Philosophy Wire: Learning. Deciding. Being.

Education improves decision-making ability, study finds. [1] It is unfortunate that you need a lot of education to accept its futility. Why do we need to make decisions after all? And how can we know for sure which decision is good and which is bad? The greatest decision we will ever have to make, is to decide whether we need to decide at all or not. There is no point in choosing a path within the chaos of the storm. There is no point in trying to swim in the raging ocean. Look at that apple tree. Don't ponder on whether to eat or not. Choose neither life nor death. Just Be. And if you are hungry eat the apple anyway. Who cares?

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

The apple... / Το μήλο...

The apple.

A mysterious fruit, once symbolizing all fruits and being synonym to evil. Playing a significant role in many stories in the mythologies of many people and in Christianity as well. From the apples of Hesperides and the apple with which Paris started the Trojan War, to the apple for which the ghost of Aristotle talked about while dying, to the apple which made God cast us away from Paradise, to Newton’s apple and to the apple of Turing, to the apple used in folk proverbs, [1] [2] [3] the apple continues to try to remind us of something which we have forgotten.

But what could that be?
What do all these stories want to tell us exactly?

Apples are now the subject of genetic experiments. [4] And they seem to be the link between ancient fruits and modern fruits, carrying a larger genome than any other fruit. [5] Only the fools read the myths as if they are fairy tales. We do not know when all these myths mean and what is it that the apply symbolizes, but that just means that we must intensify our efforts to remember what we have forgotten.

Keep searching.
I would already be dead…
if it wasn’t for the smell of that apple…

~

Το μήλο.

Ένα φρούτο μυστηριώδες, που παλιά συμβόλιζε όλα τα φρούτα και ήταν συνώνυμο του κακού. Παίζει κεντρικό ρόλο σε πολλές ιστορίες της μυθολογίας πολλών λαών όπως και στο Χριστιανισμό. Από τα Μήλα των Εσπερίδων και το μήλο με το οποίο ο Πάρις ξεκίνησε τον Τρωικό Πόλεμο, στο μήλο του φαντάσματος του θνήσκοντος Αριστοτέλη, στο μήλο που έκανε το Θεό να μας διώξει από τον Παράδεισο, στο μήλο του Νεύτωνα και το μήλο του Turing, έως το μήλο σε διάφορες λαϊκές σοφίες, [1] [2] [3] το μήλο συνεχίζει να προσπαθεί μας θυμίσει κάτι που έχουμε ξεχάσει.

Όμως τι μπορεί να είναι αυτό;
Τι μπορεί να θέλουν να μας θυμίσουν αυτές οι ιστορίες;

Τα μήλα είναι σήμερα αντικείμενα γενετικών πειραμάτων. [4] Και φαίνεται να είναι η σύνδεση των αρχαίων φρούτων με τα σημερινά, περιέχοντας μεγαλύτερο γονιδίωμα από κάθε άλλο φρούτο. [5] Συνεχίζουμε και τα μελετάμε, αλλά μάλλον είμαστε σαν τον βλάκα που απλά κοιτάει το δάχτυλο και όχι το φεγγάρι.

Μόνο οι ανόητοι διαβάζουν τους μύθους σαν να πρόκειται για παραμύθια. Δεν γνωρίζουμε τι σημαίνουν όλοι αυτοί οι μύθοι και τι συμβολίζει το μήλο, αλλά αυτό σημαίνει απλά πως οι προσπάθειες μας να θυμηθούμε αυτό που έχουμε ξεχάσει πρέπει να γίνουν εντονότερες.

Συνέχισε να ψάχνεις.
Θα είχα ήδη πεθάνει…

αν δεν ήταν η μυρωδιά αυτού του μήλου…

Philosophy Wire: A farmer, apples and how to read Harmonia Philosophica

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-01-26]: Harmonia Philosophica comments on everyday news from a philosophical perspective. But I do not write for the same things over and over again. Next time you read for a bio-engineered apple [1], search for "apple" in all Harmonia Philosophica portals (both an Blogger and at Wordpress). Use the tags as well. Most of the times, you will find what you need already been said! But what good can it be if you have not thought about it on your own? Reading too much is bad for thinking, as Schopenhauer said! Stop riding! Or you will forget how to walk on your own...

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: The apple, old texts and the ancient Greeks' notion of "regression"

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-01-04]: Apples have more genomes than any other fruit [1]. Apple also seems to be the link between ancient fruits and modern fruits: after a catastrophic event that took place about 60 million years ago, the genes of ancient apple fruit seem to have been evolved increased greatly in number in some kind of evolutionary response [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. So now apples seem to have even more genes than humans do. I have reported the fact that humans are not the species with the largest genome in other Philosophy Wires. Some ancient religious texts refer to the apples as the "first fruit", while many other ancient myths (e.g. Greek myths) have apples as their very central theme. The interesting comment here is something contradicting the common sense: how come that ancient texts (religious or not, that does not matter) refer to knowledge that "should not" (according to mainstream history science) be part of the knowledge of their era, in agreement with very recent science findings? Ancient Greeks thought that humanity regresses, rather than progressing: they believed that their ancestors were more wise than they were and that their children will be less wise than they came to be. Could that be the case? In the old days we thought we were alive and part of nature but now we think we are mere molecules and something different than the nature we observe. Who is more wise? Which "model" is more scientific if we are to see truly the facts?

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective...