philosophy magazine

1 | Love of Wisdom Post | www.loveofwisdom.ca | 416 229 5125 | Issue # 18

The Love of Wisdom Post

Class: HZT4UE; Philosophy Teacher: Miguel LibedinskyStudent: Shaheen Mamdeen

Date: July 20th, 2012

Philosophy behind the Nature of Being, Existence, Reality...


He puts the ‘fun’ in learning ! Join the Online Philosophy Class Now !

“Fun”“A new learning experience”

“Entertaining”

“Awesome” “Super funny”

“Cool”

“Hillarious” “priceless”

“Delightful”“Captivating”

“Charming”

“Fascinating”

“Well, I try..”- Miguel Libedinsky

Issue # 18 | 416 229 5152 | www.loveofwisdom.ca | Love of Wisdom Post | 3

Table Of C ontentsEDITORIALEditor’s take on this issue.

cont’d on page 4

ARTIFACTS The Creation of Adam, and meaning behind the painting,

cont’d on page 6

NEWS AND FEATURESThe great mysery What happens after we die ?

cont’d on page 7

A poem by May Swenson

cont’d on page 8

David Hume’s two cents: Religion

cont’d on page 9

Meditation on consequences of actionA young woman’s decisions.

cont’d on page 14

Questions we wished we asked: Gandhi

cont’d on page 12

MOVIE REVIEW: FIGHT CLUB

cont’d on page 10

JUST FOR LAUGHS

cont’d on page 15

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”— Buddha

Issue # 18 | 416 229 5152 | www.loveofwisdom.ca | Love of Wisdom Post | 5 4 | Love of Wisdom Post | www.loveofwisdom.ca | 416 229 5125 | Issue # 18

EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE Thank you for the love and support of this magazine. As you know we try to include articles of a variety for this magazine and with this issue we’ve done the same. I always say that if I spill coffee on myself whilst reading something, it’s well put together, and I feel just as proud about this month’s issue.

Well, here’s another month’s new issue of The Love of Wisdom hitting the shelves.

I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I have putting this to-gether. This month’s issue includes artifacts from centuries ago, a new discovery of life after death, review on one of my all time favourite mov-ies and lots more !

Keep on reading (:

“Suppose that you enter a cubicle in which, when you press a button, a scanner records the states of all the cells in your brain and body, destroying both while doing so. This infor-

mation is then transmitted at the speed of light to some other planet, where a replicator produces a perfect organic copy of you. Since the brain of your Replica is exactly like yours, it

will seem to remember living your life up to the moment when you pressed the button, its character will be just like yours, and it will be in every other way psychologically continuous

with you. Is it you?”— Derek Parfit, “Divided Minds and the Nature of Per-

sons,” in Mindwaves, 1987


A timeless work of art by the re-nowned artist Michelangelo’s Genesis, still lies on Sistine Chapel ceiling for everyone to admire. This piece of art with Adam reaching out to what is made out to be God-like character, it illustrates God giving, his new creation, Adam with the

gift of life. Although notice that they’re very close, but aren’t touching. This is a much debated picture regarding the iden-tity and meaning behind ‘The Creation of Adam’.

Why? Is God destined to be just out of reach? Or is it the other way around?

Artifacts: The Creationg Of Adam

A timeless work of art

What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can com-prehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person

with a feeling of “humility.” This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism

- Albert Einstein


Life After DeathThe Great Mystery

As humans we are obsess with the ques-tion of what happens when the times comes to see the light. What does happen ? I suppose it’s be-cause we don’t know of anyone that’s come back to tell us, since death is awaiting us all. Why not ask ?

According to years of research documented by psychologists, there are cases of children who with-out any means of therapy – recall their ‘past lives.’ These children have specific memories of the were that we recently demised for months or even years. Moreover, their memories include names of fam-ily, places, occupations, and accurate descriptions of their causes of their prior fatality. The most as-tounding of all, in the cases are actual birthmarks or birth defects of the cause of bereavement in the former incarnation. Do you think there’s a life after death ? I’ll leave that conclusion for you to come to.

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are im-

mortal and divine. - Socrates

I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been growing, develop-

ing, through incalculable myriads of millenni-ums. All my previous selves have their voices,

echoes, promptings in me. Oh, incalculable times again shall I be born.

—Jack London, The Star Rover


The Universe by May Swenson (1919-1989)

What is it about, the universe, the universe about us stretching out? We, within our brains, within it, think we must unspinthe laws that spin it. We think why because we thinkbecause. Because we think, we think the universe about us.

But does it think, the universe? Then what about? About us? If not,must there be cause in the universe?Must it have laws? And what if the universe is not about us? Then what? What is it about? And what about us?


DAVID HUME’S TWO CENTS:

“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”

- David Hume, An Enquiry Con-cerning Human Understanding

Religion

My name is David Hume, a Scot-tish philosopher of Empiricism. Does God exist? My answer to that folks is no.

My view is that experience is the only source of knowledge. In fact, God is a complex idea which we cobble together in our minds. We of-ten assume that one thing causes an-other, but it is just as possible that one thing does not cause the other, eventu-ally it seems logical. Humans grow an

instinctive belief in causality and that we can neither prove nor discount this belief. My view on religion holds that the world operates on cause and effect. Therefore, there must be a First Cause, namely God.

Causation, is and can be assumed but is ultimately mysterious. We simply do not know there is a First Cause or a place for God. It’s unreasonable to believe tes-timonies of supposed miraculous events.

