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Maranassati Sutta 1

Buddhism

Philosophy

Psychology

We should “gain a footing in the Deathless” and “have the Deathless as [our] final end” [1.1].

Institutional Betrayal

Psychology

Institutional Betrayal (IB) is a phenomenon in which “an institution causes harm to an individual who depends on or trusts the institution” (Smith & Freyd, 2014, p. 578). In other words, an individual experiences IB if the following two conditions are satisfied:

Self-Acceptance and Relationships

Philosophy

Psychology

In an issue of Psychological Reports, William Schutz, an American psychologist, argues that “[l]ikeability is based on the ability to create an atmosphere within which people like themselves. I find you likeable if I like how I behave and feel in your presence. Paradoxically, my liking has little to do with you. I like you if I like myself when I am with you. People may be significant and competent but not likeable.”

Pride and Flattery

Philosophy

Psychology

In Ethics, Spinoza argues that if an individual is proud, then he loves flatterers: “[a] proud person loves the presence of parasites or flatterers, and hates the presence of generous people” (4P57). In this mini essay, I trace a logical chain that connects pride to a love for flatterers.

The Catastrophic Risks of AI

Artificial Intelligence

Philosophy

In The Catastrophic Risks of AI - and a Safer Path, Yoshua Bengio argues for the rise of agentic AI, and the conditions under which their rise might cause humans to go extinct in the near future. In this article, I summarise 16 lessons that I have gained from his talk.

Techno-Distress

Information Systems

Psychology

Ragu-Nathan and colleagues (2008) defined the constructs of technostress and technostress creators, also known as techno-distress and techno-distress creators respectively (Tarafdar et al., 2024). In this post, I present the definitions of both constructs.

Techno-Eustress

Information Systems

Psychology

Tarafdar and colleagues (2024) defined the constructs of techno-eustress and techno-eustress creators. In this post, I present the definitions of both constructs.

Skilful Action

Buddhism

Philosophy

Skilful action causes happiness. In Wings to Awakening, Thanissaro Bhikkhu argues that skilful action is “the primary factor” that “contribut[es] to happiness”.

No-self or Not-Self?

Buddhism

Philosophy

In No-Self or Not-Self, Thanissaro Bhikkhu argues that the question of whether or not there is a self “should be put aside”. In other words, individuals should neither believe that there is a self nor believe that there is no self. In this post, I outline the argument.

Refuge

Buddhism

Philosophy

In pre-Buddhism, if an individual takes refuge in a patron, then the individual submits him- or herself to the patron in exchange for protection from danger.¹

Why Individuals Should Learn to Code

Artificial Intelligence

Education

Productivity

In Learn the Language of Software, Andrew Ng argues that individuals should “learn to code”.

Aggi Sutta

Buddhism

Philosophy

The Aggi Sutta (Fire Discourse) is a discourse (sutta) in the Bojjhanga Samyutta. The Bojjhanga Samyutta is a samyutta (chapter) in the Maha Vagga. The Maha Vagga is a vagga (section) in the Samyutta Nikaya. The Samyutta Nikaya is a nikaya (collection) in the Sutta Pitaka. The Sutta Pitaka is a pitaka (basket) in the Tipitaka. The Tipitaka is the Pali Canon which forms the doctrinal foundation of Theravada Buddhism.

Kodhana Sutta

Buddhism

Philosophy

These are seven things that anger causes one to lose that their enemies wish for them to lose.

A Rational Argument for Morality

Ethics

Philosophy

In Enlightenment Now and Rationality, Pinker (2018, 2021) presents a rational argument for morality. In this post, I present his argument.

How to Stop Being Angry

Ethics

Philosophy

In this post, I meditate on the nature of anger.

Generalists and Specialists

Education

Philosophy

Psychology

Should we be either generalists or specialists?

Critical Thinking and Depression

Education

Philosophy

Psychology

Depression is a “sad, empty, or irritable mood”, accompanied by related changes that significantly affect the individual’s capacity to function” (American Psychiatric Association, 2022, p. 177).

The Need for Critical Thinking

Education

Philosophy

Critical thinking is the active, careful and persistent consideration of both the justifications for and the implications of our beliefs (Dewey, 1933). An individual thinks critically if and only if the individual actively, carefully and persistently considers both “the grounds that support” their belief and “the further conclusions to which it tends” (p. 9).

An Argument Against Free Will

Logic

Philosophy

Religion

In a YouTube Short, Alex O’Connor argues that there is no free will. In this post, I formalise his argument against free will.

Friendship and Forgiveness

Philosophy

In Consolations, Whyte (2019) argues that friendship is “a testament to forgiveness” and that its “ultimate touchstone is witness”. In this post, I argue that if I desire the good of witness, then I must forgive.

