Blindspots may be a problem and human beings may try to flee from them and hide in the shadows or under the duvet. It may be that the most strongest of perceived thoughts may be a source of delusions and blind spots. This is hard to work with though, and it could be that the greater entanglements of identity and quests for truth may enable a certain amount of demystification and more clarity about personal viewpoints.

The experience of 'madness' may lead to many philosophy problems. Certain perspectives may viewed as 'realism', whereas others may he assigned to the lesser emphasis on mythic or narrative aspects of understanding. It is a grey area, especially as ideas about 'madness' and 'normality' may 6detrimental, especially in the conception of 'truth'.

I am sure that many of us make great errors in judgment. It may be that greater understanding of assumptions and premise of arguments may lead to greater understanding of thought. It may not be easy to filter out all biases and 'noise', but this awareness of the ways in which the various sources of distortion may lead to less distortion. I am not suggesting that all human beings may wish to get to the point of objective 'truth' it is possible that the breakdown of ideas of objectivity may be a catalyst for more careful, with more attention to the fine-tuning of detail.

The task may be to try to see beyond delusion, which may involve greater awareness of the processes of evaluating information, as a path towards a certain amount of critical awareness.

The nature of language may be a source of discussion, especially in understanding the lack of objectivity in judgments. It may be that many people think that they are being objective, but there may be more to it. There may be blindspots in judgments. Perhaps, the awareness of the psychological aspects of judgment may be important in understanding this area of philosophy. The understanding of where is coming from may be a starting point for escaping the attachment to opinions and a more rigorous and less slanted view, especially in relation to aspects of social and political life. Bias may be curtain for hiding behind, and it may be that once the curtains fall down the obstacles present in judgments may enable greater clarity of thought.

The issue may be about the best lens of perception, for judgment. It may be about recognizing biases and interference as a potential problem, and as a means of overcoming these problems. It is not possible to go beyond subjectivity in the process of evaluating and interpretation, but it may be that it more that can be understood about these aspects, which infringe on judgment, may allow for a certain amount of distance in understanding. Human beings are not able to step outside of subjectivity, but the awareness of subjectivity may be an important starting point for thinking about how interpretation and evaluations are made.

Medical judgments, like law have such an 'official' status. Many dare'nt question them. I am not coming from the view that effort and expertise is not involved in such judgments. However, in some instances the judgments may not be full enough and the lack of the fullest depths of judgments in human affairs, including medicine and law, may lead to compromised views of possible options and the scope of understanding the complexities of life, and choices.

The question of whether a judgment is beyond an art form is outstanding. It could be asked how various perspectives are considered here, especially those of the arts and sciences. How may such approaches be evaluated in relation to the larger picture of philosophical truth?

I am feeling a bit better, but the problem of human error is still one which remains. I am not suggesting that many aspects of the human limitations of judgments are not ones to be tackled philosophically. It may be that the elimination of error and bias is the most which human beings can strive towards. Clarity of thought and aspects of objective approaches in evaluating information may be of utmost importance in the best possible attempts at careful judgments.

Actually, given the constraints of 'noise', human beings often make fairly good judgments.

I don't feel able to write anymore. I think that I am coming down with flu because I can't eat properly today and just fell asleep, so I will go to bed and look at the thread when I am feeling a bit better.

I definitely agree that it is worth striving for making the best and fullest judgments possible. It probably involves looking at all the factors and not being superficial. The book didn't seem to me to give enough consideration to the ways of overcoming 'noise' and bias in specific ways, other than recognizing that it occurs.

Sometimes it is information overload. It may be important to be selective because we are not mere seives to be filled with information. I read a lot but sometimes less is more, because there is the active engagement with the ideas. I know some people who go through periods where they stop reading. I wouldn't go that far but sometimes I try reading too many books at once and get rather overwhelmed, lost in the maze of the ideaverse.

I have often thought that boredom covers many other emotions, depression being one, but not the only possibility. Generally, I haven't experienced boredom too much because I love reading and listening to music. However, for the last few months I have felt like I have come to a dead end or stagnation, which is a bit similar to boredom. I find that if I stay at home, but it may be that you are not well enough to go out. Many people complain of boredom if they stay at home too much, so it is best not to beat yourself up about it.

It is something that you enjoy philosophy. I don't know how I would have coped with lockdown if it hadn't been for this forum.

I didn't like Maths at all. I can remember feeling so depressed when I had double periods of it at school. I don't know why I disliked it so much and whether it was because some of it was so difficult or because it did leave much scope for imagination. I was getting on reasonably okay with it though until I had a teacher whose style I found unhelpful and, then I lost all interest entirely. I can do the everyday arithmetic but found equations and trigonometry so meaningless.

Why when he was only 2 years old? He admitted to knowing nothing anyway.

I have definitely found that philosophy has been important in life, in providing the essential tools and basis for thinking. Of course, everyone thinks but philosophy provides a way of navigating thought, based on the history of those who have done so in the fullest possible ways.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by the book because its arguments didn't go as deep as I thought that they could have done. Other than show subjective bias and interferences in the processing of information there was not much scope to the discussion.

