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philosophy Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

helpful notation for the love of wisdom.

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

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main tenets of hermet­icism

1. mentalism
2. corres­pon­dence
3. vibration
4. polarity
5. rhythm
6. cause and effect
7. gender

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The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” - Aristotle (The phrase is also used to explain the importance of Synergy and the founda­tions of Gestalt theory.)

stoic extens­ion­alism

1.) transform everyone into a teacher.
2.) say no to the easy way, seek out challe­nges.
3.) be strict with yourself but tolerant of others.
4.) allow the journey to be the thing.
5.) transform envy into emulation.
6.) stand on the shoulders of giants.
7.) forgive yourself and forgive others.
8.) fall in love with Fate.
9.) always practice courage, temper­ance, and humor.
10.) remember, the obstacle is the path.
the idea is that only people who have cultivated virtue and self control in themselves can bring positive change in other. A true stoic does not view their success based on the financial gain of their ventures, but instead its comforted by the fact that they can live a comfor­table life without all the things money can buy.*

four main tenets of stoicism

wisdom
courage
temperance
justice

self fulfilling prophecy

societal phases

systems theory

the study of complex systems in nature, society, and science, emphas­ising interc­onn­ections and intera­ctions within these systems.

normative v positive statements

normative statements are subjective beliefs about what is desirable or undesi­rable, right or wrong, but they cannot be empiri­cally proven or disproven.

critical v logic

critical thinking is the process of actively and skillfully concep­tua­lizing, applying, analyzing, synthe­sizing, and evaluating inform­ation to guide beliefs and actions.
logical thinking is the process of reasoning based on the principles of logic. It involves the use of formal systems and rules to derive valid conclu­sions from premises.
 
relati­onship
overlap: There is signif­icant overlap between critical and logical thinking. Critical thinking often incorp­orates logical reasoning as one of its compon­ents. Logical thinking, on the other hand, is a subset of critical thinking that specif­ically focuses on the systematic applic­ation of formal logic.
integr­ation: Successful critical thinking may involve integr­ating logical reasoning with other cognitive processes, such as analysis, evalua­tion, and synthesis, to arrive at well-r­ounded and informed decisions.
in summary, critical thinking is a broader, more compre­hensive approach to thinking that encomp­asses various cognitive skills, while logical thinking specif­ically refers to the systematic applic­ation of formal logic to derive valid conclu­sions. Both are valuable in different contexts and are often used in conjun­ction to enhance the quality of decisi­on-­making and proble­m-s­olving.*

introm­ission theory of sight (to send within)

light enters the pupil and through the cornea and lens an image is refracted onto the retina which is then converted into electrical pulses that the optic nerve transmits to the brain.

extram­ission

(form of physical touch that beams out of the eye) gentle fire or light flows through the eye. It emanates from the eye as a stream of vision that connects with others streams of light coming forth the object you are looking at.

pneuma (haptic sight)

eye emits an airy substance that activates the air between the viewer and the object being viewed. This optical pneuma causes ripples or pressures which is sent back to the eye which causes vision.

carl jung

“hegel put me off by his language, as arrogant as it was laborious; I regarded him with downright mistrust. He seemed to me like a man who was caged in the edifice of his own words and was pompously gestic­ulating in prison."
my thesis is that Hegel was full of shit and employed that tactic of not being clear to make of himself great, by pretending and creating a language that if nobody could understood it was because they weren't smart enough to understand and made himself into a riddle on purpose. perhaps, that is the main influence some nasty intell­ectuals got from him, elements of deception. with the exception of a few useful concepts.

road to serfdom

hayek makes a moral argument that government attempts to control the economy ultimately enslave its people when we give more and more power to the state gradually there is an erosion of first economic freedom and then ultimately political freedom that erosion of political freedom then leads people to demand a strong manner dictator to sort everything out make the trains run on time and and everything else and that this leads inexorably down the road to totali­tar­ianism.
 
