Far from the madding crowd...

  
The human race of the 21st century:  are we still the same species as we were a few hundred years ago?  Could we survive on a remote island without running water, cars, television, Internet?   Marie Gabriel, who quit her career in the media in London two years ago, spent an interesting year on a tiny island in the south Pacific.  Read Marie's experience

We may like to ask some other questions from her experience:

• How does one maintain harmonious relationships with his fellow cohabitants?  
• Living in such ‘primeval conditions,’ are there any thoughts for ‘privacy’?
• In a close-knit community like those on a small pacific island, could there be guaranteed survival of species without incest?

• Could peace of mind be attainable when one is far away from it all?
• Apart from the challenge of survival, what possibility is there in terms of inspiration for profound thoughts? 

Does is make sense to talk about human nature?

(Debate on 1/9/2012) What do we know about human nature behind its mask? We often say it’s ‘human nature’ to be selfish, to be greedy, to be jealous, to be cruel, to be competitive, to be ambitious…  But is there any scientific base to prove that these are unique attributes of humanoid?

Human nature is incredibly complex.  The purpose of the discussion is to differentiate the nature of humanoid from the nature of other animals.  We can then determine whether we were created by God, or whether we were descendants of monkeys.

In contrast to the debate on religions and morality, several of our scientifically minded philosophers gave fascinating answers branching out to the studies of neurology, stem-cell research, and brain scans.  We discovered the shocking truth that Human Nature, in the age of genetic engineering, is edging towards a new stage on the evolution ladder of primates.  I wonder if we are heading towards a Brave New World as prophesied by Aldous Huxley, in which only Alpha and Beta the Super-human will still be natural born humanoid, while the rest, especially Epsilons will be reproduced as millions of duplicates spawn from one single egg, deliberately created with limited cognitive and physical abilities, so that they can be easily conditioned to perform simple and repetitive tasks. We have heard of the horror of Dolly the cloned sheep.  Brace ourselves for the invasion of Epsilon clones.

Further to beauty or whatever happened to my third eye

I was remiss in not talking about nature in my first blog, probably the excitement of mastering technology was too much. I agree that there is a difference between listening to music, incidentally when I said non literal I of course ,meant instrumental music not songs or opera, and contemplating nature but not much of one. When we look at mountains, out to sea or at waterfalls or deserts or whatever our thoughts roam free perhaps to settle on themes of life and death precisely because they are not over determined by looking at cultural artefacts.In other words when we look at the works of man we are likely to think of their significance or meaning, historical or otherwise whereas a mountain does not mean anything in the same way, it has no history (other of course than the mountaineers who have climbed it) or the sea (other than those who have sailed on it). I suspect there are contradictions here to be deconstructed by others.I thank Judith for her comment but I fear I only have two eyes and lack an inner one.

I am not conscious of my unconscious

I would like to amplify some of my comments I made last saturday. I think it is unnecessary and confusing to make much of the distinction between inner and outer(?) life. When we listen to music, I use music as it is the least literal of art forms, (David can correct me with a quote from Lessing if I am wrong) When we listen I suggest that it calls forth a response from precisely those feelings and sensations that constitute our everyday life such as love, sex, regret, sadness, anxiety, joy and is not a gateway to an inner life which somehow has an exclusive ownership of these emotions or feelings.  Furthermore, to talk in these terms ignores the human agency that created the music, the technical expertise needed and yes, the rational planning which allows the inspiration felt by the artist to be expressed. To subordinate the everyday to some nebulous inner life is to deny the possibility of beauty in the everyday.  Of course we do not reveal all that we are in all of our everyday experiences but I believe they can only be revealed in them. I am no expert on dreams but for what it is worth for me they represent the prose of the day rendered into poetry not autonomous experiences? events? which have no connection to who we are, have been, fear we might be or want to be. I look forward to polemical retorts and accusations of being imaginatively deficient.
Unimaginatvely,
Gerry

In search of the Meaning of Life...

Life - what does it mean? Is it just a “bad dream between two awakenings” (Eugine O’Neill), or is it a “funny thing that occurs on the way to the grave” (Quentin Crisp)? Such was the theme of our last Saturday’s meeting:

- Our daily life in a material world is governed by rational thought and basic instinct of survival. Our inner life is enriched by the non-rational part of our psyche - emotions as expressed in poetry, music, art – something sublime, beyond our normal experience, within or without the religious context.

I will leave this space for other members to compose essays at their leisure.

I would also like to suggest our erudite friends to make some recommendations for:

- Books
- Films
- Websites

Forum: Can human beings live without conscience and consciousness?

Strands of discussion

• difference between consciousness and conscience
• instinct v conscience
• what is conscience – an inversion of guilt?
• what is instinct – sexual, maternal, survival, killing.
• were we born with conscience?
• moral sense – conscience – guilt is indoctrinated into our mind during our adult life.
• moral question: different countries have different standards of right and wrong