Monday, April 24, 2006

Freedom

How can we ever be free when we lock ourselves up, if we are not bound by social or economic ties we lock ourselves down with emotional ones?

Only with the knowledge of what we are doing to ourselves and others can we become free, as we begin to understand that what we are doing is controlled by us and how we react to it, but then does this not now lead to the fact we are controlling ourselves again? This time, we are controlling ourselves to avoid the other forms of control placed on us.

So can you really ever be a free spirit? This is the question I ask.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Meanings

Dear all, I'd like to take the time to thank you for even reading as far as this, after all, I know how many of us have such little time to read, but I'd like you to think this one over for a moment... look at the words and the meaning they have been given and see if you can add to or give a better example of these words.

I would also like to thank http://en.wikipedia.org for the source of information.


The truth is an important concept in philosophy, logic, mathematics, science, law, religion, and linguistics, and is also a frequent topic for poets. Various theories of truth have been proposed, but there is no definition upon which scholars can agree. Robust theories of truth treat truth as an attribute. Deflationary theories propose that "truth" is simply a tool of language to express agreement or to emphasise a claim.
Standing beside the issue of definition are several other issues about which scholars have various views. What sorts of things can properly be called true or false? What tests can establish a claim to being true? How do we know something to be true? Which truths, if any, are subjective, …relative, …objective, …absolute?

Love has several different meanings in the English language, from something that gives a little pleasure ("I loved that meal") to something for which one would die (patriotism, pair-bonding). It can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love. And what is usually felt by a person for another person, and is usually impossible to describe. Dictionaries tend to define love as deep affection or fondness.[1] In colloquial use, according to polled opinion, the most favoured definitions of love include the words:[2]
1. life - someone or something for which you would give your life. 2. care - someone or something about which you care more than yourself. 3. friendship - favoured interpersonal associations or relationships. 4. union - a synergistic connection, as in the perfect union of two souls. 5. family - people related via common ancestry, religion, or race, etc.
The concept of love, however, is subject to debate. Some deny the existence of love, calling it a recently invented abstraction. Moreover, approximately 13 percent of cultures reportedly have no word for love.[3] Others maintain that love exists but is undefinable; being a quantity which is spiritual, metaphysical, or philosophical in nature, etc. Perhaps due to its emotional primacy, love is one of the most common themes in art.

Emotion, in its most general definition, is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action, prompting automatic reactive behaviour that has been adapted through evolution as a survival mechanism to meet a survival need. Linda Davidoff defines emotion as a feeling that is expressed through physiological functions such as facial expressions, faster heartbeat, and behaviours such as aggression, crying or covering the face with hands.[1] Examples of emotions are joy, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, and empathy.
Emotion is differentiated from feeling, in that, as noted, emotion is a psycho-physiological state that moves an organism to action. Feeling, on the other hand, is an emotion that is filtered through the cognitive brain centres, specifically the frontal lobe, producing a physiological change in addition to the psycho-physiological change. Daniel Goleman, in his landmark book Emotional Intelligence, discusses this differentiation at length. The term emotional isolation has been used to describe people who are not able, for some reason, to confide their feelings in anyone.

The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self-aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. In these traditions, the soul is thought to incorporate the inner essence of each living being, and to be the true basis for sentience. In distinction to the spirit which may or may not is eternal, souls are usually (but not always as explained below) considered to be immortal and to pre-exist their incarnation in flesh. The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial while others consider it possibly material.
Note: This article uses the word "soul" in the common form, and deals largely with varied concepts from which the concept originates, and to which it relates. The use of the word soul often does not explicitly correspond to usage associated with any particular view or belief, including usage in Western and Eastern religious texts, and in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, or Plotinus.

Evil is a term describing that which is regarded as morally bad, intrinsically corrupt, wantonly destructive, inhumane, or wicked. In most cultures, the word is used to describe acts, thoughts, and ideas which are thought to (either directly or causally) bring about affliction and death — the opposite of life. However, the definition of what counts as evil differs widely from culture to culture and from individual to individual. Some philosophers reject the idea of evil. Plato, for example, argued that that which we call evil is merely ignorance, and that which we call good is merely that which everyone desires.
For those who accept the existence of evil, there are two main beliefs about evil [citation needed]. In some belief systems, evil consists of a willful deviation from a code of laws (written or unwritten) or moral standard, usually proscribed by a holy deity. According to this definition, people who, for example, reject a certain belief or engage in sexual practices against this code are engaged in evil acts. According to other belief systems, evil consists of intentionally doing harm, and so-called "victimless crimes" should not be considered evil. It is important to note, however, that followers of the first definition believe that these "victimless crimes" do indeed have victims, usually the moral soul of the person committing the act.
The duality of 'good versus evil' is expressed, in some form or another, by many cultures. This concept describes a hierarchy of moral standards applied to human behaviour. In more casual or derogatory use, the word "evil" can characterise people and behaviours that are hurtful, ruinous, or disastrous. Those who believe in the duality theory of evil believe that evil cannot exist without good, nor good without evil, as they are both objective states and opposite ends of the same scale.
A similar term, malice, (from the Latin malus meaning "bad") describes the deliberate human intent to harm and be harmful. "Evil", by contrast, tends to represent a more elemental concept; a disembodied spirit that is natural and yet abominable. Whereas "malice" is specifically concerned with the act itself, "evil" is the cause of a malicious act. True evil is sometimes motivated by malicious greed and/or sadism.