"Mental illness" v. "Mental disorder".
Wikipedia seems to be taking the line that these two terms mean the same thing; and wikipedia at present seems to imply that the term "mental disorder" is preferable.
I think that the term "mental disorder" is preferable to the term "mental illness".
I don't however believe that they mean the same thing or infer the same thing.
"Mental illness" implies a biological illness; or if not a biological illness then a metaphorical illness.
"Mental disorder" of course means and infers disapproval of the behaviour that is supposedly "disordered".
The term implies that there is a mental problem of some kind and that there is a lack of organisation.
To say that someone's behaviour/thoughts/feelings are "disordered" is ultimately an opinion.
The term implies disapproval and not a great deal else.
Discuss.
However the term "mental disorder" is I think preferable to the term "mental illness" because it has at last set us free from the concept of illness being used in this sphere where it does not necessarily belong.
28 August 2008
Another utterly vicious and reprehensible "Sun" headline
The Sun "news" paper's true home remains in the gutter with yesterday's headline regarding Paul Gadd: "You Can Run But You Can't Hide."
This headline is utterly vicious and reprehensible.
In a civilised country this would simply not be tolerated.
The Sun must one day be called to account for the torrent of rubbish that it produces.
If he is guilty of a crime then the law should arrest and punish him.
If he is not then no one had the right to interfere with him, let alone the right to encourage vigilantism as this rag does.
The Sun is a Murdoch paper like the "raving righty" Times.
What d'you expect?
If I'm a "loony lefty" then they're "raving righties".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saw the Jerry Springer documentary regarding his family.
Very moving and very important.
People need to be made aware of The Holocaust and of all genocides.
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This headline is utterly vicious and reprehensible.
In a civilised country this would simply not be tolerated.
The Sun must one day be called to account for the torrent of rubbish that it produces.
If he is guilty of a crime then the law should arrest and punish him.
If he is not then no one had the right to interfere with him, let alone the right to encourage vigilantism as this rag does.
The Sun is a Murdoch paper like the "raving righty" Times.
What d'you expect?
If I'm a "loony lefty" then they're "raving righties".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saw the Jerry Springer documentary regarding his family.
Very moving and very important.
People need to be made aware of The Holocaust and of all genocides.
----
26 August 2008
19 August 2008
The Law of Supply and Demand
There was a lady wittering on about the Law of Supply and Demand on Newsnight last night.
I disagreed with her.
There is no such law.
There are basic human needs.
That's about as far as it goes.
Every price that exists and every price that has ever existed and every price that will ever exist is determined by humans.
The news and professional economists (deliberately) encourage people to believe that prices and other economic phenomena are like the weather, and that nothing can be done about them and that they just change like the wind and we are powerless to affect them.
Bollocks.
I disagreed with her.
There is no such law.
There are basic human needs.
That's about as far as it goes.
Every price that exists and every price that has ever existed and every price that will ever exist is determined by humans.
The news and professional economists (deliberately) encourage people to believe that prices and other economic phenomena are like the weather, and that nothing can be done about them and that they just change like the wind and we are powerless to affect them.
Bollocks.
17 August 2008
Spanish Anti-Fascist War
Spanish Anti-Fascist War. 1936-1975.
!NO PASARA'N!
!NO AL FASCISMO!
!!CHRISTIANITY IS THE OPPOSITE OF FASCISM!!
......
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!NO PASARA'N!
!NO AL FASCISMO!
!!CHRISTIANITY IS THE OPPOSITE OF FASCISM!!
......
-----
16 August 2008
I believe?
I believe in God in such a way that it would be of no consequence if I called myself an atheist.
I believe in God depending on the time of day.
---
Two things need saying.
If someone is loving and forgiving and morally good in every way to all fellow creatures, what does it matter what they believe about the Universe?
Second, surely I cannot actually force anyone to believe anything about the Universe, particularly if there is no evidence for the belief.
No one should be able to force anyone to believe anything. No one can force anyone to believe anything anyway.
I believe in God depending on the time of day.
---
Two things need saying.
If someone is loving and forgiving and morally good in every way to all fellow creatures, what does it matter what they believe about the Universe?
Second, surely I cannot actually force anyone to believe anything about the Universe, particularly if there is no evidence for the belief.
No one should be able to force anyone to believe anything. No one can force anyone to believe anything anyway.
