Just as philosophy and science differ in their problems and methods, so do they correspondingly differ in the value or utility of the results they achieve. When, in the years I used to teach philosophy, a student would come up and say "This is all very interesting, but of what use is it?" I answered him by saying "Of no use at all -- in your sense of utility." I had learned from experience that the contemporary student has only one standard of utility in mind when he asks about the utility of knowledge -- that which is applicable to science, but not at all to philosophy.

The utility of science is technological or productive. It builds bridges and cures diseases. But scientific knowledge can also, of course, be used to bomb bridges and to scatter disease on the winds. Science gives us atomic or thermonuclear energy for constructive or destructive purposes, but it does not tell us whether to make peace or war, or how to govern a just and free society, or how men can become wise and happy after they have been made powerful and comfortable.

Philosophical knowledge produces absolutely nothing. But where science has a technological or productive utility, philosophy has a practical or moral utility. It cannot tell men how to make things, but it can direct them toward making a good rather than an evil use of them. It directs the conduct of the individual life and of society by the moral and political truths it is able to teach about war and peace, justice, liberty, and law, duty, virtue, and happiness.

When Bacon said "knowledge is power," he was thinking only of productive power, and hence only of scientific knowledge. Power without wisdom is a dangerous thing, since it can be used for good or evil; and the more power we have, the greater is the catastrophe we risk bringing upon ourselves by its misuse. That is our situation today, in a world dominated by science, from which philosophy has been effectively exiled.

This essay first appeared in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, XIII April 1957.

[	mood	|	OAA-deprived	]
[	music	|	Psycho Therapy - Ramones	]

fionathecelt

Andrew Newberg and Eugene dAquili, two medical doctors, studied the brains of Tibetan Buddhist meditators and Franciscan Catholic nuns, using the SPECT camera (single photon emission computed tomography), a high-tech brain imaging tool.

They found that during spiritual activities the front part of the brain, which reflects focused attention and concentration and is considered the neurological seat of the will, became more active.

Further, the spiritual state produced a sharp reduction in the activity level of the posterior superior parietal lobe, or "orientation association area" (OAA), which functions to both draw a sharp distinction between you and everything else (between you and not-you) and to give you the ability to experience a "three-dimensional body" and to orient that body in physical space.

The result of this decreased activity in the OAA would be the perception of discrete objects would cease, there would be no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe. In fact, there would be no subjective self at all; there would only be an absolute sense of unity -- without thought, without words, and without sensation.

The OAA is an area of the brain that never rests. It requires a constant stream of sensory information to do its job well.

So what would be the effect to our perception of reality when the OAA is deprived of sensory input as a person enters a deep spiritual state?

The perception of discrete objects would cease, there would be no sense of space or the passage of time, no line between the self and the rest of the universe. In fact, there would be no subjective self at all; there would only be an absolute sense of unity -- without thought, without words, and without sensation. The mind would exist without ego in a state of pure, undifferentiated awareness.

[	mood	|	failed my sanity roll	]
[	music	|	Creeping Death - Metallica	]

I was very happy last week to finally receive my diploma, which fionathecelt was kind enough to scan for me -

Click for full size

So, for those who know me well, what do you think? Am I qualified to have a BA in Medieval Metaphysics?

Go 'Pods!

[	mood	|	drunk	]
[	music	|	Too Drunk to Fuck - Dead Kennedys	]

christeos_pir

A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from Wisconsin University told a conference in the US.

Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.