tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263484922024-03-17T22:59:12.021-04:00In Search of EnlightenmentA political philosopher's reflections on politics, philosophy, science, medicine and law.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity" (Immanuel Kant, 1784).Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comBlogger1093125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-9547455291519069462024-03-17T15:39:00.004-04:002024-03-17T15:39:52.646-04:00Parental age at death and age at first birth <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBuNulZkOpLUpgZ8bvWHyoFbqJlz1HXgkOEXGOoua_bJIJE-Jf_ZK_88ZYJ0NsZLtBMfQrGjD3ID2wfV_dwbSTMtnpS5lETdz7W8L42f9Gl9XCmZqs9nu0lu9c9Z9DEeBYUpLnFwRtEjA9pMUdFyZR8MzzNWo-UhZmqDWuNHS2W5EsUkyvA7Cq/s498/time%20glass%202.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="356" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBuNulZkOpLUpgZ8bvWHyoFbqJlz1HXgkOEXGOoua_bJIJE-Jf_ZK_88ZYJ0NsZLtBMfQrGjD3ID2wfV_dwbSTMtnpS5lETdz7W8L42f9Gl9XCmZqs9nu0lu9c9Z9DEeBYUpLnFwRtEjA9pMUdFyZR8MzzNWo-UhZmqDWuNHS2W5EsUkyvA7Cq/w92-h128/time%20glass%202.gif" width="92" /></a></div><br />Interesting <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S053155652400038X" target="_blank">study published </a>in<i> Experimental Gerontology</i> which examines the age of death for parents and the age they had their first offspring. <p></p><p>The abstract:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: ElsevierGulliver, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, STIXGeneral, "Cambria Math", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Microsoft Sans Serif", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Arial Unicode MS", serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><blockquote><b>People age at different rates and the available evidence suggests that the rate of aging is partly inherited from previous generations. This heterogeneity in aging is evident already in midlife, but to what extent aging is associated with the timing of events earlier in life is not fully known. Here we aim to shed light on this topic by investigating the trade-off between reproduction and aging postulated by evolutionary theories of aging.</b></blockquote><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin </p><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-69915678452995583772024-03-16T09:37:00.000-04:002024-03-16T09:37:06.051-04:00Geroscience in Canada<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XxjKzQLkjgUgx_Gh77bU4hkUVUjcHYYrtSSx2Tl5O4eicngSYKnoBI2UUZzQ0nciAc1rk_g0RpRfJK7VzVTKYBwMY6joCRdRC4W2ayFuPMWHESDitYyD3FORQi6yOgl1HZq_CYwQjNs0dhp4Ej9GCVGT6N-YKo5el0ggy65h_-zjSpS0PU3c/s220/writing%20gif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="220" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XxjKzQLkjgUgx_Gh77bU4hkUVUjcHYYrtSSx2Tl5O4eicngSYKnoBI2UUZzQ0nciAc1rk_g0RpRfJK7VzVTKYBwMY6joCRdRC4W2ayFuPMWHESDitYyD3FORQi6yOgl1HZq_CYwQjNs0dhp4Ej9GCVGT6N-YKo5el0ggy65h_-zjSpS0PU3c/w143-h109/writing%20gif.gif" width="143" /></a></div><br />The proceedings of Canada's first geroscience summit are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/gerona/glae069/7629180?login=false" target="_blank">now published </a>in <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>The Journals of Gerontology. </i>Having the opportunity to collaborate with 32 scientists at this important event was a real pleasure and learning experience for me. The abstract:</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #eff2f7; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;"><blockquote><b>The inaugural Canadian Conferences on Translational Geroscience were held as two complementary sessions in October and November 2023. The conferences explored the profound interplay between the biology of aging, social determinants of health, the potential societal impact of geroscience and the maintenance of health in aging individuals. Although topics such as cellular senescence, molecular and genetic determinants of aging and prevention of chronic disease were addressed, the conferences went on to emphasize practical applications for enhancing older people's quality of life. This manuscript summarizes the proceeding and underscores the synergy between clinical and fundamental studies. Future directions highlight national and global collaborations and the crucial integration of early-career investigators. This work charts a course for a national framework for continued innovation and advancement in translational geroscience in Canada.</b></blockquote><p>My passion and interest in the social and ethical implications of this area of science continues to grow, with many new projects in the works to keep me busy writing for the foreseeable future.</p><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin </p></span></div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-77043994537285387512024-03-13T06:36:00.004-04:002024-03-13T06:36:52.987-04:00Online version of inaugural Peacock lecture<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/6siE7GEmGsI?si=zN_hb5UR86UW033v" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Cheers, </div><div>Colin</div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-15042531015698160812024-03-05T08:55:00.003-05:002024-03-05T08:55:36.352-05:00Geroscience Summit Proceedings (forthcoming) <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuxRZvmj0lCvHLtkOJnBcMNT1-rapm_Y-2SLj8_gpDynbO1VqIQzoG14f07cVWMV2qfSdjIUNv-p_fA2Drrjizp8Bt8RVfZvsCnmpoM8zWvpax4WFtWo9tbhSsw65F2Ef9uwhb1j3zMfHac2u3bj72W0XqV6HCze6VzPBEjktkywiRwqQP0Is/s500/typing%20gif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuxRZvmj0lCvHLtkOJnBcMNT1-rapm_Y-2SLj8_gpDynbO1VqIQzoG14f07cVWMV2qfSdjIUNv-p_fA2Drrjizp8Bt8RVfZvsCnmpoM8zWvpax4WFtWo9tbhSsw65F2Ef9uwhb1j3zMfHac2u3bj72W0XqV6HCze6VzPBEjktkywiRwqQP0Is/w199-h112/typing%20gif.gif" width="199" /></a></div><br />I was very happy to learn that the proceedings of Canada's <a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2023/10/canadas-first-geroscience-summit.html" target="_blank">first Geroscience summit from the October</a> meeting have been accepted for publication in <span style="color: #202020; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>The Journals of Gerontology.
Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. </i>The abstract and details:</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><blockquote><p><b>Authors: <span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Guy Hajj-Boutros, Andréa Faust, John
Muscedere, Perry Kim, Naji Amburad, Stéphanie Chevalier, Mylene
Aubertin-Leheudre, Howard Bergman, Dawn Bowdish, Jessica Burford, Stacey
Carrington-Lawrence, Hélène Côté, David Dawe, Philipe de Souto Barreto, Colin
Farrelly, Robert Fowler, Gilles Gouspillou, Lea Harrington, Sofie Hindkjaer
Lautrup, Susan Howlett, Mahdi Imani, James Kirkland, George Kuchel, Frédérick
Mallette, José A Morais, John Newman, Daryl Pullman, Felipe Sierra, Jeremy Van
Raamsdonk, Jane Rylett and Gustavo Duque</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Title: “Navigating the
Landscape of Translational Geroscience in Canada: A Comprehensive Evaluation of
Current Progress and Future Directions</span>” </b></p><p><b><span style="color: #202020; font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;">Abstract: </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The inaugural Canadian Conference on
Translational Geroscience was held as two complementary sessions in October and
November 2023. The conference explored the profound interplay between the
biology of aging, social determinants of health, the potential societal impact
of geroscience and the maintenance of health in aging individuals. Although
topics such as cellular senescence, molecular and genetic determinants of aging
and prevention of chronic disease were addressed, the conference went on to
emphasize practical applications for enhancing older people's quality of life.
This manuscript summarizes the proceeding and underscores the synergy between
clinical and fundamental studies. Future directions highlight national and
global collaborations and the crucial integration of young investigators. This
work charts a course for a national framework for continued innovation and
advancement in translational geroscience in Canada.</span></b></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin</p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-26903531624153408612024-02-28T21:17:00.001-05:002024-02-28T21:18:31.579-05:00Peacock Inaugural Lecture (next week)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTJ5RahyVimNZUuqMUv78pEXPaa15gXqWuDCQNgwJ7M0z_x-1klYmL1omalnz7rDI2xAkbmcTjqZTVsveqsGo76ZNqOxsZb0EXRLCLBIb15eAeVl3u5jggZdFryhMBYk2sEmuXweKV6bXhJ0d5EFHPYbQ1lVXZiU5eHJfw8YfGperkYLBROtc/s1920/peacock%20lecture.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTJ5RahyVimNZUuqMUv78pEXPaa15gXqWuDCQNgwJ7M0z_x-1klYmL1omalnz7rDI2xAkbmcTjqZTVsveqsGo76ZNqOxsZb0EXRLCLBIb15eAeVl3u5jggZdFryhMBYk2sEmuXweKV6bXhJ0d5EFHPYbQ1lVXZiU5eHJfw8YfGperkYLBROtc/s320/peacock%20lecture.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next week I am giving the advertised lecture above to officially "kick start" my 5 year term as the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Political Theory at my home institution Queen's University. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This lecture, and the research chair, is a great honour and I have been working on refining the lecture for the past number of months. It will survey a host of topics and ideas I have been working on over the past number of years concerning the intellectual history of public health, advances in geroscience and insights from communication science concerning the challenges of engaging in science communication and advocacy in the modern context of limited attention spans and a media bias towards negativity. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I start with this passage from my favorite 20th century philosopher, John Dewey:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuhFnxmV9j0N-4ztCsr7813T9KYAuNyO_RVb8d2K6HNokwCQ3ZwiJ6CULenVgi5W-vQlNVVb3X6Lx8VP-1bppNRju9uIVoxoBruWvFCuEhZCM9k3dC2pqvs9vgnIlOZeJ8OOIzm3jzFMPMLWzvjbQsIxM0BIMkxsQoBrq_mcE8wWRXEKTab8_/s1442/John%20Dewey%20quote.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1442" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHuhFnxmV9j0N-4ztCsr7813T9KYAuNyO_RVb8d2K6HNokwCQ3ZwiJ6CULenVgi5W-vQlNVVb3X6Lx8VP-1bppNRju9uIVoxoBruWvFCuEhZCM9k3dC2pqvs9vgnIlOZeJ8OOIzm3jzFMPMLWzvjbQsIxM0BIMkxsQoBrq_mcE8wWRXEKTab8_/s320/John%20Dewey%20quote.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I then unpack some of the lessons we can learn from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the ways imagination and idealism are invoked in the medical sciences, drawing on the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231102" target="_blank">details of this recent paper.</a> </div><p>After addressing imagination in medical science, I turn to the topic of political imagination, noting the challenges with framing science in today's polarized and hyper-distracted arena of politics. The dominant paradigm of the medical sciences is the "War Against Disease" (Winslow 1903), so I detail the limitations of continuing down that same path for today's aging populations. While doing so I work towards developing "frames" I hope will convince the audience that the aspiration of healthy aging is critical for today's aging population.</p><p>I finish the talk by showing the video abstract of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.13890" target="_blank">my recent paper in <i>Aging Cell</i></a> on climate science and geroscience, as a way of illustrating how insights from political communication can be harnessed to effectively communicative the importance of healthy aging. Should be a fun event!</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Colin </p><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-35365103019433408592024-02-21T15:28:00.000-05:002024-02-21T15:28:01.843-05:00Mimics of fasting study<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFhkxqORel3pt5xz-CRTS2g4S1wMmgI8DbvTIKsteqxhofhAbOLKqnN6h9A_gVN91cgfjxB3oFtGBetsDM4CuSgKnvaMhad4yjI-3dIBPbv9EqlBGIcl1T3IMPpNVz8fTtKrrNofEyrISdmg5tlAaDvv5JV-VJAMKthyphenhyphenywn3fZHOQ9i9vYj_mu/s2121/fasting%20image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2121" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFhkxqORel3pt5xz-CRTS2g4S1wMmgI8DbvTIKsteqxhofhAbOLKqnN6h9A_gVN91cgfjxB3oFtGBetsDM4CuSgKnvaMhad4yjI-3dIBPbv9EqlBGIcl1T3IMPpNVz8fTtKrrNofEyrISdmg5tlAaDvv5JV-VJAMKthyphenhyphenywn3fZHOQ9i9vYj_mu/w137-h91/fasting%20image.jpg" width="137" /></a></div><br />The latest issue of <i>Nature Communication</i> has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45260-9" target="_blank">this study out today.