Odracirys

Morality Morality is somehow a difficult topic for people.  That's too bad.  It's quite easy for me.  I remember taking a college class on philosophy and thinking that I was way smarter than some of the most respected philosophers.  The study of philosophy and morality seems to be the study of the history of how people got things wrong.  Every subsequent philosopher seemed to disagree with the former one which we'd studied.  However, the correct answer was never revealed.  My reason for writing this post is to reveal it. But first, let me give some more background.  In my college philosophy class years ago, I was struck by how respected Immanuel Kant was in the realm of morality, even though he had very little to show for it.  For example, he thought that "lying" was wrong no matter what.  One of the more interesting applications of this is with the "inquiring murderer".  Kant said that if you are hiding an innocent would-b...

Don't judge a place by its media portrayal. I have always been someone who has had a fascination with the world.  I've studied the world in great detail...its history, cultures, and geography. I have also traveled around...not as much as I'd like, but enough to realize one important thing.  Books, TV shows, and other media lie.  Well, it's dishonesty through omission.  When we see images of the world, it's the vision that other people want to push on us.  Many cities are ugly, and to hide this fact, they will pick the needle out of a haystack and skillfully take a picture of that needle while making sure to hide any trace of the hay. A good many cities have been destroyed through the onslaught of Modernism.  However, others have survived relatively unscathed.  This is a visual tale of two cities. The first is Kyoto.  Hailed as the most beautiful city in Japan, it was a former capital of Japan and a center of Japanese high culture.  It has...