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The ideas of fate, predicting the future and pre-destination Summary: Hunter gatherers appear not to have been pre-occupied with predicting the future. Ideas about fate and pre-destiny arose more strongly after the advent of farming as pleasing God might be rewarded with better harvests. Examines the idea that fortune telling may have been an earlier method of psychotherapy. Analyses ideas of fate and pre-destiny ...
The spiritual testament of Paul Sheer Introduction I regret never having met my maternal grandparents. They were secular Austrian Jews who fled Vienna shortly after the Anschluss (Nazi invasion) in 1938. They went from Austria through Czechoslovakia to what was then Palestine and then by boat to Australia via France. My mother, who was just six years old, remembers asking why the family was going to Australia ...
There is a better way to organise production Summary: Mondragon Corporation is a large corporation in Spain’s Basque country. It is comprised of a network of worker managed co-operatives. It has assets of over $40 billion US and has in excess of 85,000 member employees. The Mondragon model is different to the employee share ownership schemes sometimes promoted in Australia. It is not a ...
Stages of human history in less than 6,000 words (mainly for teens and adults who want a short summary of history) Summary: Six stages of history are hunter gathers, farming societies, city states and empires, middle ages, early modern era and industrial revolution. The stages overlap and each later stage is shorter than the one that preceded it. Stages of history It is useful to think of the history of human beings as falling into broad stages. The stages ...
Christopher Pyne is my name Lyrics Christopher Pyne is my name I come from Adelaide, Might be why I speak like this or I could be Alex Downer remade, In the autumn of two zero one four the razor came out but if you can afford, A nice big fat private school fee Chances are you can end up speaking like me “La la la, la la la, la la la la la, la la la la.” Christopher Pyne is my name I’m a liberal through and through, ...
The Middle Age Philosophers The main philosophers of the Middle Ages were religious thinkers; St Augustine (354- 430 CE) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) for Christianity and Averroes ( 1126-1198 CE) for Islam. Augustine was influenced by the thinking of Plato and the teachings of the Neo-Platonist, Plotinus (204–270 CE). He thought that faith and reason could be reconciled within Christianity. ...
Ancient Greece- Precursors to modern philosophy and science Summary: The Ancient Greeks set out most of the questions that have been of interest to philosophers as well as many questions addressed by modern science. The Pre-Socratic Greeks The Ancient Greeks set out most of the questions that have been of interest to philosophers as well as many questions addressed by modern science. Philosophy and natural ...
Violence- A controversy over history Summary: Discusses human beings and violence focussing on Steven Pinker’s idea that human violence is decreasing and criticism of Pinker’s views. It touches on pacifism and just violence theory as well as the problem of state violence. It explores tension between the principles self -determination and the duty to protect. Human beings and violence Human history is filled with war and other acts of violence. The natural world of ...
Nature and Nuture Summary: The main idea in this essay is that a person’s nature is like a car’s engine and their environment (nurture) is like the car’s fuel- the one cannot operate without the other. Pavlov’s dog- four main ways behaviour is taught. Human ability to speak is natural- learning a specific language is environmental. How nature ...
Animals Summary: Sharing the world with animals; Hunter gatherers and animals; Domestication of some animals; The idea that the human world is separate from the animal world; Animals and extinction; Chimps and humans- the ability to predict what another being might do; Friendly foxes; Animal welfare or animal rights; Biotechnology and animals. Sharing the world with animals Human ...
A brief history of marriage Marriage is, and always has been, an evolving institution created by human beings for human beings. Attitudes towards marriage change as society changes. Not so long ago, marriage rendered women the property of men. As late as about 30 years ago, “definitions” of marriage precluded the legal possibility of rape occurring within marriage. Nobody today ...
Time for a cost benefit analysis of US alliance (Published on ‘The Drum’ 3 November 2010) Australia’s alliance with the USA seems to be popular with the Australian electorate. Polls by the Lowy Institute (LI) and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) suggest strong support for the Australian-US alliance. These polls tell us that most Australians regard the alliance as important “for Australia’s security”. But they do ...
Views on the afterlife- including no sex for Christians in heaven Summary: Jewish views on the afterlife; Islamic views on heaven; Christian views on heaven and hell; Modern questions about life in heaven; No sex in the Christian heaven; Changes in how a person gets to heaven. The Middle Eastern religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam all believe in an afterlife in heaven. Jewish views on the afterlife The idea of ...
Utilitarianism and politics Summary: However applicable utilitarianism is to the development or assessment of ethics and public policy, in the end, it probably adds little to successful navigation of the political process. In 2010 Professor Peter Singer delivered an oration to the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). His topic was ‘Ethics & Public Policy’. Professor Singer advocated a utilitarian or ...
The Self Summary: Discusses religious and philosophical views of the self , the changing self, Demasio’s views on the continuity of the self and location of the self in the brain stem, death and the end of consciousness, debates on the role of the unconscious and Kahneman’s distinction between the experiencing and the remembering self. Religious and Philosophical Views ...