Wild Wise Weird represents the latest updated version of The Kingfisher Story Collection, first published in 2022. When first released on September 21, 2022, The Kingfisher Story Collection had a total of 21 stories. Today, Wild Wise Weird has grown to house 42 stories in total. -/- Although The Kingfisher Story Collection has been updated to include all the new stories, I still want to post this version with a shorter title Wild Wise Weird, to mark its (...) second anniversary. -/- Quan-Hoang Vuong -/- September 28, 2024 -/- Hanoi, Vietnam. (shrink)

Wild Wise Weird: The Kingfisher Story Collection is an imaginative anthology that blends whimsical, wise, and strange tales. Filled with adventures, life lessons, and unique insights, it offers engaging and thought-provoking stories for readers of all ages. Perfect for fans of fantasy and the surreal, this collection captivates and inspires.

Wild Wise Weird emerges as a distinctive work that merges humor, satire, and social critique into a collection of 42 fables featuring birds, especially the character Mr. Kingfisher, as guides to explore themes of wisdom, human behavior, and environmental awareness. Set in a whimsical bird village, the book offers readers a satirical reflection on society, encouraging contemplation on contemporary issues such as environmental sustainability and human-nature relationships. With wit and depth, Vuong’s storytelling demonstrates remarkable versatility, making Wild Wise (...) Weird a potential classic for readers interested in literary fiction and social allegory, reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Aziz Nesin’s Laugh or lament? (shrink)

The enchanting cover of “Wild Wise Weird: The Kingfisher Story Collection” immediately drew me in, the vivid image of the kingfisher beckoning me into a world filled with rich stories. And rich they truly are. Author Quan-Hoang Vuong has masterfully crafted a collection of captivating fables, each with its own unique charm and moral lesson. -/- Like ancient tales passed down through generations, Vuong’s stories evoke a sense of wonder and connection to our collective cultural heritage. They utilize symbolism, (...) humor, and cleverly crafted animal characters to deliver timeless truths in ways that resonate deeply, no matter your age. While some might see the genre as outdated, the power of these fables lies in their ability to hold a mirror to human behavior and explore universal themes that transcend time and culture. (shrink)

This paper argues that Plato recognized that Socrates’ rational, reflective love, learned from the wise Diotima, is the only means of achieving secure, self-sufficient happiness and so the only way to avoid tragedy in human life.

This paper is about a problem that can arise when we try to harness the “wisdom of the crowd” from groups comprised of individuals who exhibit a certain kind of epistemic humility in the way they respond to testimonial evidence. I begin by setting out the problem and then make some initial steps toward solving it. The solution I develop is tentative and may not apply in all circumstances, but it promises to alleviate what seems to me to be a (...) problem of both theoretical interest and practical importance. (shrink)

Formal and empirical work on the Wisdom of Crowds has extolled the virtue of diverse and independent judgment as essential to the maintenance of ‘wise crowds’. In other words, com-munication and imitation among members of a group may have the negative effect of decreasing the aggregate wisdom of the group. In contrast, it is demonstrable that certain meta-inductive methods provide optimal means for predicting unknown events. Such meta-inductive methods are essentially imitative, where the predictions of other agents are imitated (...) to the extent that those agents have proven successful in the past. Despite the (self-serving) optimality of meta-inductive methods, their imitative nature may undermine the ‘wisdom of the crowd’, since these methods recommend that agents imitate the predictions of other agents. In this paper, I present a replication of selected results of Thorn and Schurz, illustrating the effect on a group’s performance that may result from having members of a group adopt meta-inductive methods. I then expand on the work of Thorn and Schurz by considering three simple measures by which meta-inductive prediction methods may improve their own performance, while simultaneously mitigating their negative impact on group performance. The effects of adopting these maneuvers are investigated using computer simulations. (shrink)

