Sense'07 - Press Release 1 15/10/'07 Announce Campaign      START

 

Maurice Foley will be a candidate for Solomon in this election.     

He is standing as part of the Sense'07 campaign, which is aimed at making politics meaningful, i.e. directing politics to goals that are appropriate for human development, for Us...

See the website 'About the Campaign'  http://www.pariahnt.org/maurice-foley/content/view/28/59/

The  campaign starts from the assumptions that:

Any election in a representative democracy SHOULD be about the temporary resolution of ...

1. Competing views of what we are, and [therefore] competing views of what we want to achieve, of what we think is possible...
2. Then, of competing views on how we think we can achieve what we think is possible - after agreeing what we want to do.

Therefore, the Sensible way to approach representative Democracy is to accept that it is much more about trying to represent [and how to properly apply] principles than it is about attempting to represent people as individuals.  
[ At a deep level, this is at least partly because no one individual can completely represent another, and partly because the existence of any individual [let alone any individual's current personal philosophy] is so brief and so context-dependant that it is long gone before it could be represented... ]

And a Sensible candidate should not even try to represent you - the real, separate you, any more than the candidate should try to represent his or her own particular self...

Attempting to represent a 'sensible' approach to politics, i.e. to how we manage ourselves, [as I claim to do] requires me to attempt to establish and show the principles and processes I support and to attempt to apply those principles and processes.

In other words, this campaign is less about you - or me or any individual - than it is about establishing 'due process' - exactly what the major parties - perhaps all parties - attempt to subvert.   
This prioritising of 'process' over 'individual' is consistent with a view of Politics that assumes how to 'improve' life as it is experienced by individuals is by increasing the level of civilisation - defined as the instutionalisation of culture in ways which better allow individual development]


In conclusion to this first Campaign Release:
   please consider why Labour chose 'Howard Lite' as its leader ...

see http://www.pariahnt.org/maurice-foley/content/view/28/59/ for a better formatted statement of the same things.




   - Maurice Foley       Tue 16/10/07           

                                        Sense'07 - Press Release  1 15/10/'07 - AnnounceCampaign   End

A 'Sensible' approach to the World we perceive has to start with acceptance of the limitations to that perception. 

If we accept the unavoidable limitations to our own personal awareness and to our own personal lifetimes, and that the existence of every human is utterly dependant on the continuation of the group from a time before the particular individual came to exist, then 

   'Sensible' Values - those that emerge from 'Sensible' political philosophy

 To be useful, Politics must be based on Philosophy, where philosophy is taken in a broad sense as "the processes by which we develop Meaning, and construct ['discover'] Truth in terms that are open to all"  and where Politics is taken as "the processes by which we organise and govern ourselves and the principles that guide or cause these processes."  [See the "Definitions"]

 In turn, for philosophy to be practically useful, it must be based on our best understanding of what we are, what we want and what we need. 

The discussions of Good, Right, Civilised society, Values etc. form the basis of a political philosophy which can be expanded endlessly, as our understanding of ourselves deepens…

 The development of this political philosophy also requires some axioms [ or agreed starting points], some of which are included  in the definitions given   [see "Definitions" in the left hand menu]

Sense’07 Philosophy introduction

The purpose of the Sense’07 political philosophy is to provide a starting point from which, using rational and consistent processes, we may develop a more detailed philosophy from which we can develop a sensible democracy and national constitution. 

Right at the outset, before getting into any particular philosophy, we have to be prepared to agree on meanings for basic terms.   Otherwise there can be no meaning, for understandings that are not shared cannot be the basis for actions that are shared ...

For the Sense’07 campaign the following definitions apply.   They are not new or different meanings for the basic words used in the campaign – rather they are definitions which attempt to convey the specific meanings that are intended. 

They are also intended to enable rational, evidence based assessment of the proposed philosophy – in ‘real’ terms… terms that do apply to us... as we actually are - connected temporary bearers of consciousness, connected beings with the potential for individually experienced lives, for individually experienced happiness…

Philosophy    Politics    Good  Flourish     Meaning  

Perception ∞ Awareness ∞   Consciousness ∞ Rationality ∞ Fact ∞ Knowledge ∞ Truth

Society ∞ Culture ∞ Civilisation

Ethics ∞ Morals ∞ Goals ∞ Purpose ∞ Values  

Practicality ∞ Pragmatism {practical}