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Paradoxism is an avant-garde movement in literature, art, philosophy, science, based on excessive use of antitheses, antinomies, contradictions, parables, odds, paradoxes in creations. It was set up by the editor since 1980’s and promulgates a counter-time/ counter-sense creation. Paradoxism started as an anti-totalitarian protest against a closed society, Romania of 1980’s. Why was the movement based on contradictions? Because we lived in that society a double life: an official one – propagated by the political system, and another one real. In mass-media it was promulgated that “our life is wonderful”, but in reality “our life was miserable”. The paradox flourishing! And then we took the creation in derision, in opposite sense, in a syncretic way. Thus the paradoxism was born....

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What is Philosophy? Is it the exclusive domain of those who dream in abstract? Or is it the manifestation of the struggle of those who practice in material? Does it originate in the minds of professors like a Ganges flowing out from the hair-locks of "Lord" Shiva? Or is it rustic and puerile, evolving into maturity through the experiences of common men. I started writing philosophy without actually knowing that I was writing one. To start with, it was an outlet to project my frustration in the form of writings. Pretty often, it carried abuses hurled at none in particular, but at the system through its agents. But I don’t know when those ramblings started getting matured into Philosophy and all puerility and abuses purified themselves on the way – a Ganges doesn’t become pure by its origin but by the treatment people give to it on its way. In my book “Writings @ Ankur Mutreja”, I included a section on my personal philosophy and thought nobody would be interested in reading it. But, fortunately, I have found some kind-hearted people, who have given me their valuable feedback. I am reproducing my philosophy below by selecting those top...

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An introduction to moral, political and economic philosophy. Twelve philosophers in each category are featured, their basic theories are examined and provide the basis for discussion....

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PARTI An Introduction to Clearer Thinking Chapter 1 Attitudes: How They Affect Our Thinking 3 Chapter 2 Classifying Viewpoints: Conservative and Liberal 12 Chapter 3 Epistemology and Logic 20 Chapter 4 Fallacies: Errors o f L anguage and Logic 32 PART 2 Moral Philosophy: Ideas of Good and Evil, Right and Wrong Chapter 5 Moral Philosophy: A Brief Introduction 47 Chapter 6 Plato and Aristotle: Idealism and Realism 55 Chapter 7 Epicurus and Epictetus: Pleasure and Apathy 65 Chapter 8 Aquinas and Descartes: Faith and Reason 72 Chapter 9 Hume, Bentham and Mill: Subjectivism and Utilitarianism 82 Chapter 10 Kant and Schopenhauer: Idealism and Pessimism 90 Chapter 11 Nietzsche and Sartre: Naturalism and Existentialism 99 PART 3 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the State Chapter 12 Introduction to Political Theory 111 Chapter 13 Law: Understanding the Rule o f Reason 119 Chapter 14 Problems o f Government: Five Great Issues 127 Chapter 15 Plato and Aristotle: Utopia and Polity 138 Chapter 16 Augustine and Aquinas: Platonist and Aristotelian 146 Chapter 17 Machiavelli and Hobbes: The Prince ...

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In this theoretically sophisticated monograph Dr. Alex Battler formulates a new ontological interpretation of the category of force: - a definition of force as an ontological category; - the manifestation of force in the inorganic world within the framework of the idea of the Big Bang; - a definition of force in the organic world to determine the boundary between life and nonlife; - a solution to the mind–body problem (i.e., what consciousness and thought are), which has led me to a new formulation of the concept of Progress. ...

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PREFACE......................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION: LEXICON AND METHOD....................................17 CHAPTER I. THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF FORCE.........................31 1. Foreword.............................................................................................32 2 . Ancient Greek Philosophers On Force............................................35 3. The Philosophy of Force in the Works of European Philosophers of the 15th–19th Centuries.................................................................41 Nicholas of Cusa..........................................................................41 Leonardo da Vinci.......................................................................42 Bernardino Telesio and Francis Bacon.......................................44 René Descartes and Isaac Newton..............................................47 Benedict de Spinoza....................................................................50 John Locke...................................................................................51 ...

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“In these days,” writes the renowned Bahá’í scholar, Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl, “which are the latter days of 1911, A. D. and the early days of 1330 A. H., I have seen a curious article which astonished me. What did I see? I find that one of the missionaries of the Protestant sect, who accounts himself among the learned men of the twentieth century, a helper of the pure religion of Christ and one of the civilized and cultured occidentals, by name, Peter Z. Easton, has been so provoked by jealousy at the universal spread of the heavenly word of His Holiness Abdul-Baha throughout vast expanses of Europe that he has trespassed the limit of courtesy and humanity and published an article replete with execration and calumny in the magazine “Evangelical Christendom.” …Briefly, as this servant [Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl] carefully perused and weighed the above mentioned article, it was found that Peter Z. Easton, in his own supposition, has clung to “four proofs” in opposing the great Bahai Cause. We will therefore mention these four points and show the falsity of his fanciful ideas in each instance.” A number of works were written in the 19th century to def...

