STRENGTH, MASTERY, & POWER

Self-control is strength.
Accurate thinking is mastery.
Poise is power.

If...

Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

SELF-RESPONSIBILITY (4): VIEWING LIFE AS A WHOLE (by Bertrand Russell)

Human beings differ profoundly in regard to the tendency to regard their lives as a whole.

To some men it is natural to do so, and essential to happiness to be able to do so with some satisfaction.

to others life is a series of detached incidents without directed movement and without unity.

I think the former sort are more likely to achieve happiness than the latter, since they will gradually build up those circumstances from which they can derive contentment and self-respect, whereas the others will be blown about by the winds of circumstances now this way, now that, without ever arriving at any haven. 

The habit of viewing life as a whole is an essential part bnoth of wisdom and of true morality, and is one of the things which ought to be encouraged in education.

Consistent purpose is not enough to make life happy, but it is an almost indispensable condition of a happy life.

And, consistent purpose embodies itself mainly in work.

SELF-RESPONSIBILITY (3): WORK (by Bertrand Russell)

The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition.

In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that people feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can procure.

However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one's own circle.

Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most people this comes chiefly through their work.

The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet, however modest, for ambition, belongs to most work, and is sufficient to make even a person whose work is dull happier on the average than a person who has no work at all.

But when work is interesting, it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from boredom.

SELF-RESPONSIBILITY (2): WORK AND PLAY

WORK may be defined as activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

PLAY may be defined as activity involving mental or physical effort done for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose. 

So, as Mark Twain said, "Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."

Notice that the essential way that work differs from play is by the purpose and by the degree of seriousness.

Following are notes from 'WORK' by Bertrand Russell.

Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question.

There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. 

I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness.

Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. 

To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And watever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. The more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.

Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventative of boredom, for boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days.

With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to weaken or damage his health, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.

SELF-RESPONSIBILITY (1)

In the following lessons, I will promote wholesome self-responsibility and provide information to help the readers self-improve by thinking more accurately, making better decisions, and having a more benevolent attitudes and habits. Because nobody is perfect (and can never be), the information that I will present has the potential to help each one of us (including me) to improve ourselves.

My aim is to help all of us become more of the kind of person that each of us wants to be.

‘SELF’ is one’s own being.

‘RESPONSIBILITY’ is the state of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone.

Therefore, ‘SELF-RESPONSIBILITY’ is the state of having a duty to deal with and of having control over oneself.

Except for two people born together as conjoined twins, all human beings are born as individuals—that is, as a single human being.

And, each one of us was born neither knowing any meaning nor having any purpose—we merely had life. Apart from a few reflex actions or automatic responses, each of us had to learn almost everything.

As humans, we were born virtually helpless; and, for more than a decade (usually almost two), humans have to be cared for after birth. In other words, someone else or some others have to be responsible for children after birth until they become adults—responsible for themselves.

Of course, since my friends and I are already adults, I don’t propose to teach you how to become more self-responsible. In the lessons that follow, I will merely provide information that anyone can use to help self-improve—that is, to have a more wholesome disposition, think more accurately, and make better decisions.

I am certain that anyone who reads these posts will indeed self-improve because all that anyone needs to change is an idea that changes his or her way of thinking. Of course, such a mind-changing idea won’t be the same for everyone but I will present so many benevolent ones that everyone who reads them will find some of them mind-changing to some extent.

HUMANE CONSEQUENTIALISM

I have just thought of a basis for morality that allows any reasonable adult human being to determine for oneself whether an action (or even a thought) is morally justified or not.

I will call it 'Humane Consequentialism'.

For quite some time, religionists have wrestled with the question as to whether or not the masses of people would be moral if they did not have some religion as a basis for their morality.

I do think it is a good question, and I also think I have a good answer.

With Humane Consequentialism, any person can assess potential consequences of his or her actions and determine as best he or she can whether the consequences will be beneficial or non-beneficial to humanity--even if that humanity is just oneself.

Sometimes, however, the potential consequences can have a mixture of potential benefits and potential harm; well, in such a case the decision maker has to weigh the potential benefits against the potential harm.

In this way, in many cases, science can be used to make the best decisions, rather than depending upon non-scientific ideas or notions.

well, someone might say, we can't always wait for scientific research or experimentation to make all of the decisions in our everyday lives. That is true, but now, with Humane Consequentialism, you can use your own wisdom gained by way of your own experiences to help you make decisions that can't be postponed.

FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS (Part 1)

Mathematics includes many different subjects. So the term 'mathematics' is usually hard to define. But here is a definition that fits most of the mathematics taught in school or college:

MATHEMATICS is the study of quantities and relations through the use of numbers and symbols.

ARITHMETIC deals with quantities expressed by numbers.

ALGEBRA uses quantities and relations expressed by symbols.

GEOMETRY involves quantities associated with figures in space, such as length and area, and the relationships between figures in space.

TRIGONOMETRY is concerned with the measurement of angles and with the relationships of angles.

ANALYTIC GEOMETRY applies algebra to geometric studies.

CALCULUS works with pairs of associated quantities and the way one quantity changes in relation to the other.

SCIENCE depends on mathematics for exact descriptions and formulas of observations and experiments. In fact, there is no legitimate science without mathematics.

MATHEMATICS IS THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE

Without mathematics we would neither have modern technology nor modern medicine.

Mathematics, the language of science, is the language of dreamers who plan to achieve their dreams.

One can translate an idea into a set of drawings. To do this you can use symbols which are understood universally by people who turn dreams into realities.

Scientists of all languages exchange ideas by using the symbols of mathematics.

You need symbols not only to help you organize your own ideas, but also to explain your ideas to others.

