Writer's Block: The name game

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My user name is quite simple as i love music of certain genres (except for some of the indie shit my cousin likes) and at one time i had enough records (vinyl and CD) to fill a tank - hence Daves Music Tank (or DMT for short)

Usurpers

 Since i have been down in Kent i have only bought five books, twice at Waterstones and one charity shop plus two from Play.com site , and apart from the one Tim gave me, all the others i have with me are from Brighton. So to all those who think i am building up a collection again can eat their own words (pun intended). 

Actually i have a bag full to collect from L's place when i visit Brighton , which includes a number of  books by my favourite cultural commentator and a few other philosophy books beside.

Had a day in the feral hub of Kent , namely Sittingbourne, with my cousin for the usual weekly food shop. If you are looking for a low life dive then head straight to this town.

Philosophy and Justice

The other book I ordered via Play (having about a fiver in the account from sales made)  arrived on Monday. It is introduced by my favourite critical commentator and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, Robespierre's own account of the French Revolution “Virtue and Terror” .

I have now finished reading “Breakfast With Socrates” which will go on sale at Play Trade.

On BBC 4 they are doing a series on Justice aired by professor Michael Sandel , and I have seen the first two instalments of this eight part series. The first  (Justice : A Citizen's Guide to the 21st Century - ) is on the so called Big Society . In it we are introduced to the idea of Utilitarianism put forward by 18th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham. whose central dictum is the pursuit of happiness for all the people of the state , in other words the greatest happiness for the majority as long as that pursuit does not impinge on the freedom of others.

Happiness, according to Bentham, is thus a matter of experiencing pleasure and lack of pain.

This was followed by a lecture Justice: Fairness And The Big Society in which he discussed fairness with a studio audience.

Then we move to a more progressive argument put forward by Immanuel Kant , the Categorical Imperative, which underpins the idea of Dignity and hence Human Rights. Finally we look at the idea of Virtue in civic society as espoused by Aristotle , that virtue is the ideal to strive for above individual self-interest and is closer to the kind of social contract that Rousseau commented upon.

The second lecture in the series is about cannibalism and whether in a situation which requires survival by eating another human is morally justified. Fascinating and ethical philosophic problems put forward in layman’s terms from the Open University.

I look forward to the next six lectures on BBC 4.

These are the links to this fascinating subject.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/justice
http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-justice-season
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham