Philosophy – KensView

Tumblin’ Down

Well, when my luck ain’t no damn good
You don’t listen, you don’t listen
No good deed goes unpunished
But I don’t mind being your gotcha boy
I’ve had that pleasure for years and years

No, no, I never was a winner, tell me, what else could I do?
Yogi Berra’s what you get ’til you learn to follow rules
And chance respects no person, and what I want often fails
You’re waitin’ somewhere to fall into my arms

Saw my picture in the paper
Read the news about this face
And now some people don’t
Wanna treat me the same

When you guys come tumblin’ down
When you guys come tumblin’, tumblin’
When you guys come crumblin’, crumblin’ down
(Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)

Well, some people say I’m too foolish and crazy
I am just a softy, my compassion’s plain silly
But I know that there is something more
Don’t need to look over my shoulder to see what I’m here for

Everybody’s got their problems, ain’t no new news there
I’m the same old person you’ve been seeing for years
Don’t confuse the problem with the issue, man, it’s perfectly clear
Just wish that chance doesn’t need me to appear

Don’t wanna put my arms around you
Feel your breath in my face
You may bend me, you may break me
But please stay safe in place

So no one comes tumblin’ down
So no one comes tumblin’, tumblin’
So no one comes crumblin’, crumblin’ down
(Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah)

The Right’s Logic*

Why should one vote for HIM?
Because HE deserves it.

Vote for Him, so you won’t be a loser.

Isn’t He worried about His reputation?
No, it’s okay. HIS dad cheated, and he had a reputation.

If you are right wing, then you’re a patriot.
I’m not.
Then you’re not a patriot.

Right-wing ideas are superior to “Democrat” ideas.

Drinking bleach cures COVID.
No, it doesn’t …
You can’t say that! You’re a Democrat!

We should use masks against COVID.
No! The Democrats are the ones who support that!

They say HE doesn’t tell the truth.
But you don’t either.

Don’t you think lying is wrong?
Yeah.
Well, he just lied!
Ok, but HE’s a good guy.

Banning guns is nonsense.
Criminals will find a way.

Dictators make you snap on command.
Dictators must be smart.

Have Democrats stopped cheating at the elections?

What proof do you have HE did not suffer from millions of fraud votes?

The Afghanistan withdrawal was Biden’s fault.

Democrats are commies.
I don’t believe it.
Prove they aren’t.

No Jew votes for Democrats.
But my friend Aaron votes for Democrats.
Well, he isn’t a TRUE Jew.

Before we argue about immigration, let’s define it as “vermin control.”

HE says that dictators are his friends.
HE also said Biden was a dictator, so was Biden his friend?

Slaves learned useful skills on the plantation, so more education was a waste of time.

Stripping rights is bad, but HE still has to finish it.

Imposing larger tariffs will stop China.
Genius?!?

Project 2025 is too long for me to read,
but worth every word.

I can’t believe they said HIS debate was awful.
Awful originally meant that it inspired awe!

Springfield officials said no one’s eating dogs!
I’m entitled to my opinion.

They say they’ll lower your taxes.
Don’t listen to them. They’re Marxists.

Can you assure us that HE’ll help finance child care?
I can’t, but HIS new tariffs will solve everything.

If you don’t vote for Him,
You won’t be safe,
Your kid will change sex,
YOU’LL GO TO HELL!

*The Right’s Logical Fallacies

The Conductor

It is said you can’t know someone

Unless you can walk in their shoes;

But some people want to tell me

How I should march in their steps.

Others may recognize my voice,

But don’t like what actually comes out;

Assuming a magisterial tone,

They are set on telling me my tale.

But am I or am I not myself?

How do I truly perceive me?

Who in fact is paying attention?

And am I really what they expect?

Neither bluster, bluff, nor empty show,

I am not dressed up in some sham;

Self-respecting and conscience free,

I am unique and different from all.

Even if I tried, I could never fool myself,

Nor be bound by another’s preconceptions.

I stride in my own road-worn sandals,

True Conductor of this immodest opus.

Living Life

We all have a very short time on earth.

Suggestions:

Listen, learn, and be humble.