Singapore’s Renewed Social Compact

Singapore

Politics

During a recent press conference, Prime Minister (PM) Lawrence Wong stated that the aspirations and hopes that Singaporeans had shared during the Forward Singapore exercise are underpinned by two important pillars: a renewed social compact and a refreshed Singapore Dream (Prime Minister’s Office, 2024). In this post, I focus on the first pillar and argue for the following:

The Danger of Nostalgia Weighing Upon the Present

Singapore

In The Danger of Nostalgia Weighing Upon the Present, Simon Tay warns that “[i]t is good to know our history, but we must be wary of invoking the past to make decisions about the present”. In this post, I state three lessons that I have learnt from the article.

St. Augustine on The Immortality of the Soul

Philosophy

Religion

In De Immortalitate Animae, St. Augustine proposes a proof for the immortality of the soul. In this post, I outline his proof.

How Repressed Emotions Make Us Sick

Psychology

The School of Life released a video which introduces the psychoanalytic concept of repression, its causes and its effects. In this article, I summarise the video.

The Problem with Counterfeit People

Philosophy

Politics

In The Problem with Counterfeit People, Daniel Dennett argues that “we must outlaw […] the creation of counterfeit people”. In particular, he argues that “reating counterfeit digital people risks destroying our civilisation”. In the present post, I outline his argument that the creation of counterfeit digital people risks destroying our civilisation.

Honesty, Truth and Belief

Philosophy

It is not necessary that if an individual is honest, then his or her speech consistent with the truth. In other words, it is possible that an individual is honest but his or her speech is inconsistent with the truth.

Loving-Kindness as the Antidote to Anger

Buddhism

Philosophy

Psychology

If an individual experiences anger (paṭigha), then he or she has ill-will (vyāpāda). In Anger and Forgiveness, Nussbaum argues that anger is an emotion “that seeks the pain of the offender because of and as a way of assuaging or compensating for one’s own pain”. In other words, the individual desires that some individuals experience pain (dukkha) at some time.¹ ²

Should Married Men Go To Strip Clubs?

Relationships

I came across a TikTok video in which a divorce lawyer argues that married men should not go to strip clubs:

Pleasure and Desire

Philosophy

Last night, I was thinking about pleasure and desire. I found three thinkers who have argued for the following claims:

Rethinking Serendipity in Love

Relationships

Philosophy

An acquaintance once advised me on love, “It is possible to find love, but you have to search for it.” In his view, love, like all other good things in life, comes to those who not just wait, but also seek it.

Peace without War

Buddhism

Confucianism

Ethics

Philosophy

Politics

3 Lessons on Beauty

Buddhism

Philosophy

In 1900, Nishida Kitaro published one of his first original essays titled An Explanation of Beauty. In the essay, Kitaro argues for the relationships between beauty, pleasure, muga and truth.

Void and Compensation

Philosophy

Psychology

Relationships

In this article, I share marginalia and reflections on the chapter Void and Compensation in the book Gravity and Grace by Simone Weil.

Avoiding Pathways to Unhappiness

Philosophy

Poetry

Psychology

Of the things that we dislike about ourselves, either we can change them, or we cannot change them. And of the latter class of things, our continued dislike of them is the surest path to unhappiness.

The Islamic Scholar who Influenced Jewish and Christian Thought

Religion

Philosophy

The Islamic Golden Age (c. 750-1258 BCE) was marked by significant cultural, religious, scientific, and technological developments in the Muslim world (Abbas, 2011, p. 9).

A Guide to Benevolence in Confucianism

Confucianism

Philosophy

Relationships

In 551 BCE, Confucius was born to a once aristocratic family in a small state called Lu in East China. During his lifetime, he endeavoured towards the “impossible” goal of restoring order to an otherwise chaotic environment.

Writing Under an Autumn-Coloured Sky

Philosophy

Poetry

Psychology

To be is to be perceived. Like how a fallen tree makes a sound even when no one is around to hear it, the written word is felt even with no one else to read it.

Simone Weil on Friendship and its Adulteration

Philosophy

Friendship

Friendship is an important component of our intimate lives. Given its importance, it is not surprising that a number of philosophers including Aristotle have written on the subject. In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle (350 BCE/2009) distinguished between friendships of pleasure, friendships of utility and friendships of virtue. Two millenia later, the French philosopher and political activist Simone Weil would present her contribution to the growing canon on friendship. Waiting for God…

How to Understand Anselm’s Ontological Argument for God’s Existence

Logic

Philosophy

Religion

Saint Anselm of Canterbury was an Intalian Benedictine abbot, monk, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. Before he held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Anselm published the Proslogion in which he proposed the first Ontological Argument in the Western Christian tradition.

