How can we define ourselves?

When we speak in the first person we say "I ...". But who is this 'I'? Are we to be identified with our physical bodies? With our minds? Are we a collection of different things? Do we exist outside of our bodies?

Points to consider:

• When a chocolate bar is placed in front of us and we say "one part of me wants it, while another tells me I have to stay healthy" what do we mean?
• Apply electrical shocks to the brain and personality can be altered.
• A person who suffers brain damage is not the same. In severe cases they may resemble nothing of their former characteristics, being more like a living body without all their previously 'normal' characteristics.

The 3 Fundamentalisms Of Our Time

When you hear the word fundamentalist what do you think of? Most people think of terrorists and Islamic Fundamentalism. But is it really that simple? Is Islamic Fundamentalism the only 'big' fundamentalist force in the world?

There's a good book called 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' in which the reader is led to believe (it's all very cleverly inferred) that there is a clash of civilisations and we don't know who's going to win, between the Western and Eastern/Muslim civilisations. I can't remember who said it but there's a quote that goes something like "the whole world's at war and only one side knows it". I would completely agree, and here's why:

The Cold War dominated a large section of Twentieth Century history, and was characterised by a fight between the 'extremes' of Communism and Capitalism. Now during the Cold War neither side embraced those ideologies completely. But after the collapse of the USSR and people like Fukuyama publishing "The End of History" people believed Capitalism had won, and was undoubtedly better. This led to a version of Utopian economics in which people like Alan Greenspan thought the market would always provide the necessary solution. These 'radical' Capitalists today are in my opinion one fundamentalist force, to which Islamic Fundamentalism has grown to oppose.

Note how less extreme Capitalist governments tend to be accompanied by a lessening of the call to terrorism.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree?

Who really knows what justice is?

Plato said that only philosophers know what justice is, and that as such philosophers should rule. Clearly this is far from the case today. But I've heard people espouse the same view (ironically people who dabble in philosophy...).

Is the fact that Plato's view is seen as silly today a mark that it is wrong? Or is the fact that it's still talked about, and promoted by the few, a mark that there is some logic in the idea? After all if philosophers don't know what justice is then who does?