Philosophy

Citta  is  translated by:  thought(s),  mind,  heart, mood, emotion,  idea,  reasoning, attitude, consciousness Mano:  mind,  thought, inner sense. Vinnana:  consciousness,  discriminative  consciousness,  rebirth-con-sciousness,  relinking consciousness,  cognition,  intellect,intellection,intelligence Many of  the English terms are very vague.  The reason may  be either that the corresponding Pali terms  are equally vague or that the exact meaning of  them is  not known. Some of  the English  terms  for  the same Pali  terms have a very different meaning (e.g.  "mind" means  an  independent psychological agency;  "thought" is probably intended to mean  conscious processes of a  predominantly  cognitive  character,  "heart"  an  emotional,  evaluative center  in  human  personali...

Happiness has been highly overrated by moral philosophers, most of whom have taken it to be the greatest good or final end. One notable exception is Nietzsche who wrote: “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that.” John Stuart Mill seemed to profess something similar in Utilitarianism when he claimed: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” Mill of course was an Englishman and a utilitarian, which suggests (1) that Nietzsche was wrong, or (2) that Mill didn’t know what he was talking about—certainly not happiness conceived as the summum bonum. For if happiness were the greatest good, and if happiness were rightly identified with pleasure, as Mill claimed, then it apparently could not be better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. If pleasure, for example, were the sole intrinsic good, and happiness were identified with pleasure, as Mill claimed it sh...

The beginning of thought is in disagreement—not only with others but also with ourselves.--Eric Hoffler Happiness or Eudaimonia From the Greek, eu (good) and daimon (demon), albeit the nice kind that has the job of looking after people (Westerners would say ‘guardian angel’, perhaps). The word is sometimes shorthanded to ‘happiness’, but this loses its particular significance, which is that the happiness here is of the whole, and not merely that transient, ‘illusory’ happiness obtainable, for example, through the senses. The Nicomachean Ethics is one of the most influential books of moral philosophy, including accounts of what the Greeks considered to be the great virtues, and Aristotle’s great-souled man, who speaks with a deep voice and level utterance, and who is not unduly modest either, as well as reminding us wisely that ‘without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods’. The main idea in Aristotle’s ethics is that the proper end of manki...

Reyhaneh Jabbari who was executed in Iran for killing a man who she claimed tried to rape her had left a final message to her mother,a message which seems to evocate a strong feeling ,and has its own stoicism, reminds one of Socrates who was put to trial unfairly and his words--A Good Man has nothing to fear, neither in his life or his death In the voice message, which has been translated by National Council of Resistance of Iran , she says the following in an apparently calm voice: "Dear Sholeh, today I learned that it is now my turn to face Qisas (the Iranian regime's law of retribution). I am hurt as to why you did not let me know yourself that I have reached the last page of the book of my life. Don't you think that I should know? You know how ashamed I am that you are sad. Why did you not take the chance for me to kiss your hand and that of dad? The world allowed me to live for 19 years. That ominous night it was I that should have been killed. My body would h...