• What makes something beautiful?
    Ha! Exhibiting a score as musical "beauty" is surely tantamount to mathematicians touting e to the I pi = -1 as beauty.
  • What makes something beautiful?
    Are any of us charmed by stagnant sloughs?Bitter Crank

    I'm sure that each slough would present a narrative deemed to be "beautiful" by those who study them.I don't think Nature does beauty - it is only us.
  • Should We Still Study Immanuel Kant?
    I don't think any philosopher shoud be studied. They are usually out of date or either mundane/crazy a few years on. Educaton likes "studying" the dead dudes though 'cos it generates examinable/markable stuff.
  • It seems like people blindly submit to "science"
    What sort of school did you go to? Public/private? In what country?Terrapin Station

    I doubt it matters. Formal education is much of a muchness.
  • Enlightened self interest versus simple altruism.
    Extreme altruism might be self defeating in some contexts because it can give out the somewhat negative message that one's own life is relatively worthless. Extreme self sacrifice is presumably not something you would advise the recipients of your altruism to do.
  • Stupid debates
    For debates to become better it must be regarded as cool to admit an error of whatever sort, and to openly welcome shifting your stance. For this you need to be non partisan in everything, and to accept that everything is on a grey spectrum in reality.

    Unfortunately most people who are "cool" in this way are likely to be largely "correct" in what they present because they have made a fairly sound and rational journey to get where they are; others who argue against them are likely, statistically at least, to not have made such a journey and to be pretty much "incorrect", so that no opportunity arises for the "cool" person to show his cool.(In which case the "cool" person might consider being overly generous to the "uncool" person's argument, or a little self deprecating of their own argument. in an attempt to introduce "coolness" into the proceedings....)
  • It seems like people blindly submit to "science"
    Science is all there is when one needs to be rational. There is nothing else in that situation, by definition.

    If any facet of "postmodernism" can present a rational argument then it is, in effect, being scientific. However it is one thing to sound scientific - another to be scientific. For example, Freud sounded scientific, but most thinking people today would categorize his output as metaphysics. Another example is Alan Sokal's highly technical sounding hoax article for a publication (which got accepted).
  • What makes something beautiful?
    (1)I see a beautiful person and become attracted to them.
    (2)I see a beautiful architectural structure and praise its form.
    (3)I see a beautiful sky and revel in its hues and clouds.
    (4)I see a beautiful flower and am entranced by its colors and shape.
    River

    1)Biological hardwiring to pick up signs of good health.
    2) In awe of size and context - mediated by what one perceives others to think.
    3) Only if you are in a good mood already!
    4) In awe of "natural wonder"
  • Favorite philosophical quote?
    "A true philosopher never mentions other philosphers".
  • What makes something beautiful?
    Beautiful is a very fuzzy word, but maybe a necessary condition for something to be "beautiful" in common parlance is that it correlates with engendering a good mood or feeling.