Understanding the Relationship Between Leverage and Mahalanobis Distance

Data Science

Mathematics

Statistics

In Multiple Linear Regression, it is useful to detect the presence of outliers in the sample. An indicator of the presence of outliers is the leverage (McCullagh & Nelder, 1989, p. 405). The leverage is a measure of the distance between an observation in the sample and the sample mean vector (p. 405). Given that the leverage is a measure of distance, it is perhaps unsurprising that it is related to the another measure of distance known as the Mahalanobis distance (Mahalanobis, 1936). In this…

What is the Barcan Formula?

Logic

Philosophy

In 1946, Barcan introduced an axiom schema in modal predicate logic which is now referred to as the Barcan Formula (p. 2).

How to Build a Logistic Regression Model from Scratch in R

Data Science

Statistics

In this document, I demonstrate how the Newton-Raphson Method can be used to approximate the Maximum Likelihood Estimates of the parameters of a Logistic Regression model.

How to Control Your Response to Bad Things That Happen

Buddhism

Philosophy

Psychology

Nothing bad that happens is outside our control. If something bad happens, then it is inside our control. And if something happens that is outside our control, then it is not bad.

Being Comfortable Not Being Alone

Relationships

Relationships require us to be comfortable being alone. They also require us to be comfortable not being alone.

Abjection and Pride

Philosophy

Psychology

In Ethics, Spinoza argues that “although abjection is contrary to pride, an abject person is nevertheless very close to a proud person” (Part IV, Proposition 57 Scholium; Part IV, Appendix 22). I argue that if an individual is abject, then he is proud.

The Irrationality of Anger

Buddhism

Philosophy

Psychology

It is irrational for me to be angry at someone else for the occurrence of an event to which I am averse.

Cowardice

Philosophy

Psychology

In The Ethics, Spinoza defines cowardice as “ascribed to one whose desire is restrained by timidity regarding a danger which his equals dare to take on themselves” In particular, it “is nothing but fear of some evil, which most people do not usually fear” (Part III). In other words, if an individual (A) is a coward, then there is some object (O) which A fears but which A’s equals do not fear.

Pleasure

Philosophy

Psychology

Pleasure is the desire of what is. If I cannot change what is, then I change what is desired.

Right Action

Buddhism

Philosophy

In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path comprises Ethical Conduct, Mental Discipline and Wisdom. Ethical Conduct comprises Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Mental Discipline comprises Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Wisdom Comprises Right Thought and Right Understanding. In this post, I meditate on Right Action.

Understanding the Nature of Envy

Philosophy

Psychology

The green-eyed monster appears often and without warning. Envy permeates our lives. In this post, I meditate on the nature of envy.

Proof 20200424

Logic

Philosophy

In a previous post, I formulated an argument based on a theorem that if ¬◊¬(φ → ψ) and ◊(φ ∧ χ) are provable, then ◊(ψ ∧ χ) is provable. In this post, I prove the theorem.

Right Speech

Buddhism

Philosophy

In the Magga-Vibhanga Sutta, the Buddha preaches that individuals should not engage in harsh speech. However, in the Abhaya Sutta, he preaches that individuals could engage in speech that is “true, beneficial but unendearing and disagreeable to others”. This suggests that the preaching in the Magga-Vibhanga Sutta contradicts the preaching in the Abhaya Sutta. In this post, I argue that the preaching in the Magga-Vibhanga Sutta does not contradict the preaching in the Abhaya Sutta. In…

Right Speech in Dating Profiles

Buddhism

Philosophy

In Race Restrictions: Just a Preference?, Corvino argues that individuals should not express their racial preferences on their dating profiles. This is because such an expression of racial preferences “reinforces the racist environment” for an “already marginalised group”. In this post, I argue that the expression of racial preferences in dating profiles is inconsistent with the practice of Right Speech if it is performed with the intention to either create rifts between people or hurt others’…

Right Speech

Buddhism

Philosophy

In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path comprises Ethical Conduct, Mental Discipline and Wisdom. Ethical Conduct comprises Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. Mental Discipline comprises Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Wisdom comprises Right Thought and Right Understanding. In this post, I meditate on Right Speech.

The Tale of the Stairs

Philosophy

Teaching Ethics with Short Stories (TESS) is a collection of short stories and guiding questions that encourages discussions over a wide range of ethical questions. In this post, I answer the questions on The Tale of the Stairs.

Préférence Nationale

Philosophy

Teaching Ethics with Short Stories (TESS) is a collection of short stories and guiding questions that encourages discussions over a wide range of ethical questions. In this post, I answer the questions on Préférence Nationale.

A Guide to the Nature of Jealousy

Philosophy

Psychology

I get jealous; and I think that we all do. The experience of anger, anxiousness, sadness and shame in response to our partners’ real or imagined attraction to an other is one that all humans go through, although to various degrees. In this post, I meditate on the nature of jealousy.

