My interpretation of "an examined life" is 'unlearning misery as a way of life', as an endless, sisyphusean task (i.e. self-overcoming). — 180 Proof
We suffer, therefore I am.... to prevent increases in and/or to reduce the gratuitous harms (re: suffering, misery) ... — 180 Proof
Probably people mirror their own emotions onto others. — M777
A weak person, who is afraid of all kinds of suffering or violence, will be overly protective of others. Same a person who is ok with suffering himself as an inevitable part of life, doesn't have an urge to rid the world of suffering at any cost, as they understand that some degree of suffering is needed for one's growth and without it people would become weak and pathetic. — M777
there is no self, doesn't necessarily imply there is no suffering — Agent Smith
If Chalmer’s hard problem of consciousness does not exist, then there is no difference between a living human body suffering and a computer built to imitate all happenings and behaviours of suffering. — Angelo Cannata
if you say that something like the “I”, the subject, the self, does not exist, — Angelo Cannata
then you are saying that we need to agree that something, that science is absolutely unable to prove, exists and, as a consequence, needs to be explored, studied, cultivated, discussed. — Angelo Cannata
The problem is that, for these discussions, studies and explorations, we won’t have any evidence, any objective material to work on, so that the whole matter is highly exposed to a lot of discretion; I mean: everybody will be able to say anything about it and we will have no serious material to work on. — Angelo Cannata
Nobody would say that we should protect computers from violence; why should we protect humans from violence, if nobody is suffering inside a suffering body? A suffering human body can be interpreted just like the frog’s legs in Galvani’s experiment. — Angelo Cannata
This is exactly the point of my question: if there is no self, who is suffering?
I think that, even about animals, when we think that they suffer, we are assigning to them at least some degree of “self”. — Angelo Cannata
It seems to me that, in the context of philosophy, not just humanity, however we define the self, we are in the Catch 22 situation: if the self is something clear, then we are like machines with some kind of particular phenomenon that we can call “self”, that, as such, can be referred even to computers properly made; in this case we have the challenge of agreeing that a machine can suffer and, as such, can deserve empathy, fighting for its rights, even making laws to punish those who make violence against computers. In the opposite case, if the self is unclear, then there is not anywhere anybody suffering, so there is no philosophical need to defend the rights of oppressed people. — Angelo Cannata
This makes suffering intrinsic to reality — Joshs
Philosophy, instead, either from a metaphysical point of view, or from what I think is like the current scientific drift of philosophy, needs definitions, clarity, evidence, logic, consistency. Even nihilists or postmodern thinkers need some kind of clear context where to put questions. — Angelo Cannata
As I noted, I think selfhood has sufficient definition, clarity, evidence, logic, and consistency to be considered real, existent. — Clarky
Does the self have a core that remains self-identical over time , or is it always a slightly new and different self that come back to itself minute to minute , day to day? — Joshs
here , they use neuropsychological evidence to make the argument that there is only a contingent center of agency, and that the organism is a community of temporary selves. — Joshs
How does one deal with addictions in the light of this? Surely the need to gamble or use substances - even if just for psychological reasons - should be temporary? — Tom Storm
Does the self have a core that remains self-identical
over time , or is it always a slightly new and different self that come back to itself minute to minute , day to day? Have you read Varela and Thompson’s ‘The Embodoed Mind’? There , they use neuropsychological evidence to make the argument that there is only a contingent center of agency, and that the organism is a community of temporary selves. — Joshs
We suffer, therefore I am. — 180 Proof
. When suffering we feel most alone and being so isolated, one naturally drifts towards metacognition. — Agent Smith
I don't think this is a necessary response. In suffering I often feel most connected to others and reminded of a process that ends in death - a unifying feature all living creatures share. — Tom Storm
Why do you feel connected? — Jackson
I don't think you're right about this. — Agent Smith
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