Weather experiences are currently surprisingly under-explored and under-theorised in sociology and sport sociology, despite the importance of weather in both routine, everyday life and in recreational sporting and physical–cultural contexts. To address this lacuna, we examine here the lived experience of weather, including ‘weather work’ and ‘weather learning’, in our specific physical–cultural worlds of distance-running, triathlon and jogging in the United Kingdom. Drawing on a theoretical framework of phenomenological sociology, and the findings from five separate auto/ethnographic projects, we explore the (...) ‘weather-worlds’ and weather work involved in our physical–cultural engagement. In so doing, we address ongoing sport sociological concerns about embodiment and somatic, sensory learning and ways of knowing. We highlight how weather work provides a key example of the phenomenological conceptualisation of the mind–body–world nexus in action, with key findings delineating weather learning across the meteorological seasons that contour our British weather-related training. (shrink)

According to Steven Nadler's novel interpretation of Spinoza's much discussed ‘free man’, the free man is not an unattainable ideal. On this reading, the free man represents an ideal condition not because he is passionless, as has often been claimed, but because even though he experiences passions, he ‘never lets those passions determine his actions’. In this paper, I argue that Nadler's interpretation is incorrect in taking the model of the free man to be an attainable ideal within our reach. (...) Furthermore, I show that Spinoza's moral philosophy has room for another ideal yet attainable condition, which is represented by the wise man. On my reading, becoming a wise man consists not in surmounting human bondage, but in understanding ourselves as finite expressions of God's power and, thereby, coming to terms with the ineliminability of bondage for us due to our very human or modal condition in the Spinozistic universe. (shrink)

Wild Wise Weird by Quan-Hoang Vuong is a delightful anthology that brings to life the whimsical world of a wise, solitary Kingfisher navigating a vibrant bird village. Each story blends humor and thoughtful commentary, creating a journey filled with both charm and valuable insight.

In this paper I introduce a version of constructivism that relies on a theory of practical wisdom. Wise judgment constructivism is a type of constructivism because it takes correct judgments about what we have “all-in” reason to do to be the result of a process we can follow, where our interest in the results of this process stems from our practical concerns. To fully defend the theory would require a comprehensive account of wisdom, which is not available. Instead, I (...) describe a constructivist methodology for defending an account of wisdom and outline its main features. This gives us enough to see what wise judgment constructivism would look like, why it might be an attractive theory, and how it is different from other versions of constructivism. (shrink)

A sceptical response to the idea that wisdom may be turned into a new academic subject or science, and to the idea that to do so would be in any way be wise. .

Recently, Margaret Gilbert has argued that it appears that the wisdom of a society impinges, greatly, on its freedom. In this article, I show that Gilbert’s “negative argument” fails to be convincing. On the other hand, there are important lessons, particularly for democratic theory, that can be by looking carefully, and critically, at her argument. This article will proceed as follows. First, I present Gilbert’s argument. Next, I criticize her understanding of freedom, and then, using arguments from Christopher McMahon, criticize (...) her understanding of a wise society. Finally, I discuss how what has been said can inform how one should think about democratic theory. (shrink)

In this essay, I review one of my beloved fictional titles, Wild Wise Weird: The Kingfisher Story collection. The minimal sense of humor and satire in storytelling of Wild Wise Weird are sure to bring readers smiles, better yet, moments of quiet reflection, a much under-appreciated remedy in the world driven almost insane with the abundance of information co-created with AI technologies. I hope to deliver justice to the book.

Review of All Things Wise and Wonderful by E. Janet Warren.

I sat by the riverbank, watching a stork family flying back to their nest after a hard working day. To my astonishment, a kingfisher landed beside me, his feathers shimmering like the pages of a timeless book.

