Articles

How to Be Happy ? According to Al-farabi

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  Money, love, or even health are often cited as paths to happiness. After all, if I’m rich, I can obtain any goods or services I desire—though “any” is a bit exaggerated, because can one purchase someone’s love ? Love, at first glance, seems priceless. Love for another person can cause emotional distress, which can harm our health. Yet health can be “unequal”: not everyone is healthy, and some may never be, due to a disability that disrupts their life. So how do we navigate these apparent contradictions? Should we draw on the advantages of these three concepts to achieve happiness? Does benefiting from what’s good in each context not rule out their possible drawbacks? For the famous Persian philosopher Al‑Farabi, neither of the above—rather, the key to happiness lies in the pursuit of knowledge. Here’s why: A. The pursuit of knowledge brings happiness According to Al‑Farabi, seeking knowledge leads to virtue (a balance between extremes and negligence in life¹), which leads to...

can we really express everything we feel ?

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  Have you ever felt the difficulty of expressing everything you feel to the love of your life, telling them that words are not enough to convey what you're feeling? Or have you ever had trouble answering when the doctor asks “What hurts?” while touching a specific spot? Can we say that words are truly insufficient to express the entirety of our feelings? A. Definition of Concepts Language and Feeling: Language : It is the ability to express one's thoughts and communicate with others based on conventional vocal or graphic signs¹. And signs are, in fact, what allow me to know, recognize, guess, or anticipate something². Why are they conventional? Because if we can say one word and not another (if we see a tree, we will say it's a tree and not a rock), it’s because the linguistic community agreed that it would be so (probably with a reason, justification, or motive) with the goal of communicating and understanding each other. Without this convention, we would not understa...

Must a communicator be a manipulator?

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  “It’s just a PR stunt.” We’ve all heard this expression before. Sometimes it means that a company is trying to manipulate us in order to improve its image and ultimately make more money. Furthermore, we often associate communication with manipulation, because manipulators are often skilled communicators—they use their words precisely to deceive us. Yet, we are also told that communication is essential in a couple or group in order to understand one another. Is this a contradiction? Does effective communication necessarily involve manipulation? If communication is truly crucial in human relationships, are we doomed to manipulate when we speak? This raises the central issue: Must a communicator be a manipulator? 1. What does it mean to be a communicator and a manipulator? Communicator : an entity (organization or individual) that communicates. Communication is the ability to exchange information using language or code.¹ Manipulator : an entity (organization or individual) th...

Is Philosophy incompatible with communication?

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  "The study of reflection and rational examination of beings, as conceived by Averroes. Philosophical questions have traversed eras and continents throughout history, and it is today an essential study for humanity, just as communication, the study of the exchange of information through language and/or code in different forms (organizational, interpersonal), is. But what can be the link between these two studies? Do they have nothing to do with each other? Or perhaps no relation? The question now is: Is Philosophy incompatible with communication? — Communication is an important concept in the history of philosophy.  Aristotle probably established the first model of oral communication. He built this model around three elements: Ethos (the style adopted by the speaker), Logos (logic, reasoning), and Pathos (the sensitivity of the audience). It is thanks to Plato that we know the works of Socrates, such as Apology of Socrates , Charmides , Crito . Socrates left no written reco...