern man. I have lost my soul to history. Some say I have deserted my Gods while others believe that they have deserted me. I look up to skies but seek no one there. No angels are there to guide me. No Lucifer there to ever tempt me. Stumbling at every step in the dark, I refuse to seek help with directions. Alas! I am a modern man. This is my fate. I worship no one but the fallen Idol that I am.

My life these days.

2012-09-22T11:26:00.001-07:00

“Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.” #Coleridge

A carrot is a carrot.

2012-09-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

You ask “What is life?” That is the same as asking “What is a carrot?” A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more. Letter to his wife, Olga Knipper Chekhov

Ethics of forgetfulness.

2012-09-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

''How little moral would the world look without this forgetfulness! A poet might say that God had placed forgetfulness as door keeper in the temple of human dignity. '' - From aphorism 'Origin of Justice' by Nietzsche

We lost ourselves in love by R.D. Laing

2012-08-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

We lost ourselves in love.
And then lost love.
We searched for it thro both our hearts.
In vain.
We found only our graves.
We looked above,
Below, about:
But always the same pain.

The pain has gone.
We sit and watch TV
We seldom yawn.
She makes me cups of tea
We tell no tales.
There’s no more need for guile
We do not pick our nails.
We sometimes smile

We’re grateful to the powers that be
For lifeless, loveless, hateless, apathy

I can’t remember when I last felt glad
I can’t remember when I last felt sad
I can’t remember when I last got pissed
I can’t remember when I last was kissed.

He didn’t particularly like her
But she was having his child
She didn’t especially fancy him
But her parents were going wild

He was too selfish and guilty
To walk away scot free
She felt like a caged canary
When he said “Marry me”

They had a beautiful baby
Then another two or three
She prayed to the Virgin Mary
To return her virginity

He contemplated murder
He tried a mistress or two
She would often shudder
When she thought of what life can do

They grew old together
Each completely alone
Neither could help each other
Their hearts had turned to stone.

Reverse Revolutionary politics.

2012-08-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

The only thing that needs to be changed about the world is that a lot of people want to change it; that too in opposing directions. Therefore, the Marx's famous proclamation that 'Philosopher's have hitherto only interpreted the world, the time is to change it', should be revisited too.

People have hitherto only tried to change the world, the time is to 'leave it as it is'.#Paradox

Nietzsche meets a thelogian and a scientist.

2012-08-18T17:40:00.002-07:00

Theologian:
Life is a mystery. It is a question that begs an answer. God must be the answer.

Scientist:
Life is a question that begs an answer, but the answer lies in simple natural explanation. We have no need of a supernatural hypothesis. Nature is the answer.

Nietzsche:
Ah! both the morons above got it wrong. In life there are no answers (facts) only questions (interpretations).

Sic Transit Gloria!

2012-08-16T12:02:00.001-07:00

''For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.."

General George S. Patton from the movie 'Patton'.

Enslavement

2012-08-15T12:00:00.002-07:00

I need infinite variety of experiences in my life to be free, for what else is stagnation but enslavement?

A story about Jihad!

2012-08-13T06:28:00.001-07:00

I could see it quite vividly. He was standing there in the distance, standing tall. With a sword in his hand, he smiled at me. That was my future getting ready to wage a war against my decadent past.

Philosophy and Life!

2012-08-11T11:46:00.001-07:00

Philosophy taught me that if you never want to commit mistakes then remain silent. Life taught me that it was my gravest mistake.

A Child!

2012-07-28T17:16:00.004-07:00

“The soul is healed by being with children” · Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Cage.

2012-07-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.” - Kafka

His life was completely sucked up by two concerns lately. An unresolved grief from the past and a fear of complete uncertainty of the future. The present no more existed for him, it was just a void in which nothing meaningful ever happened. It felt as if life was trying to make a terrible example of him. He could not for the love of God understand what was going around. No longer he saw himself as an autonomous individual. His Self seemed to have evaporated gradually. Biologically, he was alive none the less. Not as a living Self in control of the affairs of his own life but rather as a mere spectator of his own Self. Somehow living outside his embodied Self. Always conscious of what his embodied 'false-self' was going through. Being hyper conscious of your own life is a painful experience especially when you are living outside it as a critical observer.

