Philosopy

Buddhist Concepts

2012-01-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there lived a sad Buddhist monk who lived in a small village in Northern Nepal. The monk was taught his whole life to live through Buddhist concepts and only accept what his culture told him to accept. The monk was always sad and hated his life.

One day his elder monk took him fishing by the old river, when the monk noticed a small beat up television on the ground. The monk was extremely excited and decided to take the T.V home to his small room in the Buddhist Stupa. The monk for the following couple of weeks would spend most of his time watching western channels on his old beat up television set. He began to learn an enormous amount of new information, most of which he would have never believed to exist. He began to question everything his Buddhist concepts stood for and slowly began to adapt western ideas. He began to feel joy and happiness for the first time in his life time. He threw aside the four noble truths, eightfold path, and the key to tranquility and began to watch and adapt to more westernized concepts. His elders began to notice his newly discovered joy and were very distraught upon hearing the fact that the monk decided to garner a new found love for western ideas. The elder monks threw the monk out of the sutra, leaving him to be homeless. The monk now walks the streets of Nepal with an old beat up T.V and a great big smile.
New found Happiness
Homeless, Eternal sunshine

Truly living life

What is a Person?

2012-01-19T09:10:00.001-08:00

What is a person? What are some concrete characteristics that a human/other being require in order to be qualified to be a person? These are some of the questions that philosophers have been asking since the times of Socrates and Aristotle. Women were not considered persons in Canada until the Famous Five in the early 1900s, which without whom, women would still be considered lesser beings compared to men. Can plants, artificial intelligences, or animals be considered persons?The dictionary describes a person as “a human being, whether man, woman, or child” and also “distinguished from an animal or thing”.

Personhood should not only be applied to solely humans but also animals and artificial intelligence too. It’s hard to specify exactly what characteristics give “personhood” to humans. Many scientists believe that humans are just beings that have evolved from apes. The ape is an animal that has been proven to have feelings, think intellectually, and work in a cohesive unit among their peers. This would mean if humans are to be categorized as persons, apes should be too. Why should the term person be so restricted? Animals are living breathing conscious beings, just like humans. Persons = Humans = Apes = Animals. Using simple logic we can conclude that, just like humans, animals are persons.

The only difference in humans and animals is the level of intellect. Humans consider themselves persons and not animals because they believe an animal’s level of intellect and “form factor” is not similar or on par with humans. This brings to me to my next point; can artificial intelligence (A.I) be considered persons? When technology advances as far as not being able to distinguish human or robot from appearance, labelling people persons will get more difficult. For example, an average person is presented with 2 men, Man A and Man B. Man A is an everyday Joe of a man and Man B is a highly intellectual artificial intelligence machine in the form of a normal man; would the person be able to distinguish and discriminate using personhood as a basis between the two men? The obvious answer is no. If you believe questions based on mentality between the two (can the A.I. system love or possess feelings) will be the deciding factor between the two, what if technology has advanced so far that they are able to program feelings and love into the artificial intelligence unit? The only difference then would be who could survive a point blank gunshot to the head.

Person is a vague word yet to be properly defined and the characteristics needed to be one will change in time; just like it did with women.

What is the Mind?

2012-01-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

What is the Mind?

It is a formless continuum that functions to perceive and understand objects. In Buddhist scriptures, our body is compared to a guest house and our mind to a guest dwelling within it. When we die, our mind leaves our body and goes to the next life, just like a guest leaving a guest house and going somewhere else. It is supposedly thought up as by other philosophers to be a material or immaterial object held within the body

It has been debated in philosophy about the theory that the our race of humans are mere physical bodies and do not hold any other substances like the mind but do hold something similar, the brain. The mind cannot be seen with the eyes and also cannot be photographed or fixed with surgery, making the mind a completely separate/ not entirely exact to that of the brain(which many people believe the mind is). Our bodies and mind are different entities.

What is the mind like?

An imaginary belief of a control central hub in our bodies acting as a separate entity. Human consciousness and subconscious thoughts. The air because its formless and not obstructed with physical objects.

What is the mind unlike?

It is unlike the brain because the brain is a physical object that can be viewed, photographed, and surgically altered. Anything with a physical form or body that people can see and make scientific observations about. A table because you can see a table but not the mind.

What caused the mind to be?

What caused the mind to be is belief from the behalf of the philosophers who theorized about such an idea. Assuming the theory of mind is correct, single celled organisms that eventually turned into humans caused the mind to be.

What can come of the mind?

Having conscious thought of the mind can possibly enhance a human’s ability to understand his/her own body and explore the depths and limitations it can withstand. Being able to train your body beyond the standard limit. Knowing that our suffering isn't caused by other people but rather from the our deluded state of mind.

What has been said about the mind?

Philosophers from the beginning have theorized about the mind and its purpose. In Buddhist scriptures, our body is compared to a guest house and our mind to a guest dwelling within it. When we die, our mind leaves our body and goes to the next life, just like a guest leaving a guest house and going somewhere else. Hippies refer to the mind a lot and have many fundamental theories behind it which support their hippie lifestyle.