</a> The abstract:<p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px;"></span></p><blockquote style="font-weight: bold;">In mice, periodic cycles of a fasting mimicking diet (FMD) protect normal cells while killing damaged cells including cancer and autoimmune cells, reduce inflammation, promote multi-system regeneration, and extend longevity. Here, we performed secondary and exploratory analysis of blood samples from a randomized clinical trial (NCT02158897) and show that 3 FMD cycles in adult study participants are associated with reduced insulin resistance and other pre-diabetes markers, lower hepatic fat (as determined by magnetic resonance imaging) and increased lymphoid to myeloid ratio: an indicator of immune system age. Based on a validated measure of biological age predictive of morbidity and mortality, 3 FMD cycles were associated with a decrease of 2.5 years in median biological age, independent of weight loss. Nearly identical findings resulted from a second clinical study (NCT04150159). Together these results provide initial support for beneficial effects of the FMD on multiple cardiometabolic risk factors and biomarkers of biological age.</blockquote><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin<b> </b></p><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-42655603302581223992024-01-31T07:07:00.004-05:002024-01-31T07:07:27.372-05:00Latest Article<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQdLMM3rUHh3DKOwELe-wiHUtr5kYN5vyqqWXef6qiFpwa4-lOTcH9DqeO2j42prqkt-nEN3MgsoQoPSLEAx0jbQmfp8MSEGJ5qMrsW7KbuPTw7b3mHI471XbuFKt1SM1a6H5I5a4W-22JOV5ISKscA9acHRYrampRpxn6_K6ls3KNR2puQff/s1503/royal%20society%20open%20science%20image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="1503" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQdLMM3rUHh3DKOwELe-wiHUtr5kYN5vyqqWXef6qiFpwa4-lOTcH9DqeO2j42prqkt-nEN3MgsoQoPSLEAx0jbQmfp8MSEGJ5qMrsW7KbuPTw7b3mHI471XbuFKt1SM1a6H5I5a4W-22JOV5ISKscA9acHRYrampRpxn6_K6ls3KNR2puQff/s320/royal%20society%20open%20science%20image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />My latest piece in Royal Society's <i>Open Science</i> is now published. A sample:<p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
the past 3+ years, medical researchers, the media, the general public and
policy makers have focused their idealism and imagination on managing the
COVID-19 pandemic. Herter’s JAMA Address has significance for both the COVID-19
pandemic and the aspirations of medical science in the post-COVID-19 pandemic
era. The latter ought to prioritize the science of healthy ageing so that </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvTT4dbafa8d; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">older populations can enjoy more years of
healthy life (</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "AdvTT05d4dae9\.I"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">healthspan</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvTT4dbafa8d; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">) versus making incremental increases inv</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">lifespan by extending
the period of time managing multi-morbidity, frailty and disability.</span></b></blockquote><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span><p></p><p></p></blockquote><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin</p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-29023249504777679422024-01-30T06:57:00.005-05:002024-01-30T06:57:49.681-05:00Music and Aging<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgzNOqIvBUCjgAWk-TNsAQriv5Nvea7xwyEozpw_Gg3NtM8KK2Y_kAysYcI_I63GoRi-rMTS-zEd7X8ijnqCQXzXFDoaCBAf1DwpMXOQ0OtZFE3wSWIyDORf8cZVS9Ht5fLMV-aPcBrdH5sL1poRhSO2Gj413LlLk4zb1oWdb7LzBVDzTwAmj/s480/ukulele%20image.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIgzNOqIvBUCjgAWk-TNsAQriv5Nvea7xwyEozpw_Gg3NtM8KK2Y_kAysYcI_I63GoRi-rMTS-zEd7X8ijnqCQXzXFDoaCBAf1DwpMXOQ0OtZFE3wSWIyDORf8cZVS9Ht5fLMV-aPcBrdH5sL1poRhSO2Gj413LlLk4zb1oWdb7LzBVDzTwAmj/w194-h194/ukulele%20image.gif" width="194" /></a></div><br />The I<i>nternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry</i> has this i<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gps.6061" target="_blank">nteresting study</a> on how music can help protect brain health as we age. Some details:<p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><blockquote><b>This study found that playing a musical instrument was associated with improved working memory and executive function in older adults, while singing and overall musical ability was also associated with more favourable performance. Continuing engagement with music into later life is also associated with better working memory function. Although more research is needed to investigate this relationship, our findings suggest that promoting the exposure to music during life can increase cognitive reserve and reduce the risk of cognitive impairment in older age. </b></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Cheers, </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", icomoon, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Colin</span></p><p><br /></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-44135845321560508202024-01-08T06:32:00.003-05:002024-01-08T06:32:39.192-05:00Royal Society Open Science Paper Accepted<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/3h8FlAORe60?si=pTFgOAPfB3L3i1w1" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">The Royal Society (UK) dates back to the 1660s, and the Society has published science articles for over 350 years. I was thrilled to receive the news that my </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Science, Society and Policy article submission has been accepted for publication in the Society’s </span><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Open Science</span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"> journal. The article addresses the role of idealism and imagination in the medical sciences in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era of today’s aging world. I will post the link to the paper once it comes out in a few weeks. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Above is a brief video about the Royal Society, including details of their <i>Open Science</i> journal.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Cheers, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Colin</span></p></div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-37420719004726950702024-01-06T08:17:00.006-05:002024-01-06T08:21:01.694-05:00Psychedelics and PTSD in Soldiers<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbYqlLbnxE4g1zrhimDU1gtaoBdC8jm1maxMLmTim2DP2UazkQX2wPAh6OhqdaDyqFW3gCYjXTQwO-krrZhE5VAbh1ugZD9Ce0iKYnI-8fhoMRm9y1WZMlhdhgNo_ITKGQZsCDZF86nsEIlQqIJ4m0jZVHF4epZcYltavVbzuXRZ_ep0actpQ/s466/transhumanizing%20war.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="311" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixbYqlLbnxE4g1zrhimDU1gtaoBdC8jm1maxMLmTim2DP2UazkQX2wPAh6OhqdaDyqFW3gCYjXTQwO-krrZhE5VAbh1ugZD9Ce0iKYnI-8fhoMRm9y1WZMlhdhgNo_ITKGQZsCDZF86nsEIlQqIJ4m0jZVHF4epZcYltavVbzuXRZ_ep0actpQ/w150-h224/transhumanizing%20war.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nature news has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00012-z" target="_blank">this interesting story</a> about u<span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;">sing psychedelic drugs to enhance the emotional resilience of soldiers to blunt the trauma of conflict. A sample from the report on the study (published in <i><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02705-w" target="_blank">Nature Medicine</a></i>):</span></span><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; margin-block-start: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The researchers found that one month after treatment, participants had average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms. On average, participants had mild-to-moderate disability before treatment and no disability one month after treatment, as assessed by a survey about their cognition, mobility and other functions.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>None of the participants experienced cardiac side effects. The study is a “proof of concept” that proper screening and administration can lower the risk of harmful side effects, Steenkamp says. Williams and his colleagues are now looking to study whether the drug can confer a long-term benefit and are using neuroimaging and biomarkers to assess how the drug works.</b></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The news item notes that the study builds on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06204-3" target="_blank">mice research</a> into expanding the neural plasticity period of the brain. Ethics must keep up with science. I addressed these issues in this <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780773559677-012/html?lang=en&fbclid=IwAR2PTOcI1bD0zeyI4jvm-Z9pydrleCF8X-4ZIlQcVHvk9-kGMEX5ln7xmAE" target="_blank">book chapter</a>. This topic raises many interesting issues in ethics and psychology. </span></span></p><p>Cheers, <br /></p><p>Colin</p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-39191699957810436942023-12-27T13:59:00.003-05:002023-12-27T19:22:05.157-05:00New Textbook (completed)<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wsAtywHxs3_Pws-n3f376t1hTlZ3IokJCYFSXMsr-iZxHqRhgbFnlb11ay84K1MRnO3BeNoIb-l8xLOh12qMyZ4pe2WCOCmBtwwfZUF_QqO969bMsjGKYls8CtbkDumrGiwF2atzmUx-Skfmr3rdwDJiUJaF-XcBwwJ668nYso3TRcuUDjWE/s526/textbook%20table%20of%20contents.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="526" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wsAtywHxs3_Pws-n3f376t1hTlZ3IokJCYFSXMsr-iZxHqRhgbFnlb11ay84K1MRnO3BeNoIb-l8xLOh12qMyZ4pe2WCOCmBtwwfZUF_QqO969bMsjGKYls8CtbkDumrGiwF2atzmUx-Skfmr3rdwDJiUJaF-XcBwwJ668nYso3TRcuUDjWE/w250-h234/textbook%20table%20of%20contents.png" width="250" /></a></div><br />My survey of
the history of Western political philosophy (@110, 000 words), with a focus on
its contemporary relevance, has been sent off to the publisher for production.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This new book </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">builds on a quarter of a century of my teaching this subject, though the serious writing on this book started back in 2020.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hopefully the book will be out in print in 2024.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cheers, </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Colin</span></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-75726016146883258602023-12-20T10:04:00.001-05:002023-12-20T10:04:09.675-05:00Nuffield Council of Bioethics (Ladder for public health interventions)<p> I recently came across the <a href="https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/ethics-tools-for-decision-makers-responding-to-public-health-threats" target="_blank">Nuffield Council on Bioethics "Ethics Tools for Decision-Makers" </a>which contains the following useful "ladder for public health interventions":</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimO8MInuJn8xVd2wwpXBSsugaPWogdfWcXZSfIOWyFdsq9EIUYIDFdUD2NyrOIksPh6uHP1FpA7_Jf8uXlcsSiPWQhw6ePFN4_O-ZtwVI9I40S8OFjmT9OPabps4R3T8uafxvtHMtuZbz88fvTs_NLUhrZYN-lRz6Bc1gr6LZDkbHOQ52rjguz" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="1188" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimO8MInuJn8xVd2wwpXBSsugaPWogdfWcXZSfIOWyFdsq9EIUYIDFdUD2NyrOIksPh6uHP1FpA7_Jf8uXlcsSiPWQhw6ePFN4_O-ZtwVI9I40S8OFjmT9OPabps4R3T8uafxvtHMtuZbz88fvTs_NLUhrZYN-lRz6Bc1gr6LZDkbHOQ52rjguz=w438-h338" width="438" /></a></div><br />Cheers, <p></p><p>Colin</p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-67381443409490818892023-12-18T09:56:00.000-05:002023-12-18T09:56:45.478-05:00Year in Review (2023)<div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyuxYfi4AqsZV73ZHRZ9uUV9NwvKDhCrJEkmyV0aWbBljzrVTos6FSBKeOFz_jq7Dm1Z3P5lV4iaWFZl5N1vMUzWVFptY4VqdQPyoqpWO2b9mCzBbEofI1dknru0DbOByzogoz-9VCfGqjuJK7NrGQS2enEOT2aVQGtDKN5A1NQaEFEYmrCEu/s612/2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="612" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyuxYfi4AqsZV73ZHRZ9uUV9NwvKDhCrJEkmyV0aWbBljzrVTos6FSBKeOFz_jq7Dm1Z3P5lV4iaWFZl5N1vMUzWVFptY4VqdQPyoqpWO2b9mCzBbEofI1dknru0DbOByzogoz-9VCfGqjuJK7NrGQS2enEOT2aVQGtDKN5A1NQaEFEYmrCEu/w249-h166/2023.jpg" width="249" /></a></div><br />Time for my annual summary of the past year (2023), at least on the research front.