Wisdom is always contained in a few words.
Wisdom comes upon you quickly, and completely.
Wisdom gets lost in a book or a chapter, and is more easily found in a paragraph, or a sentence, or even in a nod, or in silence.

Wisdom stands up to the rigorous interrogation of a logical analytic, as well as the practical test of the physician. (Wisdom has a practical, applicability that fits one specific circumstance, and a universality and eternity that recasts all things.)

Wisdom can come from a child, who may not know it is wisdom, though they know what the particular wisdom is about.

Wisdom is perfection, meaning, it is not only exactly what is needed, but more than what could be expected, producing fruit.

how can thoughts associate? — J

The focus of the OP seems to be how one thought leads to a subsequent second thought. That is an association between two thoughts. But another type of association may have to do with the nature of a single thought itself. Because it seems to me that thinking itself is the formation of associations. If we just think one thought like “that appears blue”, we are associating. This mindset, thinking as associating, might explain a bit of how one idea causes another.

That reminds me of the way the parts of a single sentence gain meaning relative to one another, even though it's expressed sequentially. — frank

Me too. A single sentence is like my idea of a single thought, and that single sentence contains its own, internal associations.

So associations between ideas, one idea causing another, may be a complex form of similarly creating a longer sentence, or making one complex idea filled with more and more associations. So one idea causing another is like one sentence moving towards its completion.

So maybe all I’ve done is reduced your question from one idea causing another, to one sentence subject being conjugated or predicated (albeit in a much more complicated way). I still don’t know how. Just that.

Woke is … with no real solutions besides rioting. — Fire Ologist

subjectivity emerges as the culmination of processes of aesthetic enunciation. An aesthetic reconfiguration of experience incorporates elements of the unconscious subjectivity, which operates beyond conscious intention. — Number2018

Does this operation “beyond conscious intention” serve to select the matter one is active about (environment or trans or women’s rights), or does this operation beyond conscious intention make one an activist at all, as part of one’s aesthetic reconfiguration? Are activists activists because they can’t help it; or are they activists against capitalism and not against racism because they can’t help it?

(Because they “can’t help it” may be too extreme but it’s my short form of “operates beyond conscious intention”.)

aesthetics …represents a broader mode of subjectivation that occupies a central place in the dynamics of contemporary capitalism. — Number2018

Why “capitalism”? I thought you were going to say “contemporary society.”

under capitalist conditions, where novel forms of expression and recognition are constantly negotiated. — Number2018

I’m not sure I can picture a world where the shape of one’s subjectivity did not involve some sort of social negotiation. Are you saying that capitalism has produced activists operating beyond conscious intention? If this is what you are saying, why is this peculiar to capitalism?

I have to say, there is something ironic to this subconscious motivator for behavior of the “woke”.

———-

As I’ve said before, the focus on the notion of “implicit bias” (much like “beyond conscious intention”), is one of the most positive contributions of wokeism. We do operate unconscious of our motivations, and we need to identify and face these motivations if we are to change future behaviors. That’s a positive contribution of wokeness and justifies the term “woke”.

“I think [something off target or superfluous, about what someone else thinks]” - praxis

That’s brand — praxis

Woke just is Satan. … farting woke gas all over their students. … and their rotten students melted and disintegrated. … Glory be... — Baden

Amen. :pray:

Wait... is that a whiff of irony I detect, drowning in the woke gas?

You are probably insulting Satanists, which isn’t very woke.

irony of ironies — Baden

Irony, or feature of wokeism?

There never will be an end of woke, it's the history of the fucking world... "we don't like X so fucking kill it!" — DifferentiatingEgg

I agree.

What is wrong about “woke” is calling it “woke”.

People on the left are no more awake than people on the right. The loudest of both sides are the deepest sleepers.

“Woke” is false advertising. It’s really just another package for “my way” versus “your way” shit, and no one willing to mind their own business, or willing to truly develop their own “my way” and just live it, and damn the whole rest of the world and their hatreds and failings.

Society will never be comfortable for us. Admitting that fact is the first awakening.

The woke stand for victims of racism. Right? The woke want to stamp out racism. But they are racist. So woke solutions are not even woke by their own standards.

We should all wake up, cut the crap and admit it.

Wokeism is a set of vague moral aspirations, and practices to enforce these moral judgments in oppressive and facistic ways. No different than your basic caricature of any church, or naziism, or tyranny.