15 August 2008
C.S. Lewis and "The Screwtape Letters"
Dear Uncle --- ,
I have decided to read “The Screwtape Letters” as you recommended and I also have resolved to write an appreciation with my view of it. I am also returning the book to you.
I am sorry that I didn’t read it when you first sent it.
I did read some of it at that time but as often happens with me didn’t complete the book at that time. I particularly remembered the account of the man sitting reading a book who is distracted by the Screwtape, just as he starts to have religious thoughts. Screwtape reminds him of lunch or something mundane and he dismisses the thoughts. Quite delightful and it rings true.
I didn’t realise that you wanted it to be returned. Sorry.
It is indeed an excellent book, the product of a fine mind.
I have decided to read “The Screwtape Letters” as you recommended and I also have resolved to write an appreciation with my view of it. I am also returning the book to you.
I am sorry that I didn’t read it when you first sent it.
I did read some of it at that time but as often happens with me didn’t complete the book at that time. I particularly remembered the account of the man sitting reading a book who is distracted by the Screwtape, just as he starts to have religious thoughts. Screwtape reminds him of lunch or something mundane and he dismisses the thoughts. Quite delightful and it rings true.
I didn’t realise that you wanted it to be returned. Sorry.
It is indeed an excellent book, the product of a fine mind.
I must say that I find it impossible that there can literally be such things as Satan, the Devil or devils or hell. I think that these ideas are quite pernicious ones. Metaphorically these concepts might make some sense. But I cannot find it possible to believe in an independent supernatural force of evil.
Among other things, I believe such concepts to have been an invention of religions to inspire fear into their followers, and also a part of some religions that ascribed any bad things that happened to some force of evil that had to be fought.
God was good and loving so bad things must be the work of something else.
As a kind of Catholic Deist myself (if I am religious at all) I would say that it is illogical to believe in such things. It is surely an evil to tell someone that if they do not believe a certain thing or behave in a certain way they will suffer forever in hell. How can an omniscient, omnipotent, all-loving, all-good deity allow the existence of an independent force of evil to exist? It is simply an impossibility.
The idea that people should behave well simply because if they don’t they will suffer is wrong. People should behave well because they want to. I agree with Albert Einstein: “A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
The idea of hell is, I believe, a terrible and a wrong idea, a real scar on the history of religion. Maybe literal belief in it withered away after the Middle Ages, but no apology for it has been made. As far as I am aware it still forms an official part of some Christian doctrine.
I don’t even think that Hitler should suffer eternal torture as this would achieve nothing except causing a human being endless pain. What is achieved by that? Such a “revenge psychology” is I believe un-Christian, and appeals to man’s baser instincts.
To me it is a pitiful irony that a religion like Christianity that purports to want good can have included in it at some point the threat of endless suffering; can have countenanced the idea of causing someone endless suffering. This is surely an evil doctrine. The church should renounce it finally and apologise for the suffering it has caused by the propagation of this belief. It is thelogically incompatible with a God of infinite goodness.
As a kind of Catholic Deist myself (if I am religious at all) I would say that it is illogical to believe in such things. It is surely an evil to tell someone that if they do not believe a certain thing or behave in a certain way they will suffer forever in hell. How can an omniscient, omnipotent, all-loving, all-good deity allow the existence of an independent force of evil to exist? It is simply an impossibility.
The idea that people should behave well simply because if they don’t they will suffer is wrong. People should behave well because they want to. I agree with Albert Einstein: “A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
The idea of hell is, I believe, a terrible and a wrong idea, a real scar on the history of religion. Maybe literal belief in it withered away after the Middle Ages, but no apology for it has been made. As far as I am aware it still forms an official part of some Christian doctrine.
I don’t even think that Hitler should suffer eternal torture as this would achieve nothing except causing a human being endless pain. What is achieved by that? Such a “revenge psychology” is I believe un-Christian, and appeals to man’s baser instincts.
To me it is a pitiful irony that a religion like Christianity that purports to want good can have included in it at some point the threat of endless suffering; can have countenanced the idea of causing someone endless suffering. This is surely an evil doctrine. The church should renounce it finally and apologise for the suffering it has caused by the propagation of this belief. It is thelogically incompatible with a God of infinite goodness.
Such beliefs are those of quite a primitive world view. They are things that surely should be left behind.
I am sure that C.S. Lewis is using it as a powerful rhetorical device but I must part company with him if he believes that such beings and places actually exist. I don’t think any grey area can be allowed in this matter. Either he believes in that kind of thing or he doesn’t. The epigraph says that the best way to fight the devil is to mock him. So Lewis does seem to imply that he belives that there is such a thing as a devil. I must part company with him here.
