“Melden Chair in Philosophy Filled - New University Newspaper” plus 4 more

Melden Chair in Philosophy Filled - New University Newspaper
Words of wisdom: Aristotle was a seeker of cosmic truth - Naples Daily News
Home Spirituality Philosophy Life after Death - Aish
PRCC philosophy lecture planned - Hattiesburg American
holmgren president of football operations - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Melden Chair in Philosophy Filled - New University Newspaper

Posted: 03 Dec 2009 03:51 AM PST

Professor Margaret Gilbert will bring nearly four decades of teaching experience to the UC Irvine philosophy department, the school announced on Oct. 23. She will fill the Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy.
Gilbert has been considered a pioneer in the field of moral philosophy ever since her first book, 'On Social Facts,' hit bookshelves in 1989. She has followed with four additional books, the most recent of which came out earlier this year.
After receiving her doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, Gilbert went on to teach at Manchester University. In 1983, she began her 23-year stay at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, where she was a professor of philosophy until earlier this year.
Gilbert's career in philosophy began to surface after she obtained a degree in classics and philosophy from Cambridge and was deciding on the route her post-graduate education would take.
'I think I'd always been interested in the idea of the social sciences, and understanding human relationships, and what it [meant] for people to get together and be in a relationship,' Gilbert said.
Gilbert's exploration of these social and philosophical questions was the topic of her book 'On Social Facts.' In the course of writing this book, Gilbert realized that she was raising questions as she answered them.
'My answers to the question of what a social group is led me to some questions in moral philosophy,' Gilbert said. 'It began to seem as if people in groups regard each other as having obligations towards one another and having rights against one another, so that if you could understand what a group was, you might be able to understand something about rights and obligations. … So you could say I moved into moral philosophy from social philosophy.'
Gilbert plans to bring a non-authoritarian teaching style to the classroom, specifically encouraging students to 'think for themselves about the subjects that we study.' She emphasizes that philosophy is not a matter of memorizing, but a subject that requires learning to ruminate on the material and develop unique ideas.
Gilbert will begin teaching courses in winter quarter 2007.

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Words of wisdom: Aristotle was a seeker of cosmic truth - Naples Daily News

Posted: 03 Dec 2009 08:38 AM PST

Aristotle was one of the most brilliant minds that ever lived. He was born around 385 B.C. at a Grecian colony called Stagira. At the age of about 18 he went to Athens, where he became a student of Plato. From early on, one of his principal philosophic interests was investigating the universe and the physical world both within and around him. Although there were definite differences of opinion between he and Plato, theirs does not appear to have been anything but a cordial relationship.

About 345 B.C., Aristotle was summoned by King Phillip of Macedon back to his native Stagira to be the teacher of the king's son, 13-year-old Alexander, who would later become Aristotle's most famous pupil, Alexander the Great, the future world conqueror. Aristotle ultimately became a kind of formal advisor to Alexander once he assumed the throne, not only in philosophy, but in other matters of state.

Around 335 B.C., Aristotle returned to Athens and opened a school for philosophers that came to be known as the Lyceum. It eventually became known as a peripatetic school because of the manner in which Aristotle taught philosophy while walking among his students.

Aristotle defined philosophy in terms of essence. He describes philosophy as, "the science of the universal essence of that which is actual." For the 13 years that Aristotle taught at the Lyceum, he also became a prolific writer and most of his works were completed at that time.

You could categorize Aristotle's philosophy into four broad areas: 1.) Logic, which Aristotle saw as an analytic study that was preliminary to the study of philosophy. 2.) Theoretical philosophy, which would include metaphysics, physics and mathematics. 3.) Practical philosophy and 4.) Poetical philosophy.

Aristotle wrote a book on physics, "Metaphysics," which was considered as "first philosophy." Aristotle's writings in the area of moral philosophy include "The Nichomachean Ethics," "The Eudemian Ethics," "The Politics," The Greater Ethics" and the Athenian constitution. Finally, in the field of poetry, he wrote "The Poetics."

It is a very interesting adventure, safariing first through Platoville, and then through Aristotleland. One can get lost in the dense jungle of words. There are many divergences between the two. Whereas his teacher, Plato searched for the "ideal," Aristotle's search was more for the "true." He was, as it seems, searching for cosmic truth.

The soul, to Aristotle would be considered as the perfect expression of the natural body and the full realization of the natural body. God, to Aristotle, was the supreme intelligence of the universe, as found in the essence of the particular, the First Cause, the Prime Mover, the Pure Actuality.

In the search for wisdom, Plato can be seen as the wise artist and Aristotle more as the wise scientist. If Plato's philosophy could be called the philosophy of the mind that was led to search for wisdom with the heart, then Aristotle's could be considered the philosophy of the mind that was led to search for wisdom with the head.

