Mind_Fill

Yeah, it’s cliche, but given that tomorrow marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season for a lot of North Americans, it seems like an appropriate question to ask.  From the time we’re little, we’re told to be unselfish, generous and giving.  Now, I’m personally a big fan of all those qualities in a person, but have you ever wondered why they’re so important?  Here are a few  things to consider as you shop, wrap, and stuff stockings:

• Is it possible to be too generous?
• Is there really such a thing as an entirely unselfish act?
• Can you actually do harm to someone by giving them too much?
• Is the happiness people get from material goods as beneficial as the happiness they get from other “gifts”?

Summer is quickly drawing to a close (boo-hoo), and soon enough, most of the reading you will do will be for marks.  While there’s still time for leisurely rocks in the hammock, or lazy mornings in bed, here are a couple of new finds that are pretty cool.  I have to admit, I saw these first in Urban Outfitters, and have to commend the chain’s hipster buyers for putting interesting stuff on the shelves.  They also had a cookbook that featured all kinds of food on a stick, but that’s another story.

“The Philosophy Book”, by Dorling Kindersley- simple, clear, thorough, and it had some really amazing philosophers who usually get left out.

“The Lazy Intellectual: Maximum Knowledge, Minimum Effort” by Richard J. Wallace- the title’s catchy, and it contains stuff other than philosophy too

I had a great time speaking to students at Camp Enterprise today.  Thanks to everyone who swung by my table to talk philosophy with me!  I was impressed with all of your wonderful ideas.

It sounds like a very zen thing to do, but thinking about nothing is actually much trickier than it sounds.  It’s difficult enough to avoid thinking about particular things, like paying the bills, or the math test tomorrow.  Try emptying your mind entirely, so that you’re not even thinking about the fact that you’re thinking.

Needless to say, a lot of philosophers think it’s impossible.  Some say that there is no such thing as nothing.  Others say that humans are just hardwired to think about stuff.

What do you think?

The March edition of “Empowerment House” magazine is up!  This month, we take look at the rosier side of human nature with famous philosopher, John Locke.

http://www.empowermenthouse.ca/amy_leask_march_issue.htm

Check out Empowerment House, a fantastic online magazine for young people looking to live fuller lives.  We’ll be contributing a monthly column based on the advice of famous philosophers.

This month, we discuss Nietzsche, and ways to “live on the edge without falling off.”

http://www.empowermenthouse.ca/amy_leask_february.htm

For old time’s sake, go dig out one of those oh-so-adorable photos of you as a baby.  When you’re finished basking in the chubby loveliness that radiates from the picture, ask yourself:

• How do we know that we’re the same person now as we were all those years ago?  Our bodies are completely different, our minds work in different ways, and we’re capable of so much more now than we were then.  So what is it that’s stayed the same?
• More importantly, what parts of us will stay the same in the years to come, as we get older?
• What do people mean when they say that something makes them feel like a “whole new person”?  What about when they say that they sometimes “don’t feel like themselves”?  What really changes?
• Believe it or not, there are philosophers who insist that we can’t really be sure we’re the same person from one minute to the next, let alone over the course of a lifetime.
• David Hume, for example, insisted that our sense of identity was really just a collection of “memories” that we edit into some sort of order so we can go about our daily lives.

Hmmmm…

Okay, so you’re probably too old for trick-or-treating, or at least that’s what you tell everyone before you put on a  disguise and take advantage of last-call for candy.  Nevertheless, at some point or other, most kids slap on a plastic mask, don a cape or pop in a pair of fake fangs.  Why?  Well, there’s the sugar rush, but there’s also the thrill of being someone (or something) else for the evening.  If there’s one thing philosophers love, it’s talking about identity, and whether or not we’re the same person from one moment to the next.

• David Hume didn’t believe that we had stable identities (at  least we couldn’t be sure about this).  We really didn’t have any way to be certain that we were the same person from one moment to the next.  However, believing that our identity doesn”t change is necessary in order for us to make sense of our lives.
• Baruch Spinoza thought there was no such thing as individual identities.  He believed that the entire universe was just one big “blob”, and that individual things were just little bits of a bigger identity.
• Buddha, otherwise known as Siddhartha Gautama, taught that thinking of ourselves as individual people only led to suffering.

Try this experiment:

• Have a look at all the embarrassing (but cute) photos your parents took of you in your Halloween costumes over the years.
• Are you certain that the person you are today is the same little rascal dressed as Batman, or Little Red Riding Hood, or a tomato?  How do you know?
• If you do think you’re the same person, what is it that’s kept you the same?  You’ve obviously grown out of your body, and your mind has (hopefully) expanded over the years.  What is this thing you call “me” that hasn’t changed?

Happy Halloween!  Enjoy the real candy, and the mind candy!