“Throughout the world, across all classes and social groups, there has been a ready response from youth who are invited to examine the forces shaping their society and their role in contributing to its constructive transformation through service as animators … Continue reading Releasing the Deep Reservoirs that Young People Possess
Recently, a gathering took place in which friends from diverse backgrounds, ages, geographies, and experiences came together to explore participation in discourse. Coherence, it seemed, was the key. The weekend began with a study of a message of the … Continue reading Coherence in Conversations
This past weekend, nearly forty individuals gathered together for an exploration of participation in discourse. (See post, Discourse: Session at Bosch) The aim was to connect everyday conversations – those with neighbors, with friends, with co-workers, with family, with parents … Continue reading Collective Reflections
People have been inquiring as to the connection between the concepts of the circulatory system and the beauty of language. The human cardiovascular system is the symbol for justice in the world of nature. The means of distribution and circulation … Continue reading The Circulatory System and the Beauty of Language
National and Regional Training Institutes throughout the world offer a course called Ruhi Book 5, “Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth,” designed for the training of “Animators” who mentor youth between the ages of 11 and 14 years. Ruhi Book 5 builds the capacity of Animators to develop in junior youth the mental structures to weigh the world’s problems in the balance of advanced moral reasoning. It equips them with noble moral principles, together with the linguistic, mathematical, scientific, and social skills requisite for translating them in practice into their community, society, and institutions. The resulting moral framework developed in … Continue reading Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth
Decades have come and gone and our busy lives, cluttered with diverse daily drives and enjoyments, have advanced in age, irreparable choices have been made, courses set, and moral decisions cast in the stone of opportunity cost. Billions have come … Continue reading Shadows of the Mind: Disorganized Activism, Conducive to Change?
Paragraph#: 1. Abdu’l-Baha’s Temple-ground piercing Centenary. Diverse participants then and now. 2. Divine civilization beyond mere adjustments to present order. 3. Erroneous assumptions of human nature, justified by failings, disallow spiritual potential. 4. Imprisonment enables sympathetic hearts. 5-Year Plan (5YP) … Continue reading Summary: Ridvan 2012 Message
Is it possible that a “debate” leads us, the listeners and watchers, to truth? Can a mode of dialogue such as contestational or confrontational debate assist others and people interested in the issues to discover the truth or learn more … Continue reading Can Debate Lead to Truth?
Red was painted the sky of man’s grey history, blood rained from clouds heavy, pregnant with the neglected structures and individualistic anachronisms that is our society. Individualistic rhetoric carried over from biological sciences went unquestioned as it is introduced into … Continue reading Rise of a New Dawn
One of the most fundamental characteristics of human nature is a soul’s desire to explore reality and search for meaning in the universe – the mind longs to understand. Language is the medium by which we can think about and … Continue reading The Beauty of Language
Considering how difficult it is to judge objective statements about social reality, it is even more challenging with spiritual reality. However, spiritual reality exists, human language can attempt to describe it, and therefore, it is possible to make objective statements … Continue reading Objective Spiritual Reality
The physical and material aspects of our complex reality are not the only ones with objectivity – the human mind is able to make objective statements about all of reality, including social and spiritual reality. As an example related to … Continue reading Claims About Social Reality
Notwithstanding that all social conventions, including language, are built from shared understanding that are to some extent ontologically subjective, they are not completely arbitrary. Language – as well as social reality – is built upon objective reality itself. Words and … Continue reading Objectivity and Reality
In understanding the role of objectivity in language, two types of statements have been presented – personal preferences, which are entirely subjective; and social conventions, which are subjective in their creation or existence yet objective in their influence and knowledge. … Continue reading Language as Social Convention
Objectivity – another desired quality of the language of science – is a term loaded with connotations and interpretations; it’s rarely a straightforward concept. It helps to contrast it with subjectivity. An entirely subjective statement is one of personal preference, such as “daffodils are the prettiest kind of flower” – this might be a consensus among a large group of people, but is not in universal agreement. Something that is in agreement with others is not necessarily objective, nor is it necessarily truth. There are certain things, however, that are somewhat objective because of their agreement amongst individuals. Social conventions … Continue reading Social Conventions – Objective or Subjective?
The statements of a language that seeks to be rational must also be internally consistent. Obviously, premises and claims cannot contradict each other, otherwise, truth could never be sought, and reality could never be adequately assessed. The importance of consistency … Continue reading Consistency
In addition to clarity, another important characteristic of the language of science is rationality. Again, as language informs thought, using rational language helps create reasonable thought. And because words and thoughts influence actions, a language that seeks rationality will translate … Continue reading Rationality
Human beings understand reality through conceptualization. For material and concrete objects, language naturally defines them easily. As concepts become more abstract – such as regarding the social and spiritual reality – this becomes more and more difficult. The language of … Continue reading Clarity
All human beings are endowed with certain basic spiritual capacities – derived from the soul, which is the element of the individual that is responsible for spiritual nature. Chief among these capacities is that of intellect, consciousness, the power of … Continue reading The Concept of a Concept
Reality has physical and spiritual dimensions. Indeed, the world civilization that beckons humanity is one that will achieve a dynamic coherence between these two requirements of social life. If reality is more complex than just the physical universe, then a … Continue reading Language and Civilization
achieving coherence 