Essays To Stimulate Philosophical Thought - with tips on attaining a sharper mind, improving one's command of English and acing the GCE "AO" Level General Paper exam ...

By Kerwin Mathew

DESCRIPTION OF BOOK

This philosophical book is targeted at both the serious general reader and matured student, e.g., the GCE "A" Level student, and, the SAT, GRE or GMAT testee.

It has 52 selected essays which contain thoughts that have streuck the author's mind at one time or another. These essays could be described as philosophical essays, as they have been aimed at arriving at the truth.

Some of the ideas may be controversial, some strange and unusual, some common, and some humourous, with a number of remarks made tongue-in-cheek.

The aim of the book is to get the readers interested in and excited about ideas and to originate or develop their own ideas. They should be able to expand further on some of the author's ideas.

The essays represent the random and passionate thoughts of the author. A number of the thoughts or ideas are viewed from an unusual angle.

The chief aim of the essays is to stir up, wake up or stimulate the mind of the reader. Humour is injected here and there to prevent the reader from feeling bored.

In the Appendix are tips on how to improve one's capacity for thinking and reasoning, how to use words and write a very good essay or composition, and, how to tackle the comprehension part of the GCE "AO" Level General Paper exam. These tips should also be useful to those sitting for similar essay-writing and comprehension tests such as the SAT, GRE and GMAT.

For anyone who is really serious about self-development and improving his mind, this book will have an important part to play.

The book has been adopted as a reference text by the institutions where the author has been teaching.

The author thinks that thanks to his interest in and effort at self-development he has finally found the solution to a very important technical problem, in fact the most important problem in the field, which had been reviewed and approved by field experts and has just been published in an international research journal. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author has published about 20 books, two of which have been adopted as reference texts and commended by priofessional bodies. He was also the editor of a book on GCE "AO" Level General Paper essays. He has taught GCE "AO" Level General Paper for many years, as well as many professional and management subjects for years. He has published a number of important papers, including several papers on the solutions to some famous, unsolved problems, in international research journals and has served on the faculty of an American research university as a professor. He has received publicity from the press for some intellectual achievement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kerwin Mathew
• Release date: Apr 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498911078

Kerwin Mathew

Kerwin Mathew has published about 20 books, two of which have been adopted as reference texts and commended by professional bodies. He was also the editor of a book of essays. He has taught many professional and management subjects for years. He has published a number of important papers, including several papers on the solutions to some famous, unsolved problems, in research journals and has served on the faculty of an American research university as a professor. He has received publicity from the press for some intellectual achievement.  

Book preview

(1) Character And Personality

Are all men born equal? It is believed that the genes a person was born with are partly responsible for his character and personality. Good genes make a good person, bad genes, a not so good one. The other contributing factor that is responsible for the shaping of character and personality is the environment, an external influence.

There is little or nothing we could do about the genes a person was born with, the internal factor - it is beyond our control. But, we could control the external factor, the environment - we could create the suitable environment for developing and nurturing character and personality. However, of late, experiments have been carried out in the U.S. to breed a super race through the artificial insemination of ovaries with sperms from superior donors, donors who have high intelligence, good character and fine personality traits. It is a question of nature versus nurture. Here, a scientist tries to play God and attempts to control nature. There has been quite good success so far, with several talented children and geniuses having been produced. So, in effect, the genes a person was to be born with could be controlled.

We would all like to have the following personality traits and would like to associate with people who have them: high intelligence, high creativity, conscientiousness, great kindness and courtesy, great energy and great strength. It is believed that nature and nurture, genes and environment, are responsible for their development. However, nature only plays an initial role, while nurture would continue to influence the development of a person’s character and personality throughout his life.