Of course the purpose of the book is didactic; to show how and where a Christian can go wrong in his life. It also does so in a funny light-hearted way.
It is quite a clear delineation of Christian truth but sometimes I hoped for something clearer as I always had to work things out the wrong way round because Screwtape is talking from an anti-Christian viewpoint.
It should be said in Lewis’s defence that he at no point tries to scare the reader, or imply that the reader deserves punishment. He is merely saying how we can go wrong; the Screwtape figure being a metaphor for the spotting of human foibles.
Lewis is saying we have a choice. And showing the sometimes subtle ways that we can be led to make the wrong choice, or make a mistake.
It shows profound psychological insight about human life and human relations and how people are led astray into problems and unwholesome living.
I didn’t agree with some of his political points about democracy and equality in the final section “Screwtape Proposes a Toast.” Or at least I feel that his criticism, whilst valid in a sense, misses the point. He attacks the idea of making everyone equal and how the desire to be equal is really the desire not to be inferior even though one really may be inferior.
This may be true in itself, but this is no argument against creating equality of opportunity. He seems to fear the abolition of the Middle Classes and of private education. I don’t think that this would have the negative effects he says it would and I am certainly personally sympathetic to the abolition of private schools. I don’t believe in cultural classes. Economic classes may exist but the ideal is to give all a basic minimum, in my view.
Your loving and affectionate nephew
-----
I am sure that C.S. Lewis is using it as a powerful rhetorical device but I must part company with him if he believes that such beings and places actually exist. I don’t think any grey area can be allowed in this matter. Either he believes in that kind of thing or he doesn’t. The epigraph says that the best way to fight the devil is to mock him. So Lewis does seem to imply that he belives that there is such a thing as a devil. I must part company with him here.
Of course the purpose of the book is didactic; to show how and where a Christian can go wrong in his life. It also does so in a funny light-hearted way.
It is quite a clear delineation of Christian truth but sometimes I hoped for something clearer as I always had to work things out the wrong way round because Screwtape is talking from an anti-Christian viewpoint.
It should be said in Lewis’s defence that he at no point tries to scare the reader, or imply that the reader deserves punishment. He is merely saying how we can go wrong; the Screwtape figure being a metaphor for the spotting of human foibles.
Lewis is saying we have a choice. And showing the sometimes subtle ways that we can be led to make the wrong choice, or make a mistake.
It shows profound psychological insight about human life and human relations and how people are led astray into problems and unwholesome living.
I didn’t agree with some of his political points about democracy and equality in the final section “Screwtape Proposes a Toast.” Or at least I feel that his criticism, whilst valid in a sense, misses the point. He attacks the idea of making everyone equal and how the desire to be equal is really the desire not to be inferior even though one really may be inferior.
This may be true in itself, but this is no argument against creating equality of opportunity. He seems to fear the abolition of the Middle Classes and of private education. I don’t think that this would have the negative effects he says it would and I am certainly personally sympathetic to the abolition of private schools. I don’t believe in cultural classes. Economic classes may exist but the ideal is to give all a basic minimum, in my view.
Your loving and affectionate nephew
-----
"Recessions" are entirely avoidable
I have an anarchist friend whose contention is that all so-called recessions are totally avoidable and a result not of inevitable economic forces, but of the economic system itself.
EDF
I will just point the following out as not enough people in England seem to be aware of it.
EDF Energy - the energy company that swashbuckles away here in the UK - is a continuation of Electricite' de France - French Electricity - a continuation of the French version of what we used to call The Electricity Board here in England.
So electricity distribution in England is often run by a company that is a continuation of the French state electricity company.
I'm not sure what the Duke of Wellington would make of this!:)
....
EDF Energy - the energy company that swashbuckles away here in the UK - is a continuation of Electricite' de France - French Electricity - a continuation of the French version of what we used to call The Electricity Board here in England.
So electricity distribution in England is often run by a company that is a continuation of the French state electricity company.
I'm not sure what the Duke of Wellington would make of this!:)
....
GM
Good on yer Charlie Windsor!
GM crops are rather dodgy and dangerous in terms of health and environmentally damaging.
GM crops are rather dodgy and dangerous in terms of health and environmentally damaging.