Preview: /Review: Brian S. Dixon, Dewey and Design: A Pragmatist Perspective for Design Research, 200 pages./ Brian S. Dixon’s book Dewey and Design provides, as the book’s subtitle declaims, a pragmatist perspective for design research. Design research is an academic field that specifically deals with the design process. Its domain-specific knowledge led to the establishment of design as an independent discipline of study in the second half of the last century. According to Dixon’s description, design research consists of three major (...) areas of investigation: the design process, the artifacts that result from this process, and the relation of these artifacts with the end-user. Dixon exposes the fruitlessness of drawing a clear dividing line, and argues that design research would be better off as a continuous, not necessarily linear, process involving “practically” all three. Concurrently, the author emphasizes the practical aspect of this continuity; on the one hand as a stark contrast to the idea of ​​purely theoretical research, on the other, from a pragmatist viewpoint, intending the knowledge of the world as full of the practical consequences of acting within it. Specifically, the pragmatist slant of Dixon’s proposal is that of John Dewey, centered on the ideas of “an experience,” “inquiry,” and “imagination”; notions aiming at providing “a robust epistemological narrative” for design research. The choice of this perspective necessarily leads Dixon to deal with problems such as the ontology of the specifically creative act of designers, distinct from the artistic one, the communicative potential of industrial artifacts, and their ethical import. (shrink)

We are considered to be highly evolved conscious beings, but if we look at ourselves, do we actually feel that we are there; wise men or Homo sapiens as we call ourselves? In today’s world, reward based conditioning forms our contemporary culture that deeply defines how we look at life and how we intuitively perceive our consciousness. Presently, acquisitions are our priority and we behave as narcissistic conditioned puppets and let governments and corporations rule our lives. We are hypocrites (...) that can see, but behave blind; blinded within the realms of our short-termed thrills, joys and beliefs. Augmenting logical questioning and logical conditioning is the only way we can come out of this state that cannot be done individually, it has to be a collective effort. This paper is an attempt to understand our very own evolved consciousness and its relation to the current world with the true meaning of our existence, where we seek to understand it from a logical sense. (shrink)

Satire has long been a powerful way to encourage critical thinking, urging readers to reflect on the moral, political, and social forces that shape their world. By mixing humor with critique, satirical writing not only makes us laugh but also invites deeper reflection on human nature, social values, and how society is organized. This style of writing pushes readers to question the values and social norms we've long accepted without thought, as well as the societal structures we often take for (...) granted. (shrink)

Bằng cách kết hợp sự hài hước với tính phê phán, lối viết châm biếm không chỉ tạo ra tiếng cười mà còn khơi gợi những suy nghĩ sâu sắc hơn về bản chất con người, các giá trị xã hội và cách thức quản lý xã hội.

It is often assumed that the best explanation of why we should be moral must involve a substantive account of what there is reason to do and how this is related to what morality requires and recommends. In this paper I argue to the contrary that the best explanation of why we should be moral is neutral about the content of morality, and does not invoke an independent substantive account of what there is practical reason to do. I contend that (...) an act’s deontic status as recommended or required by morality is best understood as its being fitting for us to feel obligated to perform it, which essentially involves motivation to perform it. I argue, moreover, that our having reason to do something is a matter of its being fitting for us to be motivated to do it. Since an act’s being favored by morality conceptually entails the fittingness of our being motivated to perform it, and the fittingness of this motivation conceptually entails that there is reason to perform it, it is actually a conceptual truth that there are reasons to do what morality requires and recommends, whatever that turns out to be. I contend, finally, that this kind of account best explains why, although moral considerations are not always overriding, we necessarily have conclusive reasons to do what morality requires. I argue that an act counts as morally required only if the reasons to feel obligated to perform it are conclusive, which entails that it is unfitting to fail to be most strongly motivated to perform it. This, together with my account of the connection between fitting motives and practical reasons, entails that whatever considerations are weighty enough to make the act morally required are conclusive reasons to perform it. I believe that this conceptual account of reasons to be moral is important, because it removes the explanation of why we should be moral as a desideratum on normative ethical theories, which may significantly decrease the attractions of some and increase the attractions of others. (shrink)

Nghệ thuật châm biếm từ lâu được sử dụng như là một công cụ mạnh mẽ để thúc đẩy tư duy phản biện, khuyến khích người đọc suy ngẫm về các giá trị đạo đức, yếu tố chính trị và xã hội định hình thế giới của họ. Bằng cách kết hợp sự hài hước với tính phê phán, lối viết châm biếm không chỉ tạo ra tiếng cười mà còn khơi gợi những suy nghĩ sâu sắc hơn về bản (...) chất con người, các giá trị xã hội và cách thức quản lý xã hội. Cách viết này khuyến khích người đọc suy nghĩ và đặt câu hỏi về những giá trị và quy ước xã hội vốn đã được chấp nhận một cách mặc nhiên, cũng như những cấu trúc xã hội mà lâu nay chúng ta coi là đương nhiên và không cần bàn cãi. (shrink)

Reviews of “Wild Wise Weird” in the United States on October 1 & 3, 2024.

