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Paradoxism is an avant-garde movement in literature, art, philosophy, science, based on excessive use of antitheses, antinomies, contradictions, parables, odds, paradoxes in creations. It was set up by the editor since 1980’s and promulgates a counter-time/ counter-sense creation. Paradoxism started as an anti-totalitarian protest against a closed society, Romania of 1980’s. Why was the movement based on contradictions? Because we lived in that society a double life: an official one – propagated by the political system, and another one real. In mass-media it was promulgated that “our life is wonderful”, but in reality “our life was miserable”. The paradox flourishing! And then we took the creation in derision, in opposite sense, in a syncretic way. Thus the paradoxism was born....

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What is Philosophy? Is it the exclusive domain of those who dream in abstract? Or is it the manifestation of the struggle of those who practice in material? Does it originate in the minds of professors like a Ganges flowing out from the hair-locks of "Lord" Shiva? Or is it rustic and puerile, evolving into maturity through the experiences of common men. I started writing philosophy without actually knowing that I was writing one. To start with, it was an outlet to project my frustration in the form of writings. Pretty often, it carried abuses hurled at none in particular, but at the system through its agents. But I don’t know when those ramblings started getting matured into Philosophy and all puerility and abuses purified themselves on the way – a Ganges doesn’t become pure by its origin but by the treatment people give to it on its way. In my book “Writings @ Ankur Mutreja”, I included a section on my personal philosophy and thought nobody would be interested in reading it. But, fortunately, I have found some kind-hearted people, who have given me their valuable feedback. I am reproducing my philosophy below by selecting those top...

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An introduction to moral, political and economic philosophy. Twelve philosophers in each category are featured, their basic theories are examined and provide the basis for discussion....

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PARTI An Introduction to Clearer Thinking Chapter 1 Attitudes: How They Affect Our Thinking 3 Chapter 2 Classifying Viewpoints: Conservative and Liberal 12 Chapter 3 Epistemology and Logic 20 Chapter 4 Fallacies: Errors o f L anguage and Logic 32 PART 2 Moral Philosophy: Ideas of Good and Evil, Right and Wrong Chapter 5 Moral Philosophy: A Brief Introduction 47 Chapter 6 Plato and Aristotle: Idealism and Realism 55 Chapter 7 Epicurus and Epictetus: Pleasure and Apathy 65 Chapter 8 Aquinas and Descartes: Faith and Reason 72 Chapter 9 Hume, Bentham and Mill: Subjectivism and Utilitarianism 82 Chapter 10 Kant and Schopenhauer: Idealism and Pessimism 90 Chapter 11 Nietzsche and Sartre: Naturalism and Existentialism 99 PART 3 Political Theory: The Relationship of Man and the State Chapter 12 Introduction to Political Theory 111 Chapter 13 Law: Understanding the Rule o f Reason 119 Chapter 14 Problems o f Government: Five Great Issues 127 Chapter 15 Plato and Aristotle: Utopia and Polity 138 Chapter 16 Augustine and Aquinas: Platonist and Aristotelian 146 Chapter 17 Machiavelli and Hobbes: The Prince ...

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In this theoretically sophisticated monograph Dr. Alex Battler formulates a new ontological interpretation of the category of force: - a definition of force as an ontological category; - the manifestation of force in the inorganic world within the framework of the idea of the Big Bang; - a definition of force in the organic world to determine the boundary between life and nonlife; - a solution to the mind–body problem (i.e., what consciousness and thought are), which has led me to a new formulation of the concept of Progress. ...

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PREFACE......................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION: LEXICON AND METHOD....................................17 CHAPTER I. THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF FORCE.........................31 1. Foreword.............................................................................................32 2 . Ancient Greek Philosophers On Force............................................35 3. The Philosophy of Force in the Works of European Philosophers of the 15th–19th Centuries.................................................................41 Nicholas of Cusa..........................................................................41 Leonardo da Vinci.......................................................................42 Bernardino Telesio and Francis Bacon.......................................44 René Descartes and Isaac Newton..............................................47 Benedict de Spinoza....................................................................50 John Locke...................................................................................51 ...

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Excerpt: I had better explain why, in this little piece d?occasion, written for a performance in aid of the funds of the project for establishing a National Theatre as a memorial to Shakespear, I have identified the Dark Lady with Mistress Mary Fitton. First, let me say that I do not contend that the Dark Lady was Mary Fitton, because when the case in Mary?s favor (or against her, if you please to consider that the Dark Lady was no better than she ought to have been) was complete, a portrait of Mary came to light and turned out to be that of a fair lady, not of a dark one. That settles the question, if the portrait is authentic....

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Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) has been called the “prince of paradox.” Time magazine observed of his writing style: “Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out.” His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction. The title of Chesteron’s 1910 collection of essays was inspired by a title given to him two years earlier by The Times newspaper, which had asked a number of authors to write on the topic: “What’s wrong with the world?”. Chesterton’s answer at that time was the shortest of those submitted - he simply wrote: “Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton”. In this collection he gives a fuller treatment of the question, with his characteristic conservative wit. (Summary by Wikipedia and Carl Manchester)...