Perhaps the combination of self-reflection and the reading of others is essential. Introspection was considered important by William James and philosophy may have gone to the other extreme of becoming too theoretical in the twentieth century.

Socrates was in such an opposite predicament to the present time of looking back at centuries of others' ideas. Also, there is so much to be accessed in the information age and internet resources. The reading of theory can be such a large task that it is is possible to become lost in the sea of ideas, wrestling with the tangents of theories. So, it may be that reflection as a process of interacting with ideas on the basis of experience is one way of trying to find one's own independent philosophy position, with the balance between reflective awareness and analytical arguments.

The reasons for noncompliance with treatment through medication amongst schizophrenics are not just about not recognising that one is unwell but often due to the negative side-effects of some medications, including movement disorders and weight gain.

In terms of getting people to be aware of having schizophrenia it may be that the essential aspect is the person getting to the realisation of the comparison between being well and unwell. In working with the issue, it is important for the health professional to listen and work with the individual's experience rather than simply giving a diagnosis. This is because, ultimately, it is not simply about getting a person to 'comply' with treatment plans but getting the person to a greater state of wellbeing and, being able to plan goals to enable recovery and identify sources which may contribute to becoming unwell in the future.

From what I have read of your posts you don't appear to be arguing for belief in God, atheism or agnosticism clearly which is why I went for the 'other' box. However, as there are so many threads on this forum it may be that you may have said something really clearly on the existence of God somewhere. I guess that is the problem with so many threads and the busy nature of the forum, going on 24 hours a day. It may mean that parts get missed and hidden in the understanding of each other's complete philosophies.

I am not sure that my answer is what you are seeking but I am writing it because it has been going through my mind when I look at your thread. My answer is self creation would involve cloning. Of course, that is different from creating out of nowhere, which would be more like the account of the Virgin birth of Jesus.

It is hard to know what the aesthetics of A1 will be. It may not be based purely on biology like Darwin's natural selection. Perhaps, it may involve blending of the genders at some stage as the creation of androgynous or hermaphrodite superbeings.

I was speaking more about the aesthetics of the created bodies of artificial intelligence rather than their specific artistic abilities. Your point about their own creative capabilities would raise the question as to what kind of minds can be created as artificial intelligence?

I feel that 'The Wind Cries Mary' by Hendrix is a wonderful track and it sometimes gets overlooked amongst his songs.

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The whole relationship between the internet and beauty is interesting. Initially, computers seemed to be about the functionality but, gradually art became incorporated. This meant that art and design being incorporated, especially in graphics and illustration. When I was at school I wished to be an illustrator but chose not to go down that route because so much was becoming computer art and I wished to draw and paint. I have become aware of the way in which many have seized the opportunity and I had a friend who became a website designer. Also, some individuals make fantastic computer art, for example @PoeticUniverse on this site, and I don't know if you have seen his work.

There have been mixed reactions to the digital age of art but it is also likely that the internet has changed conceptions of aesthetics. Many choose to escape into the comforts of the virtual world, including reading, looking at images and listening to music, in a way which could become separate from appreciation of the aesthetics of the real world. It is a fantasy world with possibilities beyond the ugliness of many aspects of mundane daily lives. Like the media in general there are pictures which are enhanced by technical means and choice of selection. So, it is about the manufacture of aesthetics. Who knows where it will go and will AIs have the 'perfect' bodies, as some may have imagined in a different age as being only possible after a resurrection at the end of the world.

I have always been a Manic Street Preachers' fan. I like their music, including that including Richey and afterwards. I think that my favourite album is ' This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours'. The track ' Motorcycle Emptiness' does stand out in their early work, and I do appreciate, 'The Holy Bible' album although Richey' s mental torture is evident and I would probably find listening to it too often a bit too much.

I have just looked at the link because I didn't notice it before. It is an interesting. I suppose this may be where psychiatry comes into the picture of posthumanist possibilities, because there are ways to fix the human emotions. I would like to read Damasco's ideas further because the philosophy of mind does raise the issue of volition and how much is physical and how much is the brain, because emotions are at the interface between mind and body.

The will may be hard to pin down here because it is connected to the physical brain and deeper aspects of concepts arising in human thought or culture. Taking this back to the cultural elements, even the concept of the 'superman' or 'overman' is bound up with the construction of what the highest evolutionary possibilities are, and what is practically or morally desirable from specific viewpoints.

I know that Spinoza says that will and the intellect are the same thing, but I am not sure that it is as simple in practice. Philosophy and psychology may emphasise the rational, but I still wonder whether in daily life rationality is as powerful as many would like to believe, or how much of human life is often driven by irrational aspects of human motivation. Cognitive behavioral therapy and reflection may help, but they may not be the norm. Perhaps, human beings have a long way to go in reaching the idea of 'superman' yet.