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENCE

1.  Probably the first essential of a science is that it be objective and unbiased.

The scientist must get "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," as the legal oath runs. When a scientist studies something, he or she must get correct facts about it, not sugared to suit someone's taste, and he or she must get all the relevant facts about it, not just a selection of the facts.

2.  A second characteristic of science is that it is interested in arriving at generalizations, usually about cause-and-effect relations.

Science is not interested in individual facts alone. The object of all science is the separation of what is common and general from what is accidental and different. For example, science is not interested in the fact that an apple falls to the ground when it is released from a height. Science is, however, interested in stating a relationship of attraction between the earth and other objects (including apples).

3.  A third characteristic of science is that it constantly develops better and better methods for securing the facts that are deemed necessary to arrive at the generalizations it seeks. 

4.  The fourth fundamental characteristic of a science is that science has achieved a coherent body of theoretical generalizations into which all new research is integrated. 

research is increasingly fruitful when it starts out with problems and hypotheses that are systematically interrelated and are based on previous research. 

NOTE:  THESE FOUR TRAITS ARE WHAT DISTINGUISHES SCIENCE FROM COMMON SENSE.

Everyone has common sense in a degree that depends on his or her native intelligence and the breadth of his or her experience. 

COMMON SENSE consists of generalizations drawn from personal experience, and is therefore partial and selective. 

But scientists also need specialized training and must acquire special habits of mind so that they will be objective, work toward generalizations not limited by personal experience, use methods and tools, and develop abstract theories. 

All these things can be learned just as any other habits and skills are learned. 

Scientists, like anyone else, are helped by common sense, since common sense usually helps them to learn the four types of habits and skills that scientists need, and it helps them to devise new tools for better observation. 

But scientists also have to be on their guard against common sense, since common sense is based on DIRECT experience whereas science must be based on CONTROLLED experience.
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RESOURCE: 'SOCIOLOGY: The Study of Human Relations' by Arnold M. Rose, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA (1967)

THE AGE OF REASON

First, I thank my friend, Paul Giller, for recommending to me the GREAT work of Thomas Paine, entitled: 'THE AGE OF REASON.' FOLLOWING AND AT THE END OF THIS NOTE IS A LINK TO THE AUDIO OF THE BOOK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycgkogD7Jw4

THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE, which etymologically means "re-birth," was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century. It began in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.

THE AGE OF REASON is a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Europe emphasizing REASON and INDIVIDUALISM rather than tradition. Its purpose is to reform society using REASON, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and to advance knowledge through THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.

To be termed SCIENTIFIC, a method of inquiry must be based on EMPIRICAL and MEASURABLE EVIDENCE subject to SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES OF REASONING.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD as "a method or procedure that has characterized NATURAL SCIENCE since the 17th century, consisting in SYSTEMATIC OBSERVATION, MEASUREMENT, and the formulation, testing, and modification of HYPOTHESES."

The chief characteristic which distinguishes the scientific method from other methods of acquiring knowledge is that SCIENTISTS SEEK TO LET REALITY SPEAK FOR ITSELF, supporting a theory when a theory's predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false.

Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methods of obtaining knowledge.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERS propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them.

These steps MUST BE REPEATABLE to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter.

Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent, supportive structure. Theories, in turn, may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.

Scientific inquiry is intended to be as OBJECTIVE as possible in order to minimize bias.

Another basic expectation is the DOCUMENTATION, ARCHIVING, and SHARING of ALL DATA COLLECTED OR PRODUCED of the METHODOLOGIES used so they may be available for CAREFUL SCRUTINY and attempts by other scientists to REPRODUCE and VERIFY. This practice, known as FULL DISCLOSURE, also means that STATISTICAL MEASURE OF THEIR RELIABILITY may be made.

We are over three centuries within THE AGE OF REASON yet the masses of even Western Civilization generally use NAIVE REALISM (a.k.a. COMMON SENSE) to make decisions; still others use some form of SUPERSTITION. It is only a relatively small elite group of intellectuals who actually use THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD of discovery even though many professionals and technologists use information discovered by scientists using THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

SCIENCE continuously strives to discover NATURAL LAWS and PRINCIPLES THAT ARE INTELLIGIBLE AND SELF-CONSISTENT.

But, the NAIVE REALIST evidently takes the report of his or her senses as THE TRUTH.

The problem with NAIVE REALISM is that THE SAME THING MAY APPEAR TO THE SENSES TO BE DIFFERENT UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS.

Indeed, NO TRUSTWORTHY DECISION IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT RECOURSE TO SCIENCE.

The objections to naive realism are so fundamental that the position must be abandoned, as it is by everyone who accepts physics and chemistry.

TO PROGRESS BEYOND RUDIMENTARY LEVELS IN ANY PURSUIT OF ADVANCEMENT; NAIVE REALISM MUST GIVE WAY TO SCIENCE.

The SCIENCES have found that the only way to manage physical things is to EXPERIMENT with them, and FORMULATE HYPOTHESES about the LAWS of their structure and behavior.

A HYPOTHESIS is said to be verified when the facts occur as the hypothesis PREDICTS.

VERIFICATION becomes more cogent when the hypothesis has MATHEMATICAL form.

If it is true that only scholars will be ENLIGHTENED during this AGE OF REASON, then HUMANITY NEEDS MANY MORE ENLIGHTENED SCHOLARS IN ORDER TO ASCEND TO A HIGHER LEVEL OF HUMANENESS AND ACCURATE THINKING.

NOTE:  The following video is a reading of a GREAT book, entitled 'THE AGE OF REASON,' by a GREAT THINKER, Thomas Paine:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycgkogD7Jw4