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Politics, Humor, Essay/Short nonfiction

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Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Russia, Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. Goldman was imprisoned several times for inciting to riot and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth. In 1910, she collected a series of speeches and items she had written for Mother Earth and published Anarchism and Other Essays . In addition to a comprehensive look at anarchism and its criticisms, the book includes essays on patriotism, women's suffrage, marriage, and prisons. (summary extracted from wikipedia)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Federalist Papers (correctly known as The Federalist) are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788 . A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. M’Lean. The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government.The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to historian Richard Morris, they are an incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer....

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History, Essay/Short nonfiction

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“In these days,” writes the renowned Bahá’í scholar, Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl, “which are the latter days of 1911, A. D. and the early days of 1330 A. H., I have seen a curious article which astonished me. What did I see? I find that one of the missionaries of the Protestant sect, who accounts himself among the learned men of the twentieth century, a helper of the pure religion of Christ and one of the civilized and cultured occidentals, by name, Peter Z. Easton, has been so provoked by jealousy at the universal spread of the heavenly word of His Holiness Abdul-Baha throughout vast expanses of Europe that he has trespassed the limit of courtesy and humanity and published an article replete with execration and calumny in the magazine “Evangelical Christendom.” …Briefly, as this servant [Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl] carefully perused and weighed the above mentioned article, it was found that Peter Z. Easton, in his own supposition, has clung to “four proofs” in opposing the great Bahai Cause. We will therefore mention these four points and show the falsity of his fanciful ideas in each instance.” A number of works were written in the 19th century to def...

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Religion, Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Politics , by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, is one of the most influential texts in political philosophy. In it, Aristotle explores the role that the political community should play in developing the virtue of its citizens. One of his central ideas is that Man is a political animal, meaning that people can only become virtuous by active participation in the political community. Aristotle also criticizes his teacher Plato, classifies and evaluates six different types of constitutions and political institutions, and describes his vision of the ideal state. Aristotle's views on women and slavery are unenlightened by today's standards, but his work remains enduring and relevant to this day. (Summary by Leon Mire)...

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Philosophy, Politics

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The Rhetoric was developed by Aristotle during two periods when he was in Athens, the first between 367 to 347 BCE (when he was seconded to Plato in the Academy), and the second between 335 to 322 BCE (when he was running his own school, the Lyceum). The Rhetoric consists of three books. Book I offers a general overview, presenting the purposes of rhetoric and a working definition; it also offers a detailed discussion of the major contexts and types of rhetoric. Book II discusses in detail the three means of persuasion that an orator must rely on: those grounded in credibility (ethos), in the emotions and psychology of the audience (pathos), and in patterns of reasoning (logos). Book III introduces the elements of style (word choice, metaphor, and sentence structure) and arrangement (organization). Some attention is paid to delivery, but generally the reader is referred to the Poetics for more information in that area....

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Instruction, Languages, Classics (antiquity)

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Di Zi Gui (弟子规), in English, means the Standards for being a Good Student and Child. It is an ancient book based on the teaching of the great Confucius that emphasises on the basic requisites for being a good person and guidelines for living in harmony with others. The source for the main outline of it is from Analects of Confucius, Book 1, Chapter 6, where Confucius said: A young man should be a good son at home and an obedient young man abroad, sparing of speech but trustworthy in what he says, and should love the multitude at large but cultivate the friendship of his fellow men. If he has any energy to spare from such action, let him devote it to making himself cultivated. There are altogether seven chapters in Di Zi Gui, with each chapter listing one duty that a good person should follow in life. (From Wikipedia) Chinese summary to follow....

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Advice, Instruction, Philosophy

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Excerpt: Reprinted from Fraser?s Magazine. The cloud which for the space of a month hung gloomily over the civilized world, black with far worse evils than those of simple war, has passed from over our heads without bursting. The fear has not been realized, that the only two first-rate Powers who are also free nations would take to tearing each other in pieces, both the one and the other in a bad and odious cause. For while, on the American side, the war would have been one of reckless persistency in wrong, on ours it would have been a war in alliance with, and, to practical purposes, in defence and propagation of, slavery. We had, indeed, been wronged....

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ACTUALITATEA PARADOXISMULUI Prefață Polemici privind paradoxismul și diverse interviuri vă prezentăm ȋn prima parte a acestei cărți. Ȋn cea de-a doua parte, veți constata actualitatea paradoxismului ȋn FOLCLORUL contemporan. Și anume: - Devieri derizorii de proverbe, făcȃnd astăzi hazul de necaz al omului de rȃnd: Fie pȃinea cât de rea, tot ți-o fură cineva. Ai carte, ai cu ce să te ştergi la fund. Lasă pe mâine ce poţi face azi, că poate mâine nu mai este nevoie. - Reinterpretări de aforisme. - Limbaj ȋn răspăr. - De asemenea, paradoxuri semantice: Totu-i infinit, chiar și finitul [de pildă, un segment de dreaptă este limitat ȋn ambele părți, ȋnsă conține o infinitate de puncte]. Nimic nu-i perfect, nici chiar perfectul! sau: Nimic nu-i absolut, nici chiar absolutul! - Calambururi bazate pe omonimii, dar și pe contrarieri ale clișeelor lingvistice… - Celebrele CULMI sau poante populare sunt ȋn esență paradoxiste… - Dar și paradoxismul ȋn imagini cotidiene preluate din folclorul Internetului, cu parabole și ironii politice, cu această modernizare… primitivă a țării! O lume reală care este… cu fundul ȋn sus! Iată cȃ...