Examine Confucius, Siddhartha Gautama, Socrates, the “sermon on the mount” and the good Samaritan parable, More, Kant, Kierkegaard, Darwin, Marx, Dewey, Lu Xun, Malraux, Camus, Hemingway, Rawls.

Living as a self-authentic human being, learning about the universe, and using that knowledge to help others seems to be just right.

Math and Zeno

Zeno, pioneer of the dialectic
and reductio ad absurdum,
used his reasoning via paradox to
dispute accepted concepts of
physically observed phenomena.

But were these paradoxes valid
or just basic misconceptions; for
much was not evident at his time and
people had rudimentary notions of
limit, infinity, time, and motion?

Philosophically and practically,
was what the Eleatic concocted
a fundamental flaw in perspective—
as maintained by Aristotle and
modern mathematicians?

The latter try to resolve this
by approaching it another way and
constructing mathematical means to
explain the observed phenomena to
a desired degree of exactness.

The ability to find the value limit that
a series of added half-distances is nearing,
some have claimed, questions whether
there is an actual paradox
in the first place.

But do these savants really
understand the true problem at
the heart of Zeno’s formulation:
the challenge of conceptualizing
how One and Many jive with motion?

Philosophy in Schools

A major area of knowledge neglected in primary and secondary education is philosophy. This is remarkable since it both ancient and foundational to other areas of knowledge such as language and thought development and the sciences and has influenced many aspects of the world’s cultural and religious expressions. The Pre-Socratic philosophers, for example, introduced a rational approach to understanding the world, the culmination of which is modern science. Computing came to us at the end of a long line of philosophical contributions, including Aristotle’s language of logic, the calculating machines of Pascal and Leibniz, and the insights of mathematician and thinker Alan Turing.

Perennial philosophical issues are typically encountered even by young children “What is justice?”, “What is beauty?”, “How can I be sure of what I know?”, “What is the right thing to do?”, “What is real?”, “What happens at death”, “What makes someone a best friend”, and so on.

The study of philosophy promotes critical thinking; explores the ethical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of experience; improves language development, expands social and communication skills; and helps develop tolerance of other points of view.

The study of philosophy can be introduced as a course within the curriculum and/or incorporated in language, literature, and history classes. An example is using works of literature that lend themselves to discussion of ethics, aesthetics, logical thinking, and so on. Emphasis in history classes should be expanded to deal with discussion of content, development, and controversies of philosophical ideas and arguments.

The first R: why we need to teach philosophy in the classroom

Delphi Philosophy

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO)

Paths Not Taken

Thinking in Stories: Reviewing Philosophy in Children’s Literature (gives examples of how to treat philosophical topics by using contemporary children’s literature)

Great Philosophers

Two great philosophers crossed paths
in a menacing Philippine jungle,
both serving in the Leyte campaign,
each not perceiving of the other.
Before an attack on a strategic ridge,
a company chaplain assured one that
God guides our bullets at the Japs,
while steering theirs from us.
The other saw troopers jump from above,
and armed with only a 90mm AA gun,
he cried for them while he aimed,
their body parts raining from heaven.
One dropped his religion
and devised “A Theory of Justice.”
The other never had it, but taught
me to respect and be fair to all.

Nuked

Born with the specter of mushroom clouds,
As the world raced toward Armageddon.
We were children of the Atomic dawn,
When siren wails filled all with alarm.

The playground echoed a hidden dread,
Innocence and evil grimly interbred.
We played hopscotch on the brink of fate,
Counting squares like numbered days.

The blowing winds tasted of the uncertain,
As if each breath held an ominous toxin.
Laughter was suppressed by distant tests,
Man-made sunrises in desert Southwest.

Bedtime tales struggled to allay fears—
Duck-and-cover drills and radiation suits.
As somber refrains foretold destruction,
Sunday prayers begged divine intervention.

I grew up in this Twilight Zone of paradox,
Picnics on lakes, building of bomb shelters,
An upbringing straddling hope and horror,
Synchronized to ticks of a Geiger counter.

Yet I managed to cope with this outlook,
Trading baseball cards and comic books,
Imagination soaring on cosmic plumes,
Dreaming of a world beyond the gloom.

But now though with Cold War unfrozen,
A restiveness still lingers—a silent fallout.
Thus, at times when I regard the horizon,
I half-expect a bright flash to burst out.