<p></p><p>I spent the first half of the year on<a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2023/09/sabbatical-in-turkiye.html" target="_blank"> sabbatical at Bilkent University</a> in Ankara, <span style="color: var(--YLNNHc); font-family: inherit;">Türkiye. It was an amazing experience, both professionally and personally. My youngest son came with me on this trip and attended an international highschool in Ankara. I taught a bioethics course for graduate and undergraduate students in the philosophy department. We lived on the campus, so it was only a 15 minute walk from home to the department and gym. So this really permitted me to optimize time for research. </span></p><p><span style="color: var(--YLNNHc); font-family: inherit;">Tragically the devastating earthquake occurred 2 weeks after our arrival, and in-person classes at the university were cancelled for the following 2 months (the class moved to zoom) and the teaching term was extended into part of the summer term to enable students to catch up on what was missed due to disruption from the earthquake.</span></p><p><span style="color: var(--YLNNHc); font-family: inherit;">On the research front I wrote and/or had a number of new papers accepted/published. These include many of what I consider to be among my best articles published to date:</span></p><p>Colin Farrelly, (2023). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glad065" target="_blank">Geroscience and Public Health's Plastic "Ecology of Ideas".</a> <i>The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences</i>, 78(5), 793–797.</p><p>Colin Farrelly, (2023). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-023-09411-y" target="_blank">Longevity Science and Women's Health and Wellbeing. Journal of population ageing</a>, 1–20. Advance online publication.</p><p>Colin Farrelly, (2023). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13890" target="_blank">Geroscience and climate science: Oppositional or complementary?</a>. <i>Aging Cell,</i> 22(8), e13890. </p><p>Colin Farrelly, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phad013" target="_blank">From Sanitation Science to Geroscience: Public Health Must Transcend ‘Folkbiology’</a>, <i>Public Health Ethics</i>, Volume 16, Issue 2, July 2023, Pages 165–174.</p><p>Colin Farrelly, (2023). <a href="https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2023.0721" target="_blank">"Post-Protean" Public Health and the Geroscience Hypothesis".</a> <i>Aging and Disease</i>, 10.14336/AD.2023.0721. Advance online publication.</p><p>Colin Farrelly (2023). <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003105596-16/framing-longevity-science-aging-enhancement-colin-farrelly" target="_blank">"Framing Longevity Science and an "Aging Enhancement"</a> in <i>The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Human Enhancement</i> (editors Fabrice Jotterand & Marcello Ienca.</p><p>The major research activity of the year was completing a major survey (for a forthcoming textbook) of the classics in Western political philosophy, which I have been writing for many years now. I am in the final editing stage of this book, and expect it to be send off to the production stage in a few weeks (once I find some time for final edits and revisions!).</p><p>I am also making headway with what I hope will be a new book on the ethics of longevity science and aging, building on recent publications in this field. Without a doubt the first half of this year was my most productive for research. My daily schedule was (a) get my son sent off to school (a bus would collect him from campus each day at 7:30am, (b) workout and then (c) write until my son returned at 4pm, when I would cook dinner for us both. </p><p>I did have teaching obligations 2 days a week, but that was on a topic related to my research so it complemented (vs competing with) the momentum necessary for writing. Teaching only one course in the winter term was a reprieve from the 3 courses I have taught in the winter term for the past decade. So that translated into a perceptible research dividend for me. This year (and for the foreseeable future) I will limit my teaching to only 2 courses per term vs trying to teach an additional course once a year (i.e. 5 per year). </p><p>My philosophy meetup group was also a busy community outreach activity again this year, as I hosted reading groups on <i>Man's Search for Meaning</i>, <i>Good Arguments</i>, <i>Grit</i>, <i>The State</i>, and N<i>oise: A Flaw in Human Judgement</i>. This initiative continues to be a really enriching experience for me. I have met many wonderful people and feel much more connected to my community after having run this group for the past 5 years. Membership is now over 350 members! (of which about 35-40 are actively attending meetings regularly)</p><p>In 2023 I also played pickleball for the first time (which I love), continued with improv lessons (now at the advanced level) and performed in another half a dozen Murder Mystery plays.</p><p>I look forward to seeing what 2024 has in store for me as I continue to try to learn and develop as a scholar and human being. All the best to everyone!</p><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin</p><p>PS: I also gave a presentation at Canada's first Geroscience summit in Toronto in October, and discussed some of the insights in the paper below</p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ahwPIb80UL0?si=UaqR2Z4guVZoyElN" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-76767360646629598202023-12-12T20:00:00.005-05:002023-12-12T20:01:24.583-05:00Dewey Quote on Science and Imagination <p> Brilliant passage from John Dewey, a thinker decades ahead of his time: </p><p>[click image to expand it]</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NTzFryUCLmCC_MhwVYlCoUegL3q_uSkvRjCbevs7b4Qq3YfsuJ45-Ux7kZbZArGn3D7rxbSuZVFZBsoQSN35ma1ITpxBMY3P079-UyDLWC1C4tKj7nCR3JzL6QjoNYaxILQSzWyrj_lAzXPDNzR8HE_AXf53FQ8wOvBYlMnXUg9KYjMTGLcy/s1280/Dewey%20quote%20on%20science%20and%20ideas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NTzFryUCLmCC_MhwVYlCoUegL3q_uSkvRjCbevs7b4Qq3YfsuJ45-Ux7kZbZArGn3D7rxbSuZVFZBsoQSN35ma1ITpxBMY3P079-UyDLWC1C4tKj7nCR3JzL6QjoNYaxILQSzWyrj_lAzXPDNzR8HE_AXf53FQ8wOvBYlMnXUg9KYjMTGLcy/w362-h236/Dewey%20quote%20on%20science%20and%20ideas.jpg" width="362" /></a></div><br /><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-9201130629993473062023-12-11T09:01:00.002-05:002023-12-11T09:01:23.923-05:00Nature Index Rankings (USA vs China)<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Nature Index ranks universities based on their contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural-science and health-science journals. The top 10 universities in the world are all in China and the US, but China now dominates with 7 of the top 10 universities in the world (only Harvard, Stanford and MIT can compete with the top universities in China for research output).</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2JhJgXx5KNCh6tVWbvW7Ixep368bzUKYmAmBZcUtNun7vdMpXZHr5YxSuKDhYuOv_0aGo1C_C3L4jOq-8Lx_ZYMgVprertQGB3FIpYm15_Ze1jvgPLGj1tfrbYiA2QxxNKDNDGmqHdXdf2AdIql6l5fMp49GlGmP3GBIr5JGzfl3qyUX7Z1W/s1117/USA%20china%20science%20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1117" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2JhJgXx5KNCh6tVWbvW7Ixep368bzUKYmAmBZcUtNun7vdMpXZHr5YxSuKDhYuOv_0aGo1C_C3L4jOq-8Lx_ZYMgVprertQGB3FIpYm15_Ze1jvgPLGj1tfrbYiA2QxxNKDNDGmqHdXdf2AdIql6l5fMp49GlGmP3GBIr5JGzfl3qyUX7Z1W/w496-h279/USA%20china%20science%20.png" width="496" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9nXZChRb8gXmsozbrgbZspGg0o0ag-IJFsP-s_JrKtomzsFjvpThq-_RowuJtLSxcubj0GxLC0ICfqiMaUcKvOKDWduZW_Pk_IFu1BUMwaW1Dyxer1ucYoGdbcK9b4CquPqMGh-d0XmtvAuiEt9D9V2zg_-vYXfcMxLZVh_E8zbNXYs_jMKu/s1510/top%2010%20universities.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1510" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr9nXZChRb8gXmsozbrgbZspGg0o0ag-IJFsP-s_JrKtomzsFjvpThq-_RowuJtLSxcubj0GxLC0ICfqiMaUcKvOKDWduZW_Pk_IFu1BUMwaW1Dyxer1ucYoGdbcK9b4CquPqMGh-d0XmtvAuiEt9D9V2zg_-vYXfcMxLZVh_E8zbNXYs_jMKu/w586-h225/top%2010%20universities.png" width="586" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cheers, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Colin</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-45216313053147469942023-12-08T06:51:00.002-05:002023-12-08T06:51:18.022-05:00Human Rights Declining in the 21st Century (!)<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAsYWFj8VCI3MzJXdCpAfe_1lcnSUgF6CPj9W5XD9_WvXYFo3L8_nyhKFXjttP2Aqp2goCdtaIDwEeNMHAnVjRLbko_k58iIrw-JeH06ZDvypvWWQhIc6zzSaJbKMLaa2SJou2_3Gxncs8Z0NPiCxiA9XwoaZnQFO7zcybQiX7Ce6IiKVSNYmi/s222/human%20rights.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="222" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAsYWFj8VCI3MzJXdCpAfe_1lcnSUgF6CPj9W5XD9_WvXYFo3L8_nyhKFXjttP2Aqp2goCdtaIDwEeNMHAnVjRLbko_k58iIrw-JeH06ZDvypvWWQhIc6zzSaJbKMLaa2SJou2_3Gxncs8Z0NPiCxiA9XwoaZnQFO7zcybQiX7Ce6IiKVSNYmi/s1600/human%20rights.jpeg" width="222" /></a></i></div><i><br />EurkeAlert!</i> <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1010231" target="_blank">news </a>drew my attention to this interesting <a href="https://web.uri.edu/artsci/wp-content/uploads/sites/1132/2023-Human-Rights-report-PDF-Final.pdf" target="_blank">report on human rights</a> in the world. Some items of notice from the report:<p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>» Global human rights, on average, have declined in the 21st century. </b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>» Less than 20% of countries score in the A or B range (80–100). </b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>» The global median human rights score is an F (50).</b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>» <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span>Democracy is one of the strongest predictors of governments’ respect for human rights.</b></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>» The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decline in human rights globally. Several governments used the pandemic to justify imposing harsher public security practices, leading to human rights violations. Recent academic research has found that repressive governments during the COVID-19 pandemic put curfews and lockdowns in place earlier and kept them longer than non-repressive countries.12 In addition, surveys of human rights experts around the world find evidence that government respect for economic and social rights, as well as civil and political rights, declined as a result of COVID.13</b></div></div></blockquote><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Cheers, </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Colin</div></div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-87160917092219229192023-11-30T10:34:00.000-05:002023-11-30T10:34:59.639-05:00Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (Reading Group notes, meeting #2)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TyLhHD8-4K4Lfxk_WTC4AELgAEwopEQoT7AOewSHaps7ufIuLsdJNdho3dnSi82vaPf4KwhXpJFYf2ToxjHGTkkrKW9ISgHqhI1LNDGfJUaqxrFI_qQ9GZBOCNsYv0RbwoGFUPe29-Xx5zxSKcim9MzEMp3ft3-b0BqbksX6tGSFTRLe5GZt/s205/man's%20search%20for%20meaning%202%20image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="205" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TyLhHD8-4K4Lfxk_WTC4AELgAEwopEQoT7AOewSHaps7ufIuLsdJNdho3dnSi82vaPf4KwhXpJFYf2ToxjHGTkkrKW9ISgHqhI1LNDGfJUaqxrFI_qQ9GZBOCNsYv0RbwoGFUPe29-Xx5zxSKcim9MzEMp3ft3-b0BqbksX6tGSFTRLe5GZt/s1600/man's%20search%20for%20meaning%202%20image.png" width="205" /></a></div><br />This post is part 2 of my <a href="https://www.meetup.com/the-philosophy-meetup-kingston/events/297529266/" target="_blank">Philosophy Meetup reading group</a> on Frankl's <i>Man's Search for Meaning</i>. My summary from <a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2023/11/frankl-mans-search-for-meaning-reading.html" target="_blank">part 1 is here</a>.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
2 of <i>Man’s Search for Meaning</i> is a summary of the main tenets of
“logotherapy”. “Logos” = meaning. Frankl begins with a humorous story of an
American doctor who asked him to summarize, in one sentence, the difference
between logotherapy and psychoanalysis.