"A socialist is someone who has never read Marx. An anarchist is someone who has read Marx and understood it."
totali­tar­ianism -> socialism -> marxism -> fascism -> nazism -> communism*

benacerraf

benace­rraf's problem, named after the philos­opher paul benace­rraf, raises concerns about the nature of mathem­atical knowledge and its relation to the physical world. In simple terms, the problem is this: if mathem­atical objects like numbers and geometric shapes are abstract and exist outside of space and time, how do we come to know about them, and how do they relate to the concrete world around us? It prompts questions about the ontolo­gical status of mathem­atical entities and the episte­mol­ogical basis of mathem­atical truth.
 
benace­rraf's problem can be summarised in a propos­ition:
1) mathem­atics appears to provide us with objective truths about abstract entities like numbers and geometric shapes.
2) however, if these mathem­atical entities exist indepe­ndently of the physical world, it's unclear how we come to know about them and how they relate to the concrete world.
3) therefore, there's a tension between the objective truths of mathem­atics and their seemingly discon­nected nature from the physical world, raising questions about the nature of mathem­atical knowledge and its founda­tion.

turtle won the race

turtle won the race, but not out of better strategy but luck, a bit of determ­ination and well because he plain just didn't quit.
don't let overco­nfi­dence take hold when you feel ahead of others. Those who may seem behind can catch up, work harder, and surpass you unexpe­ctedly. Life is about continuous improv­ement, not just mainta­ining your lead. If you don’t keep improving, even those who start slower will eventually overtake you. The more you improve with each step, the quicker you'll catch up to those who remain stagnant.*

high and low magic

high magic:
complex, involving lengthy and detailed rituals as well as sophis­tic­ated, sometimes expensive, paraph­ern­alia. (also known as the­urg­y a­nd ­cer­emo­nial or ritual magic)
low magic:
associated with peasants and folklore, with simpler rituals such as brief, spoken spells and is also closely associated with s­orc­ery­ an­d w­itc­hcraft. (also known as natural magic)
anthro­pol­ogist Susan Greenwood states that "­since the renais­sance, high magic has been concerned with drawing down forces and energies from heaven­" and achieving unity with divinity.

emo. magic

the term magic was used liberally by Freud.He also saw magic as emerging from human emotion but interp­reted it very differ­ently to Marett. Freud explains that "the associated theory of magic merely explains the paths along which magic proceeds; it does not explain its true essence, namely the misund­ers­tanding which leads it to replace the laws of nature by psycho­logical ones ”.
Freud emphasises that what led primitive men to come up with magic is the power of wishes: "His wishes are accomp­anied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later destined to alter the whole face of the earth to satisfy his wishes. This motor impulse is at first employed to give a repres­ent­ation of the satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the satisf­action by means of what might be described as motor ­hal­luc­ina­tions.
This kind of repres­ent­ation of a satisfied wish is quite comparable to children's play, which succeeds their earlier purely sensory technique of satisf­action. As time goes on, the psycho­logical accent shifts from the mo­tiv­es for the magical act on to the me­asu­res by which it is carried out—that is, on to the act itself. It thus comes to appear as though it is the magical act itself which, owing to its similarity with the desired result, alone determines the occurrence of that result."
the term magic was used liberally by freud.*

chaos magic

chaos magic teaches that the essence of magic is that percep­tions are condit­ioned by beliefs, and that the world as we perceive it can be changed by delibe­rately changing those beliefs.
chaos magicians subseq­uently treat belief as a tool, often creating their own idiosy­ncratic magical systems and blending such different things as ”practical magic, quantum physics, chaos theory, and anarch­ism.”

magic

the word m­agi­c, ­mag­e a­nd ­mag­ici­an come from the Latin term m­agus, through the Gr­eek­ μάγος, which is from the Old Persia­n m­aguš. (magic­ian). The Old Persia­n m­agu- is derived from the Pr­oto­-In­do-­Eur­ope­an ­meg­ʰ-*­mag­h (be able).
late 14c., ­magike, "art of influe­ncing or predicting events and producing marvels using hidden natural forces­," also "­sup­ern­atural art," especially the art of contro­lling the actions of spiritual or superhuman beings;
"­mag­ica­l," from m­ago­s "one of the members of the learned and priestly class,­" from Old Persia­n m­agush, which is possibly from PIE root *­mag­h- ­"to be able, have power."­
 
magic defined
magic is an ancient practice rooted in rituals, spirit­ual­ di­vin­ations, and/or cultur­al ­lin­eag­e—with an intention to invoke, manipu­late, or otherwise manife­st ­sup­ern­atu­ral­ fo­rces, beings, or entities in the na­tural world.
 