David Hume

A simple illustration of cause and effect.


A movie of daring, breath taking self venture...Fight Club


The movie is based on an ordinary clerk who’s suffering from insomnia who finds a friend who changes his life entirely. He meets his new friend, Tyler Durden who is his com-pletely opposite, and start Fight Club. This club they created were for all people who were tired, and stressed out from the real world, and with Fight Club could escape their boring, and stressful lives. The main character Jack’s life changes and soon he finds it going out of hand. The movie is narrated by Jack, Edward Nor-ton, and presents Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden.

Jack is someone who has a decent job, a good car, and has successfully loaded his apart-ment with modern furniture which he find he has no use for. However, he never really felt happy.

Fight Club is a movie that leaves its au-dience on the edge of their seat long after the movie ends to ponder. The scenes and words linger. This movie leaves this audience with some raw, and straightforward script, “You are

not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking Khakis. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world” (Fincher, 1999)” which depicts metaphysical musings on time, space, and the string theory. We see one woman in this dystopia, the magi-cal and beautiful Helen Bowman Carter who leaves quite an impact on the young clerk’s life. The young clerk realizes with flashbacks that we himself is Tyler Durden. At differ-ent times in the movie, Jack, has to make deci-sions, and choices which change his life entirely. This movie is about choices, free will, and lastly also leaves the audience with a harsh truth of reality.

Critized to be a wit- less mishmash of violence, Fight Club is a major punch of real-ity. It’s a unique, timeless, and memorable per-formance by Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.

Which leaves us to question, whether there is another you out there in a different world ?


Mahatma GandhiThe answers we always wanted to know !

I’d like to start with asking you about you eleven vows on the basis of your Asharam life. Can you name them ?Gandhi: Truth, non – stealing, non – vio-lence, equality of religions, removal of un-touchability, non – possession, bread – labor, chastity, and lastly swadeshi.

These vows were made by you based on your philosophy of truth (satya). Can you explain futhur what that means? Gandhi: Of course. “WHAT…is Truth? A difficult question; but I have solved it for my-self by saying that it is what the voice within tells you.” “If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean of Truth, you must reduce your-self to a zero.” “Truth and Love ahimsa is the

only thing that counts. Where this is present, everything rights itself in the end. This is a law to which there is no exception.” “My uni-form experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth… The little fleet-ing glimpses… that I have been able to have of Truth can hardly convey an idea of the indescribable luster of Truth, a million times more intense than that of the sun we daily see with our eyes.” “Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act accord-ing to his own view of truth.”

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes..- Mahatma Gandhi


What’s the meaning of these vows to you ?Gandhi: To me, I was doing something that I ought to do. It strengthens my will, and pre-vents me from wavering to high impulses and duties. The vows are an ideal; they guarantee progress on a right path and brings forward the human life purposes. Finally, I believe that as humans we need to discipline our-selves and so, vows are very important in that regard.

Why do these vows hold so much importance to you ?Gandhi: I wanted to change individuals through myself. I believe that everyone has a purpose in life and in order to fulfill them, the vows are very important. I wanted to gap the bridge between the principles and the practice.

What set you on this quest for truth ?Gandhi: “I am but a seeker after Truth. I claim to have found a way to it. I claim to be making a ceaseless effort to find it. But I ad-mit that I have not yet found it. To find Truth completely is to realize oneself and one’s destiny, i.e., to become perfect. I am painfully conscious of my imperfections, and therein lies all the strength I posses, because it is a rare thing for a man to know his own limita-tions.”

If you could summarize your views in one sen-tence. What would it be ?Gandhi: Truth never damages a cause that is just.


Holidays or vacations whichever one you call them, can be quite expensive. I’ve been trying to decide whether to go camping with my whole family or just going away for a few days on my own. The trips would be very different so its important that I choose wisely because this is really – the only time I get off work during the year.

However, all this time Ive spent thik-ing and contemplating has lost me some time. Time which I will never get back and things that I could’ve done in those moments that I wont do now. We make decisions everyday and they may have very large or small consequences. Each second we spend is prescious and important since we cant go back in time to change what we had already done. So, each choice we make leads to the next consequences or paths in our lives.

The String Theory According to the String Theory for eevery decision we make, a universe is cre-ated, one in which we didn’t, and another in which we did. As of now, time is the only thing that’s constant and goes in one way. There is no way for my to go back in time and change my decision on which trip to

take. In my case, the two universes would be a Camping Universe, and My Trip Universe.

The Butterfly Effect The Butterfly effect proposes that the consequences of actions are impossible to foretell. For example, a butterfly flying through the summer of Toronto can cause a hurricane in Osaka. In my case, maybe the camping trip would’ve gotten me terribly sick and I would’ve missed an important interview. Then again, maybe not.

Free Will Free will is defined as the ability to make conscious decisions that determine one’s future. It’s permits you to have control over yourself. However, can we conclude that my decisions will be based on my will alone? Or will it be influenced by my friends who every year take a trip on their own ? How could I know that the choice I make is the right choice ? Is there a right choice for me ? What I really mean to ask is, will it matter ? (I decided to go on the camping trip with the family.)

Holidays: Meditations The Conse-quences of Actions.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one.”Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you

will.”George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)


For a Philosophical Laugh...

See you again soon !


If you have any questions, com-ments or concerns...Email, mail, or cal l ! Thank you for reading, we hope youve enjoyed, this July Issue !

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