PHILOSOPHY AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (60) ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
William Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Evolution Of The Universe ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

The author sets out to respond to the student complaint that ‘Philosophy did not answer “the big questions”’, in particular the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ The response first outlines and evaluates the most common religious answer, that human life is given a meaning by God who created us and informs us that this life is just the pilgrim way to the next eternal life in heaven. He then discusses the response that, from the point of view of post-Darwinian science and the evolution of the universe and all that is in it, human life on Earth must be afforded no more meaning than the meaning we would give to a microscopic planaria or to some creature on another planet in a distant universe. All things including human creatures on Planet Earth just exist for a time and that is that. There is no plan or purpose. In the last sections the author outlines the view that it is we humans ourselves who give meaning to our lives by our choices of values or things that are worth pursuing and through our resulting sense of achievement or the opposite. Nevertheless the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ can mean quite different things in different contexts, and so merit different if related answers. From one point of view one answer may lie in terms of the love of one human for another.

INTERPRETATION OF SPACE AND TIME IN ONTOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY NAVOI

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Toji Omonovich Norov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Holy Book

The universe, the space that make up their basis planets in it, their creation, the main essence of their creation, form, composition, meaning, movements, interactions, their influence on human life and activities, the role of man in the universe and in life on Earth, life, the criteria of activity and processes occurring in time and space have long been of interest to humanity. One of the main problems in the history of philosophy is the question of space and time. This problem was defined in different ways in the great schools of thought by thinkers of different periods. One of these great thinkers is Alisher Navoi. Navoi's works, along with other socio-philosophical themes, uniquely express and analyze the problems of the firmament and time. Its main feature is that it is based on the divine (pantheistic) religion, Islam, its holy book, the Koran and other theological sources, as well as on the secrets of nature and the Universe, the main miracle of Allah - human intelligence, the power of enlightenment, they are the key revealing all these secrets.

The Observer Effect: The Artistic Image as a Metaphor for Scientific Interpretations of the Natural World

Leonardo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Elena Gubanova
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Observer Effect ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Artistic Images ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Artistic Image ◽  
The Universe

In this article, the author presents some of her artworks in which she created artistic images and interpretations of time, space and light that define human life on Earth. In her multimedia installations of the last 10 years, her interest in the scientific study of the universe has been interwoven with her experience as the daughter of an astronomer. The author and her husband collaborate to express their thoughts on science and philosophy through a combination of art and engineering solutions and technologies.

scholarly journals Christlikeness of Saint Sava's pedagogy

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Tatjana Mihajlović ◽  
Mile Ilić
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Spiritual Discipline ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Sense Of Justice ◽  
Modern Term ◽  
Optimal Implementation

Among the Serb people, Saint Sava was an educator, the teacher of everything in life. The authors believe that one can speak of the pedagogy of Saint Sava on the condition that the term of pedagogy is understood in its broader sense, rather than as a technical and modern term for a scientific discipline. However, any pedagogy, in its broader sense, relies on the understanding of the human essence, human life, world in which a human being lives. Saint Sava can then be justifiably viewed as a pedagogue in the sense of the contemporary rationalist educator. The primary and secondary sources of study explicitly show that Saint Sava was destined to take, through historical eras, upon himself the "deposits" of ideas, thoughts, beliefs revealing underneath, irrespective of the influences, a genuine saint, the educator of his country and his people. Sava's escape to the monastery meant his departure to the spiritual discipline, asceticism, solitary world from the realm of which comes light, brought about by laborious and strenuous exploits thanks to the Christ-like lifestyle. Terminologically, the word Christlikeness implies a human being as a genuine Christ-like being, Christlikeness of the soul, sanctity and inviolability of his personality that Saint Sava pursued. The pedagogy of Saint Sava has the characteristics of Christlikeness, which is reflected in the directly or indirectly formulated objective of the education of a human being-orthodox believer that possesses, and nurtures, Christ-like qualities. The paper includes the main characteristics of the Saint Sava's pedagogy that seeks its own essence in endlessly moving closer to sanctity through efforts, exploits, co-limitations, prayerful moods, and belief in eternal life, or, in a word, through the Christ-like lifestyle, and thereby also education of children, young, and adults in the spirit of deification and orthodox Saint-Sava-like enlightenment. From the futurological point of view, the goal of the Orthodox pedagogy for Saint Sava included an optimal implementation of implicit educational and functional tasks with the desire to nurture, through education, the traits such as philanthropy, sense of justice, truthfulness, patriotism, and the love of Christ that are almost disappearing in our era.

The notion of “progress” from the philosophy of language perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Vostrikova
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Personal Taste ◽  
Predicates Of Personal Taste ◽  
Evolution Of The Universe ◽  
Ideal State ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Ideal

This paper discusses the notion of progress and the idea proposed by Alexander Nikiforov that the term “progress” belongs to the same class of words as predicates of personal taste. This claim is based on the observation that our assessment of progress depends on our subjective point of view. The paper argues that there is a substantive difference between terms of personal taste and the term “progress”. Specifically, it is shown that “progress” does not necessarily make reference to a personal point of view. The subjectivity of our assessment of “progress” in certain areas seems to be rooted in the choice of the scale and our ideas of the ideal state of an object that is the endpoint of that scale. The paper also discusses A. Nikiforov’s idea that the evolution of the Universe can provide us with the objective scale for evaluation of progress in all areas. I argue against this idea by showing that it does not help us overcome the subjectivity of progress assessment in many cases.