Hello World! I am Young Mantis. I was born in a village, called the Jute Plant Village, near the Bird Village. The photo of mine was taken by Kingfisher the Wise of the Bird Village, showing me while just 3 days old. That’s why I looked very tiny, even when compared to a newborn leave of the jute plant where I was clinging. My friendship with Kingfisher the Wise has developed over time, going through a roller coaster ride, (...) thus, complicated. But we are still friends today. For this, I am pleased to express my gratitude for many things in life. (shrink)

“Wild Wise Weird” is an extraordinary collection of short stories that offers a delightful window into Vietnamese culture through the quirky and thought-provoking adventures of Kingfisher, the clever protagonist from the bird village. Vuong Quan Hoang masterfully weaves humor, satire, and social commentary into tales that are both entertaining and deeply reflective.

“The Kingfisher Story Collection: Wild Wise Weird” by Vuong Quan Hoang is a captivating anthology that introduces readers to the unique and humorous life of a bird village in Vietnam. Through the adventures of Kingfisher, the wise protagonist, these short stories offer a charming blend of satire and social commentary that resonates deeply. Each story is a delightful window into Vietnamese culture, filled with laughter while addressing relevant issues like the climate crisis amidst its playful narrative.

Trong các mẩu chuyện ngắn trong Wild Wise Weird, rất nhiều cuộc họp của Xóm Chim đã diễn ra về những nội dung và với những tình tiết rất khác biệt. Mặc dù quý vị độc giả có thể dễ dàng hình dung ra những âm thanh chí chóe trong lúc tranh luận các “vấn đề” của Xóm Chim, nhưng mà trực tiếp nghe và ghi lại thì cũng thú vị không kém.

Ấy là nói về ông Bói Cá, nhân vật chính của tập truyện ngụ ngôn vui tươi, giàu triết lý cuộc sống, tư duy, có tiêu đề Wild Wise Weird (tạm dịch: Hoang dã, Khôn ngoan, Kỳ lạ).

I absolutely loved The Kingfisher Story Collection by Quan-Hoang Vuong. This book is such a unique and delightful blend of humor, wisdom, and cultural insight. The stories take you into a whimsical bird village, where the wise Kingfisher and his friends teach valuable life lessons through their adventures.

With wit, wisdom, and a “weird” approach through absurdity, Wild Wise Weird fosters readers’ awareness, self-reflection, informational connectivity, and even inspires them to confront stupidity to uncover wisdom. It may even inspire some readers to take up the pen. This book has the potential to resonate with readers, especially younger ones, embedding ecological sustainability in their humanistic values through the humor, vibrancy, and absurdity of its bird characters, as well as the wisdom woven throughout.

This piece serves as a review of Wild Wise Weird by an American professor, Dr. Nancy K. Napier of Boise State University. It reprints Prof. Napier's review on Amazon.

With wit, wisdom, and a “weird” approach through absurdity, Wild Wise Weird fosters readers’ awareness, self-reflection, informational connectivity, and even inspires them to confront stupidity to uncover wisdom. It may even inspire some readers to take up the pen. This book has the potential to resonate with readers, especially younger ones, embedding ecological sustainability in their humanistic values through the humor, vibrancy, and absurdity of its bird characters, as well as the wisdom woven throughout.

Wise old man under the banyan tree, does the wisdom come from his age or the man himself? Wisdom is very elusive, so seeking wisdom is not easy. It is common among laypeople that wisdom comes with age, but is it right?

