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Mary Oliver’s owlish happiness
Of Owls and Roses: Mary Oliver on Happiness, Terror, and the Sublime Interconnectedness of Life themarginalian.org
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We're just a little over a week few days out from the Fall '23 semester Opening Day! Let's introduce ourselves. My brief bio is...
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(The syllabus is a constant work-in-progress, subject to change at the last minute; always consult the "Next" section in the upper...
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Haybron 5-6-The Sources of Happiness; Beyond Happiness: Well-being [ Again, I particularly appreciate comments (etc.) posted prior to cla...
I love to hear this description being used to describe a humanist, my mom always would say a similar phrasing of this to me growing up. We are supposed to do the right thing because that's what we are supposed to do, not because we are setting expectations upon that action. Intention over expectation, but truly I wouldn't have ever thought to describe my mom as a Humanist.
ReplyDeleteHere's another slice of Vonnegut's humanism, from his novel "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater":
Delete“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
Interesting quote because that’s the exact reason I’m not so quick to agree with Humanism. It seems almost impossible for a society to be based upon purely secular notions. There’s always been some appeal to a higher power within society. At the very least, it’s the only clear and distinct way of providing a reason for acting decent when no one is around. Not to even get into how it’s the most concrete and safest way of politically grounding human rights. On the flip side, there’s been many of wars that started just over religion, so who can really tell?
ReplyDeleteI realize this is a rather huge discussion in reality, so I’ll try to just leave it there. An extremely thought-provoking debate, however, with both sides putting up convincing arguments.