HIGH ENERGY ASTROPHYSICAL MISSIONS IN JAPAN

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 34-42
Author(s):  
HIROSHI TSUNEMI
Keyword(s):  
Thin Foil ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Evolution Of The Universe ◽  
Sky Survey ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Universe

There are five X-ray astronomy satellites launched from Japan. The latest satellite, Suzaku, was launched in 2005. MAXI is an all sky survey mission in X-ray that was attached to the ISS in 2009. These two are functioning at present. ASTRO-H is the only approved mission in X-ray that will be launched in 2014. There are four X-ray detectors on board ASTRO-H, SXS, SXI, HXI and SGD as well as X-ray telescopes made of thin foil mirrors. Most of the future missions heavily depend on them both in technology and in science. From this point of view, we have to concentrate on ASTRO-H so that we can expand our activities in future. In Japan, the small scientific satellite project is now on-going. Two missions are already allocated while no X-ray mission is approved. DIOS, PolariS, CAST and FFAST are proposed. Here we explain FFAST in detail that will study the evolution of the universe.

scholarly journals Peran Agama Islam dalam Konservasi Hutan

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Ariyadi Ariyadi ◽  
Siti Maimunah
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The World ◽  
Dioxide Absorber ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
Life On Earth

This research departs from the concerns that occur at this time with the nature that has started not friendly with living things in it, it can be felt like rainfall in the dry season or vice versa, many animals are becoming extinct due to higher earth temperatures, the ozone layer that began thinning which is the heat that feels stinging the skin. Maintaining the preservation of the environment is part of the noble character that must be applied in the midst of human life. This is done by maintaining the sustainability of life in the world and preventing damage, disasters that can occur coupled with the greedy human attitude by destroying nature. These forests are the source of this natural force as water stores, oxygen producers, carbon dioxide absorber, germplasm sources, sources of food and food, wildlife habitats that if not properly managed will become extinct and the survival of life on earth will end. Meanwhile, the religion of Islam as the religion Rahmatan Lil 'Alamin ordered mankind to maintain and preserve the forest as a living environment, the human being made God on this earth as khalifah, interesting Islam Islam has its own point of view about forest conservation.

Review of the Current State and Future Development in Standardizing Natural Lighting in Interiors

2018 ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislav Darula
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Computer Tools ◽  
Natural Lighting ◽  
Current State ◽  
Minimum Requirements ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Window Design

Three elements mainly wind, water and sun seemed to determine in ancient ages the basic phenomena of life on Earth. Architectural history documented the importance of sun influence on urban and building construction already in layouts of Mesopotamian and Greek houses. Not only sun radiation but especially daylight played a significant role in the creation of indoor environment. Later, in the 20th century, a search of interaction between human life in buildings and natural conditions were studied considering well­being and energy conscious design recently using computer tools in complex research and more detail interdisciplinary solutions. At the same time the restricted daytime availability of natural light was supplemented by more efficient and continually cheaper artificial lighting of interiors. There are two main approaches to standardize the design and evaluation of indoor visual environment. The first is based on the determination of the minimum requirements respecting human health and visibility needs in all activities while the second emphasizes the behaviour and comfort of occupants in buildings considering year­around natural changes of physical quantities like light, temperature, noise and energy consumption. The new current standardization basis for daylight evaluation and window design criteria stimulate the study of methodology principles that historically were based on the overcast type of sky luminance pattern avoiding yearly availability of sky illuminance levels. New trends to base the daylight standardization on yearly or long­term availability of daylight are using the averages or median sky illuminance levels to characterise local climatological conditions. This paper offers the review and discussion about the principles of the natural light standardization with a short introduction to the history and current state, with a trial to focus on the possible development of lighting engineering and its standards in future.

Thanato-Laboratorien. Theorien von Tod und Sterben und Elias Canettis Buch gegen den Tod

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Heyne
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Elias Canetti ◽  
History Of ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
First Time ◽  
Textual Form ◽  
Or History

AbstractAlthough visual culture of the 21th century increasingly focuses on representation of death and dying, contemporary discourses still lack a language of death adequate to the event shown by pictures and visual images from an outside point of view. Following this observation, this article suggests a re-reading of 20th century author Elias Canetti. His lifelong notes have been edited and published posthumously for the first time in 2014. Thanks to this edition Canetti's short texts and aphorisms can be focused as a textual laboratory in which he tries to model a language of death on experimental practices of natural sciences. The miniature series of experiments address the problem of death, not representable in discourses of cultural studies, system theory or history of knowledge, and in doing so, Canetti creates liminal texts at the margins of western concepts of (human) life, science and established textual form.

Systematic approaches in water management: Aquatic outlook and decision support systems combining monitoring, research, policy analysis and information technology

1996 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. de Jong ◽  
J. T. van Buuren ◽  
J. P. A. Luiten
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Ecological Aspects ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Water Management Plans ◽  
Life On Earth

Sustained developments is the target of almost every modern water management policy. Sustainability is focused on human life and on the ecological quality of our environment. Both aspects are essential for life on earth. Within a river catchment area this means that well balanced relations have to be laid between human activities and ecological aspects in the involved areas. Policy analysis is especially looking for the most efficient way to analyse and to overcome bottlenecks. In The Netherlands project “The Aquatic Outlook” all these elements are worked out in a nationwide scale, providing the scientific base and policy analysis from which future water management plans can be derived.

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