For wise men and academics, the order of the world had been an implicit truth for a long time. Nobody had doubted it. The purpose of philosophy and theological discourse has always been to record and contemplate the mundane and celestial world. Because it has a Creator, the universe (and the human being) are in complete order (id est they are in orderliness), in a rigorous hierarchy and, at the same time, they have a meaning, a purpose, they are (...) part of a meaningful whole. In an orderly world, life instantly acquires meaning. This venerable certainty has become, in time, a simple hypothesis. Philosophers are no longer sure that the world is orderly. The following essays comment on the decay of a certainty and, in the end, on its loss. Borges and Georges Perec dared to record (with bitter irony) this loss. And this tripartite essay will speak about them. (shrink)

Pekakak selama ini tinggal di gua galiannya sendiri di tepi kolam, tapi sekarang dia memutuskan bahwa dia membutuhkan rumah baru. Dia melakukan tur keliling desa untuk melihat bagaimana burung-burung lain membangun rumah mereka. Dia mengunjungi Tuan Pipit, yang tinggal di pohon pinus yang bersiul. Bagian depan bangunannya tampak indah, dan lokasinya yang tinggi memberikan ventilasi yang baik. Tapi, semakin lama dia menginap, dia jadi semakin pusing. Hembusan angin apa pun yang menerpa membuat seluruh struktur bangunan bergetar seolah-olah akan hancur berantakan.

Healthcare professionals decide wisely about personalized medicine, treatment plans, and resource allocation by utilizing big data analytics and machine learning. To guarantee that algorithmic recommendations are impartial and fair, however, ethical issues relating to prejudice and data privacy must be taken into account. Big data analytics and machine learning have a great potential to disrupt healthcare, and as these technologies continue to evolve, new opportunities to reform healthcare and enhance patient outcomes may arise. In order to investigate the patient’s outcomes (...) with empirical evidence, this research was conducted using an online survey to incorporate healthcare professionals, patient’s reviews, and clinical staff. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0 to predict the structural model. The findings revealed a direct impact as positive influence of using machine learning on healthcare performance and patient outcomes through big data analytics. Moreover, it is evident that this can lead to personalized treatment plans, early interventions, and improved patient outcomes. Additionally, big data analytics can help healthcare providers optimize resource allocation, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs. The impact of big data analytics on patient outcome and healthcare performance is expected to continue to grow, making it an important area for investment and research. (shrink)

Pada musim semi, entah kenapa, tidak banyak ikan. Karena tangkapannya sangat tidak stabil, Pekakak mulai berpikir. Lalu membuat beberapa rencana. Dengan otoritas komandonya, dia memanggil Bangau: – Ini adalah musim penangkapan ikan yang sangat sulit. Jika kita ingin kenyang, kita harus membuat usaha patungan. Bangau mengangguk, menambahkan: - Saya setuju; mari kita beternak ikan kakap putih dan ikan mas krusia. Jenis ini berumur panjang dan sangat produktif. Pekakak dan Bangau sepakat untuk berbagi tugas beternak, dan tidak ada diskriminasi yang diizinkan. (...) Namun imbalannya berbeda: Pekakak bertanggung jawab untuk ikan kakap putih dan, dengan demikian, dapat memiliki lebih banyak ikan kakap putih, sedangkan Bangau mendapat ikan mas krusia. Siapapun yang memelihara ikan mana yang lebih banyak akan menikmati 80% dari panen akhir ikan tersebut. Keduanya akan mengevaluasi dan membagi produk ternak pada akhir musim beternak. Ini berarti mengantongi sendiri ikan hasil usaha patungan untuk diri sendiri itu dilarang. (shrink)

Suatu pagi di musim panas, desa burung diselimuti keheningan. Semua orang sibuk mendengarkan pengembara baru. Burung pengembara ini berasal dari keluarga yang tidak jelas; bulunya berwarna-warni, gerak-geriknya lucu, dan ilmunya baru. Dia bercerita seolah-olah sedang memberi ceramah, tepat sekali, warga desa memanggilnya burung Guru – orang yang menjawab setiap pertanyaan aneh warga desa yang rajin belajar. Burung pelatuk telah belajar menangkap cacing di sore hari, sehingga mereka tidak perlu bangun pagi. Burung pipit sekarang tahu cara mencuri beras dari gudang saat (...) sawah mulai kering. Bulbul, sementara itu, telah mengambil kesempatan berkumpul untuk memamerkan kecantikan dan fashion mereka… . (shrink)