aleister rowley defined "­mag­ick­" as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", ­adding a 'k' to distin­guish ceremonial or ritual magic from stage magic. In modern occultism and ne­opa­gan­ re­lig­ions, many self-d­esc­ribed magicians and wi­tch­es ­reg­ularly practice ritual magic.This view has been incorp­orated into chaos magic and the new religious moveme­nts­ of­ Th­ele­ma ­and­ Wicca.
essent­ially, crowley believed that that the 'divine' resides within humankind. He wanted to establish magick as a genuine science, thus he spelled it with the final 'k' to distin­guish the word from the 'sleig­ht-­of-­hand' practised by stage entert­ainers. He called his system of magico­-ph­ilo­sop­hical belief 'Thelema' (this is the Greek word for 'Will'). His fundam­ental creed (which can be found in his Liber AL: The Book of the Law) is 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will'. This was not an injunction to 'do whatever you want', but for the individual to devote themselves to finding out their true purpose in life, i.e. their True Will, and therea­fter, to carrying it out. In his public­ation 'The Equinox', the motto was 'The Method of Science - The Aim of Religion'. Crowley believed (as do the Hindu yogis) that if certain practices are followed, certain results including control of the mind will result. Most of his writings stress this approach
one of crowley’s defini­tions was that magick was the art a science of bringing about a change in accordance with will.
in his writings Crowley explains how the writing and creation of a book is an act of magick. Beginning as a set of thoughts; turned into words; brought into being via the use of a magick wand (a pen) then edited and turned into a collated book which can then be shared (manif­est­ation).
so the rather simplistic view of an act of magic simply being the waving of a wand with the approp­riate rhymes and chants is NOT what Crowley and other Magickians are involved in.
on a fundam­ental level, magick is about trasfo­rma­tion; transf­orm­ation on many levels.
last words
reports of his last moments vary consid­erably; his parting words may have been “I’m perplexed”, or he may have uttered “Sometimes I hate myself”. 

the law of reversed effect

often associated with hypnosis, suggests that the harder you consci­ously try to achieve something, the more difficult it becomes to actually attain it.
 

irrelevant conclusion (ignoratio elenchi)

“Polar bears can’t be dangerous because they are cute.”
The fallacy: An irrelevant conclusion happens when the conclusion proved by the author is not the one the author initially tried to prove.
{X} therefore {Y} Where {X is irrelevant in concluding that Y.

irrelevant conclusion (Ignoratio elenchi)

“Polar bears can’t be dangerous because they are cute.”
The fallacy: An irrelevant conclusion happens when the conclusion proved by the author is not the one the author initially tried to prove.
{X} therefore {Y} Where {X} is irrelevant in concluding that {Y}.

appeal to force (argum­entum ad baculum)

“I am right. Agree with me or I will break your legs!”
the fallacy (might is right) is committed when either force or threat of force is used in an attempt to justify a conclu­sion.
{X} is true. Either you accept it or you will get hurt.
“I know it is not part of your duties, but form now on you also need to start cleaning toilets. If you don’t, I will have to start looking for someone to take your place.”

appeal to pity (ad miseri­cor­diam)

“The woman should not be found guilty, since it would break her poor children’s hearts to see their mother taken to prison,” (The sob story or the Galileo argument)
The fallacy is committed when someone tries to win an argument by exploiting the other persons feelings of pity or guilt.
{X} is true because not {X} would be too sad a state of affairs

appeal to majority (ad populum)

An example of this in advert­ising is: “50,00­0,000 Elvis fans can’t be wrong”
The fallacy concludes that a propos­ition must be true because many or most people believe it.
Most people believe that X is true. Therefore, X must be true.
“The majority chose this govern­ment. The majority is always right, therefore everything this government does is right.”

appeal to emotion (ad passiones)

“father Christmas must be a real person. It would be so sad if he wasn’t.”
the fallacy of appeal to emotion is committed when someone tries to manipulate emotions to make their case rather than building a valid rational argument. Such appeal to emotion may invoke: fear, hatred, happiness, pity, sadness and pride.

