Sometimes I feel like we should just wait - we'll die eventually and ''hopefully'' solve this ancient riddle. — TheMadFool
I appreciate the mutually interconnected and interdependent ontology vis-a-vis the virtue of existence and being a part of nature, but in the case of radical evil along with consciousness and free-will, I find myself drawn to the categorical imperative. How you live your life, your frame of mind and the decisions that you make reflect your overall clarity to become a part of this nature, but does it not also enable you to judge it? — TimeLine
I'm not sure I understand your point. But I think we've been ill-served by the belief we're apart from Nature rather than a part of it. — Ciceronianus the White
If a God of such a universe exists, it seems unreasonable to think God is particularly or peculiarly interested in us. If God is not of the universe, we can know nothing of God because we can know only the universe, or rather our small part of it. So if there be a God, God is immanent in the universe. I think Spinoza derived a great deal from the Stoics, though it seems he may not have thought so. In any case, I think they thought of God and what is good along the same lines. — Ciceronianus the White
But I'm better off waiting for you to explain what you're point is. I do ramble on, once started. — Ciceronianus the White
Actually that is much nearer to what I probably meant to say. It is that recognition, not of something you didn't know previously, but the meaning of something you knew already. Which, I think, is very near the meaning of Plato's 'anamnesis', 'un-forgetting' — Wayfarer
We form emotional or subconscious patterns of experience and habitual behavioural responses that language articulates to a conscious state, which is why such 'aha' moments can be so relieving. — TimeLine
Right - perfectly true. But, it's not so simple, because each of us are also instantiations of cultural and psychic archetypes, so are born with innate abilities and predispositions. I think, for that matter, a great deal of Plato can be interpreted, or re-interpreted, as his intuitive insights into the archetypical patterns within the mind. — Wayfarer
When one thinks of radical evil as being demonstrative of an innate condition, how does this reflect the interconnectedness of Nature? Whilst I appreciate your view particularly that humanity conceitedly have an unhealthy and even lunatic self-regard, self-righteousness (we're made in God's image) and I could not have said it better myself, this is not a dualism but rather a natural consequence of consciousness and free-will and thus Kant' categorical imperative is a moral alternative that sheds a more clear light than the stoics on overcoming radical evil. We stand in judgement of our nature to become one with Nature. — TimeLine
I think we're aware of this and conduct ourselves in "ordinary day to day life" accordingly. Somehow, though, we've come to believe that there is some "us" distinct from the rest of the world, distinct even from our bodies some cases. — Ciceronianus the White
Because we have the capacity to reason (which the ancient Stoics thought to be characteristic of the divine aspect of the world) what we do can be the result of intelligent interaction. — Ciceronianus the White
I'm not certain what you mean by "radical evil" but would guess is it involves conduct resulting from the extreme or excessive desire or urge to harm or exercise power over other people, possess certain things, self-indulgence, etc. — Ciceronianus the White
Has philosophy impacted your view / interaction with the Scriptures in any way? For example has reading a particular philosopher / philosophy inclined you towards the Scriptures or got you interested in God?The scriptures are revelatory. No outside decision as to their reliability needs to be made – reading them ingenuously on their own terms inclines one toward belief. — The Great Whatever
The scriptures are revelatory. No outside decision as to their reliability needs to be made – reading them ingenuously on their own terms inclines one toward belief. — The Great Whatever
The scriptures are revelatory. No outside decision as to their reliability needs to be made – reading them ingenuously on their own terms inclines one toward belief. — The Great Whatever
Has philosophy impacted your view / interaction with the Scriptures in any way? For example has reading a particular philosopher / philosophy inclined you towards the Scriptures or got you interested in God? — Agustino
For me, there's nothing diminishing about being "a child of the Earth and the starry heavens." And while the Stoics and other ancient philosophers may have felt that humans were distinctive, and separate, as being endowed with reason, I don't think they suffered from the fear of death and of being alone as it seems many do now and have done for quite some time, but managed nonetheless to possess wisdom and formulate high standards of morality which I think remain unrivaled. — Ciceronianus the White
It may be that some of us must go through what you describe in order to accept that we're a part of nature, but I hope it's not necessary that we do so, as I think this can occur to us simply by acknowledging what is the case. That should be easier now that it's been well established that there are billions of galaxies in the universe. The ancients can be forgiven for thinking we're the most important part of the universe, but I don't see how that can reasonably be maintained--or believed--now. — Ciceronianus the White
I think the fear of death and feeling of being alone is something that developed fairly late in our history and has its basis at least in part in the glorification of the self which found its most extreme expression in Romanticism, subsequent "isms" like Existentialism and Nihilism being something akin to symptoms of the resulting "hangover." — Ciceronianus the White
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