Philosophers have likened the mind of a newly born person to a blank slate (tabula rusa). As the person grows, his blank slate is being filled up with writings - the quality of the writings being responsible for the quality of his character and personality. In other words, the environment, whether the environment provides challenges, whether it brings sufferings and pain, whether it brings comfort and pleasure, whether it gives the person a sense of security or insecurity, shapes the person’s character, personality and outlook. A person who has grown up in a poor environment, an environment lacking in educational opportunities and challenges, an environment lacking in love, an environment of poverty, would probably be a dull, hard-hearted and pessimistic or bitter individual. A person brought up in a good family would probably be a happy, contented and balanced individual.

Anti-social and criminal behaviours could be the result of wrong upbringing, poor environment. Anti-socialites and criminals have been known to reform when provided with the right environment. But how do we account for the inability to reform of the hard-core criminal or anti-socialite? Is his gross character or his criminality so written in his genes that he is beyond reform, beyond hope?

(2) On Films In General

Films are manifestations of culture and are thus similar to books in this respect. Whereas you have to have patience and the time to flip through a book to obtain its story or message, and this may even be done so with some difficulty, especially when the words used are unfamiliar, it will only take up about one to two hours to enjoy the story of the film together with its audio-visual effects. Instead, for example, of spending many hours reading Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, you will most likely find it easier and more enjoyable to see Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations on the screen. But the great disadvantage of a film, especially when it is adapted from a classic, is that essential details may be left out due to limitation of time or due to the discretion of the board of censors or the film director overlooking the details.

Films today however are a money-spinning work of creation. The ingenuity of the director, the effects of camera-trick and the charismatic appeal of the actors are the main factors behind the crowd-drawing effect of films. The charismatic appeal of Bruce Lee and his unique martial arts skills, plus the effects of camera-trick, resulted in such box-office hits as The Big Boss and Enter The Dragon. Bruce Lee films have been very popular throughout the world and have inspired many to take up martial arts. I was very impressed with Bruce Lee’s fighting skills when I watched his movies. I enjoyed and actually felt great when I saw him chopped and kicked his way through throngs of villainous creatures, absurd though it actually was; his ferocious yell when he struck was music to my ears - such was his charismatic appeal - that it won him countless admiring fans throughout the world. Many of his European fans have also taken up Chinese kung-fu. Bruce Lee was so popular that when he died mysteriously, the whole world was shocked and saddened.

Nevertheless, Bruce Lee owed his worldwide appeal to films. No matter how good Bruce was as a martial arts expert, he would have been relatively unknown if he were also not an actor. Such is the awesome power of the film. The elevation of Chinese kung-fu since Bruce Lee’s reign as the epitome of the supremacy of Chinese martial arts has also stimulated greater interest in Chinese culture, it seems, and this could not have taken place at a more opportune time, since mainland China was also arousing considerable interest in things Chinese and was making headlines throughout the world as a great nuclear power.

Films, being a powerful medium of mass communication, affect society in many ways. Films do leave deep impressions on the public. I observe that many people try to emulate their favourite film stars - I have a friend who once tried to imitate Bruce Lee; he sported the same hair-style and wore the same kind of sun-glasses, though his face and physique hardly resembled that of the superstar. Since the screening of Saturday Night Fever, I had come

across quite a number of youths imitating the dressing style and hair-style of superstar John Travolta. Even the sales of Saturday Night Fever cassettes and records had been doing well. Perhaps we can also partly ascribe the spates of violent acts here to the influence of the violent and gory films.

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In fact, films reflect the values and moral standard of a society. Producers make films that they think will satisfy the fancies of the people. Young people, e.g., children, are particularly susceptible to the influence of films. Adults, parents, should reign in their young and prevent or at least discourage them from viewing the unnecessarily violent or lewd films.

People watch a film for reasons known only to themselves. Many just want to kill their time as they have nothing else better to do. Some watch the film because they thought they would enjoy it as they heard a lot of favourable comments about it. Yet some others watch because their favourite star or stars are in it. Some also watch because they have a lot of worries and they want to get away from all their worries, at least for a short while, and relax. Of course, there are also some who just go for the air-conditioned comfort of the cinema. In any case, watching a film that greatly interests you is like living in a dream world; if you are really so absorbed in the film as though you are part of it, you will treasure the experience. In fact, many people experience feelings of greatness or happiness which they may not be able to experience in real life.