No one (besides me) one this thread has been able to demonstrate something that is clearly on the side of woke that has benefited society, or just benefited yourself. Woke is mostly shallow, empty hatred of those deemed powerful with no real solutions besides rioting. It is embracing weakness for sake of staying weak. It is self-contradictory and self-defeating.

And I hope we learn something from this present anti-woke moment.

We won’t.
Wokeism may change its name, but it will stay strong.

Truly aware and enlightened people don’t blame anyone else for their problems, even the “systemic” problems. And truly aware and free people do not need laws or society to “level the playing field” for them, or for “justice and fairness”. You want a level playing field? Wait for an earthquake, tsunami and a wild fire from the volcano to level things out for everyone. You want justice? Wait for death and for God to sift the sheep from the goats. Just sit there and wait.

Or, be awake. Or, make and live your own life. Regardless of everything and everyone and all that they say and all that they throw in your way. We will always hav to learn to say “fuck it” before we might attempt freedom. “Equal opportunity” is called having lungs and breathing air. The rest is up to you.

Tolerance isn’t a virtue. It’s a tactic. Useful for the time being once in a while. But most often, tolerance is avoidance. So it’s more like a vice.
Diversity isn’t a virtue. It’s an assessment of multiple things.
There is nothing good to learn by preaching “tolerance” and goals like “diversity”.

Be more precise and specific if you want to tell other people what to do. DEI is vacuous and amorphous.

If you are truly interested in a building a better society, cultivate humility in yourself (so others may tolerate you) and respect for all others above yourself (so you can learn from their diversity), and then become a leader, and show everyone what it is like to be truly free. Serve others out of your own free choice.

I’m sure that sounds like no fun - well, that is why society is a mess. No one wants to actually do the work to get what they want; it’s more woke if the system will just hand it to you.

This is where we sleep - in between our false selves and the false others around us we blame. These moralistic problems are never about others, or politics - they are about ourselves. But we are asleep to that fact, dreaming of how others are to blame and how if we just could normalize the TQ in LGBTQ, the world will make more sense to everyone….

The woke are worse off than many.

You can’t wish away real, entrenched differences in outlook and ways of life separating one community from another by blaming them on the nefarious influence of some powerful individual. That’s insulting to persons and communities who rely on forging their own value system as a compass for guiding their life and making sense of their world. — Joshs

I get your response and I agree with you. I am not blaming leaders for causing our problems. I am blaming them for capitalizing on them, attempting to make our divisions wider.

I don’t know why that would be an insult. I am not saying we are all sheep looking for leaders to solve our problems. Not at all. I am saying our leaders call us sheep and tell us what we need, and say they can solve our problems for us, and to do so we need to hate those bad people over there….

it’s the polarized cultural environment — Joshs

Yes. I blame our leaders - in politics, in the media and in schools. And here in our discussions. Our leaders should be showing us how to respect differences and work together. Instead our leaders fan flames and show us how to divide and what to hate.

It’s urban versus rural. Rich versus poor. Religious versus secular. Man versus woman. Straight versus not straight. Black versus white. Conservative versus progressive. Immigrant versus citizen. Soon, young versus old.

Some of these things we pit against each other in fact belong together, and complement each other. But our leaders can’t and don’t want to show that.

in America rapists are treated better than trans — unenlightened

You have a lot of statistical data or anecdotal evidence - or are you just trying to launch a political campaign?

reason why it is woke other than having a transwoman in it — Mijin

You are right - I see your question now, and it’s a valid one. Here is why the ad is about wokeness.

It’s not just an ad. It’s an ad for Bud Light, previously known as a vastly, eminently, dude bro beer. Bud light goes with a beard. Or a cigar. Or NASCAR. Or football.
When bud light drinkers grab a bud light, they don’t want to expand their horizons. Or remember they have a congressman or even a political opinion. They want to close their garage door and change out the master cylinder on their classic car. That’s Bud Light. And everyone knows it. (I shoukd help them write an ad)

But like a fine red wine pairs with some stale chocolate chip cookies, they paired Bud Light with a trans person taking a bath. Hmmmm…are they trying to tell me about something I was missing, here under the hood of my car with my dude bros?? Was I asleep at the wheel for too long and times changed?? Do I need to change with the new times, and step out of my comfort zone here in my garage?? Why is that person in a dress sipping cans of beer at all?? Are they talking to me? What happened? Answer: wokeness strikes again.

