I think really one of the worst forms of nothingness I would see is if there is no life after death. — Jack Cummins
Might even sound mystical, and maybe some 'mystics' were misunderstood linguistic philosophers. That's only 50% joke. — j0e
Nice. I think similarly. — Tom Storm
Wittgenstein is psychedelic even. I'd count Derrida and Rorty also in this camp. Rorty ended up reminding me of the Tao...liquefying the world, you might say. — j0e
I would imagine that you probably never believed in life after death because you weren't brought up in a religious background. — Jack Cummins
The Doors of Perception/ Heaven and Hell' — Jack Cummins
I just noticed your comment, 'Wittgenstein is psychedelic'. Taking the word psychedelic in it's true meaning, as simply mind expanding, — Jack Cummins
Of course, there are physical laws involved but the transmission of communication, especially in invisible forms seem to have a certain element of mystery. That is not because we cannot explain it, but the very fact that it is possible at all. It seems amazing that things work as they do so well and, as someone reminded me a couple of days ago we should not forget the basic principle of love, in the whole process of life. — Jack Cummins
In work with people it is often the words that are used, the stories that people carry about themselves that prevent recovery. Change the wording, the belief changes, the life changes. People can have 'magical' transformations when the language about their lives and problems is re-written. But I don't want to suggest that this is simple and that it always works. — Tom Storm
:sparkle: :smirk:I read somewhere that grammar & grimoire and spell & spelling share the same etymology. If that's the case then philosophers are like sorcerers. We shape our realities through our writings. — TaySan
What about the "nothingness" that preceded your thingyness? I can't imagine "no life before birth" troubles you. "Reincarnation", you say? Well then "life after death" follows, so no "nothingness" just amnesia (i.e. new body, new brain, new memories-to-be-formed); not so bad if you can believe in such fairytales. I can't get past the semantic gabberwocky of north of the north pole whenever I hear the mantra "life after death" ...I think really one of the worst forms of nothingness I would see is if there is no life after death. I do think that this life is worth focusing upon, but it just seems that for some people that there is so much pain and suffering. If that is all there is, that seems so sad. However, I also see the possibility of extinction of humanity as an even worse form of nothingness, far worse than the thought of my own death. — Jack Cummins
(Emphasis is mine.)I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said – “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away." — Ozymandias
:up: Yes, Witty transformed my thinking too, along with the help of Buber & Levinas among others. I've always wanted to read a 'phenomenology of, or expressed in, the 2nd person (You)' and not being a phenomenologist I can't bear to write the study I've still not read. Why is this relevant? Because I intuit the 2nd person (you – plural & singular simultaneously) as the aufheben of 1st person plural/singular (we/I (us)) and 3rd person (s/he, it (them)) – self & non-self / more-than-self (other) – at once a fundamentally ethical address and metaphysical stance. 2nd person makes explicit as well as problematizes inclusive commons (what I call 'agency') of natality, empathy, language, discourse-dialogue-dialectics, intellect, knowledge, etc.the idea of us as lonely ghosts in the machine is fundamentally flawed. In short, I am a 'we' first and an 'I' second. — j0e
Because I intuit the 2nd person (you – plural & singular simultaneously) as the aufheben of 1st person plural/singular (we/I (us)) and 3rd person (s/he, it (them)) – self & non-self / more-than-self (other) – at once a fundamentally ethical address and metaphysical stance. — 180 Proof
Yes, Witty transformed my thinking too, along with the help of Buber & Levinas among others. — 180 Proof
the radical contingency of the species, its fossils & histories, and our bloodied parade of civilizations – an echo of sighs & moans, laughter & screams fading even now and forever into oblivion. — 180 Proof
I cannot write an essay here but if you explore the idea of neutral; metaphysical theory you'll find it solves all philosophical problems. — FrancisRay
I am interested in what you have to say here about your experience, of the Eureka moment. — Jack Cummins
You speak of distinguishing between the I and the we, but, perhaps many people remain isolated in the form of the 'I', feeling cut off from a sense of belonging, and pursue the questions of existence more as remote, isolated individuals. — Jack Cummins
As far as I can see there is a whole tension between being an individual and belonging. We live in a world where many are excluded and isolated even when they would long to be part of a larger group. We live in a very fragmented world, in which people are often seen as numbers, and are compelled rather than choose to find meaning on an individual level. — Jack Cummins
The reason it is not taught is that it is mysticism. Here there are no 'problems of philosophy'.
If the professors studied and taught the whole of philosophy then we would not be speaking of unsolvable problems. — FrancisRay
:up:That's the right way to think about these things I think. All of it, at bottom, is utterly mysterious. — Manuel
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