Learning to (not) fight

Why would we think that ordinary civilians should be free to train in the martial arts? It’s tempting to suppose that it’s at least in part a result of the profound and enduring influence of the 19th Century, English philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who taught us that citizens ought to be free to do whatever they please, just so long as it doesn’t harm others. But, at face value, the martial arts don’t seem to fit this bill very well. After all – a cynic might say – isn’t learning how to fight indistinguishable from learning how to harm others?

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PARENTAL ADVISORY: RELIGIOUS THEMES

Frank Zappa once asked if humor belonged in music. Now it seems as if the question should be whether or not God belongs in metal. I personally think that He should stick to church on Sunday mornings, where no one’s in any doubt why they’re there and who they’re there to sing about. But, last Saturday night at the Forum theatre, I distinctly heard God being sung about by the most unlikely of candidates.

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What is this thing called Music?

“If there is anything to the distinction between high art and popular art with regard to music that is not entirely social in nature, where are we to look for it? Surely not in the mechanisms that work to claim a particular piece of music for the canon of either order; whether it be, say, the inclusion into the repertoire of a well-reputed orchestra or the play-list of a ‘pop’ radio station, it is obvious that both are essentially social in nature. Nor in individuals; the hugely successful advertising devices have both confirmed and augmented the typical correlation between an individual’s tastes and their overall social position. Rather, the answer must be found in the music. “

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The Spiritual & Moral Significance of (Apparent) Violence in The Martial Art, Aikido

‘Aikido is a way of harmonising oneself with the natural energies of the universe. While people have attempted to achieve this same feat via such measures as throwing oneself into a volcano (al la Empedocles), or surfing the planet’s biggest waves, or playing sports like soccer, or even by meditating, practisers of Aikido use the physical bodies of their fellow partners as their cosmic sounding boards … and why not? What better, more nuanced and receptive part of the universe could a human being hope to find than in direct contact with another human being? But Aikido professes to be far more than a merely physical endeavour: it is, moreover, a primarily spiritual and moral art. However, such a claim – although not uncommon to the martial arts in general – is often met with incredulity by those unschooled in the attendant philosophies of martial arts such as Aikido. They ask, ‘How can what is seemingly a technique for fighting legitimately claim to be a spiritual and moral practise?’ It is this question that I shall seek to answer by drawing on the philosophy of religion advanced by Ludwig Feuerbach and later adopted by Sigmund Freud. The suggested thesis is this: the apparent violence of Aikido is indeed essential to its spiritual and moral claims. ‘

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The Domain of The Wiz

‘The central thesis of this paper is that much of the so-called wisdom gained by philosophising consists in the ability to more freely shift between various frames of perspective or reference. The subsidiary thesis to this – although perhaps the more interesting one – is that, by virtue of this first insight, we can thereby better appreciate the value of many of the great philosophical insights that have been advanced and championed over the years.’

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The Life of Thought

‘Virtually everyone gives some thought to how they can make the best out of their time here on Earth. Few, however, bother to consider the extent to which such thinking can actually hope to improve their circumstances; we are happy enough merely to assume that it can, and that the quality & quantity of our thinking will be sufficient to the task at hand.

Admittedly, some have given this matter the degree of consideration it undoubtedly deserves, and we are exceptionally fortunate that three of the most brilliant minds to have graced our planet are among those who have done so. They are, namely:

- Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century, French Polymath;
- Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th Century, German philologist and philosopher; and
- Plato, the Ancient Greek forefather of Western Philosophy.

By examining the fruits of their collective labour, we aspire to a heightened appreciation of the mutually dependent relationship shared between the character both of one’s life and one’s thinking. Such is the general aim of this undertaking.

The more specific, academic goal of this paper is to demonstrate that this general theme can be seen to underlie much of these great philosophers’ work. Such a demonstration is supposed meritorious insofar as it will endow us with a needle of coherence by which to thread the otherwise haphazard presentation of the original philosophies into a more clearly meaningful whole.’

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Hume’s Injustices

The division of this essay relates directly to the development of Hume’s own arguments as they are presented in The Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals … In this sense, the following may be regarded as something of a critical companion to Hume’s work.

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