(The Kindle book can be ordered for $3.21 from Amazon) -/- Thinking is a fundamental activity of our species – those that give names to other creatures and call themselves humans. Textbooks tell us that there is about 1.2 kg of matter called the brain inside the human body. It sounds small but actually is proportionally the biggest among all animals on Earth. -/- I became more aware of thinking at around 5th grade upon hearing about an ancient paradox. It (...) can be summarized as follows. -/- ¤ -/- Once upon a time, there was a stupid king. In his kingdom lived a sage who was highly respected for his intelligence. The King did not appreciate this fact. Maybe the Sage made fun of the King’s intellect, but I am not so sure. Anyway, one day, the King summoned the Sage, intending to kill him. -/- The King said, “Wise man, I heard you earn a living by thinking and arguing. Now I give you two options to die.” -/- The Sage said, “Please tell me the choices, Your Majesty.” -/- The King continued, “You live by your tongue, so I will let you say one sentence before you die. If what you say is true, you will die by hanging. If what you say is false, you will die by beheading.” -/- Little did the King know that this was a stupid order. After a short while, the Sage confidently spoke his “last words”, which actually were what saved his life: -/- “Your Majesty, I am about to be beheaded!” -/- ¤ -/- As a “wild animal” going out into life from a young age, my brain spent a lot of time and energy looking for food. Now that I have become older, my body no longer needs so much sustenance. However, my mind craves a different type of nourishment: food for thought. -/- Food for thought can directly lead to food (on the table). My main job as a scientist exemplifies what I have just stated. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe it has been “thought for food” all along, like in such a sequence as TFFTTTFTFFTTFFFT... -/- In the hyper-chaotic infosphere today, we are surrounded by the noises of information, not only as wavy shores or waterfalls but also mega-tsunamis, through Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, etc. More than ever, tranquility and calmness are necessary. Like what you have seen in wilderness video clips, predators such as lions, bears, and alligators act lightning-fast when catching prey. But when food is served, the natural world returns to its peaceful, soothing silence. -/- This short book is in its own tidy infosphere, where each little story is also brief and self-contained. Despite this small appearance, I hope the content inside carries the value of tranquility and life observation. The book is petite, but pretty sure not malnourished. A not-too-small detail is that the way the content was shaped and distilled reflects some innovations of mine and my research team: the mindsponge theory, a new theory of serendipity, the bayesvl R package, the BMF analytics, as well as other experiences from working in the field of science. After all, scientific works were my main source of food (before this book sells well – if it does). -/- Welcome to the priceless sober moments – with a chicken-burger price tag! -/- I hope this book will bring readers some moments of calmness, peaceful smiles, and maybe a couple of good laughs too. -/- ~~~ -/- *This update: December 12, 2023 (Third edition, with additions). (shrink)

The paper explores the methodology and goals of H. Odera Oruka’s sage philosophy project. Oruka interviewed wise persons who were mostly illiterate and from the rural areas of Kenya to show that a long tradition of critical thinking and philosophizing exists in Africa, even if there is no written record. His descriptions of the role of the academic philosopher turned interviewer varied, emphasizing their refraining from imposition of their own views (the social science model), their adding their own ideas (...) (like Plato), or their midwifery in helping others give birth to their own ideas (like Socrates). The accuracy and consistency of the various metaphors used by Oruka is the main focus of the article’s analysis. The article sums up the shortcomings of Oruka’s method as well as its strengths and concludes with Oruka’s challenge to academic philosophers to rethink their own roles in society. (shrink)

In the framework of judgment aggregation, we assume that some formulas of the agenda are singled out as premisses, and that both Independence (formula-wise aggregation) and Unanimity Preservation hold for them. Whether premiss-based aggregation thus defined is compatible with conclusion-based aggregation, as defined by Unanimity Preservation on the non-premisses, depends on how the premisses are logically connected, both among themselves and with other formulas. We state necessary and sufficient conditions under which the combination of both approaches leads to dictatorship (...) (resp. oligarchy), either just on the premisses or on the whole agenda. This framework is inspired by the doctrinal paradox of legal theory and arguably relevant to this field as well as political science and political economy. When the set of premisses coincides with the whole agenda, a limiting case of our assumptions, we obtain several existing results in judgment aggregation theory. (shrink)