Plato found the universality and personality of wisdom to be apart from particular things, while Aristotle sought the universality and personality of wisdom in particular things. I believe that Plato saw wisdom descending more through revelation, while Aristotle's wisdom ascended through reason, intelligence, knowledge, essence and what he called "phronesis," or practical wisdom.

There is an oft-quoted line attributed to Aristotle: "Wisdom begins in wonder." I found his best thoughts concerning wisdom to be offered in his several references to phronesis his teachings on ethics.

Aristotle describes five dianoetic virtues. "Sophia" (the wisdom of first principles) was preeminent. Wisdom as regards the eternal was the highest kind of wisdom. Then there is "Epistime," related to scientific knowledge; "Techne," related to craft knowledge; "Nous," related to intuition, and "Phronesis," related to practical wisdom.

Aristotle saw practical wisdom as one of those intellectual virtues that characterized a well-ordered mind and helped to gain a knowledge of particulars. Virtue lay in a mean between the vice of deficiency and the vice of excess. Practical wisdom was a factor in leading to what Aristotle saw as one of the highest of his virtuous means, the virtue of high-mindedness.

Practical wisdom is a kind of intuitively seeing or right-seeing, without which we are blind. Practical wisdom operates within the realm of that which is under our control. As there is no exact formula for life which will work every time under every circumstance, practical wisdom can have no precise formula, either. You cannot put practical wisdom in a test tube and bottle it for some future use.

Practical wisdom equips one to manage the complexities of the real world that complicate the process of reason. Practical wisdom is more wisdom in action than wisdom in contemplation, and allows one to live a life of happiness in this world while preparing for the next. Experience and observation, combined with practical wisdom, will enable one to intuit well, reason well, deliberate well, choose well and then ultimately allow one to judge virtuously and make good decisions in their life.

On the other hand, no situation is exactly the same as any other situation. Unfortunately, you can never know beforehand at the moment of decision what exactly the result and ultimate outcome of any decision might be. Therefore, I would maintain that unless one's practical wisdom is grounded in a faith in divine wisdom, and unless one attempts to somehow be in touch with the mind of God, then the streams of wisdom might not be coming from the ocean of divine wisdom, but from some other source.

What may appear to be a good decision for the moment could have long-term disastrous results. This is not to minimize the importance of practical wisdom, but more to emphasize its source, as well as its importance and relevance in the search for wisdom generally. Is your life grounded in divine wisdom? If not, where is it grounded?

Michael Hickey is a local writer and poet who lives in Pelican Bay and Swampscott, Mass. His book, "Get Wisdom," is published by Xlibris Div. Random House Publishing and is available at 1-888-795-4274, ext. 822, at www.Xlibris.com or your local bookstore. E-mail Mike Hickey at Mikehic@nii.net.

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Home Spirituality Philosophy Life after Death - Aish

Posted: 03 Dec 2009 01:00 AM PST

Recently there's been a spate of new books presenting what the authors consider an unshakable case for the survival of consciousness beyond death, drawn from quantum mechanics, neuroscience and moral philosophy.

But I have to confess that having the inside information Judaism gave me -- long before the publication of these new findings that claim to know what happens after our "full life of 120" -- is far more satisfying than the most compelling and supposedly scientific validity for belief in an afterlife.

True, Jewish tradition never emphasized or even went into great detail about the specifics of the World to Come. It was simply a given, a fact rooted, as biblical commentators explained, in the notion that we are created "in the image of God." Since God is eternal, there is something within every one of us -- the Divine essence that represents our identity and that we refer to as our souls -- that must of necessity be equally eternal and immortal.

Our souls accompany us in our journey through life and do not forsake us with the end of our physical beings

Our bodies, as material creations, came from the dust of the earth and have to return to their source; they disintegrate when they are buried. But our souls are the gift of "Himself" that the Almighty breathed into us. They accompany us in our journey through life and do not forsake us with the end of our physical beings.

Judaism did not dwell on the obvious. Sure there is life after death; without it life would be rendered a transient flash in the pan, perhaps fun while it lasted but ultimately devoid of meaning. The Torah recorded the past as history; it chose to leave the future as mystery. Its purpose was primarily to be a "tree of life" concerned with teaching us how to improve ourselves and our world while we inhabit it. The details of our post-terrestrial existence were in the main left unrecorded. There will be time enough for us to discover the Divine master plan for the World to Come -- once we get there.

But if we are to lead our lives with the proper sense of responsibility and purpose, there are some things that the Sages realized we have to know about. So they did give us a peek into the future after our deaths.

At the moment of death, we catch a glimpse of God. The Torah teaches us that God decreed, "No man can see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). The implication is clear: with the end of life we are granted the gift of a minute vision of the Almighty. That is the reason, many commentators suggest, that we are obligated to close the eyes of the deceased. The eyes that have now beheld God Himself must be shut off from any further contact with the profane.

