dinsdag 19 september 2017

Abby Martin over Zionisme en Israël bij Joe Rogan


In de uitzending bij Joe Rogan vertelt Abby Martin over haar trip naar Israël en Palestina, en vertelt het hoe het is. Dat het niet uit te leggen valt hoe morbide en ziekelijk de situatie van jarenlange bezetting daar is. Ze doet goed haar best en het komt aardig goed over, maar omdat ik er zelf ook ben geweest en heb gezien wat zij heeft gezien en heb ervaren wat zij heeft ervaren, weet ik dat haar woorden niet de ervaring kunnen "pakken". Het is namelijk nog erger dan ze hier beschrijft, maar haar beschrijving is niets aan gelogen. Hulde voor deze moedige dame!


maandag 18 september 2017

The Trouble with Experts

As filmmaker Josh Freed’s entertaining new documentary The Trouble with Experts, reminds us, we are all addicted to experts.

They tell us what to eat, how to vote, raise our kids, fix our homes, buy our wines, interpret political events and, until recently, choose the right stocks.

They're all over the media telling us what to think, because there's just too much information for us to sort out ourselves. So we often cede our own opinions to them because, well... they're experts, so they know better than us. Or do they?

In the recent stock meltdown, we discovered that some of our most important experts – our financial gurus - didn't know much at all.

So what about all the other experts out there? Does having expertise actually mean you make better decisions than regular people? Or are they just part of a new cult of expertise, an ever-growing expert industry that's become our latest new religion?


zaterdag 16 september 2017

A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners (Oxford Lectures)
Marianne is director of studies in philosophy for Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education. She specialises in ethics and the philosophy of mind. Marianne was thrown out of school at 15 for truancy and disruption.

After a brief and inglorious career in sales at 18 Marianne set off to hitch-hike – on her own – to Australia where she lived for three years before returning home through Africa.

Starved of intellectual stimulation, Marianne started an Open University course, during which she discovered philosophy. She went to London University (Bedford College) to study full-time, achieved a First Class Degree, then moved to Oxford to do graduate work. Marianne has now taught philosophy for Oxford University for 24 years. She was at Pembroke College from 1987-1990 and Brasenose College from 1990-2000. She started her current job in 2001).

http://www.mariannetalbot.co.uk/

In this introduction to ethics, we shall be considering the underpinnings of ethical thought. We shall consider, for example, what it is for an action to be right or wrong, whether we can have moral knowledge and whether freewill is essential to morality.

We shall reflect on four key ethical theories (virtue ethics, deontology, non-cognitivism and utilitarianism), looking at both their strengths and their weaknesses. We shall be looking at morality in the context of the individual and the context of society.

Source: http://www.mariannetalbot.co.uk/podcasts/a-romp-through-ethics-for-complete-beginners/

Part 1 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". In this episode we examine moral dilemmas, moral truth and moral knowledge, freewill and determinism.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-01.pdf



Part 2 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". In this episode we examine the preconditions of ethical reasoning and make a comparison between the law of the land and the moral law.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-02.pdf



Part 3 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". In this episode we will reflect on Aristotle's account of morality and the centrality of the virtues in this account.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-03.pdf



Part 4 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". In this episode we reflect on Hume's account of morality and his rejection of reason as the source of morality.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-04.pdf



Part 5 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". In this episode we reflect on Kant's account of morality, including the categorical imperative.
Source: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-05.pdf



Part 6 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". A reflection on Mill's account of morality, and the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-06.pdf



Part 7 of 7 in Marianne Talbot's "A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners". This final episode is a time to take stock and bring together all the strands we've considered.
Slides: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/conted/ethics/talbot-ethics-07.pdf