Frankl asked him to summarize the latter in just one sentence, to which
the man responded “</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">"During
psychoanalysis, the patient must lie down on a couch and tell you things which
sometimes are very disagreeable to tell." (p. 120). Frankl then responded that in logotherapy the
patient can remain sitting erect, but must hear things (vs tell things) that
are disagreeable. What Frankl means by
this comedic summary is that psychoanalysis is primarily r<i>etrospective</i>
vs <i>introspective</i>. Logotherapy is future-oriented, and as such it disrupts
<i>the self-centered feedback loop typical </i>of the neurotic. Having the patient confront, and get reoriented
towards, their meaning in life helps them break the feedback loops typical of neuroses. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Later Frankl shares another example of the story that illustrates
effectively the difference. He recounts the
time a high ranking American diplomat came to see him. This person had previously received
psychoanalysis for 5 years. In those
therapy sessions, the diplomat, who was unhappy about his career given the
direction US diplomacy had taken, was told his unhappiness at work stemmed from
unresolved anger towards his father (this anger was now being projected onto
his superiors at work). And thus the therapy
involved digging deeply into his childhood and relationship with his
father. But Frankl responded, after a
few sessions with this diplomat, that he did not in fact suffer any neurosis. His vocation was impeding his “will to
meaning”. So the man gave up his job,
thus resolving the conflict he felt. The future orientation of logotherapy, vs years
of rumination and digging up memories from childhood, did the trick in this
case.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Frankl contrasts logotherapy with other therapies as
follows: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">According to
logotherapy, this striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary
motivational force in man. That is why I speak of a <i>will to meaning </i>in
contrast to the pleasure principle (or, as we could also term it, the <i>will
to pleasure) </i>on which Freudian psychoanalysis is centered, as well as in
contrast to the <i>will to power </i>on which Adlerian psychology, using the
term "striving for superiority," is focused. (p. 121).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">So logotherapy
begins from an assumption quite different than the one we may commonly begin
with—that people are primarily motivated by being happy. Of course, many people may in fact say that
this is what they want out of life. But such
an aspiration is typically frustrated.
Happiness is an illusory aspiration.
Meaning is really what drives our motivations, and if we are unaware of
this fact it can create many problems for our lives. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">In the example of
the troubled diplomat, that person was experiencing what Frankl calls “<i>existential
frustration</i>”. Such existential
frustration is not pathological. A few
pages later Frankl makes what I think is one of his most profound insights,
that we ought not to strive to remove all existential tension. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-indent: 3.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I consider it a dangerous misconception of mental hygiene to
assume that what </span>man needs in the first place is equilibrium or, as it is
called in biology, "homeostasis," i.e., a tensionless state. What man
actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and
struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. (p. 127)<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Rather than
striving for a stress-free or tensionless life, what we need to do is re-orient
ourselves towards a meaningful life. This
will no double strike many of us as a counterintuitive recommendation. We strive to structure much of our lives in a
fashion that eliminates or insulates us from different types of stresses and
tensions- economic hardship, problematic relationships or people, unfulfilling
work, etc. Is Frankl suggesting we just
let these hardships afflict us? No. But we must recognize that a fulfilled life entails
<i>striving and struggling for worthwhile goals</i> vs a life of ease and comfort. The primitive forms of the <i>will to power</i>
(e.g. will to make money) and <i>will to pleasure</i> (e.g. sexual
compensation) are mistaken orientations to take to one’s future. And yet so much of our culture equates the
good life with the amount of wealth and opportunities in the sexual market
place one has. It is not a coincidence
that there is so much discontent in our contemporary consumerist culture. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl introduces
the concept of the existential <i>vacuum</i>.
No instinct tells humans what to
do, and this creates a challenge for our species. In the 20<sup>th</sup> century Frankl
believes there is a real risk that many will just do what others do
(conformism) or what they are told (totalitarianism) (p. 128). The
existential vacuum manifests itself in a state of boredom (129). He describes what he calls “Sunday neurosis”
as the kind of depression that afflicts people who “become aware of the lack of
content in their lives when </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">the rush of the
busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest. Not a few
cases of </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">suicide can be
traced back to this existential vacuum” (129).</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He also notes this occurs with pensioners and aging people.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Group discussion:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
Have you had experience with the existential vacuum? For me I think I have experienced this when
(a) I experienced divorce (the ending of a romantic relationship that had extended from age 18 into my mid-40s) (b) the completion of large projects I have been working on for many years (e.g. writing a book, one
of which took 15 years from start to finish); (c) during sabbaticals when I do
not have any teaching or administrative duties; (d) death of family members, and
(e) as my children got older, transitioning from dependent children to independent
adults. I do not really think I will
ever retire from my career, though perhaps that is simply a coping strategy to
delay acceptance of the existential vacuum that would create for me.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What is the
meaning of life? (p. 130) Frankl
contends that there is no one answer to this question, it varies from person to
person, day to day, and hour to hour. There
is no abstract meaning to life. The
insight that meaning in life is constantly in <i>flux</i> is a profound insight
I think we often overlook. The meaning
we found in life decades ago may no longer be a fruitful source of meaning
today (and this can cause us significant anguish in the present context). In such cases we really are “living in the
past” vs “living in the present/future”.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl contends
that <i>we</i> have the responsibility to discover/determine the meaning of our
lives (it is not something others can answer for us). This emphasis on the responsibility to attend
to our meaning is captured in the following statement which Frankl takes to be
the categorical imperative of logotherapy, what I will refer to as “<span style="background-color: #04ff00;">The
Counterfactual Test (CFT)</span>”:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Live as if you
were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time
as wrongly as you are about to act now!" </span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Group exercise:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
Try imagining CFT. You are
actually living your life for a second time, up to the point today. Is there anything you would do differently from
this point on? </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What is the
purpose or benefit of CFT? Well, firstly
it requires us to see the present as the past.
Furthermore, the past is construed as something that is malleable-
subject to change. This helps amplify
our responsibleness. Logotherapy is not
preachy or teaching. Frankl argues that
the therapist does not tell the person how to interpret their life. He draws the following analogy between a
painter and an eye specialist. A painter
tries to convey a picture of the world as he sees it. Logotherapy does not try to do this, the
therapist is not to prescribe what a person should believe about their
life. Instead, the therapist is like an
eye specialist, helping to widen and broaden the patient’s field of
vision. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cDkX9cVgmZnGpvVUKDZVw8pYxH9sBlyO3dWGnKtqwtLkomfKgva4kBiipqmd6OuwbdGfyimHvKIIeWXkKeVoGP2x2F0aXXpsKg1zSpYbQAElGLYGT50V1mf_AmIaJOMcO_gYeQMxwfTUAHL0jsSC7vN3DtxG28YMeQTnmBS9hXQIjJW5bSnE/s264/vision%20enhanced.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="264" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cDkX9cVgmZnGpvVUKDZVw8pYxH9sBlyO3dWGnKtqwtLkomfKgva4kBiipqmd6OuwbdGfyimHvKIIeWXkKeVoGP2x2F0aXXpsKg1zSpYbQAElGLYGT50V1mf_AmIaJOMcO_gYeQMxwfTUAHL0jsSC7vN3DtxG28YMeQTnmBS9hXQIjJW5bSnE/s1600/vision%20enhanced.jpeg" width="264" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl stresses the point that the
true meaning of life is discovered in the world vs in ourselves or our
mind. This is what he calls the
“self-transcendence of human existence” (p. 132). “The more one forgets himself - by giving
himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is
and the more he actualizes himself” (p. 133).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl identifies
3 ways we discover meaning in life:</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">(1)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">By creating a work
or doing a deed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">(2)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">By experiencing
something or encountering someone (e.g. beauty, truth or love).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">(3)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #04ff00;">By the attitude we
take to unavoidable suffering (. (p. 133)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A lengthy quote
from Frankl on love from p. 134</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">THE MEANING OF LOVE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Love is the only
way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No
one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he
loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in
the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him,
which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his
love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these
potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should
become, he makes these potentialities come true.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">And his remarks on
suffering (elaborating on 3 above):</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">THE MEANING OF SUFFERING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">We must never
forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a
hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters
is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to
transform a personal </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">tragedy into a
triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no
longer able to change a situation - just think of an incurable disease such as
inoperable cancer - we are challenged to change ourselves. (p. 135)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">To illustrate the
case of finding meaning in suffering he recounts the story of a grieving
husband who was suffering prolonged bouts of depression after his wife had
died two years earlier. Rather than tell
the husband any advice on how to redress the predicament Frankl instead asked
him to consider what would have happened to his wife had the husband died first
vs his wife? The grieving husband
replied that if he had died first it would have caused severe torment for his
wife. So, in a way, the husband’s
suffering was the price he paid to prevent his wife suffering an even more
significant pain had she survived her husband.