The life that he once knew was no more there. He was no more interested in the 'outside world' which seemed superficial and shallow. The inner world of his own profound (or deluded) experience seemed to be a safe place initially. The inner world provided him the security of solitude, freedom from being misunderstood and above all the protection from being hurt by others. His inner world was initially a shield that protected him from constant attacks of others. No longer he was worried about people treating him as an 'it' rather than as an 'I'. So, he held himself back from the sufferings of the outside world.

Alas! this false sense of protection was short lived. This strategy to protect himself was in fact highway to self-destruction. The fear of being treated as an 'it' somehow transformed into a strategy to treat the others as mere objects. He found it impossible to love someone as another human being or develop a long lasting meaningful relationship. He saw his embodied self living a life outside himself out there. A life he thought he was no longer a part of. This inner world of his was actually a prison. A prison that eventually deprived him of his autonomy, his happiness and above all his own life. He envied his embodied false self that lived 'its' life in front of his own eyes. He was not in control of his life anymore. As a prisoner living behind the bars of his own inner world, he saw his whole life slipping from his fingers. Perhaps he couldn't hold back from this perpetual suffering anymore. There were no more safe havens to run to.

Waiting for Godot: An excerpt.

2012-07-24T06:38:00.001-07:00

ESTRAGON:: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?
VLADIMIR:: (impatiently). Yes yes, we're magicians. But let us persevere in what we have resolved, before we forget.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Backett.

Non-Productive Life

2012-07-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

Self-deception is the best medicine for curing the disease of non-productivity.

The Fall.

2012-06-26T08:47:00.003-07:00

The 'FALL' in the fall in love.

Re: Popper V Kuhn

2012-06-21T13:38:00.001-07:00

This blog entry is my reply to Awais Aftab's insightful post about Popper v Kuhn debate.
http://awaisaftab.blogspot.com/2012/06/popper-vs-kuhn.html

I have absolutely no clue how can one categories Kuhn as a positivist. However, coming back to this brilliant blog post.

Here are a few reservations.
I think for me Popper will regard any new scientific theory not a move closer to truth(truth with capital T) but rather a move away from falsehood or mistake. A subtle difference but still very relevant in understanding Popper's argument. I can substantiate this interpretation by summing up Popper's argument from another philosophical work 'The Open Society and its enemies'(by no means a work of philosophy of science but sums up Popper's attitude towards all kind of historicism and teleology). Popper argued vehemently in that book against teleological approach of Hegel, Aristotle, Marx and Plato for holding a view of reality (truth) based on purpose (telos). However, this critique does not mean that Popper is a relativist. Let me rephrase what I said, as per Popper it is not scientifically possible to talk about the absolute truth but we can always recognize falsehood. Since for Popper science thrives on falsification, there is always room for absolute truth (in abnon-demonstrable way).

The difference between Popper and Kuhn for me lies here. Popper despite being skeptic about teleological theories of all kind held a vision of science based on 'demarcation'. By demarcation I mean that Popper genuinely believed that the scientific method is distinct from non-science. Hence his emphasis on 'falsification' as the dividing line between science and non-science. However, for Kuhn science is not a disinterested and cold inquiry about the nature of reality. In fact, scientists are no different from priests who dogmatically promote their own denominational theologies (only making sense within their own paradigms).

This relativism is exactly what disturbed Popper back in 1960s. Kuhn's understanding of 'normal science' was a threat to future of science according to Karl Popper. The famous 1965 International Colloquium was called by Popper in order to destroy this idea of Kuhn.

Memory and Solace

2012-05-30T12:49:00.003-07:00

Life is strange. Its better to live with some people only in memories.

Human actions and introspection : Spinozian Perspective

2012-05-30T05:30:00.001-07:00

''I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions; and to this end I have looked upon passions, such as love, hatred, anger, envy, ambition, pity, and the other perturbations of the mind, not in the light of vices of human nature, but as properties, just as pertinent to it, as are heat, cold, storm, thunder, and the like to the nature of the atmosphere, which phenomena, though inconvenient, are yet necessary, and have fixed causes, by means of which we endeavour to understand their nature, and the mind has just as much pleasure in viewing them aright, as in knowing such things as flatter the senses''.

Spinoza from Tactatus Politicus.

Limits of Self-denial!

2012-05-30T05:25:00.001-07:00

Theres a thin line between egoism and selflessness. Perhaps extreme form of self-denial and altruism is indistinguishable from selfishness.

Revolution.

2012-05-12T11:46:00.003-07:00

What is personal revolution? - The moment you realize that you have actually evolved.