Author: The Moral Traveller

Human Rights

Turkey: Political Polarisation and Media Laws

There has indeed been a great deal of political polarisation and tension in Turkey over the last decade, especially with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) who have been viewed as attempting to bring back an Islamic Ottoman Centralism. There is an underlying current that murmurs sentiments the AKP party has been intentionally destroying the freedoms designed by Ataturk and enforcing state control over the … Continue reading Turkey: Political Polarisation and Media Laws

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute Philosophy

5 Minutes of Semiotics

Unlike Hermeneutics that is concerned with the methodological application of interpreting text, discourse and art, Semiotics captures the complex relationship between our interpretation of a sign and the meaning and significance this interpretation has to the structure of our representations. A sign is the medium that enables us to attach significance as we interpret certain features and mediate an effect that vehicles our understanding. Immanuel … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Semiotics

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute Philosophy

5 Minutes of Ideology

With the continuous discourse on ideology that is often accompanied by words such as terrorism, globalisation or imperialism, the definition is not only ambiguous but has an unsavoury association to other terms that are themselves vague. Indeed, there certainly exists an adverse meaning to ‘ideology’ as being a belief system that legitimises a doctrine for violence and subordination. But what exactly is ideology? An ideology is said to … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Ideology

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute Philosophy

5 Minutes of Ibn Hazm

 Love exercises an effective authority, a decisive sovereignty over the soul!  Its commands cannot be opposed, its ordinances may not be flouted, its rule is not to be transgressed. It demands unwavering obedience, and against its dominion there is no appeal. Love untwists the firmest plaits, and looses the tightest strands. It dissolves that which is most solid, undoes that which is most firm. It penetrates the … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Ibn Hazm

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Sticky post
Five Minute Philosophy

5 Minutes of Heidegger

Phenomenology attempts to understand consciousness and takes perceptions seriously and whilst historical insofar as its approach is descriptive, the person or individual is something concrete in a world where everything is interconnected through time and space. The mind is not isolated; every mental act is directed outwardly to the world and toward something or what is referred to as intentionality[1], and the first person experience … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Heidegger

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute Philosophy, Five Minute Religion

5 Minutes of Rumi

Inside this new love, die. Your way begins on the other side. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into colour. Do it now! You’re covered with thick cloud. Slide out the side. Die, And be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign That you’ve died. Your old life was a frantic running From silence.   … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Rumi

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute History

5 Minutes of Syria

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the proxy wars between the United Kingdom, the United States and France stunted the identity of those indigenous to the Near Eastern region that shaped a new Western influence, advantageously using the religious and ethnic diversity as a tool to divide and convince locals to both fight for and be loyal to their new neo-colonial position. This changed the … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Syria

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Five Minute Science, Uncategorized

5 Minutes of the Cassini-Huygens Mission

The Cassini-Huygens mission was a seven year journey of the NASA Cassini Orbiter along with the European Space Agency’ Huygens Probe intended to travel to the Saturn system. Titan IVB-Centaur rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral carrying the orbiter and probe in 1997 and passing Venus, Earth and our moon, an Asteroid Belt and Jupiter, the Huygens Probe successfully landed on Saturn’s moon Titan in … Continue reading 5 Minutes of the Cassini-Huygens Mission

The Moral Traveller
Five Minute Philosophy

5 Minutes of Cowardice

It is no secret that I find cowardice repulsive and it can manifest in many ways; bystanders who watch others being abused and do nothing, liars who deceitfully apologise or simply excuse their bad behaviour by pretending there is some justification for it. They see existence as merely convincing people of what they are rather than being what they really are, a power-struggle where some … Continue reading 5 Minutes of Cowardice

The Moral Traveller
International Law

Is It Possible To Be Pro-Palestinian Without Being Anti-Israel?

There is a great deal anti-Semitism around, even today. A great deal. A quick peruse through social media and you’ll find scores of people posting theories and postulates that iterates previous systemic racism against the Jewish community (i.e. taking over the world), some doing it so well that you have to read between the lines to realise the embedded racism that methodically attempts to generate fear … Continue reading Is It Possible To Be Pro-Palestinian Without Being Anti-Israel?

The Moral Traveller