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Altruism: selflessness and disinterestedness, dominating charities but not welfare states it seems. The ethical opposite of Machiavellianism which is cynical and unscrupulous.

Amateurism: going for intrinsic pleasures rather than actual rewards, the amateurs are socialistic and are a relatively new political force, rising to prominence with the Olympic Games.

Heroism: a euphemism for militarism, it is a cult for sportsmen, police and soldiers. Let’s also not forget those brave men of the fire brigade and the rescue squads.

Pluralism: an insistence on a multi-party system of political power with 1-man 1-vote type legal and compulsory democracy behind it.

Councilism: local government, whose money is municipal bonds, arranged as urban district and rural district councils and nationwide.

Barbarism: this is a belief system that might is right and that force is the optimum response. It is reflected in the French law of "force majeure" which often justifies political violence.

Feminism: criticizes misogyny and decries harsh stereotyping of women. All for equal pay, feminists have winning elections and other cam-paigns since the 1950’s.

Stoicism: displaying steadfastness in adversity, living within one’s means, having no craving for authority nor for drugs, stoics are solid, stalwart company men, usually rules-mad. Stoicism is not apathy but is the inner light of forbearance.

Pragmatism: a euphemism for cynicism, its processes dodge the truth and its implications whilst wishing to appear eminently "practical."

 


Hedonism: Avoidance of stress, toil and pain: love of pleasure, a philosophy based on the written output of Epicurus, Lucretius and other "playboys of the ancient world."

Humanism: certainty that humans are all equal but that there is no god. Insects and other lower species are exploited by it primarily for food, wool and hides. A heresy since 1871.

Capitalism: the obsession with profit, lucre, avarice, mammon and the reason for industrialisation and consequent higher living standards since 1500AD.

Rationalism: an actual divergence from faith, it shows signs of hatred of mysteries and of all gullible beliefs – it glorifies the human mind and is gnostic or heretical. Very strong in mathematics, physics and sociology professions.

Mysticism: belief that rapport and intercession can be guaranteed, organised on a world-wide basis by saints and prelates to obtain forgiveness, absolution and unitariness for most subjects.

Theocratism: a system of lordly rule via religious sponsorship: a pyramid in the sky with the invisible god of love at its apex.

Determinism: belief that the state should create ideal conditions for productivity since everything desirable is predeterminable. Argument that freedom is illusory.

Collectivism: both major political parties favour a massive culture of support systems: Labour has millions of trade unionists under its wings and the Tories’ protegees are civil servants and other patriots.

Monetarism: the regulation of the money supply to induce dysinflation according to the economic formula M.V.= P.Q.

 

Empiricism: broadly announced since 1690 (Locke, Hobbes, Newton, Leibniz, Reid, Berkeley and Hume) that sense data are all that we are likely to know, and each diagnosis leads to a prognosis – an excellent origin of the scientific industrial revolution.

Tychism: this is the large scale philosophy governing the laws of chance and of probability and is the science of flutter: attention all punters.

Puritanism: belief that love, purity and chastity are essential to each other and that afterlife heavenly bliss is the reward for voluntary inhibitions in this life.

Scepticism: disbeliefs in general are wariness about credulousness and gullibility, this is a very negative philosophy and a detached objective way of life which is often without passion or enthusiasm.
It is nevertheless quasi-scientific and sceptics are excellent at establishing scientific, rational procedures for dealing with
problems.



Recommended philosophy books:

Stephen Law,
Philosophy Gym

Nigel Warburton,
Philosophy: the Classics

A.C. Grayling,
What is Good?

Sir Anthony Kenny,
Brief Illustrated History of Western Philosophy


Drawings by Joseph Kitson