Sailom's Philosophy: 2 Years On

OK, given I started this blog about 2 years ago, I'ld like to have a quick look at what it had become...

First, I called this blog "Sailom's philosophy" as I expected this blog to be a kind of monologue on whatever issue matters to me.
The thing is... I found out that observing the world's events is a much more rewarding activity than describing my own intellectual speculations! In other words, I do read a lot of stuff every day and I only choose the few things that make sense to me, copy them and paste them in this blog. I also try to give some personal comments on the issues I have some knowledge about. Off-course, most of the time I have nothing to add to the article and my blog looks like a collection of stuff written by other people....

About the topics I enjoyed talking about in this blog:

1> Astronomy

This blog is a "space-enthusiast" one. The space exploration of the solar system is specifically discussed. The solar system is huge yet it can be reasonably explored within a lifetime. The pictures are beautiful... The scientific issues are challenging...

2. Man-made disasters are major issues as well. Wars are sources of untold suffering and the Iraq War in particular have proven to be unreasonable and unethical. Global Warming is a long-term disaster with abundant evidence that it is man-made.

3. Natural disasters left a big mark on this blog. I was in Bangkok when the Asian tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of people. Fortunately I was far from the tidal waves but I did notice the amazing display of solidarity from Thai people and the international community as a whole.

4. "Broad" Scientific news are introduced in this blog. I already mentioned space science. Paleontology and the related Evolution vs. "intelligent design" debate are regularly updated. Health issues are often discussed given their importance on people's wellbeing.
Genetics and Animal Science are the next most discussed topics.

5. Philosophy! My favourite philosophers have been introduced during the past 2 years. I could also try to describe my own perception of the subject of EPISTEMOLOGY (Truth): I have become an empiricist... someone who think that knowledge comes primarily from experience. The scientific methodology (verification principles) is the main tool for testing the truth in whatever topic. However, scepticism is also an important concept for me: The essence of things are hidden to us and we can only describe what we see, most further intellectual speculations are bound to failure (even if they are necessary to give meaning to what we perceive). A form of idealism and subjectivism are also in my mind: We don't experience the real world directly, we are only sure of our own perception. This perception is "polluted" by our own cultural bias... making it inherently subjective even if we do our best to be aware of this bias. "Know thyself" is a number one priority in Epistemology.
About the subject of Ethics (Good vs. Evil): I am pretty much an utilitarist: Someone who thinks that as long as our actions don't bring suffering, they are "OK". About happiness, we all have our own ways to reach it and it's best not trying to define it in too much details. I also make a distinction between "Reason" (important for Epistemology) and "Empathy" (the basis for making ethical judgements). Our ability to be compassionate is central to ethical issues.

I will finish by acknowledging that this blog is not very popular in the sense that few people give their own comments to my posts! However I won't make any change to the way I organize it. I consider this blog as a way to speak my mind and... know myself.

Cheers,

Sailom