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Desigur, m-aștept acum la noi invective din partea clanului mafiot al său și al acoliților săi (călăii de serviciu). Cu cȃt ȋnjură mai tare, cu atȃt ȋi plȃtesc noii lor stăpȃni mai bine. Dar ȋmi va face o deosebită plăcere să le răspund! Provocȃndu-mă, ei ȋmi mențin verva creatoare. Doar că aceste publicații sunt plătite din bugetul poporului pentru acești șarlatani. Romȃnii ar trebui să se revolte ȋn toată țara contra acestei umilințe naționale la care sunt supuși. Of course, I now look at us invective of the mob clan and his acolytes (executioners service). With cȃt ȋnjură louder with their new stăpȃni pharma ȋi plȃtesc better. But ȋmi will be pleased to answer them! Provocȃndu me they ȋmi maintain creative verve. Only those publications that are paid from the budget of the people for these charlatans. Romȃnii should bet on around the country to rebel against this national humiliation they are subjected....

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Prefață: Actualitatea paradoxismului: 3 Din nou despre paradoxism: 5 Alex Ștefănescu și Totalitarismul care se instalează ȋn Romȃnia: 31 Democrația celui mai puternic: 43 Neutrosofia și Paradoxismul (Dialog cu M. N. Rusu): 47 SCRIEREA PE DOS! (Interviu cu Maria Diana Popescu): 50 „Emigrant la infinit” (Interviu cu Mihaela Muscă): 54 PRO și CONTRA (Dialog cu Mircea Monu): 57 Chat paradoxist ȋn calambururi (Cu Janet Nică): 66 Chestionar despre paradoxism: 69 Preface: News paradoxism: 3 Again paradoxism 5 Alex Stefanescu and totalitarianism that installs ȋn Romȃnia: 31 Democracy fittest: 43 Neutrosophy and Paradoxism (Dialog with Rusu MN): 47 Writing on DOS! (Interview with Maria Diana Popescu): 50 "Emigrant to infinity" (Interview with Mihaela Musca): 54 Pros and Cons (Dialogue with Mircea Monu): 57 Chat paradoxist bet on puns (With Janet Nică): 66 Quiz paradox: 69...

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Opinions are like flare, which can turn either way: they can spread like wild fire or encapsulate themselves within the bounds of personal integrity, and thus illuminate. I started writing opinions in the late 2008 through my blogs. I admit at times I did go wild with unsubstantiated accusations and surmises, leading to risky speculations and irresponsible opinions. Recently, I published a comprehensive book of my writings entitled "Writings @ Ankur Mutreja", and the present book is a short selection of my opinions presented therein with emphasis on responsible writing. I am an advocate by profession; therefore, most of my opinions have a tint of law; in the first part, the expression is simple; so, it is for lay persons who won’t mind a little exercise of mind in the legal arena; whereas, in the second part, I have gone whole hog with law, and I admit those without formal legal training may find it convenient to ignore. My style of writing is terse and pointed, but at times I have gone overboard like in one particular opinion on Aarushi murder, where emotions and logic intermingled in an expanded narrative. Righ...

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Excerpt: A Treatise on Government by Aristotle, translated by William Ellis.

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Introduction: The Menexenus has more the character of a rhetorical exercise than any other of the Platonic works. The writer seems to have wished to emulate Thucydides, and the far slighter work of Lysias. In his rivalry with the latter, to whom in the Phaedrus Plato shows a strong antipathy, he is entirely successful, but he is not equal to Thucydides. The Menexenus, though not without real Hellenic interest, falls very far short of the rugged grandeur and political insight of the great historian. The fiction of the speech having been invented by Aspasia is well sustained, and is in the manner of Plato, notwithstanding the anachronism which puts into her mouth an allusion to the peace of Antalcidas, an event occurring forty years after the date of the supposed oration. But Plato, like Shakespeare, is careless of such anachronisms, which are not supposed to strike the mind of the reader. The effect produced by these grandiloquent orations on Socrates, who does not recover after having heard one of them for three days and more, is truly Platonic....

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The first volume of the catalogue in Thomas Jefferson's private collection.

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Philosophy - Moral XXIV Politics 1

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In the present volume, Volume IV, concluding Philosophy and containing the first part of Fine Arts, the divergence has become so marked that it is apparent that the revised "fair copy" of his catalogue made by Jefferson, and used during the negotiations for the sale, differed substantially from his earlier version....

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The Republic is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man....