I had experienced emotions such as anger, fear, excitement and sorrow when I watched stirring films - I had even cried on one occasion when I watched a very sad Cantonese film many years back.

Films also made it possible for us to have glimpses of foreign countries - this is obviously not as good as visiting the foreign countries ourselves but it is still better than reading about these countries only.

Films are in fact one of the cheapest forms of entertainment in the country. I would now venture to say that films generally appeal more to the baser nature of the audience, they

are more entertaining and display more realism. We are able to live in many worlds, many cultures - we are able to live in Victorian times - we are able to live in the time of ancient China - we are able to live in the U.S.A., Hong Kong, etc. - we are able to live amongst the rich, the poor, the oppressed, and so on - and we owe this all to films.

Films do inculcate values in us and educate us, for the better or the worse - I would say that they generally influence us for the worse nowadays though they appear to score higher on the entertainment factor.

Film stars, e.g., Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Chan, Shah Rukh Khan and many more, are also role models for many of their fans, particularly young people.

Hence, the powerful effect of films.

(3) Morality, Immorality And Amorality

The meaning of the above words must be dealt with and must be associated with certain beings or things. Morality and immorality are two nouns. The first one is the respectable, adorable factor of society, the other is the scorned, criminal-like factor of society. These are associated with mankind, the thinking beings, while amorality, the state of something not capable of offence or wrong, is associated with unthinking, inhuman beings.

We brand acts or behaviours according to whether they are moral or immoral. Moral behaviour or acts must be something which pleases or does not offend our conscience, our sense of right or wrong. An immoral act has the opposite effect on the mind. Stealing, killing, mutiny, lying and many other things are wrong as dictated by our conscience because no man likes being robbed, killed or ravaged. Criminals are immoral because they kill or rob and commit other acts that we do not like done to us because they cause pain of one kind or other. Crooks, thugs and thieves are immoral because they take away our properties and thus deprive us of a means towards an end. They are therefore branded by society as immoral. They are scorned and condemned by society.

As it is, only human beings can be immoral as human beings can think and make use of discretion: the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Animals can think, just like human beings, but we do not classify them into immoral or moral categories. Why? Because we do not understand the psychology of animals. We know human beings think very much alike through direct observation as well as through the intuition. We understand why our neighbours wear clothes, why they eat, why they talk and what the contents of their talks are. At the same time, we share many common features, e.g., our physiques, our desire to achieve success and a lot of other whims and fancies. In addition to that, we tend to judge each other. We tend to be impressed by and classify in our mind whether a person is stupid or clever, ugly or handsome, generous or self-centred, humble or pompous, etc.. In any case, we tend to admire a person, to hate a person or simply dislike him or to have a neutral feeling towards him. In other words, we are always attempting to read the thoughts of our neighbour and to judge him by his behaviour and appearance. To us, all human beings are different in some ways; they have individuality, unlike animals.

We do not compare ourselves to animals, as we compare ourselves to our neighbours. We keep up with the Joneses; when we see a neighbour possessing a big house or having a successful career, we wish to have the same. Animals of the same species select mates of their own species and are therefore expected to understand each other. Human beings select friends and mates of their own kind. Why? Simply because they can understand each other and behave in a manner not repugnant to each other. We do not attempt to compare ourselves to animals and therefore do not condemn animals as being immoral or brand them as moral.

Now we come to the third object of discussion, amorality. This is a noun that pertains to objects that are affected by human effort or endeavors, objects like science, battle and so forth. Science is always blamed for creating destruction; yet we know that it cannot be blamed as it is unthinking and incapable of destroying. Science is the result of investigations, experimentation, observation and rationalisation. It is the offspring of the human mind. Therefore, the blame is to be