And it is this momentary meeting that serves to give meaning to all of our lives. We suddenly grasp that everything we have ever done or said was in the presence of a Higher Power. Everything we accomplished or failed to do was judged by the One Who created us. "Know before whom you are destined to give a final accounting" is the language of the Talmud. Can there be a greater incentive to do good and not evil than the knowledge that in the end it is God Who will pass judgment on whether we were a success or a failure?

In Kabbalah, the mystics add a small piece to the story. It is not only God who judges us. As we bid farewell to the world, we are shown a film that contains scenes of our entire lives. We are witnesses to every moment of our days on Earth as they pass before us with incredible rapidity. And as we watch our own story unfold, there are times when we cringe with embarrassment; others when we smile with glee. Our past moral lapses cause us to shudder in pain; our victories over our evil inclinations provide us with a keen sense of spiritual triumph. It is then that we realize in retrospect that we alone are the greatest judges of our own lives. What happens after death is that we gain the wisdom to evaluate our own life by the standards of Heaven -- because we have finally glimpsed an eternal perspective.

The Eternal, Here and Now

There is a synagogue in Jerusalem with a most unusual architectural feature. Built into one of the walls facing the congregants is a coffin. When I visited and remarked upon this seemingly morbid addition, one of the elders explained to me that this was a tradition their community maintained for many centuries. It had its roots in an effort to remind everyone of the cardinal truth that, being mortal, we are all destined someday to face our Maker. No one is exempt from the final judgment. To place this in the forefront of our consciousness every day, he smilingly said to me, is not morbid but surely a mitzvah.

No, we do not need to know the details of the World to Come. But we must constantly be aware of the reality that our days will be scrutinized by a Higher Authority -- and that we ourselves will be forced to join in the Divine judgment.

There is no clear picture painted for us of Heaven and Hell. While belief in reward and punishment after death is, according to Maimonides, one of the 13 major principles of our faith, we have no way of knowing exactly what is meant by this concept. But we can hazard a guess. Since our entry into the next world is preceded by the obligation for every one of us to watch the film record of our lives, what greater Hell can there be than for us to have to acknowledge our shameful actions and our unconscionable failings unto all eternity? And what greater Heaven can there be than the ability to look back forever on personal acts of goodness, of charity, and of noble and pious behavior that made us find favor in the eyes of God?

That's why it's so important for us to affirm that death isn't the end. And even if we don't know exactly how our souls will be treated either above or below, we have been assured that the righteous are guaranteed rewards commensurate with their good deeds, and the wicked will rue the evil they perpetrated.

Hell is the deepest realization that we have squandered part of our life.

What is Hell? Remember when you were in eighth grade and something utterly embarrassing happened? The shame you felt and how you just wanted the ground to open up so you could disappear. That is Hell. It is the deepest realization that our life (or part of it) has been squandered, which creates a deep regret and shame in our soul.

The good news is that God -- in His infinite kindness – established this as a cleansing process, where after one year (or less), all the negativity has been forever washed away.

Closing the Curtain

So why think about what happens after death while we're still here? The answer is simple and at the same time most profound: Whatever actions we take on Earth must be with a sense of their eternal ramification.

Perhaps it's best reflected in the following story. A very wealthy man not known for his piety stood in a long line of those waiting to have their lives assessed by the heavenly court. He listened attentively as those who were being judged before him recounted both their spiritual failings and achievements. A number of them seemed to have the scales weighted against them until they suddenly remembered acts of charity they had performed, which dramatically tipped the scales in their favor. The rich man took it all in and smiled to himself.

When it was his turn, he confidently said, "I may have committed many sins during my lifetime, but I realize now what has the power to override them. I am a very wealthy man and I will be happy to write out a very large check to whatever charity you recommend."

To which the court replied, "We are truly sorry, but here we do not accept checks -- only receipts."

The choices we make today create our portion in the Next World. For eternity.

The true tragedy of death is that it represents the closing curtain on our ability to do anymore mitzvot. We no longer have the free will to do good (or evil). It is only what we bring to that moment that can earn us entry into a state of eternal bliss. It's what we do here and now that truly matters. The choices we make today create our portion in the Next World. For eternity.

Death isn't a destroyer; it's a transition. As the chassidic Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk put it, "Death is just a matter of going from one room to another. And if we live our lives in accord with the will of God, we are certain that the place we are going to is ultimately the more beautiful area."

Yes, there is life after death. But the greatest afterlife is achieved by focusing on how we can maximize our life before death.

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PRCC philosophy lecture planned - Hattiesburg American

Posted: 02 Dec 2009 08:56 PM PST