So no, trans don’t have to stay off TV, there are fifty other ways to place a trans woman in an ad on TV that wouldn’t spark much of a second glance, but Bud light ain’t one of them. That is why the ad wasn’t just about Bud Light. It was teaching the ignorant what normal bud light drinking can look like. Maybe they are even right, and it’s a good lesson, but it’s a lesson in wokeness and we are not supposed to hate lesson time if the lesson is a woke one.

And the reason this is interesting is not because of advertising or because of the ad - it’s to hopefully show reasons why people are anti-woke. We disagree we need lessons about who is acceptable and who isn’t, and we disagree these lessons are appropriate in any time and place the lesson givers want to give them.

So much bad judgment involved in wokeness and in the name of wokeness.

Drag queen children’s book readings is like that. It’s not a big deal because it happens a lot and it’s a mass problem. It’s a big deal because someone thought it should happen at all, to any kid. How is that ever a thing? There is such a thing as a time and place, and there is such a thing as childhood innocence and matters for adults only. You don’t play at political and social experiments with other people’s children (or hopefully your own either).

but the culture war is fully last man standing in a puddle of piss. That I get. — praxis

I guess I’ll take your word for it. I don’t pay any attention to that bullshit. American culture is freedom, so it’s 1000 different cultures. Wokeism grades them good and bad. I don’t pay attention to that shit until the woke tell me I need to check my privilege and like certain cultures and hate the wrong ones.

This, and within my family, is the only forum I’ve really talked about wokeness. I am fighting any wars. I’m too much of a live and let live person. This is an attempt at a conversation. If it’s a debate, you need to make some points.

Why don’t you say something positive? Give me a reason for something woke that should convince me to think better of it?

“the woke see advertising beer as a perfectly reasonable place to teach their ideological lessons."
This phrasing, which conflates ‘the woke,’ corporate advertising, and the political left more generally, collapses distinct ideas into a single caricature and reflects partisan rhetoric more than independent analysis. — praxis

So you are saying that what I said is not analysis. But you haven’t given me any of your analysis either. You just said I conflated and collapsed some things. And that I wasn’t giving you my independence analysis.
What is conflated exactly? What is better independent analysis?

Trans-Übermensch. — praxis

Gotta take the “uber” out of it - too inequitable. “Trans-uber” isn’t woke.
“Trans-ber-mensch”, is better. Maybe go “she-ber-mensch” for the female/male hybrid version.

is the solution here simply that transpeople should not be allowed on TV? — Mijin

No. Of course not. But there is a time and a place, and a wrong TV spot. The word “inappropriate” serves a valid purpose in life. The bud light marketing team learned that.

One of the most important messages from the anti-woke to the woke is: read the room.

You’ve been claiming that I haven’t reflected. — praxis

I still don’t know much about what you actually think of wokeism, anti-wokism, or many of the things I’ve said about these.

You need to say what you think woke is, and what is woke and what isn’t woke, say why it is woke, and say whether you agree with it or not. Then do the same thing for anti-woke.

I quoted you directly and analyzed the substance and phrasing, pointing out how it reflects partisan rhetoric. I’ve reflected partisan rhetoric in this thread as well. I don’t know why it would be difficult for anyone to admit doing this. — praxis

Saying something someone says reflects partisan rhetoric says that person isn’t thinking for themselves and just parroting partisan talking points. Saying something someone says reflects partisan rhetoric isn’t analyzing the substance of what the person says.

Here is something I said again that you didn’t respond to directly or thoroughly. It would be greatly appreciated if you would break this down to show what it means to you (show me what you think this says), then analyze it to show where it is wrong, where it is right, how it misses the mar, then state what you think instead of what it says - you aim for and hit the mark.

The woke see that identity politics and victimization of certain classes are everywhere and systemic. And so the woke see advertising beer as a perfectly reasonable place to teach their ideological lessons. To the woke, Wokeness is top of mind and systemically in front of everyone everywhere anyway. (That’s why they so quickly found issues with the AE ad too.) — Fire Ologist

It’s a simple point that I think is true about wokeness, and is at the heart of why the anti-woke dislike wokeness.

not to cherry pick the most outrageous comments that one can find and try to represent these as the common goal of that side. Because … then we fall into the trap of thinking that people are either "woke" or then "MAGA". — ssu

Ok. I agree. Identity politics makes caricatures of everyone. I hate it. Putting people in boxes and groups reduces whole human beings to much smaller creatures than they really are. We use our generalizations “progressive left” or “conservative right” to help us organize our thoughts and what we say, not to organize actual people - we can’t think any individual person actually neatly fits into any of the boxes we construct to make our points.

it's the leftist distorted caricature of the conservative right that portrays the right being against equal rights for women and against homosexuality. — ssu

I would hope so. That is probably true for many on the left, but I think most leftists think implicit biases and unconscious cultural influences lead non-woke people around by the nose, and that underneath it all, non-woke people want to oppress women and are homophobic and don’t see non-whites as equals. I think many woke people talk this way. How else does one think the AE Sweeney ad is anti-woke? You have to read into sub-text beneath the surface and find rottenness underneath. I mean, who cares, in this day and age if a white person or a black person says “I have good genes” - besides the woke? I don’t know whether the left thinks these pictures of the right are distorted caricatures or spot on.