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Religion, Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Politics , by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, is one of the most influential texts in political philosophy. In it, Aristotle explores the role that the political community should play in developing the virtue of its citizens. One of his central ideas is that Man is a political animal, meaning that people can only become virtuous by active participation in the political community. Aristotle also criticizes his teacher Plato, classifies and evaluates six different types of constitutions and political institutions, and describes his vision of the ideal state. Aristotle's views on women and slavery are unenlightened by today's standards, but his work remains enduring and relevant to this day. (Summary by Leon Mire)...

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Philosophy, Politics

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Published in 1859, On Liberty details Mill's view that individuals should be left wholly free to engage in any activity, thought or belief that does not harm others. Simple though it sounds, it is a position that challenges our ideas on the very nature of government and society, and sheds light on some of the key issues we face today. A key text of political philosophy, On Liberty has been continuously in print since its first publication. (Summary by David Barnes)....

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Philosophy

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This tripartite essay – published variously as “On the Popular Judgment” (J. Richardson trans.), “On the Old Saw” (E.B. Ashton trans.), or “On the Common Saying” (both M.J. Gregor and H.B. Nisbet) – Kant takes up the issue of the relation of theory to practice in three distinct ways. In the first, he replies to Christian Garve’s criticism of his moral theory, in the second, he distances himself from Thomas Hobbes, and in the third, Moses Mendelssohn. The three taken together are representative of the breadth of Kant’s moral and political thought; the first section being concerned with the individual, the second with the state, and the third with the species. Although this is, on the whole, a difficult piece to approach, the second and third sections are often read as a way into Kant’s political thought, and serve this purpose well, especially when read alongside his Perpetual Peace. (Summary by D.E. Wittkower.)...

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Philosophy

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ll Principe (The Prince) is a political treatise by the Florentine writer Niccolò Machiavelli, originally called “De Principatibus” (About Principalities). It was written around 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli’s death. The treatise is not actually representative of his published work during his lifetime, but it is certainly the best remembered one. (Summary from Wikipedia.org)...

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Philosophy

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The first volume of the catalogue in Thomas Jefferson's private collection.

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Philosophy - Moral XXIV Politics 1

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In the present volume, Volume IV, concluding Philosophy and containing the first part of Fine Arts, the divergence has become so marked that it is apparent that the revised "fair copy" of his catalogue made by Jefferson, and used during the negotiations for the sale, differed substantially from his earlier version....

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This essay, written in 1795, puts forth a plan for a lasting peace between nations and peoples. Kant puts forth necessary means to any peace, and argues that nations can be brought into federation with one another without loss of sovereignty. In one translation, telling of the historical impact of this essay, this federation is called a “league of nations.” The supplements and appendices are of considerable interest on their own. The supplements contain an argument regarding the use which nature makes of war, and the way in which nature, in the end, impels us towards peace. The appendices return to the question of whether his theory is mere theory, or whether it bears translation into practice. In this, he distinguishes between the moral politician and the political moralist, pointing out ways in which practical considerations conceal and excuse behavior that leads us towards discord and war. This essay continues to be relevant, and of great importance today, much to our shame. We hope still to find the perpetual peace which Kant argued as a obligatory goal, and we still have need of fear that we will, as Kant warned, “find Perpetua...

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Philosophy

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The Republic is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 380 BC. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and arguably Plato's best known work. In it, Socrates and various other Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man by constructing an imaginary city ruled by philosopher-kings. The dialogue also discusses the nature of the philosopher, Plato's Theory of Forms, the conflict between philosophy and poetry, and the immortality of the soul. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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Civil Disobedience is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government, it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War. (Summary from Wikipedia)....

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Philosophy

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Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in which she argued that women are not naturally inferior to men, but only appeared to be because they lacked education. She suggested that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagined a social order founded on reason. - Today, Wollstonecraft is considered a foundational thinker in feminist philosophy. Her early advocacy of women's equality and her attacks on conventional femininity and the degradation of women presaged the later emergence of the feminist political movement. Feminist scholars and activists have cited both her philosophical ideas and personal struggles as important influences in their work. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin, though it was immediately translated into other languages. In this letter addressed to an anonymous Honored Sir (actually Locke's close friend Philip von Limborch, who published it without Locke's knowledge) Locke argues for a new understanding of the relationship between religion and government. One of the founders of Empiricism, Locke develops a philosophy that is contrary to the one expressed by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan, primarily because it supports toleration for various Christian denominations. Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing toleration as the answer. Unlike Hobbes, who saw uniformity of religion as the key to a well-functioning civil society, Locke argues that more religious groups actually prevent civil unrest. Locke argues that civil unrest results from confrontations caused by any magistrate's attempt to prevent different religions from being practiced, rather than tolerating their prolifera...

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Philosophy

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Excerpt: Parmenides by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett.

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Excerpt: Statesman by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett.

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Omega: The Last Days of the World is a science fiction novel published in 1894 by Camille Flammarion. On 25th century Earth, a comet made mostly of Carbonic-Oxide (CO) could possibly collide with the Earth. It is concerned with the philosophy and political consequences of the end of the world....

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Science fiction, Philosophy, Politics

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Excerpt: Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett.