Symbolic Logic

'I learned from Symbolic Logic that an argument can be completely logical without being in the least true. This course of study helped me later when I studied computer programming on sabbatical leave from the public schools. I believe there is some connection between symbolic logic and computer programming, since you are dealing only with cold-blooded logic, not truth or judgment.'

'Tiberge' on Galliawatch.blogspot.nl
11 october 2012
4.08 AM

Asymptotic freedom

'(...) at high energies the strong force becomes much weaker, and the quarks and gluons behave almost like free particles'

Stephen W. Hawking

Your words

'So I tell you this, that for every unfounded word people utter they will answer on Judgement Day,

since it is by your words you will be justified, and by your words condemned.' Mat.12, 36-37

Zojuist verschenen

Autonomy

'We should no longer assume that all patients are always capable of asserting and defending their right in an autonomous way. Rather, we should recognize that they may be in need of care, and temporarily (and in some cases permanently) unable to assert and defend their rights.'

Manning R.C., "A care approach". In: Kuhse, H. & P. Singer (eds), A companion to bioethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 104. 3rd edition.

Normalizing practices

'(...) the mere discussion of issues as issues tends to normalize the practices in question'.

Battin, M.P. 2003. 'Bioethics. In: Frey, R.G. & C. Wellman, A companion to applied ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 295-312.

Inconsistencies

‘the value aspects [of problems ] are very complex and […] it is extremely difficult to express all these values consistently when one is doing this informally. Indeed, one the major reasons to build a formal value model is to identify possible inconsistenties and insure that they are not included in the model.'

Keeney, R.L. 1992, Value-focused thinking. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 150

Subsidiarity

‘a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving de latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good’.

John Paul II

Achievement

'Better one hand full of repose than two hands full of achievements to chase after the wind.'

Ecclesiastes 4: 6

Satisfaction

'It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.'
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Intrinsieke waarde

Zou het leven geen intrinsieke waarde hebben, dan kan het meegenomen worden in een economische of milieuklimatologische afweging; men zou de aantallen mensen in de wereld kunnen afwegen tegen de gewenste CO₂-uitstoot; of de gezinsgrootte tegen de desiderata van de staat (zie China).]

Fred Hamburg

Medische ethiek

Het liberalisme met zijn autonomie, patiëntenrechten en minimumstandaarden heeft niets te bieden als je te maken hebt met fundamentele zaken als embryoselectie en thanasie op pasgeborenen. Het schuift slechts morele dilemma’s door naar individuen die in het algemeen niet beschikken over rationele beslismethoden.

Voorts kan in een (post)moderne, pluralistische maatschappij (zoals Nederland) wel relatief gemakkelijker consensus verkregen worden op procedures en minimumregels/-rechten, maar helaas niet op ‘wat precies Goed is’. Dit alles duidt mogelijk op een algemene toestand van ‘scarce intellectual resources’ en ‘weak societal powers’.

Fred Hamburg

The godless

'Do good to the humble, give nothing to the godless. Refuse him bread, do not give him any, it might make him stronger than you are; then you would be repaid evil twice over for all the good you had done him.'

Ecclesiasticus 12: 5

Reflection

'Many monarchs have been made to sit on the ground, and the person nobody thought of has worn the crown.

Many influential people have been utterly disgraced, and prominent people have fallen into the power of others.

Do not find fault before making thorough enquiry; first reflect, then give a reprimand.

Listen before you answer, and do not interrupt a speech before it is finished.

Do not wrangle about something that does not concern you, do not interfere in the quarrels of sinners.'

Ecclesiasticus 11, 5-9

Crises

'In great crises there is no better companion than a bold heart'

Balthasar Gracian (1601-1658)

Financiers

'The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriottism and without decency; their sole object is gain'.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Wisdom

'How very harsh [wisdom] is to the undisciplined!'

Ecclesiasticus: 6, 20

Interest

'Interest is the price we pay, or extract, for the use of money, which in the present age of specializaion equates to survival. Interest, therefore, encodes the belief that the means of survival are precious, rare, scarce, and therefore the objects of competition. Lending money with interest amounts to, "I will help you survive, but only if you pay me."'

Charles Eisenstein

http://rockspot.newvisionsa.com/?page_id=138 (p.4 of 20)

Advisers

'Let your acquaintances be many, but for advisers choose one out of a thousand.'

Ecclesiasticus: 6.6