Once he could see his suffering as a sacrifice it had a meaning, and
this helped him move on. In such a
circumstance the therapist can not change the circumstances of a person’s
death, but what they can help to change is the attitude towards this
unalterable fate. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl goes on to
note that suffering is not of course necessary for meaning, and we should try
to prevent suffering and misfortune when we can. His point is that when such suffering is
inevitable, then attending to one’s attitude about interpreting that suffering
can help them orient towards meaning vs neurosis.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">An exercise Frankl
describes on p. 140, which he used on a suicidal mother who had lost her son, is
to imagine you are on your death bed in advanced life, reflecting on your
life. Let us call this the <span style="background-color: #04ff00;">Deathbed Reflection
Exercise (DRE). </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Group Discussion:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
Try doing the Deathbed Reflection Exercise. Imagine you are at the end of the human
lifespan, but still possess the cognitive capacity to reflect upon the life you
have lived. How would you narrate the
story of your life? What were your
accomplishments? What did you contribute
to life (e.g. your family, your workplace, your society, humanity, etc.)? What did you learn and enjoy in life?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">In the section on
“Super-Meaning” Frankl discusses how religious beliefs can play a part in a
person’s sense of meaning. I wonder what
the atheists among us thought about this section? Are we missing out on a comforting, shorthand
experience of meaning?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Life is
transitory, experiences and people come into our lives and (eventually)
go. Does this make life
meaningless? Frankl answers “no”:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">…the
transitoriness of our existence in no way makes it meaningless. But it does
constitute our responsibleness; for everything hinges upon our realizing the
essentially transitory possibilities. Man constantly makes his choice
concerning the mass of present potentialities; which of these will be condemned
to nonbeing and which will be actualized? Which choice will be made an
actuality once and forever, an immortal "footprint in the sands of
time"? At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will
be the monument of his existence. (p. 143)</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Another insightful
passage on this same issue:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Logotherapy,
keeping in mind the essential transitoriness of human existence, is not
pessimistic but rather activistic. To express this point figuratively we might
say: The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his
wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each
passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life
actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and
files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having
jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on
all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived
to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing
old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic
over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the
possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? "No,
thank you," he will think. "Instead of possibilities, I have
realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but
of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I
am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy." (p.
144)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">With respect to
overcoming fear, Frankl describes the technique of “paradoxical
intention”. He provides a few examples-
a man with a fear of perspiring, another person who was obsessive with cleaning, another with sexual dysfunction, a person with writer’s cramp, a stutter, anxiety about sleeping,
etc. In each of these cases what
paradoxical intention prescribes is the patient actually do the opposite of
what they are anxious about. For
example, for the man with a fear of perspiring it was recommended he try his
hardest to show people how much he could sweat!
Fear is replaced by a paradoxical wish.
This is often achieved through humour (e.g. “watch me sweat a quart of
sweat this time!”). This, Frankl argues,
“takes the wind of the sails of the anxiety” (p. 147). The cure in such cases is <i>self-transcendence</i>-
not taking ourselves so seriously/ fixating and obsessing about one’s neurosis-
which then helps relax the fear/anxiety response.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl also
addresses <i>Collective Neurosis</i>, something which plagues every age. I think is very timely
insight for today. Our age suffers many
persistent neuroses. Despite the risks
of disease and death being at unprecedented historically low levels, many
people navigate the world with stress and anxiety levels more befitting of
living through World War III. The news
and social media no doubt help stoke these anxieties, coupled with boredom and the
brain’s appetite to find things to worry about, even if that means inventing
/exaggerating risks to active the fear/anxiety responses.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl also critiques
what he calls “pan-determinism”. And
this discussion will segue nice into the Winter reading group meeting on the
topic of <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Determined/Sv2nEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank">determinism</a>. Frankl states his
position on this debate as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Man is <i>not </i>fully
conditioned and determined but rather determines<i> </i>himself whether he
gives in to conditions or<i> </i>stands up to them. In other words, man is
ultimately<i> </i>self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always<i> </i>decides
what his existence will be, what he will<i> </i>become in the next moment. (p.
154)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">We cannot predict
what a person’s future actions will be because every person has the freedom to change
at any instant. He gives the example of “Dr.
J”, who committed mass murder atrocities during the war but was changed after
the war before we died of cancer. Frankl
claims that “a residue of freedom, however limited it may be, is left to man in
neurotic and even psychotic cases.” (p. 156).
The Dr. J. example was based on hearsay, and is just one case, but the
broader issue of free will is worth considering in our discussions.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Group Discussion:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
Do you agree with Frankl we can “change at any instance”? Or are we more hardwired/determined than
actually free? Do you agree with the following
statement from Frankl:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">A human being is
not one thing among others; <i>things </i>determine each other, but <i>man </i>is
ultimately self- determining.<i> </i>What
he becomes - within the limits of endowment and environment - he has made out
of himself. In<i> </i>the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory
and on this testing ground, we watched and<i> </i>witnessed some of our
comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both
potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but
not on conditions. (p. 157)</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">In particular I
would question Frankl’s assumption that, because people responded differently
to the adversity of the concentration camp (some giving up while others found
meaning and growth), this variation was caused by “attitudes they could choose
to adopt” vs differences in personality arising from environmental/genetic
variations.</span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Tragic Optimism
covered in his 1984 Postscript</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">This is an
optimism that persists in spite of the reality of (1) pain (2) guilt and (3)
death. Frankl describes this optimism as:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">an optimism in the
face of tragedy and in view of the human potential which at its best always
allows for: (1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment;
(2) deriving </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">from guilt the
opportunity to change oneself for the better; and (3) deriving from life's
transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action. (162)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He stresses that
this optimism cannot be forced. In this
1984 Postscript he expands on mass neurotic syndrome, identifying 3 facets of
this syndrome which I think are very relevant to the problems of today (what
are called “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=deaths+of+despair">deaths
of despair</a>”):</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">(1)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“the existential
vacuum”- feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness
(depression)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">(2)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Aggression <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="background-color: #04ff00;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">(3)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Addiction</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl repeats his
point that suffering is not indispensable to meaning (we should try to avoid it
when possible), but that meaning is possible in spite of, and through, suffering. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Group discussion:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
have you found meaning (e.g. growth and development) through suffering?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Looking forward to
our discussions.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Cheers, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Colin <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-5732509582219142962023-11-29T10:01:00.000-05:002023-11-29T10:01:02.275-05:00End of Fall Teaching Term<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wL1cfJy-gbArYkhnoSoVtkpNHpoIl1PbdKimmTFiqigO8c12G51XJHNACoYAcdUiWsGXqM4VcpZE17-NnNW-Dg6CTn0bfCWzsRvcm9fu0ZBwnN9d3if9xQFxfCEm2PMRRtdYNX6WEWnFgej-mwJSuzgMNdYC64qXlaPXCer6Z_4Q9e15JRJR/s403/teaching%20gif.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="403" data-original-width="403" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5wL1cfJy-gbArYkhnoSoVtkpNHpoIl1PbdKimmTFiqigO8c12G51XJHNACoYAcdUiWsGXqM4VcpZE17-NnNW-Dg6CTn0bfCWzsRvcm9fu0ZBwnN9d3if9xQFxfCEm2PMRRtdYNX6WEWnFgej-mwJSuzgMNdYC64qXlaPXCer6Z_4Q9e15JRJR/w160-h160/teaching%20gif.gif" width="160" /></a></div><br />Monday night I gave my final lecture of the term to my large Intro to Political Theory course (300 students). As I was reflecting on the course content, and explaining to my students why I am so passionate about teaching the history of political thought to the majors in our program (we have 2 mandatory theory courses on the history of political thought, and I teach both those courses), I thought I would post some of those reflections/comments here.<p></p><p>Before we act, as both individuals and collectively as societies, we <i>think</i>. We form assumptions (e.g. about human nature, about "cause and effect", about the scope and limits of government power), we form aspirations (e.g. about equality, freedom, justice, etc.), and we deliberate about the pros and cons of different courses of action. <b>These cognitive processes and deliberations ought to be the subject of intense study and scrutiny. </b> We are much more likely to make better decisions (as individuals and collectivities) when sound assumptions, aspirations, and deliberations <i>precede </i>our acting. The ideas of past thinkers constitute an <i>experimental laboratory</i> of diagnosing societal predicaments and offering political aspirations and prescriptions to meet the perceived challenges of human societies. By examining and engaging with these thinkers we expand our own cognitive toolbox, helping us avoid the mistakes of the past, appreciating the depth of insights and wisdom of past thinkers, and inspiring us to continue the project of striving for a better future. </p><p>Because I teach two large mandatory undergraduate courses on the history of political thought many students form the mistaken impression that most of my research involves the past. But most of my research involves addressing the challenges of the future, especially advances in biomedical research and the determinates of well-ordered science in an aging world. But I <i>pre-commit</i> myself, as a scholar and teacher, to always ensure my intellectual development is anchored to an appreciation for the canon of the tradition, to ensure I am always learning lessons from the past when thinking about the future. </p><p>It is so easy for an academic to be distracted by what happens to be trendy today, or consumed by the issues/concerns of those constantly posting on social media, etc. As an scholar I consciously work at keeping my research interests and intellectual development framed in "the big picture" of humanity's plight over centuries/millennia vs what happens to make the news in 2023. Such perspective taking" ensures our intellectual development is not overly fixated on "the immediate". Perhaps the things we happen to be fixated upon today arise because we are asking the wrong questions, or have a constrained understanding of the potential "menu of options". "Outside the box" thinking can be facilitated by transcending our geography and time, something that is encouraged and developed by engaging with the ideas and aspirations of thinkers that came before us and tackled the perceived problems of their day.