13 August 2008
12 August 2008
The Genius of Charles Darwin
I have been watching some of the Richard Dawkins documentary called "The Genius of Charles Darwin".
I was pleased that he said he hated Social Darwinism and the evils it has contributed to. And pleased that he made the distinction between Darwinism and Social Darwinism.
A friend texted me and made an interesting point. It is interesting that many Americans are Christians who reject Darwinism and embrace creationism. They do not believe that we evolved from apes nor that we are apes.
Now in the social sphere, in contrast to this, they embrace Social Darwinism with enthusiasm. In the business sphere, even for evangelical Christians, competition and money-making are encouraged. This would seem to be an inconsistency.
I don't think being a Christian necessarily precludes belief in Darwinism, but it certainly and explicitly calls for a rejection of Social Darwinism.
In the same way, being a Darwinist atheist in no way has to necessarily entail a belief in Social Darwinism.
http://richarddawkins.net/
Atheists For Jesus!
I was pleased that he said he hated Social Darwinism and the evils it has contributed to. And pleased that he made the distinction between Darwinism and Social Darwinism.
A friend texted me and made an interesting point. It is interesting that many Americans are Christians who reject Darwinism and embrace creationism. They do not believe that we evolved from apes nor that we are apes.
Now in the social sphere, in contrast to this, they embrace Social Darwinism with enthusiasm. In the business sphere, even for evangelical Christians, competition and money-making are encouraged. This would seem to be an inconsistency.
I don't think being a Christian necessarily precludes belief in Darwinism, but it certainly and explicitly calls for a rejection of Social Darwinism.
In the same way, being a Darwinist atheist in no way has to necessarily entail a belief in Social Darwinism.
http://richarddawkins.net/
Atheists For Jesus!
If there is an NHS.
If there is an NHS - a National Health Service - then why isn't there a National Education Service, a National Housing Service, a National Transport Service and a National Energy Service, a National Water Service? etc.?
What is the difference?
Health provision is a need. So we all accept that it is a right to which we are all entitled.
The same applies to many other things, yet for some reason it is expected that we must provide these things for ourselves in a sort of "dog eat dog" way. There is no reason for the difference other than tradition and inertia.
What is the difference?
Health provision is a need. So we all accept that it is a right to which we are all entitled.
The same applies to many other things, yet for some reason it is expected that we must provide these things for ourselves in a sort of "dog eat dog" way. There is no reason for the difference other than tradition and inertia.
7 August 2008
Inspiration - Holy Wisdom
"Hagia Sophia" - Ἁγία Σοφία - Holy Wisdom.
Philosophy can cure all ills - "Plato Not Prozac".
Philosophy can cure all ills - "Plato Not Prozac".
4 August 2008
Blogger Guidlines
HATEFUL CONTENT: Users may not publish material that promotes hatred towards groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity.
From http://www.blogger.com/ guidelines.
The intention of some of the content in my "think tank" here is
a) To give examples of racism. Just because something is wrong, does not mean it does not exist.
I do not endorse racism of any kind.
b) To promote positive criticism of the behaviour of a group of people.
c) To use humour to fight oppression.
The intention is not to promote hatred towards anyone at all,
whether towards a group or towards an individual.
I do not endorse racism of any kind.
From http://www.blogger.com/ guidelines.
The intention of some of the content in my "think tank" here is
a) To give examples of racism. Just because something is wrong, does not mean it does not exist.
I do not endorse racism of any kind.
b) To promote positive criticism of the behaviour of a group of people.
c) To use humour to fight oppression.
The intention is not to promote hatred towards anyone at all,
whether towards a group or towards an individual.
I do not endorse racism of any kind.
3 August 2008
"Given a voice to millions."
"It's our strong belief that blogs help make the Web an important medium of self-expression; Blogger has given a voice to millions of people. Our users gossip, joke, rant, publish, share, and on occasion might post potentially objectionable stuff."
From http://www.blogger.com/ information.
I agree. I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
I believe I have a right to my views, I believe I have the right to express my views.
Also, I believe my views can help.
They can help contribute to the debates we have in the process of creating a better life for humanity.
From http://www.blogger.com/ information.
I agree. I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of expression.
I believe I have a right to my views, I believe I have the right to express my views.
Also, I believe my views can help.
They can help contribute to the debates we have in the process of creating a better life for humanity.
=============================
Recently read "Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction" by the philosopher Nigel Warburton.
Very good indeed.
1 August 2008
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