Albert Einstein: If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.

Questions from moral philosophers

Source: "Are there emotional no-go areas where logic dare not show its face?" by Prof. Richard Dawkins


...Moral philosophers make full use of the technique of thought experiment. In a hospital there are four dying men. Each could be saved by a transplant of a different organ, but no donors are available. In the hospital waiting room is a healthy man who, if we killed him, could provide the requisite organ to each dying patient, thereby saving four lives for the price of one. Is it morally right to kill the healthy man and harvest his organs? ...What if the dying men were Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein and Martin Luther King? Would it be then right to sacrifice a man who is homeless and friendless, dragged in from a ditch? And so on.

Two miners are trapped underground by an explosion. They could be saved, but it would cost a million dollars. That million could be spent on saving the lives of thousands of starving people. Could it ever be morally right to abandon the miners to their fate and spend the money on saving the thousands?

“We all agree it isn’t true that some human races are genetically superior to others in intelligence. But let’s for a moment suspend disbelief and consider the consequences if it were true. Would it ever be right to discriminate in job hiring? Etcetera.”

A clock triggering a gigantic nuclear weapon hidden in a suitcase is ticking. A spy has been captured who knows where it is and how to disable it, but he refuses to speak. Is it morally right to torture him, or even his innocent children, to make him reveal the secret? What if the weapon were a doomsday machine that would blow up the whole world?

“A woman has an absolute right to do what she wants with her own body and that includes any foetus that it might contain. I don’t care if the foetus is fully conscious and writing poetry in the womb, the woman still has the right to abort it because it is her body and her choice.”

“We agree that cannibalism is wrong. But if we don’t need to kill someone in order to eat them, can we discuss why it would be wrong? Why don’t we eat human road-kills? Yes, it would be horrible for the friends and relatives of the dead person, but suppose we hypothetically know that this person has no friends or relatives of any kind, why wouldn’t we eat him?”

...Moving from the hypothetical to the real, if you raise the question of female genital mutilation, you can guarantee that about half the responses you get will be of the form “What about male circumcision?” and this often seems calculated to derail the campaign against FGM and take the steam out of it. If you try and say “Yes yes, male infant circumcision may be bad but FGM is worse”, you will be stopped in your tracks. Both are violations of a defenceless child, you cannot discuss whether one is worse than the other. How dare you even think about ranking them?

Daniel Moynihan: Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.

Martin Luther King: Silence of our friends

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Harry Frankfurt: Bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
Harry G. Frankfurt《On Bullshit》

For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit

Stuart Firestein: The pursuit of ignorance

What does real scientific work look like? As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein jokes: It looks a lot less like the scientific method and a lot more like "farting around ... in the dark." In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don't know -- or "high-quality ignorance" -- just as much as what we know.

A wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence

David Hume: "A wise man proportions his beliefs to the evidence."

Richard Dawkins: No religion

Tal Ben-Shahar: The Secret of Happiness

In this video, Tal Ben-Shahar explains his theory of the 4 hamburgers and talks about the best way to achieve happiness.

Discover one of the 18 new videocasts about happiness by the international best-seller author of "being happy". Tal Ben-Shahar taught the largest course at Harvard on "Positive Psychology" and the third largest on "The Psychology of Leadership". 23% of his Harvard students claim that he changed their life.

How to Win Friends & Influence People

"How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interest.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say "You're Wrong."
3. If you're wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Independence > Interdependence > Continuous Improvement

• Habit 1: Be Proactive
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit 3: Put First Things First
• Habit 4: Think Win-Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Habit 6: Synergize
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Change Happens
They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Anticipate Change
Get Ready For The Cheese To Move.

Monitor Change
Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old.

Adapt To Change Quickly
The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese.

Change
Move With The Cheese.

Enjoy Change!
Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again
They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Lawrence Krauss: Our Godless Universe is Precious

"...So the two main lessons that I like to say I like to give is first we're insignificant and second the future is miserable. Now that - you might think that should depress you, but I would argue that, in fact, it should embolden you and provide you a different kind of consolation."

Burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned

Source: SARAH.Global
https://www.facebook.com/SARAH.Global

The worst enemy

Religion is the worst enemy of mankind. No single war in the history of humanity has killed as many people as religion has.
Source: SARAH.Global
https://www.facebook.com/SARAH.Global

Sam Harris on the Dangers of Religion

Dr. Sam Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American author, philosopher, public intellectual, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and CEO of Project Reason.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke on Morality

Source: http://www.atheistrepublic.com/


 "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion." {Popular Science 2004}

- Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) 

Steven Novella on scientific method

“What do you think science is? There's nothing magical about science. It is simply a systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature and using consistent logic to evaluate results. Which part of that exactly do you disagree with? Do you disagree with being thorough? Using careful observation? Being systematic? Or using consistent logic?”

― Dr. Steven Novella

Travel quotes

• "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine
• "All you've got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!" -Tony and Maureen Wheeler 
• "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
• "One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." - Henry Miller 

Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness

Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong -- a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly funny book, Stumbling on Happiness.