In the third installment of VM's series featuring philosophy’s great voices, we take a look at Immanuel Kant, his views on humanity, his philosophy of ethics, and the simple, fundamental, and universal reasons we could all benefit infinitely more if we would all just start using our heads.

Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.
 – James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist

One year ago today, a small town in Tennessee experienced the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States when over 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge burst through a retaining wall and flooded 300 acres of land, including the Emory River that supplies fresh drinking water to the area. The estimated cost of cleanup, not including lawsuits, is over 1 billion dollars, and after a year, crews are still working.

Education is the fulcrum upon which societal advancement is possible. In many regions of the world, women are denied a full education based on cultural discrimination. Based on their history, the Taliban has proven to be particularly egregious in their treatment of women. In the heavily Taliban-influenced Swat Valley of Pakistan, the aggressive push to enforce Sharia law, or Islamic religious law, has been the cause of violence, destruction, and death. Along with other prohibitions, the enrollment of girls and women in schools is outlawed. Although the region is now under the control of the Pakistani Government, and females are allowed to receive an education, the continued Taliban insurgency has remained a major destabilizing factor. Women’s schools and students are frequently targets for terrorist violence.

In the second installment in our series featuring philosophy’s greatest voices, VM discusses the man himself, Socrates, and the seemingly simple method of questioning that both served him in life and sentenced him to death.

Socrates.

The name itself conveys the idea of a philosopher and, in reality, the embodiment of the spirit of philosophy. If we look at the etymology of his name, we will clearly find the fundamental aspect of his personality and perhaps the distinguishing feature of his presence. “Socrates” literally means a man of great strength (‘sos’ in ancient Greek stands for healthy, strong, and whole, while ‘cratos’ conveys the idea of strength and power). Hence, Socrates was a man of incredible strength, surely not in body, but in mind.

A look back at a true Cynic marks the first installment in our series of articles dealing with philosophical themes that help shed some light on the current state of the world.

Once there was a man who became a dog or, more appropriately, who tried to turn himself into a dog. His name was Diogenes. He lived more than twenty-four centuries ago and died at the advanced age of ninety. Born in Sinope, a Greek town on the southern coast of the Black Sea, he moved to Athens in his early years and decided to live in a large tub, the sort of clay barrel normally used to make wine. Such a tub also occasionally served as shelter for homeless people and street dogs. During his life, he became famous as a great philosopher (in his own view, the most genuine follower of Socrates) and also infamous as a demented clown. In time, his fame grew immensely and now, after so many centuries, he is generally recognized as one of the most influential philosophers of ancient times.