Begging the question (Circulus in demons­trando)

“God exists because the Bible says so. The Bible is true because God wrote it”
The fallacy, also known as arguing in a circle. The fallacy of begging the question occurs when an argument assume the position that is in the question without proof.
X because Y, Y because X = (circular reasoning)

Against the person (Ad hominem)

It is a type or irrelevant conclu­sion. Ad hominem seeks to attack someones positon by attacking the character or personal traits of the opponent rather than the argument. Such an attack is based on prejudice or feelings that are irrelevant to the argument.
X claims Y
The circum­stances or character of person {X} are unsati­sfa­ctory, or does not act according to {Y}. Therefore, claim {Y} is implau­sible or unlikely.
Abusive ad hominem fallacy - “The minister for transport is an arrogant, detestable person, so his solutions to solving traffic are deluded’. (There is no correl­ation between the two, one is basing the conclusion based on the dislike of the person.)
Ad hominem: the circum­sta­ntial form - “The mayor just bought a bicycle and wants to use it. Of course, that is his motivation to turn the town centre into a no-traffic area!”
this attacks the motivation of an opponent claiming it’s a result of personal circum­stances leading to a bias in that persons judgement*

Appeal to authority (Ad verecu­ndiam)

x: an expert in field y
z: x’s position on some issue that does not fall under field y
form of the fallacy: According to x, who’s an authority on y. Therefore, z is true.

Argument from ignorance

{X} is false because you cannot prove that {X} is true.
{X} is true because you cannot prove that {X} is false.
 

why?

Aside from it being an obviously good foundation to pursue the practice of law, the study of philosophy is almost like an agility training exercise for the brain.


Founda­tions of reasoning and logic train the brain to bend, twist, and think in directions that it is not used to thinking. It almost seems like these guys can intuit­ively see and predict things that others cannot. It's like extrap­olating numerical data based on a set of known values, however it isn't numerical but empirical.


Assimilate it to breaking down a large project into smaller manageable pieces. Philosophy trains you to break down a simple thought or idea into smaller manageable pieces and by doing so having a well-r­ounded unders­tanding of what that really is on a multi-­faceted level. If you're a philos­opher at your core this is the way you view the world without even having to think about it, it's second nature to you to break everything down in this way.

elenchus (socratic method)

the socratic method of eli­cit­ing­ truth by question and answer, especially as used to ref­ute an argument.

socratic method for debate (diale­ctic)

1) Interl­ocutor (parti­cipants of the dialogiue) gives initial definition of something
2) Evaluate the interl­ocutors claim, pointing out any incong­ruities
3) Attempt to fix the incong­ruity or give a better definition
4) Utilise the apophatic process
5) Don’t give students a direct answer, offer questions in place of answers
6) Help students see that there is never one “correct” answer unless all other solutions have been ruled out.

mathem­atical truths

statements that are object­ively and consis­tently provable within the framework of mathem­atical logic and axioms.

networks

the elite school and university education system where the majority of the talent that will run the networks are groomed, nurtured, developed and carefully placed.

networks

the elite school and university education system where the majority of the talent that will run the networks are groomed, nurtured, developed and carefully placed.

overton window

is like a frame that shows the range of ideas that are considered acceptable or mainstream in public discourse at a given time. Ideas or policies that fall within this window are seen as feasible or accept­able, while those outside of it may be viewed as extreme or unreal­istic.

biocen­trism

according to Robert Lanza's theory of biocen­tri­sm,­ it's our consci­ousness that creates the universe, rather than the universe creating our consci­ous­ness. this would mean that concepts like time and space only exist in our minds.

communal societies

“to attach one’s name to an object or an idea is to assert exclusive claim and propri­eto­rship to it, whereas tradit­ional society frowns on the implied posses­siv­eness and ostent­atious self-i­mpo­rta­nce.”
oyekan owomoyela (“africa and the imperative of philos­ophy: a skeptical consid­era­tion.” african studies review 30, no. 1 [1987]: 1-19.)*

sustai­nable systems

unfort­una­tely, no progress has been made on how to convert politi­cised people at a large scale. this is a great summary of the world today. we have lots of people making models and lots of people not giving a shit about what models say because it isn't aligned with their ideology. you can change indivi­duals with 1 to 1 work, nobody found a way to scale that kind of knowledge transfer that goes against the ideology.
 
things to meditate about it:
- when you remove the problem from somewhere you create it somewhere else until the situation is as bad as in the beginning.
- help someone to do something and he will stop doing the thing for himself. That's pretty much why social security doesn't free people from the pressure of capitalism but just creates welfare depend­ancy.