Pornography and Interpersonal Satisfaction

Psychology

Researchers from Indiana University and University of Hawaii conducted a meta-analysis of 50 studies including more than 50,000 participants from 10 countries. Their results were published in Human Communication Research. Pornography consumption is negatively associated with interpersonal satisfaction.

UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3)

Psychology

Loneliness is prevalent. A cross-section of community-dwelling adults in San Diego, California, revealed that 76% reported moderate-to-high levels of loneliness. In this post, I introduce the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) which is one of the most common measures of this construct.

Gay Male Body Image

LGBT

Psychology

In an article published in The Conversation, Phillip Joy states that a number of gay men are dissatisfied with their bodies, and that this dissatisfaction is associated with negative psychological outcomes, including but not limited to anxiety and depression.

Loneliness

Psychology

In an article published in International Psychogeriatrics, Lee and colleagues reported that loneliness peaks at the following life stages: young adulthood (late-20s); middle age (mid-50s); and late life (late-80s). In addition, the researchers also reported a strong negative association between wisdom and loneliness.

LGBT Individuals can Reproduce

LGBT

In the Japan Today article Japanese Lawmaker Under Fire for LGBT Comment, the Japanese lawmaker Katsuei Hirasawa was reported to have stated that “if everyone became like [the LGBT] then a nation would collapse.” This statement seems to have been premised on the belief that individuals who are LGBT cannot reproduce. This belief is held by other lawmakers such as Mio Sugita. However, this belief is false.

Wonder is the Antidote to Hatred

Philosophy

In the New York Times article In Praise of Wonder, Simon proposes that “[w]onder is the antidote to hatred.” In particular, if a person (A) wonders at another person (B), then A does not hate B. A is said to wonder at B if and only if A dwells at B in “amazement” and “surprise.” The act of dwelling in amazement is incompatible with the feeling of hatred. To paraphrase, if A dwells at B in amazement, then it is not possible for A to hate B. Therefore, if A wonders at B, then A does not hate B.

In Praise of Wonder

Philosophy

In the New York Times article In Praise of Wonder, Simon argues that we should wonder. In particular, he argues that we should “put wonder at the centre of our personal and political lives,” and that “[w]e require this … on every day of the year.” In this post, I summarise his argument into its constituent premises (Ps) and conclusion (C).

Love as Commitment

Philosophy

Relationships

Love is a commitment. Individuals who embark on romantic relationships consciously dedicate their energies towards the object(s) of their affections; the individual who chooses to commit to his or her beloved assumes a set of responsibilities or vows towards the recipient(s) of his or her love. And while these responsibilities may vary across human populations and across time periods, the phenomenon that love entails any form of commitment at all appears to remain constant across both cultural…

How rapid brain growth makes memories fade and disappear: A response

Psychology

If you have taken modules (or know a thing or two) about neuroscience and memory, please do share with me what you know. Here is my take on the study, which essentially argues that we must be careful when extrapolating these findings to explain forgetting in human beings. And this is because the “forgetting” that is studied in rats is different from “forgetting” as we know in human beings.

Ironic Suppression

Psychology

Before we begin, let us conduct a simple experiment on ourselves. In the next 10 seconds, whatever you do, do not to think of a white bear. Ready? Let’s go!

Parallel Universe

Philosophy

We commonly interpret the term ‘parallel universe’ in a physical manner. A lay man might define it as a separate, but similar, world that we cannot sense. In other words, while both our universe and a parallel universe obey the same physical laws, not a single one of our senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing or touch) can help us to detect its presence. By transforming this definition from a physical level to a psychological or cognitive level, we may see that parallel universes actually exist.…

Famous Gay Scientists

LGBT

The history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals is replete with famous personalities from the arts. Growing up predominantly as a science student, as well as being part of the LGBT community, can be pretty discouraging. In my personal experience, I do remember this nagging feeling that I had to be good in the arts if I were gay. This meant years being spent reading literature extensively and stressing myself over art pieces which I can make no head or tail of. Then it came…

Why do some people never get depressed?

Psychology

By Geoff Watts BBC World Service

Significant Aspects of Client-Centred Therapy: A Summary

Psychology

Summary of a paper, Significant Aspects of Client-Centred Therapy, given at a seminar of the staff of the Menninger Clinic and the Topeka Veteran’s Hospital, Topeka, Kansas on May 15 1946 by Carl R. Rogers.

On Being Sane In Insane Places – A Review

Psychology

In 1973, psychologist David L. Rosenhan published, in the journal Science, what is arguably one of the most widely read articles in the field of psychology, “On being sane in insane places”. Also, known as The Rosenhan Experiment, his field experiment in 12 different psychiatric hospitals across the United States of America questions the validity of psychiatric diagnosis in mental institutions. The article’s criticisms of “counter-therapeutic” environments in psychiatric wards serve as a…