</p><p>I finished my lecture last night by telling my students that the responsibility of scrutinizing and refining our political ideas and ideals is now the task for their generation to take on. I hope that, through my course, they have developed an appreciate for how those that lived before them have tried to theorize about the challenges of their day- be it the potential conflict between democracy and justice (Plato), the aspirations of civil disobedience (MLK, Jr.), human nature and the state (Hobbes), limited government and property (Locke), anarchism (Kropotkin, Goldman) or criticisms of the social contract (e.g. Pateman and Mills). </p><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin</p><p><br /></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-24967589617315364992023-11-17T14:52:00.002-05:002023-11-17T14:52:52.492-05:00Digital Technology and the Brains of Kids<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0d9wnuWrhH_l3it0rYV6bwLS1oFMp0lPpdTOlV38ffeSHcjgh2D4vf6z89hcwyqwRhHLwEaD1G_TSvBrQ9ZH5Ma8ykrSPZL4QUfC3iycerZx8-XpM_OYsJ5DCbVhyphenhyphenDq_cLWB0D8Cvxe9pze1u7qRXwoN6uzycTTwp26352ahr2ZdzwrejYKL/s740/kids%20brains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="740" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0d9wnuWrhH_l3it0rYV6bwLS1oFMp0lPpdTOlV38ffeSHcjgh2D4vf6z89hcwyqwRhHLwEaD1G_TSvBrQ9ZH5Ma8ykrSPZL4QUfC3iycerZx8-XpM_OYsJ5DCbVhyphenhyphenDq_cLWB0D8Cvxe9pze1u7qRXwoN6uzycTTwp26352ahr2ZdzwrejYKL/s320/kids%20brains.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />How digital technology has<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10409289.2023.2278117" target="_blank"> changed the brains of children</a>. From the abstract:<p></p><p></p><blockquote><b>The synthesis of the evidence revealed that (1) digital experience does have positive and negative impacts on children’s brains, structurally and functionally; (2) it could cause structural and functional changes in children’s frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, brain connectivity, and brain networks; and the most vulnerable area is the prefrontal cortex and its associated executive function, and (3) early digital experience has both positive and negative impacts on children’s brain structure longitudinally. Practice or Policy: Educators and parents should be aware of the potential effects of digital experience on children’s brain development and provide appropriate guidance, mediation, and support for children’s digital use. Policymakers should establish and implement evidence-based policies and regulations to protect children’s digital well-being.</b></blockquote><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin </p><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-47562514111241280472023-11-10T14:13:00.001-05:002023-11-11T10:38:01.526-05:00Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (Reading Group notes, meeting #1)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoNr2_gyTRFMfl6BtF29K-8SSWO_rgLReqgP_-8-uxkm5B9eEbsd0F7XtdQQou27XYwFzIyjNdX7ewFfBToItLehRmszPoab-89lgkqa6TvmJnt4q1bVHEI8r_e0HbYDikHbfciofGHN349A0JSIRUf0OZzmcHht20aA5GVcgbYzeTRvz2lPr/s1886/Frankel%20Man's%20Search%20for%20Meaning%203.png.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1886" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoNr2_gyTRFMfl6BtF29K-8SSWO_rgLReqgP_-8-uxkm5B9eEbsd0F7XtdQQou27XYwFzIyjNdX7ewFfBToItLehRmszPoab-89lgkqa6TvmJnt4q1bVHEI8r_e0HbYDikHbfciofGHN349A0JSIRUf0OZzmcHht20aA5GVcgbYzeTRvz2lPr/s320/Frankel%20Man's%20Search%20for%20Meaning%203.png.jpeg" width="204" /></a>This is the first of two posts on my summary of Frankl's<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://ia801809.us.archive.org/19/items/mans-search-for-meaning_202104/Man%27s%20Search%20For%20Meaning.pdf" target="_blank">Man’s Search for Meaning</a>, </i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">a book I am reading for my </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 16px;">Philosophy Meetup group. I would like to begin by stating</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> my own existential observation
of the human condition, which helps to frame my interest in the topic of
Frankl’s book.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I think the following statement is a basic (but painful) truth
of the human condition. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The human condition:</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> Each of us will live a finite life that
entails some significant, tragic losses.
All the people we love and care about will get ill and/or frail and/or
suffer and die at some point in their lives.
Many of the specific goals and aspirations we deeply care about,
motivating us out of bed hundreds if not thousands of times, will go unfulfilled-
either because they proved to be unattainable or were revised or
abandoned. Eventually, our own health
will fade. And we all die.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This “existential angst” of the human condition is sometimes
expressed in the common slogan “shit happens”.
But this slogan’s attitude always struck me as promoting an excessive “acceptingness”/fatalistic
mindset that borders on perpetuating despair or indifference. Yes we all experience adversity, but there is
some control we have over how we process and deal with that adversity, and the
way we manage this adversity has a profound impact on both the happiness and
wellbeing of our selves and those around us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I will share a personal experience of this. In 2018 I received a<a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-father-rip-1935-2018.html" target="_blank"> phone call from my father,</a>
he was very despondent and shared with
me the devastating news that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">My father, who competed in the Olympic games for race
walking when he was age 41, never smoked or drank alcohol.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">He was
still biking 70 kms on bike rides into his 80s (competitive race walking had
taken a toll on his knees).</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was very
close with my father and he was the most avid reader of my blog!</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Processing this news was very difficult for
he and our family.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">At first I really struggled with what to say to him, I
wanted to offer words of support and encouragement. However the long-term prospects against
this type of cancer were grim. The
probability of surviving 5 years was very low.
Simply saying “shit happens” would have been an inhumane sentiment to express (even
though it is true). The type of support/advice
I offered my father was tailored to him, and predicated upon what I knew about
the power of gratitude in helping us weather the adversity of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My father had kept a daily journal since the 1970s, and
he was a very family-oriented person, and treasured his connection to his 8
grandchildren. So I suggested to him
that he write out some personal reflections on each decade of his life, sharing
some details of a big event that his own children and grandchildren did not
know about that would be chronicled in a document he would leave for all of us. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I was hoping that, rather than only seeing
the loss of future time with his family, this reflective/narrative exercise
would help him see and appreciate:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(1) what he had accomplished over his long lifetime (I also told him he exceeded the average life expectancy for his birth cohort in Ireland by some 30 years!) and </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(2) how the connection to his children and grandchildren would extend beyond
his time here (in our memories). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">He
ended up writing an extensive personal history that he shared with all his
children in a document after he passed. I
like to think that by diverting some of his time and energy into that project he
experienced more meaning and purpose, helping him process the tragic news of
his disease diagnosis better than if he did not do such an exercise. His last months were not spent ruminating only
about “loss”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Some time during the transition from our naïve childhood
into adulthood we have to come to terms with the reality of this existential
angst, something that probably is an ongoing process for us over the lifespan
as life doles out different types of adversity. For many religion offers a salve
that helps ease the discomfort of the human condition. But alas, I am an atheist so that has been of
no help since I came to reject the theological basis of my beliefs back in my
early 20s. Somewhere between the
extremes of the strategy of denying the truth of the existential angst (by
creating religion) and ruminating daily on it till we are filled with despair, lies
what I think is the opportunity for “integrating” the reality of the
human existential predicament with our desire to find purpose and meaning in
life. And that is why I felt motivated
to read Frankl’s classic book.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In Gordon Allport’s Preface to the book he notes that <i>Logotherapy</i>,
Frankl’s form of existential analysis, is made vivid by a question he would
often ask the patients that came to see him:
<b>Why not commit suicide?</b> (p. 9). In the answer to this question we get a
gleam of the sense of meaning and responsibility a person sees in their
life. It may be their relationships
(love for their child or sibling or friend) or some fond memories of their past
(e.g. sense of achievement). Frankl, an
<span style="background: white; color: #1a1a1a;">Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust
survivor, </span>spent 3 years living in Nazi concentration camps. His
wife, brother and parents all died in these camps. He wrote the book in 9 days in 1945, and
initially planned to publish it anonymously.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Frankl endured many horrors during his time in these
camps, but throughout the book he frequently refers to </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Nietzsche’s quote,
"He who has a <i>why </i>to live</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">can bear with
almost any <i>how." </i>Of course
it is better to never have to endure preventable hardships in life, but when
such hardships do occur, there is a way for the human spirit to find some way
to continue on with hope and purpose.
This is what his book explores.
The ways in which, even in the face of apparently unsurmountable
hardship and adversity, humans have the ability to find meaning that makes them
strive for a better future. As Allport
notes in the Preface, when all of a person’s freedoms are eliminated (e.g. what
you wear, the labour you spend doing all day, what you eat, when you sleep,
etc.) there remains only one domain of freedom—"the ability to choose
one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances” (p. 12). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Question the group can consider:
while the hardship of surviving a concentration camp is on the extreme
end of adversity and hardship, can you think of your own personal life
challenges, when adverse circumstances beyond your control arose but you were
able to choose the attitude with which you met the challenges presented by
these circumstances? How did you cope
with these adverse circumstances? Did
you adopt different attitudes over time?
What helped you cope, or not cope, with the adverse circumstances?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl notes the
question to which <i>Man’s Search for Meaning</i> is designed to address: <b>How was everyday life in a concentration camp
reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?</b> (p. 21). And the term “Capos” refers “to prisoners who
acted as trustees, having special privileges - or well-known prisoners”. The book is about the regular prisoners in
the concentration camp, whom the Capos despised. The former typically had very little or
nothing to eat. Frankl was prisoner #119,104, and most of the time he was put to work digging and laying tracks for
railway lines. He was only used as a
doctor in the last few weeks of his time in the prison.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">When the
prisoners first arrived at camp Frankl notes that they commonly experienced what the field of psychiatry refers to as the "delusion of reprieve":
the condemned, immediately before execution, gets the illusion that they might
be reprieved at the very last minute (p. 28).
A similar phenomenon has been documented in other, less extreme, life
circumstances. For example, if you ask
newly married couples to raise their hand if they think they will get a divorce
no one is likely to do so. And yet the
stats on the divorce rate hovers around 50%.
If you ask Canadians how many believe they will get a cancer diagnosis
over their life time, again only a few hands are likely to go up (but 50% will,
sadly, receive such news). No doubt
there is a strong psychological defence mechanism at play that helps us go
through life believing that divorces and cancer, while common outcomes for many
people, are things likely to happen to others but not us.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Frankl details
how, when initially arriving at the concentration camp, the passengers where
separated into one of two groups- those that went on the left side passage, and
those that were sent down the right side passage, after being assessed by
guards. The vast majority of passengers,
he estimates 90%, were sent to the left side.