Pekakak adalah salah satu tokoh yang memiliki pengetahuan mendalam dan perencanaan yang cermat. Saat fajar menyingsing, ia terlihat bertengger di atas pohon. Dengan kemampuan sempurna untuk mengontrol kecepatan penerbangan miliknya, seperti kapan harus memperlambat atau mempercepat, dia dapat dengan mudah menghitung cara optimal untuk menangkap ikan. Ditambah pengalamannya menangani ikan di kolam, dia bisa tahu dari jauh mana ikan yang besar, kecil, gesit, atau kelam. Hanya dengan menangkap ikan pada saat yang paling tepat, dia bisa menghemat banyak waktu untuk merenungkan (...) hal-hal duniawi. Mengenal dirinya sendiri, Pekakak merencanakan setiap makanan sesuai seleranya dan, dengan demikian, melacak inventaris ikannya. Ikan kecil harus menunggu, dan ikan besar harus pergi. Dia perfeksionis, dia memperhitungkan segalanya. (shrink)

According to a venerable ideal, the core aim of philosophical practice is wisdom. The guiding concern of the ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese traditions was the nature of the good life for human beings and the nature of reality. Central to these traditions is profound recognition of the subjection to adversities intrinsic to human life. I consider paradigmatic exemplars of wisdom, from ancient Western and Asian traditions, and the ways that experiences of adversity shaped their life. The suggestion is that (...) these exemplars, if any, will show how to live wisely in adversity. (shrink)

Goethe once wisely remarked, in conversation with J.P. Eckermann (1825), “[a] great deal may be done by severity, more by love, but most by clear discernment and impartial justice.” Grayling’s new contribution to the popularization of philosophy, in this respect with regard to ethics, has achieved much by way of lowering to the rank and file, the wisdom of philosophical reflections in this moving, straightforward and lucidly argumentative book. However, much space in the severity and passion of the text leaves (...) ample room for improvement, better yet, enhancement, not so much by approaching his subjects with love as by treating the topics with impartiality. (shrink)

The paper depicts the blueprint of an electronic wise indicating system for demonstrating learning French to understudies to overcome the inconveniences they go up against. The fundamental idea of this structure is a proficient introduction into learning French. The system shows the purpose of learning French and coordinates thusly made issues for the understudies to clarify. The system is logically balanced at run time to the understudy’s individual progress. The system gives unequivocal help to adaptable presentation to learners.

When did kosmos come to mean *the* kosmos, in the sense of ‘world-order’? I venture a new answer by examining later evidence often underutilised or dismissed by scholars. Two late doxographical accounts in which Pythagoras is said to be first to call the heavens kosmos (in the anonymous Life of Pythagoras and the fragments of Favorinus) exhibit heurematographical tendencies that place their claims in a dialectic with the early Peripatetics about the first discoverers of the mathematical structure of the universe. (...) Likewise, Xenophon and Plato refer to ‘wise men’ who nominate kosmos as the object of scientific inquiry into nature as a whole and the cosmic ‘communion’ (koinônia) between all living beings, respectively. Again, later testimonies help in identifying the anonymous ‘wise men’ by associating them with the Pythagoreans and, especially, Empedocles. As Horky argues, not only is Empedocles the earliest surviving source to use kosmos to refer to a harmonic ‘world-order’ and to illustrate cosmic ‘communities’ between oppositional pairs, but also his cosmology realises the mutual correspondence of these aspects in the cycle of love and strife. Thus, if later figures posited Pythagoras as the first to refer to the universal ‘world-order’ as the kosmos, they did so because they believed Empedocles to have been a Pythagorean natural scientist, whose combined focus on cosmology and ethics exemplified a distinctively Pythagorean approach to philosophy. (shrink)