The topic of will does incorporate various meanings. It goes back to the idea of voluntarism which goes back to Kant. Schopenhauer on will is also important. However, there is a big debate over will in relation to the intellect. Here, the issue of will in relation to pleasure vs intellect is particularly important. I guess that the nature of the self is also important too, especially in the idea of ego in mediating the various aspects of will, ranging from truth, pleasure and meaning. The idea of ego is mostly associated with psychoanalysis nowadays but Nietzsche's ideas come prior to that. However, it is likely that the idea of will is sometimes vague in philosophy and psychology. The idea of 'will to power' may be extremely vague and that may be the basic problem which arises when trying to interpret his understanding of human motivation.

Thanks for the quotes from 'Ecce Homo'. I thought that he had probably suggested his thoughts on the issue of existence of God somewhere in his writings.

Do you know if Nietzsche actually looked at the God question? That is because from the reading which I have done, it doesn't seem particularly clear what he thought. However, theism and atheism were probably framed in a different way at the time because asking about the existence of God was less common place.

It does seem that Nietzsche's idea of consciousness was about greater depth of knowledge and awareness, rather than about being governed by instincts and emotions blindly. His ideas came before the development of psychoanalysis, but, like Freud, a central aspect of his approach to life seems similar to Freud with an emphasis on the will to live as a driving force.

Nietzsche's idea of eternal recurrence doesn't have to be taken literally as it can be interpreted as a symbolic way of thinking about life. Life is part of cycles and, in a way, there are potential symbolic ways of seeing all the various possibilities of each moment, in each person's life.

With regard to the question you ask about whether Nietzsche was an atheist, people often assume that he was on the basis of how he spoke of God as being dead. However, Colin Wilson saw this as implying a specific atheism as mistaken and when I was reading Nietzsche initially I saw his writings as compatible with belief in God.

Colin Wilson argued,
'Nietzsche called himself an anti-Christ when he probably meant an Anti- Luther. Nietzsche's temperament was less devotional, more intellectual than Blake's; there is a fundamental similarity all the same, and it would be more accurate to regard Nietzsche as a Blakeian Christian...'

It may be hard to know to what extent Nietzsche really was an atheist or not because he didn't look at the arguments for and against God's existence on a metaphysical level. However, Nietzsche's name is often linked to the notion of atheism but it may not be that simple.
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Yes, it does seem that Nietzsche's approach was about looking beyond the 'animal' aspect of the human being as @Gus Lamarch suggested. I was just looking at Colin Wilson's discussion of Nietzsche in, 'The Outsider'. Wilson suggests an interpretation which is more about the development of the inner aspects of the human being, saying how Nietzsche, asked himself about happiness and the nature of delusion and,
'His imagination set to work on the problem, to conceive a man great enough to affirm. Not the Hero- no hero could ever command a philosopher's complete admiration. But the prophet, the saint, the man of action; or, perhaps, a combination of all four? ' in this way, Nietzsche's emphasis can be seen as going beyond the animal and irrational aspects of human nature, and of becoming the highest possible example of how a person may become.

Funnily enough, when I spoke of Nietzsche creating a new romantic movement, the music of the new romantics came into my mind. I love the music of the electric eighties, including ABC, Ultravox and many others. If anything, the more gothic aspects seem more Nietzschian, such as Marc Almond and, he Tah Duran Duran's 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger,' especially the song, 'The Union of the Snake' seem a bit Nietzschian in questioning values. And, yes I am admitting to being a closet Duran Duran fan, and they are still going.

Yesterday, when writing on the thread I was thinking about how the idea of the superman relates to the idea of Satan, as the ultimate rebel. The complexity of it also relates to the idea of Lucifer, who was the figure who was the lord of light initially. Even though Nietzsche's ideas come from a critique of Christianity, the philosophy does go back to the symbolic drama between good and evil.

Part of the issue about Nietzsche's ideas being used by the Nazis says a lot about the way human thinking was going, especially in the early twentieth century. Neither Nietzsche's ideas or the Nazis ideas can be seen in isolation but were part of the developments of abstraction and involved a certain amount of inflation of ego consciousness..

One book which I read a long time ago was ' Glamour' by Alice Bailey and she spoke of the way that Hitler's ideas were based on glamour, which involved a wish to be rid of evil. This was projected onto those who were seen to be as inferior, who Hitler wished to destroy in reaching for the highest limits. Hitler himself was influenced by theosophy which spoke of different root races.

It is easy to see how the Nazis were able to draw on Nietzsche's idea of the transvaluation of values. Jung was more directly involved in developments in Nazi Germany because he was working there. He did speak of dangerous development in ideas being developed by some German thinkers, but he was also swept up in this too because he made generalisations about race and failed to speak out about the Nazi movement at the time, and did give therapy to Nazis.

I would go along with the idea of Nietszche as an 'antiromantic romantic'. If anything, his work could be applied to develop a critique of what it means to be a romantic, because he turns the idea of romanticism upside down to create a new romanticism, before the deconstruction of the postmodernists. In some ways, he could be seen as a forerunner to the countercultural developments in the arts.

What the quote you give, especially the idea, 'Write with blood' does suggest the Nietzschian path to be more about the call of being a writer than anything else. In this sense, his stance seems to be more of an emphasis on serious pursuit of writing as a way towards truth, and this is probably what makes him important as a philosopher.