For more of her podcasts, check out: http://www.mariannetalbot.co.uk/podcasts/a-romp-through-ethics-for-complete-beginners/

vrijdag 15 september 2017

The Lucifer Effect - Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

Philip G. Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Stanford University Description: Perhaps no one comprehends the roots of depravity and cruelty better than Philip Zimbardo. He is renowned for such research as the Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how, in the right circumstances, ordinary people can swiftly become amoral monsters. Evil is not so much inherent in individuals, Zimbardo showed, but emerges dependably when a sequence of dehumanizing and stressful circumstances unfolds. It is no wonder then, that Zimbardo has lent both his expertise and moral outrage to the case of U.S. reservists who perpetrated the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

Zimbardo's latest book, The Lucifer Effect, attempts to understand -how good people do evil deeds." His talk outlines his involvement as expert witness for the defense team of one of the military police officers responsible at Abu Ghraib, and also provides a rich history of psychological research into the kind of behavior transformations evident in Iraq. First, Zimbardo presents a slideshow of Abu Ghraib abominations, including some digital photos that were not widely distributed by the media. Then he digs deep into the archives for a horrifically illustrated tour of experiments that make a persuasive case that certain, predictable situations corrupt people into wielding power in a destructive way.

He describes Stanley Milgram's 1963 Yale-based research demonstrating that people will behave sadistically when confronted by -an authority in a lab coat." A vast majority of the subjects delivered what they were told were dangerous electric shocks to a learner in another room, to the point of apparently killing the other person. Researchers skeptical of his results replicated them. This time, professors demanded that students shock real puppies standing on electrified grills. Zimbardo's own prison experiment turned an ordinary group of young men into power-hungry -guards," humiliating equally ordinary -prisoners" in the basement of Stanford's psychology building. The descent into barbarity was so rapid that Zimbardo had to cancel the experiment after a few days.

The recipe for behavior change isn't complicated. -All evil begins with a big lie," says Zimbardo, whether it's a claim to be following the word of God, or the need to stamp out political opposition. A seemingly insignificant step follows, with successive small actions, presented as essential by an apparently just authority figure. The situation presents others complying with the same rules, perhaps protesting, but following along all the same. If the victims are anonymous or dehumanized somehow, all the better. And exiting the situation is extremely difficult.

Abu Ghraib fit this type of situation to a T, says Zimbardo. The guards, never trained for their work helping military interrogators, worked 12-hour shifts, 40 days without a break, in chaotic, filthy conditions, facing 1,000 foreign prisoners, and hostile fire from the neighborhood. They operated in extreme stress, under orders to impose fear on their prisoners. Zimbardo believes the outcome was perfectly predictable, and while never absolving these soldiers of personal responsibility, believes justice won't be done until -the people who created the situation go on trial as well: George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George Bush."

 About the Speaker(s): Philip Zimbardo began at Stanford University in 1968, having taught previously at Yale, New York University, and Columbia University. He continues teaching graduate students at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, and at the Naval Post Graduate School (Monterey).

 He has received numerous honors, including most recently, the Havel Foundation Prize for his lifetime of research on the human condition. Among his more than 300 professional publications and 50 books is the oldest current textbook in psychology, Psychology and Life, now in its 18th Edition, and Core Concepts in Psychology, in its 5th Edition.

 Zimbardo has also been a social-political activist, challenging U.S. wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the American Correctional System. Zimbardo has served as elected President of the Western Psychological Association (twice), President of the American Psychological Association, the Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, representing 63 scientific, math and technical associations (with 1.5 million members), and now is Chair of the Western Psychological Foundation.Host(s): Dean for Student Life, Technology and Culture Forum

credit

MIT World -- special events and lectures

license

MIT TechTV

http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-lucifer-effect-understanding-how-good-people-turn-evil-9241/


Defense Against the Psychopath


"This 30 page booklet excerpted from chapter 1 of The Art of Urban Survival is available in booklet form you can download for free and share with friends and family.
This is a brief study guide to teach people how to recognize and defend against our society’s most dangerous predators, psychopaths."

Download Defense Against Psychopath for free!

Click here if you would like to order a printed copy.

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