These were the people deemed “ill” or “weak” and they wee killed. Frankl was sparred because he was
healthy. Prisoners thus had to conceal
any illness or injury, for fear of it leading to their death if perceived by
the guards or Capos.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">As degrading as
adjusting to the camp experience was for Frankl- having one's head’s shaved, all
possessions taken, sleeping in cramped quarters, etc.- he describes that many
adopted a strange kind of humour and curiosity about the circumstances (p. 35). The minds of the inmates developed a kind of
protection, which he describes as follows:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">At that time one
cultivated this state of mind as a means of protection. We were anxious to know
what would happen next; and what would be the consequence, for example, of our
standing in the open air, in the chill of late autumn, stark naked, and still
wet from the showers. In the next few days our curiosity evolved into surprise;
surprise that we did not catch cold. (35)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">He notes
Dostoevski's saying: "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy
of my sufferings”, which basically means humans can get use to anything, even
horrific living conditions. When this
occurs Frankl claims persons meet “their suffering with a genuine inner achievement”
(p. 87).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">In the New Year we
are doing a reading group on <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592344/determined-by-robert-m-sapolsky/" target="_blank">determinism</a>, so I look forward to the contrasting
perspectives between what neuroscience is revealing and Frankl’s argument. Consider, for example, the emphasis Frankl
places on human agency to influence our well-being in the following passage:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">We who lived in
concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in
number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man
but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. And there were always choices to make. Every
day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which
determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which
threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined
whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing
freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate. (87)</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">On the next page
he adds “The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it
entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity -
even under the most difficult circumstances - to add a deeper meaning to his
life” (88). The prisoners that lost
hope for the future, he argues, were doomed. “With his loss of belief in the future, he
also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to
mental and physical decay” (95). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">I finish my
summary notes of this part of <i>Man’s Search for Meaning </i>with a few other passage
that stood out to me that we can discuss:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">What was really
needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn
ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that <i>it did
not really matter what we expected from life,</i> <i>but rather what life
expected from us. </i>We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and
instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life -
daily and hourly. Life ultimately means
taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to
fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. (98)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">When a man finds
that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his
task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that
even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve
him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the
way in which he bears his burden. For us, as prisoners, these thoughts (99)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">I told my comrades
(who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life,
under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite
meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. (104)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> <b><u>The psychology of the prisoner
after liberation:</u></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 36pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Psychologically,
what was happening to the liberated prisoners could be called
"depersonalization." Everything appeared unreal, unlikely, as in a
dream. We could not believe it was true. How often in the past years had we
been deceived by dreams! We dreamt that the day of liberation had come, that we
had been set free, had returned home, greeted our friends, embraced our wives,
sat down at the table and started to tell of all the things we had gone
through (110)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Looking forward to
our discussions!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Cheers, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Colin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p><p>
<br /></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-77534806663005393562023-11-09T22:25:00.000-05:002023-11-09T22:25:40.830-05:00Cognitive Dissonance<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVvMZR2DxCyIY-jcqW6VVfrNzIYdpKcqhkc1sVXid858ZTwC8uvQ7GXtrsp-iOs-wHQJ2JoYQq9smkmiXa9AS-8mrOqQtwtC2gIuf5OnFSDLsBZEysoKBbki8r6hzaRrY7w3605t1qiUVh1jEp28qRt7I8x2uLUYMesj8ZmNhYg8Np2KNk541/s590/free%20will.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="590" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLVvMZR2DxCyIY-jcqW6VVfrNzIYdpKcqhkc1sVXid858ZTwC8uvQ7GXtrsp-iOs-wHQJ2JoYQq9smkmiXa9AS-8mrOqQtwtC2gIuf5OnFSDLsBZEysoKBbki8r6hzaRrY7w3605t1qiUVh1jEp28qRt7I8x2uLUYMesj8ZmNhYg8Np2KNk541/s320/free%20will.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br />The next two books for the reading group in my Philosophy Meetup are causing my some cognitive dissonance. The first book is Viktor Frankl's <a href="https://ia601809.us.archive.org/19/items/mans-search-for-meaning_202104/Man%27s%20Search%20For%20Meaning.pdf" target="_blank"><i>Man's Search for Meaning</i>,</a> published in 1946. I just finished reading the first part of his book (expect some review notes to be posted soon). And the next book for January is <i><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/592344/determined-by-robert-m-sapolsky/" target="_blank">Determined</a></i> by Robert Sapolsky. <p></p><p>Consider, for example, the contrasting theses in these two passages:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4eSH4n0cNSNtijUiDPmyxlxTDlGLTVcZP6A6vbVPkhkSHg6A2UcqYWvRD12f6WxaUWYssFJS8KZwqfeT2NjqND0NCejE4ecBiNnhthGQTRwkVcXx6XS2-zrZFU0f2g2CNxjYhurKJnoGdRWd_umL5GU20yE0Mfwh16XoCpLo3J7koX8STsfld" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="450" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4eSH4n0cNSNtijUiDPmyxlxTDlGLTVcZP6A6vbVPkhkSHg6A2UcqYWvRD12f6WxaUWYssFJS8KZwqfeT2NjqND0NCejE4ecBiNnhthGQTRwkVcXx6XS2-zrZFU0f2g2CNxjYhurKJnoGdRWd_umL5GU20yE0Mfwh16XoCpLo3J7koX8STsfld" width="200" /></a></b></div><p></p></blockquote><p><b></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><br />“… everything can
be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's
attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. And there were always choices to make. Every
day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which
determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which
threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined
whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing
freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate”. Victor Frankl <i>Man’s Search for Meaning</i>
(1946)</span></b> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1dAs9nglb62gGLCJiGI50BswfdOMl8hKc0XIOX-czp_YjzuKA4AC1gMgtC6AiHjQL-An9CRiZhNr05rd36tO9hJVm0cVY42FHdDG3Nbg0iqRUBJRVO1NS0zCa8VDthH6kNXRXu8o_S1TUqRjk9LZEXbwT7UpmWCBRn6BncFvw8DBxrwEbaoHL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1dAs9nglb62gGLCJiGI50BswfdOMl8hKc0XIOX-czp_YjzuKA4AC1gMgtC6AiHjQL-An9CRiZhNr05rd36tO9hJVm0cVY42FHdDG3Nbg0iqRUBJRVO1NS0zCa8VDthH6kNXRXu8o_S1TUqRjk9LZEXbwT7UpmWCBRn6BncFvw8DBxrwEbaoHL" width="211" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">“…when you behave
in a particular way, which is to say when your brain has generated a particular
behavior, it is because of the determinism that came just before, which was
caused by the determinism just before that, all the way down.” Robert
Sapolsky <i>Determined</i> (2023) </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">While these 2 claims may initially appear to be conflictual, I actually do not believe that is necessarily the case. I haven't yet read Sapolsky's book, but I will post my tentative resolution thesis now, before doing so to see if it turns out to be compatible with this argument. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">My tentative resolution: Our search for meaning (which we experience as the exercise of what we call "free will") is actually <i>an evolutionary adaptation</i>. That is, humans that could see hope and purpose in the horrific tragic circumstances of life, by altering their attitude about living in such adverse conditions, enjoyed greater survival and reproductive success than those humans who wallowed in the despair. <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.75.3.617" target="_blank">Gilbert et al. </a>refer to this ability to adapt to adversity as the "psychological immune system". </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Now of course one might retort that such a concession means that free will is not real. My response to that is it is as real for us as any other belief or emotion (e.g. anger, lust, love, etc.) we have. So I do not need to categorize the subjective feeling of free will as something that is "real" beyond the confines of evolutionary psychology. Furthermore, the belief that we have responsibility over our attitudes of how to respond to life's circumstances has a real impact in the casual chain of actions (even if, in some sense, it is determined or primed). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">I look forward to reading Sapolsky's book to see if his account permits this type of response.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Cheers, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Colin</span></p><p><br /></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-77782796204066834372023-11-07T07:19:00.001-05:002023-11-07T07:21:38.807-05:00Play and Democracy (10 years on)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8uHn1zxWSPMj4DgBldVSBMHvvPulQ5bk-5p1XZSNXImlyWJh2klDJTsP9MGJamuZxK_sizHE0XIHL9fg1BeHDbSyttmp5t9Hg4u_0TTsic_rPduMQZodI-3eTvE4R8ZM8INPZZx61r3NJk0SAOyX5h7Nua-61dNIzz_FAOi4u_Kw7pfH3K0C_/s885/play%20and%20politics.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="885" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8uHn1zxWSPMj4DgBldVSBMHvvPulQ5bk-5p1XZSNXImlyWJh2klDJTsP9MGJamuZxK_sizHE0XIHL9fg1BeHDbSyttmp5t9Hg4u_0TTsic_rPduMQZodI-3eTvE4R8ZM8INPZZx61r3NJk0SAOyX5h7Nua-61dNIzz_FAOi4u_Kw7pfH3K0C_/s320/play%20and%20politics.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15512169.2013.835578" target="_blank">paper</a> from a decade ago now. Many might object to my analogy between democratic politics and play by contesting that the latter is serious business. To which I would respond that I agree, but play is also serious business! Sadly, in the decade since I published this piece I believe we have become, in many respects, even more play-impaired than we were a decade ago. And the health of our democracies have suffered as a consequence of this. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cheers, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Colin</div><br /><p></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-74524340955731367722023-10-29T20:46:00.001-04:002023-10-29T20:46:27.688-04:00Canada's First Geroscience Summit<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMsb80IOKBQUnBAwZett6Pp7jtxuZJTQOl9xRtMypWtWZ5VFcQv-y-GcEmym3hf62R_BkQTBEVf7euk4cGS3CuvBCl-nvCeyQUVQPvVlr_1h9e1j3d5VfIDfINNUvxQDQO_tZE9Y4lELCPkkXI_fUssRMVhpI7CZy27_-6-MD_snNBITuuv7M/s1920/aging%20cell%20screen%20shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="1920" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMsb80IOKBQUnBAwZett6Pp7jtxuZJTQOl9xRtMypWtWZ5VFcQv-y-GcEmym3hf62R_BkQTBEVf7euk4cGS3CuvBCl-nvCeyQUVQPvVlr_1h9e1j3d5VfIDfINNUvxQDQO_tZE9Y4lELCPkkXI_fUssRMVhpI7CZy27_-6-MD_snNBITuuv7M/s320/aging%20cell%20screen%20shot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />A few days ago I attended, and presented at, Canada’s first <a href="https://www.cfn-nce.ca/events/canadian-summit-on-geroscience/" target="_blank">Geroscience summit i</a>n Toronto. It was a great event, with participants from many different areas of research.</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">My 20 minute presentation addressed the ethical and social implications of the science of healthy aging, and I focused on some insights from two of my most recent papers- one on <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36741335/" target="_blank">women’s health </a>and the other on <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37264538/" target="_blank">climate change.</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">During the first few minutes of my talk I stated that, if I had to grade bioethical/philosophical discussions of aging and geroscience, I would only give the field a “D+” grade. I expanded with a few examples, including Callaghan’s argument for imposing age limits on healthcare to arguments dealing with immortality. To experts in the fields of gerontology and geroscience hearing that established scholars seriously posit such arguments no doubt reinforces the reputation of philosophers as aloof or somewhat sophomoric, and this only further entrenches the divide between “<a href="https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/snow_1959.pdf" target="_blank">two cultures</a>” that CP Snow identified over half a century ago.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">My background academic training is also in philosophy. And philosophers are often characterized as functioning at a somewhat abstract level of analysis when addressing the social predicaments they concern themselves with. Sometimes this abstraction can be a strength—helping to provide a “bird’s-eye view” of the moral landscape and/or epistemic challenges that lay ahead, etc. — but this same perspective can also be a liability. For example, when it is so abstract it muddles, rather than enhances, the quality of our discussions and debates concerning a societal predicament that actually requires some nuanced understanding of relevant context (e.g. detailed empirical knowledge, etc.). So I spent the bulk of my time in the presentation making the case that the philosopher's skillset can be an asset for geroscience communication/advocacy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps my largest complaint about philosophy/bioethics is that, for the most part, it has simply ignored population aging and geroscience. If I had to speculate as to why these issues have been neglected I would think that factors like the following have contributed to this predicament:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">(1) the insularity of the discipline (e.g. few philosophers would consider the world’s changing demographics to be something relevant to what they theorize about, indeed they might not even be aware of this empirical fact!);<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">(2) a tendency to focus on what is currently considered a “hot top” at this particular moment in time within their own discipline (a symptom of (1));<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">(3) a heavy reliance on one’s “moral intuitions”, not only as a guide to the conclusions one argues for on contentious ethical issues (admittedly the moral imperative to slow human aging is not intuitive) but also as a guide for the issues they take to be morally significant and worthy of pondering in detail in the first place. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The thrust of the thesis in my presentation was that geroscience advocacy and communication must find effective ways to frame the science within the existing ecology of ideas and advocacy for equality and social justice. I have tried to do this in a variety of different ways already in my published work. But the geroscience summit also sparked new ideas which I intend to write up in a serious of new papers over the coming year or two.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I finished my talk by playing the following video abstract from my recent <i>Aging Cell </i>paper on climate science and geroscience.</p></div><div><br /></div><div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ahwPIb80UL0?si=5veTDPVlJj3Hkpn2" width="480"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Cheers,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Colin</p></div>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-35620146897599389982023-10-24T21:27:00.002-04:002023-10-24T21:27:58.244-04:00Good Arguments (Autumn Reading Group, session #3)<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijO3KaN_6pK7-vJZoqjPDI6UMAFkUEDa7OEZgQj7DalotM0ZQExLCJeeDyzOh_u7879G1XZY2xEAzyvO_wN_tv25djePkocrvniTGPfD83OxXgvcxijWnJCnMDcRlnOfmFeN6kIncFlDuAxsJ3u6upl2LriaA9KRorzNVCJPapWG0b4ymykdAP/s300/education%20image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijO3KaN_6pK7-vJZoqjPDI6UMAFkUEDa7OEZgQj7DalotM0ZQExLCJeeDyzOh_u7879G1XZY2xEAzyvO_wN_tv25djePkocrvniTGPfD83OxXgvcxijWnJCnMDcRlnOfmFeN6kIncFlDuAxsJ3u6upl2LriaA9KRorzNVCJPapWG0b4ymykdAP/s1600/education%20image.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />This
is the final book summary of Seo’s <i style="color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Good Arguments</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (<a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2023/09/good-arguments-autumn-reading-group.html" target="_blank">post #1</a> and <a href="https://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2023/09/good-arguments-autumn-reading-group_28.html" target="_blank">post #2)</a>,
covering chapters 7, 8, 9 and the conclusion, for the Philosophy Meetup book
discussion this weekend.</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chapter 7 Education<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
offers the following debating formula:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Information
< skills, skills < motivation</b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Skills
include research, teamwork, logical thinking, etc. Debate activity gives
students a reason to care about learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To be heard, and hold one’s own in an argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an equalizing activity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
discusses James Farmer’s involvement in debating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This <a href=" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA3Od74Wbjs&t=82s" target="_blank">short video </a>describes Farmer’s
involvement in the civil rights movement:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
notes that those who engage in repeated debates will experience more losses
than wins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus it is an activity that
teaches us <i>humility</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Debate can
make us realize that while our adversaries might be defeated, they will never
be vanquished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They return with better
arguments and new information. Debate teaches us these truths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Struggle and conflict are not only part of debate,
they are life. Seo contends that wisdom involves responding to this reality with
grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Reflect
on your experience in school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you
have good role models for debate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teachers
that exemplified intellectual humility and “perspective taking” when
considering contentious subjects?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversely,
did you have teachers that exemplified the <i>epistemic vices</i> of being
close minded, arrogant and blindly ideological in their outlook?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you have the opportunity to observe and
participate in debate at school?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chapter 8 Relationships<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
starts this chapter by noting the frequency in which arguments amongst
intimates occur (e.g. 18 arguments/month about dishwashing).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most persistent disputes are often with our
closest inmates and over trivial matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He notes the the typical advice to resolve disputes- like finding
commonality or breaking the disagreement down into smaller parts- seems harder
to apply in intimate relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">With
personal disagreements misunderstandings are very common, perhaps arising from the
certainty that comes with greater knowledge of other person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unimportant issues often take on exaggerated
importance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We often expect loved ones
to agree with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we read a lot into
these disputes, about our importance to the other person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as we expand the scope of these disagreements
we risk making it more intractable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes in these disputes a person is testing if the other person still
cares about us (an example of misaligned motivations in disputes).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dirty
dish disputes are Seo’s archetype example of personal disputes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And pride plays a significant role in
disputes with our intimates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The
following “side switch” exercises are addressed, as a way to resolve such
disputes:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stress
test:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>review your arguments from the perspective
of your opponent. Think of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>strongest
objections to your claims.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lost
ballot:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>imagine you have won the debate
from the opposing side, write out the reasons why you won and the mistakes of the
opposition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When
we try to see things from another point of view, we see the “subjective
reasonableness” of other beliefs, and this may help us realize that some of our
beliefs are erroneous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
quotes A. Craig Baird (1955) “Sound conviction arose from mature reflection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it was the role of debate to facilitate
the maturing of such reflection and conviction”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Think
of the debates and disputes you have in your own intimate relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you have any advice on what to do, or what
not to do, in such circumstances?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has
pride taken a toll on your personal life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chapter 9 Technology:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How to Debate in the Future<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This
chapter has an interesting discussion of </span><span style="background: white; color: #2e3e48; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">IBM’s Project Debater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://youtu.be/nJXcFtY9cWY?si=JMnn3DaFzP8MvNAa" target="_blank">This video</a>
shows the debate in question.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We
can discuss how we think AI might impact the future of debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even with technological advances like
social media (Twitter, FB, etc.) we can reflect on how information and debate
has been shaped by these technological advances. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, fuelling group polarization and
echo chambers, sound bites, misinformation, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
notes a friend’s suggestion as was finishing a draft of the book: to consider
the question “How does debate scale?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Seo
contends that public institutions should make more space for debate- such as
the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rules for Parliamentary procedures,
or create new institutions (e.g. Citizen’s Assemblies).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state should provide education to enable
citizens to participate in such forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Debate
requires a level playing field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in
the real world this is not the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we
need to work on creating more equitable institutions and ensure they have
integrity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How
does debate scale?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seo’s eventual answer
to this question is “It doesn’t”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
argues that what power debate has resides in the magic of an encounter, one-on-one,
on its own terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One good conversation
at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good arguments create new
ideas and strengthen relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is a basic commitment is to dialogue not monologue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He
concludes by noting the lessons debate taught him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gave him a voice when he had none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Debate taught him to argue for his interests,
respond to opponents, use words, lose with grace and pick his battles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I
really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to our final discussion of it
on Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Cheers,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Book Antiqua",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Colin<o:p></o:p></span></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348492.post-8397305930802877092023-10-23T07:40:00.003-04:002023-10-23T07:40:35.826-04:00Human Challenge Trail for Zika<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqt8f5kA7LVRScWosB4p9QY9-R_8xwfD9byVJzmrvYQKi33vAEcOaS7jPj4ZdS6X-g7RCmNMK0D4P-dRbu2vpPfl5jU61g6Ulny0kulxlhM3RLeMfHcxwbF4iz5XlK9dvE-_YU5DNIWGohsSWRfr2bbvCVSzUn0sEoBBWYWRGog-7mzdLYRBBq/s276/zika.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqt8f5kA7LVRScWosB4p9QY9-R_8xwfD9byVJzmrvYQKi33vAEcOaS7jPj4ZdS6X-g7RCmNMK0D4P-dRbu2vpPfl5jU61g6Ulny0kulxlhM3RLeMfHcxwbF4iz5XlK9dvE-_YU5DNIWGohsSWRfr2bbvCVSzUn0sEoBBWYWRGog-7mzdLYRBBq/s1600/zika.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br />Nature news has this i<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03289-8" target="_blank">nteresting story</a> on the human challenge trail for Zika, illustrating the challenges science face in testing vaccines when the the prevalence of disease is low in the population. A sample:<p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"></p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><b>For the first time, scientists have <a data-label="https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05123222" data-track-category="body text link" data-track="click" href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05123222" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; text-decoration-thickness: 0.0625rem; text-underline-offset: 0.08em; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">deliberately infected people</a> with <a data-label="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19655" data-track-category="body text link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19655" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; text-decoration-thickness: 0.0625rem; text-underline-offset: 0.08em; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Zika virus</a> to learn whether such a strategy could help to test vaccines against the pathogen.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><b>The virus can cause <a data-label="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19634" data-track-category="body text link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19634" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; text-decoration-thickness: 0.0625rem; text-underline-offset: 0.08em; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">severe birth abnormalities</a> in babies born to parents infected during pregnancy. It also has been associated with neurological problems in adults, although those cases are rare. But infected study participants had only mild symptoms, and none became pregnant during or immediately after the trial. The results raise hopes that <a data-label="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00927-3" data-track-category="body text link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00927-3" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; text-decoration-thickness: 0.0625rem; text-underline-offset: 0.08em; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">‘human challenge’ programmes</a> — in which volunteers are exposed to a pathogen in a controlled setting — could make it feasible to test vaccines at a time when Zika incidence is low.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><b>“This is a great scientific gain in terms of the development of a vaccine,” said Rafael Franca, an immunologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. The results are scheduled to be presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Chicago, Illinois.</b></p></blockquote><p>Cheers, </p><p>Colin </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Harding, Palatino, serif; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"></p>Colin Farrellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14461353226748776484noreply@blogger.com