Language, Etymology, William Jones, Science, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Paradigm Shift

 Philologist (individual studying historical language skills), William Jones (1746-1794) remarked during a lecture in Calcutta the following:

 The sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps no longer exists.

 What William Jones achieved during his life-long stay in India was nothing less than to bring about a revolution. Before Jones showed that languages change and evolve and that languages can be related to each other, it was generally believed among "the scholars of Europe" that the different languages had been created at the same time and made different since the Almighty God had punished humanity when they in their pride built the "Tower of Babel ". - An interesting example of the stupidity in believing "Holy Scriptures".
  When Europe learned and embraced the idea that gradual change was something that ever took place, it resulted in a paradigm shift, which came to influence European thinking.
 It also resulted in creating a new study - Ethymology.

 Ludwig Feuerbach: To religion only that which is holy is true. - To Philosophy: Only that which is true is holy.

 Socrates: I cannot teach anybody anything. - All I can do is make them think.

Todde

PS. More about paradigm shit and disruption at:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2016/05/interesting-lecture-on-how-technology.html

and about "Holy Scriptures":

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/12/christianity-religion-holy-scriptures.html

and about "Friendship":

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/03/friends-true-friend-is-someone-you-know.html

Also check the application of a "Modern Socratic Method" (dialectics) at:

https://www.duga.se/

 An excellent article in a Swedish Daily Newspaper today (2016-06-20) on Contributions/Aid and a finding that the philosophy of "bleeding hearts" and political correctness often results in more evil than goodness.

Todde

Aid does not always result in Prosperity

 Last Wednesday Bill Gates launched his latest aid project: one hundred thousand chickens will be sent to the world's poorest countries. To get maximum media attention he brought live chickens to the press conference, held on the 68th floor of the World Trade Center in New York. But the action was not appreciated by everyone. Bolivia - a major producer of chickens - said definitetly NO!.

 The project is yet another reminder of the aid industry's major shortcomings. Bolivia gave birth last year, up 197 million chickens, with an estimated export capacity of 36 billion. If Bill Gates chickens reached the country it would have been a blow to the country's domestic production. Who wants to pay for chicken if you can get it for free? It does not help to just like good - those who want to help people through active actions are responsible for the consequences of their intentions. A basic problem with aid is that poverty is rarely caused by lack of resources, but by bad political systems. Those who want to help need to understand the mechanisms that actually drives development forwards, and what the consequences of aid are, so they can direct them towards positive results.

 Bolivia is one of the world's poorest countries. But some things are moving in the right direction: reducing corruption, and from 2007 to 2014, GDP per capita has increased from 1390 dollars to 3124 dollars.

 However, there is no link between aid and increased living standards - on the contrary. The clearest example is South Korea compared to Kenya. In 1965 both countries had the same GDP per capita. Today we see South Korea is twenty times richer. The most important difference is that the South Korea opened up for international trade, while Kenya did not. Prosperity requires functioning markets; Aid history give us few examples of functioning coexistence. When will the western world realize this? That is still an unanswered question.

 The original article in Swedish is available in Swedish at:

https://www.svd.se/valstand-springer-inte-ur-bistand

ALEXANDRA IVANOV alexandra.ivanov@svd.se

 Maybe you would also be interested in this article: 

http://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2016/04/economykeynes-national-economics.html

 A BBC program "How we built the World" is now in the replay and can be seen on SVT Play.

 The program is useful for modern people to watch and contemplate, as we usually are very unaware of how our modern world was created and what problems needed to be solved to realize our modern urbanized world.

 All the programs are in English with Swedish subtitles and they can only be seen in Sweden.

  "How we got to Now part 1 - 6".

 The Art of  Printing, electricity and space - some things keep on returning when human progress is descussed. But who cares about how cities solved their drainage problems? How we learned to measure time? How glass became an important material?

 ”How we got to Now” is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 1 can be seen on SVT Play until Friday, June 24th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3001332/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-1 

Part 2 of 6. Early on it was enough to use the sun to gauge the time. Eventually we got out of that with clocks that could go wrong 20 minutes in a day. Today we have atomic clocks with extreme precision. And we are lucky, without them clapping our delicate systems together. "How we got to Now" is about the practical milestones of humanity.
 But as clocks have leberated us to some extent, we have alsdo been enslaved by "keeping time"

The program part 2 can be seen on SVT Play until Saturday, June 25th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3022818/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-2 

Part 3 of 6. We take it for granted and may react only when it breaks down. But the ability to make glass of sand was a real milestone in the development of civilization. Today, these fantastic materials are all around us.

  That glass is a wonderful material and that it has been so important in the development of our modern civilization makes this program even more interesting.

The program part 3 can be seen on SVT Play until Sunday, June 26th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3022818/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-3

Part 4 of 6. For tens of thousands of years, man's only sources of light were the sun and fire. A hundred and fifty years ago, a revolution was started. Inventor Thomas Edison pioneered the lights - and our habits changed forever. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 4 can be seen on SVT Play until Monday, June 27th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3063757/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-4?start=auto 

Part 5 of 6 : About cold . For half a million years, humans have been able to warm themselves by fire . Providing refrigeration to keep food fresh is an invention a lot younger but equally important. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

Personally, I'm a slightly against the population of our world becoming increasingly dependent on " energy-consuming artificial means " to survive. When/if we might one day produce energy in large quantities without fossil energy, I am of course willing to change my mind.

The program part 5 can be seen on SVT Play until Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3067388/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-5 

Part 6 of 6 : Sound . The sound is rarely considered as important as the image. Steven Johnson wants to change that and highlight the enormous importance of sound. He begins his journey in a northern French cave where the first traces found by human attempting to document the sound. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 6 can be seen on SVT Play until Monday, July 4th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3074645/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-6?info=visa 

  Maybe you are also interested in:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2016/05/interesting-lecture-on-how-technology.html 

Todde

Two of life's great questions

What is? What matters?

 An interesting philosophical lecture. Starts in English with Swedish subtitles after 1,5 minutes. Especially the last 11 minutes (from 18 minutes) are very interesting.

 I like to quote Socrates: A life lived without reflection (= meditation) over life is meaningless (= not worth living). The most important thing in life is not to be influenced by others. The most important thing is to develop oneself (= true self). Therefore: Make sure that you constantly have a thirst for wisdom, to develop your judgement - Wisdom achieved with rigor, power and discipline. Rectitude achieved through training and discipline to overcome personal shortcomings and weaknesses.

 and another quote from the lecture: Filo-sofia is beautiful and young - poetry is her brother in arms in the service of good.

 I recommend especially the last 11 minutes (from 18 minutes)

Production year: 2014 - Duration: 29:10 - Available until July 1, 2020

The philosopher and writer, Rebecca Goldstein, has a passionate relationship to the philosophy that allowes her to constantly examine and reassess different beliefs. Here she talks about the importance of a renaissance of the thoughts from the time of the Enlightenment. She believes that there are two kinds of philosophical questions that we humans wrestle with: questions about what is and questions about what is significant. For example, we must ask ourselves what kind of universe we exist in, and how we see our own identity and significance.

 Recorded November 10th 2014 at Rival in Stockholm. Organizer: Freedom of thought publishers and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The program is available at UR Play:

http://www.ur.se/Produkter/187188-UR-Samtiden-Zombier-kvantbiologi-och-extrema-hjarnor-Tva-av-livets-stora-fragor

Todde