Bradley > Recent Status Updates

“I said to him…that every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map.”

When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way.

“A lot of people think the hardest part about religious doubt is feeling isolated from God. It’s not. At least in my experience, the hardest part about doubt is feeling isolated from your community.” RHE

I’ve been saying essentially the same thing for years but it is somewhat shocking to hear another voice this same idea. Somehow comforting.

“He looked at the bag and was curious why the photos had never been mounted in an album or put on display. They were just glimpses of a lifetime kept in a bag and ready to go…They were more than pictures of another time, they were parts of a life, a life that could not go forward without knowing and understanding what was behind.”

…If we want to head north we can use the North Star to guide us, but it is impossible to arrive at the North Star. Our effort is only to proceed in that direction. If we create true harmony within ourselves, we will know how to deal with family, friends, and society.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thay (“teacher”) talks about the 1st precept of Buddhism here, reverence for life, or as he calls it, cultivating compassion. “Depending on the state of our being, our response to things will be more or less nonviolent. With mindfulness – the practice of peace – we can begin by working to transform the wars in ourselves…

“A clear logical conscience does cost something – just as any virtue, just as all that we cherish, costs us dear… The genius of a man’s logical method should be loved and referenced as his bride, whom he has chosen from all the world.” ~ Charles Sanders Peirce, Four Approaches to Philosophy

“But, above all, let it be considered that what is more wholesome than any particular belief is integrity of belief, and that to avoid looking into the support of any belief from the fear that it may turn out rotten is quite as immoral as it is disadvantageous.” ~Charles Sanders Peirce, Four Approaches to Philosophy

Continued: Thus contemplation enlarges not only the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe…In the citizenship of the universe consist man’s true freedom, and his liberation from the thralldom of narrow hopes and fears. ~ Bertrand Russell, Methodologies of Philosophy

The impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only to those who are judged useful or admirable.
~ Bertrand Russell, Methodologies of Philosophy

The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.
~Bertrand Russell, Methodologies of Philosophy

The world spins round her [the soul] and she is like a drunkard, when she touches change [the changeable world of the senses]. ~Socrates, from The Phaedo

And you, too, judges, must face death hopefully… Whether life or death is better is known to God, and to God only. ~Socrates, from The Apology

But if death is a journey to another place, and what we are told is true – that there are all who have died – what good could be greater than this, my judges? Would a journey not be worth taking, at the end of which, in the other world, we should be released from the self-styled judges here and should find the true judges who are said to sit in judgment below… ~Socrates, from The Apology

I would very much rather defend myself as I did, and die, then as you would have had me do, and live…And now I shall go away, sentenced by you to death; and they will go away, sentenced by truth to wickedness and injustice. ~Socrates, from The Apology

And if I tell you that no better thing can happen to a man then to discuss virtue every day and the other matters about what you have heard me arguing and examining myself and others, and that an unexamined life is not worth living, then you will believe me still less. But that is so, my friends, though it is not easy to persuade you. ~Socrates, from The Apology

Perhaps someone will say, “Why cannot you withdraw from Athens, Socrates, and hold your peace?” It is the most difficult thing in the world to make you understand why I cannot do that. If I say that I cannot hold my peace because that would be to disobey the god, you will think that I am not in earnest and will not believe me. ~Socrates, from The Apology

“For if you put me to death, you will not easily find another who, if I may use a ludicrous comparison, clings to the state as a sort of gadfly to a horse that is large and well-bred but rather sluggish from its size, and needing to be aroused…You are indignant, as drowsy persons are, when they are awakened.” ~Socrates, from The Apology

“Athenians, I hold you in the highest regard and affection, but I will be persuaded by the god rather than by you; and as long as I have breath and strength I will not give up philosophy and exhorting you and declaring the truth to every one of you whom I meet…For I spend my whole life in going about and persuading you all to give your first and greatest care to the improvement of your souls…” ~Socrates

Continued: “…but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I, having no knowledge, do not think that I have. I seem, at any rate, to be a little wiser than he is on this point: I do not think that I know what I do not know.” ~Socrates, from The Apology

“I went to a man who is reputed to be wise…so I examined the man — I need not tell you his name, he was a politician – but this was the result, Athenians. When I conversed with him I came to see that, though a great many persons, and most of all himself, thought that he was wise…yet he was not wise…” Socrates, from The Apology

Then what is the question which would make us angry and enemies…Is it not the question of the just and the unjust, of the honorable and the dishonorable, of the good and the bad? Is it not questions about these matters which make you and me and everyone else quarrel, when we do quarrel, if we differ about them and can reach no satisfactory agreement? ~from The Trial of Socrates

Rereading my college Intro to Philosophy textbook and being inspired again. The arguments for the necessity of philosophy (which could also be called critical thinking) are as important today as ever.

When Zeus created mankind, with Prometheus’s aid, he gave one boundary: they could never be given fire or they might overthrow the gods with their power. But Prometheus loved mankind too much and could not hold to his promise. As punishment, Zeus created Pandora, and gave her a jar. When curiosity bested her, she unknowingly released all the worst attributes of humanity, but in her fear, locked hope inside.