A Quote by Peter Singer
Philosophy is not politics, and we do our best, within our all-too-human limitations, to seek the truth, not to score points against opponents. There is little satisfaction in gaining an easy triumph over a weak opponent while ignoring better arguments against your views.
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You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.
Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. My grandfather believed that truth should be the cornerstone of everybody's life and that we must dedicate our lives to pursuing truth, to finding out the truth in our lives. And so his entire philosophy was the philosophy of life. It was not just a philosophy for conflict resolution, but something that we have to imbibe in our life and live it all the time so that we can improve and become better human beings.
When we dehumanise and demonise our opponents, we abandon the possibility of peacefully resolving our differences, and seek to justify violence against them.
We become distracted from productive labors by our perceived opponents; we become focused on them and not on our larger calling to advance our nation; our debate becomes more about scoring points against an adversary and less about advancing our common cause.
While it is useful to rebut charges and get your arguments out in circulation, you have to understand that arguments and evidence have little impact on people as long as their feelings tilt them against you.
Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier in an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary.
For us it's better to think of our opponents as idiots. It's easier to play hard against someone you don't like than it is to play against a friend.
Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.
Certainly our job as an offense to try to score points and that's running the ball, throwing the ball, whatever it is. Somehow, someway we've got to try to score points to help our team win. That's where the focus is and it's pretty easy just to focus on that.
It's easy to fall into victim mode and feel like the world is against you. The truth is, people aren't against you: they're just for themselves. The only thing within your control is how you react and respond to the chaotic dance of life.
In disputes upon moral or scientific points, ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.
We play sometimes against teams with more individual quality than us, better players, bigger budgets, whatever, but we try to play our football. We don't try to change too much in our philosophy, in our model.
We always want to see people strive and see the human spirit triumph against adversity. That's what it's all about because that's what we're doing. We're trying to triumph in our lives.
Our trials and our times of pain get the most recognition, but 'Straight Outta Compton' speaks to triumph. When it's doubtful, when nobody is on your side, when your back is against the wall, you triumph and make it through. Showing growth through movies promotes growth.
Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.
I am well acquainted with all the arguments against freedom of thought and speech - the arguments which claim that it cannot exist, and the arguments which claim that it ought not to. I answer simply that they don't convince me and that our civilization over a period of four hundred years has been founded on the opposite notice.
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