- we spend a lot of time debating policies that have very little influence anyway
 
dutch economist, paul schend­erling, wrote to this. to it he states that the most important thing that needs to change, is the definition of success. Right now, success is synonymous with profit. Selling a lot of products that self-d­estruct is good for profit, but not for anything else. I'd rather have my washing machine last 25 years than need to replace it every 5 years or so. If the success of a company is defined by the durability of its products, its enviro­nmental impact, and the way they treat its personnel, the rules of the game will change and companies need to change along with it.
 
unfort­una­tely, techno­cracy will never govern the world. In a democracy, you want to please a group of voters and don't really care if your policies are good as long as you get re-ele­cted.*

the issue is always the same, ideology pushes people to manipulate the models of the world. To remove their own caste from the parameters that the techno­cracy could influe­nce.*

conseq­uen­tialism

the rightn­ess­/wr­ongness of an act is determined by its conseq­uences.

utilit­ari­anism

conseq­uen­tialist moral theory (it is a sub-ca­tegory of conseq­uen­tia­lsim), the desired outcome is the greatest amount of good possible.

invention

the creation of something new that has never existed before, typically through human ingenuity and creati­vity.

discovery

the identi­fic­ation or uncovering of something that already exists but was previously unknown, hidden, or not fully unders­tood.

network sciences within systems

the study of connec­tivity and networks in all forms.

homophily v hetero­phily

homophily

the tendency for indivi­duals to associate and bond with similar others.
 
homophily (from Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós) 'same, common', and φιλία (philía) 'frien­dship, love') is a concept in sociology describing the tendency of indivi­duals to associate and bond with similar others, as in the proverb "­birds of a feather flock togeth­er". (love of sameness)*

mimetic

our behaviour will be unsust­ained.
almost hard to quit this desire.
cause violence between people (we are too similar).
when people start competing, a loss of true value occurs and the exhibit of the manipu­lative function increases and ultima­tely, exuberant.
the way we can get out of this, is by disint­egr­ating from all the measur­ement matrix (gpa, beauty, money, etc.)*

argument against deism

God doesn’t need to interfere with the everyday activities of man. If God is the impetus causa sui exists outside of what we known as time space, then all that is is already known, adjusted and accounted for to such a God.
to vastly oversi­mplify, Spinoza saw God as what he called “subst­ance”. All material and matter is God, but also all forces that surround matter.

ontology

branch of philosophy that studies the nature of being, existence, and the fundam­ental categories of reality (the essence or being of things).

intell­ige­ntsia

a group of intell­ectuals or highly educated indivi­duals who are regarded as cultural, political, or social leaders.
in russia, the bolsheviks did not consider the status class of the intell­ige­ntsiya to be a true social class, as defined in marxist philos­ophy. In that time, the Bolsheviks used the russian word prosloyka (stratum) to identify and define the intell­ige­ntsia as a separating layer without an inherent class character.*

mandarin caste

mandarin (Chinese: 官; pinyin: guān):
was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea and Vietnam.

brahma and the origins of caste

existe­nti­alism

belief we are each respon­sible for creating purpose or meaning in our own lives. our individual purpose and meaning is not given to us by Gods, govern­ments, teachers or other author­ities.
it is opposed to any doctrine that views human beings as the manife­station of an absolute or of an infinite substance.*

telepathy

telepathic commun­ica­tion:
ability to emit inform­ation from mind to another
telepathic percep­tion:
to receive inform­ation from another mind.

tenet

a principle that is an accepted belief of a particular group (religion or philos­ophy).

framework thinking (3s)

key ideas
key lists
key concepts