Lewis's trilemma

Jesus was either Liar, Lunatic or Lord! — Agent Smith

What about when a person does the right thing because he thinks it serves his inte[re]sts? — Merkwurdichliebe

What kind of reasoning is it when an individual does something that serves his own ends because [non sequitur]. — Merkwurdichliebe

And when it comes to moral reasons, they are a subset of normative reasons. A reason to do something because it serves one's own ends - so a reason generated by one's own interests rather than those of another - is called an 'instrumental' reason, not a moral reason. They are both from Reason. — Bartricks

↪Gnomon :lol: — Agent Smith

The gate to the Oracle at Delphi bore this inscription : "gnothi seauton" (know thyself). That kind of "direct" (introspective) gnosis is indeed necessary for wisdom. — Gnomon

But, pretending to know something via indirect channels -- hidden from Reason & human eyes -- may be wise like a wiley serpent. The ancient Gnostics got a bad reputation for claiming to reveal occult esoteric spiritual truths that are necessary for salvation. And that tactic worked well on gullible people, who put their trust in con-men. But philosophical wisdom must be amenable to Reason, and not just taken on Faith.

I don't want to believe. I want to know. — Carl Sagan

I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone. — Albert Camus

Deus, sive natura naturans. — Benedict Spinoza

What I know, what is certain, what I cannot deny, what I cannot reject — this is what counts. I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me — that is what I understand. And these two certainties — my appetite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle — I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my condition? — Albert Camus

That which is [harmful] to you, do not do to anyone. — Hillel the Elder

On January 6th Donald Trump was not the leader of the country, he was the leader of the coup. — Glenn Kirschner, fmr Federal Prosecutor, July 22, 2022

My systems science approach is predicated on global constraints that produce local stability. [ ... ] So fixed points are important as the emergently stable invariances of a physical system. The symmetries that anchor the structure of the self-reconstituting whole.

This is the guts of physical theory. — apokrisis

... "your honor, the prosecution witness' testimony contradicts the defense witness' testimony. Therefore, [ ... ] I rest my case" — Gnomon

M = set of mental objects and P = set of physical objects. — Agent Smith

Why would assume I am the only one to survive? If I survived I am quite sure others have as well. — Athena

I realize creationism is baseless, but its purpose is common somehow with evolution. — TiredThinker

The question of objectivity is a difficult one because human life is comprised of different subjectivities. — Jack Cummins

e.g. A = A;
you were not born before your parents;
there are more real numbers than integers; etc... — 180 Proof

The map / territory distinction is not a fallacy — Tobias

it is just that there are maps all the way down. There is no territory.

Sets are collections. An apple is a collection of atoms. So apples "subsist"? — litewave

↪jgill https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01775.x — apokrisis

All that said, since these questions are most likely unanswerable, it would seem to have no bearing on how we choose to live our lives and what values we choose to enact. — Janus

So my guess is that what you do matters, not what you believe — Tom Storm

I guess what I’m asking is, do you think the difference between a philosophy that makes a place for the significance of life, and one that doesn’t, is significant? — Wayfarer

I'm interested in the possibility of a cosmic philosophy.