Post-Truth
“Not the facts are important but what works. The higher human purpose is to escape literalism and reach the essence, shaping one’s own reality.” No. I’ve not gone mad. And I’ve not gone POMO, fancy acronym for post-modernism. To assure you, the under-title of this blog is as abhorrent to me as I hope it Read the full article…
Humanism with a Vengeance
Humanism: ‘man is the measure of all things.’ Vengeance: this is about the total human being – partly conscious, mostly nonconscious. Many faces of humanism, yesterday and today Among them, I see ‘humanism’ as what puts human being at the forefront, thus not – apart from human being – any organization: no religion, no politics, Read the full article…
ACE towards the Making of a Better Person
ACE (Adopt-Combine-Enhance) is a nice instrument, guided by a synthesis of rationality and poetry. [see: ’ACE in a Moral World‘] The making of No engineering stuff. We are nature. The ‘making’ lies in the support of nature to further itself from inside out. Morality lies in the direction of this support within our natural constraints Read the full article…
From Me to Morality
From inside the brain to very large groups of people, this text tracks the origin of morality through the ages as well as at any single point in time. Morality is like the Nile Searching for the ‘source’ finally gets one somewhere far inside a strange continent, where one doesn’t find one source but many. Read the full article…
Morality is NOT the Suppression of Self-Interest
A group can not endure for long if its members all just do their own thing. So, what’s the problem? The reasoning in favor of suppression is simple. This is about what is called the ‘free rider’ problem. In the course of ages, our ancestors and even pre-ancestors (‘hominids’ and before) learned the advantages of Read the full article…
A.I. to Benefit Humans
‘Human-oriented’ is not the same as ‘ego-oriented.’ As never before, and perhaps never after, we have with A.I. a powerful toolbox that can be used in any direction. In-depth As to AURELIS ethics, the striving – of A.I. and of any other development – should definitely be towards humanity-in-depth, the ‘total human being,’ as opposed to Read the full article…
Two Meanings of ‘Meaning’
The difference mainly involves ‘depth’. Two meanings that should not be confused. These are: What one can find in a dictionary – the formal definition What ‘deeply touches’ someone – poetry, art, religion, loved ones, or an important memory The former definition by itself does not ‘deeply touch’ a person. It is the domain of Read the full article…
AURELIS Vision and Mission
“Optimally validating the deeper layers of human psyche of all people and in all domains of life through practical tools, science and philosophy, with deep respect for every total human being and with as final aims: durable health and well-being, striving for truth and complete non-aggression.” AURELIS Vision AURELIS stands for the mining and development Read the full article…
From Aggression to Efficiency
A link between aggression and efficiency is not frequently made. I hope that at the end of this text, this will be remedied. Whence cometh aggression? It seems to be as old as, well, much older than humanity. Even so, one might argue that ‘animal aggression’ is in most cases functional, thus more ‘humanly understandable’ Read the full article…
Nature and Nurture of Morality
Evidently, there is nature and there is nurture. Much less evident is how they relate to each other. Nevertheless, we can learn and take appropriate action. A mollusk has no morality because it’s pure nature. No nurture, very small degree of freedom. Obviously. What the mollusk teaches us is that ‘morality’ starts where hardwired structuring Read the full article…
Can A.I. be Empathic?
Not readily in the completely human sense of course. But can A.I. show sufficient ‘empathy’ for a human to recognize it as such, relate to it and even ‘grow’ through it? [Please read: “Landscape of Empathy”] Humans tend to ‘recognize’ human features in many things. We look at the clouds and we see human faces Read the full article…
Towards Universal Empathy
Universal empathy is a moral stance that may solve the in-group >< out-group problem. [‘further on ‘In-Group Creates Out-Group?’] “How numerous the living beings may be, I pledge to liberate (from suffering) them all.” This is one of four Buddhist ‘vows of the Bodhisattva.’ Not being an adept of Buddhism, I find in it a Read the full article…
In-Group Creates Out-Group?
One frequently encounters the idea that a group gets formed by building defensive walls against other groups. Is this the best way? People are groupish. This is: we like to ‘be in a group’. Yes, with quote signs, because the group may be of very diverse kind. For instance, it may be quite abstract: a Read the full article…
Delayed Gratification, No Frustration
The ability to delay gratification is important in any well-functioning society. Can it be fostered with little frustration? Western culture evolves towards a cult of ‘immediate gratification.’ Is this healthy? Marshmallow In a 1960s experiment at Stanford, a number of kids got one marshmallow and could get three if the child wouldn’t eat the one Read the full article…
Moral Motivation
If morality doesn’t lead to action, then what’s the use? Let good people do good things. How? I guess the doing should not be the focus of an additional endeavor. It should be part and parcel of the moral communication itself. For instance, telling a child what is moral behavior, should deeply touch the child Read the full article…
ACE in a Moral World
ACE: Adopt – Combine – Expand. This is a recurring pattern that I see in many domains. It’s also specifically relevant in morality. I invented the acronym ACE a few weeks before writing this text while looking at many patterns and recognizing this underlying blueprint. So, please remain skeptical. Nature is a tinkerer, not an engineer. Read the full article…
Collective Morality
This is not about any concrete ‘habits and rules of moral behavior.’ Collective morality is about the thinking about such habits and rules. It should be based on rationality as much as possible. This rationality should be founded on two endeavors as always when rationality is optimally exercised: taking into account as much as possible Read the full article…