Hence it simply is time for us to put these travesties aside and really look what in general the political sides are saying — ssu

Can you flesh that out a bit? What do you think the sides are generally saying?

How does the right want to end wokism yet still be good people?
How does the left want to impose wokeism yet welcome true diversity and tolerance and inclusion?

The caricatures of left and right make answers to these questions impossible to formulate, so how would you answer them if we put the exaggerated travesties aside?

attempt at identity politics — praxis

That is the preachy part. Maybe they were not preaching in order to help trans people, but they were playing identity politics which, if you think about it, is more like cult religion and good sheep herding.

Again, you are not reflecting on wokeism.
— Fire Ologist

I know you've said that before and I've ignored it. You have my attention now if you'd like to explain how I'm failing to reflect on Wokeism. — praxis

Can’t you tell me some things I’ve said that you might agree with? Show a little wokeism self-reflection. You’ve been engaged here like a third-party judge, not really talking to me, but talking about what I’m saying. But you are not really talking about the content of what I’m saying either, you are just saying things like I “must be influenced by MAGA.”

Tell me what you personally think. Tell me what woke is, what is good about wokeism. Tell me what is bad about MAGA, and how wokeism addresses it.

Is every woke idea good? Give me some bad ones.
Is anything I’ve said that speaks negatively of wokeism true? Say where you might agree.

Do you think wokeism truly promotes equity and inclusion? I think it promotes division better than anything else it does.

I used to think the division between white people and everyone else was the problem. There should be no division among us based on skin/race. But wokeness seems to rely on this division to be fixed and in place, not resolved. Woke teaches me that there is a difference between white people and everyone else, and that all white people must be reeducated about their implicit biases and privileges, and taken down off of their high horses. That white people today still owe for sins of white people in the past. That’s divisive. That’s impractical. And most importantly, I think it is a shallow estimation of whites AND everyone else. And that’s the sin of wokeism today - for the sake of people, they misunderstand people, and harm people. And they won’t suffer fools who disagree.

It deserves critique, or better defense.

Anheuser-Busch is in the business of selling beer to make money, not of teaching ideological lessons—casting its marketing decisions as ideologically motivated is a partisan rhetorical move, not a serious analysis. — praxis

Well I didn’t get it from anywhere - I just watched the ad for the first time this week. I heard about the ad at the time, but had no idea Kid Rock got involved until you said it. I don’t follow the anti-woke gazette.

Do you think the marketing team conversations were really all about sales? Is that your serious analysis? You think the Anheuser Team, or the Bud Light division wasn’t taking an ideological stand? You really think they were only selling beer? Of course they convinced themselves it would make them money and it would be good for the brand - but they were total idiots then. More likely they were blinded by ideological preaching and thought they were preaching to enough choir to feel good all around.

If they were only selling beer, then American Eagle is only selling jeans, so why not just laugh at blond hair and blue eyes selling good “genes”? It’s nothing but a “marketing decision” and not “ideologically motivated” - so who the hell cares if it doesn’t looks woke?

Casting what I’m saying as a “partisan rhetorical move” is a rhetorical move too. Again, you are not reflecting on wokeism.

How could the Bud Light folks possibly think those ads would work? Is that a partisan question?
Maybe they thought they would gain more than they lost??
Why would they think they would lose anyone? Why would they risk losing anyone?

I don’t know for sure (and don’t really care), but I bet most if not all of the marketing team that came up with the add were fired. And not for ideological reasons.

———

This conversation does not have to be so accusatory and antagonistic does it?

Racism is a deeper problem than white America and white Europe admits.
Homosexual people are not properly respected, ostracized from many institutions, mistreated, harmed and killed, just for being homosexual.
Women still need to fight for equal rights in many situations.

I say all of that and I mean all of that because of the vast reaching influence of wokism. And there is more. And the situation is better for most of these victims groups in part because of the woke in the world.

That said, wokeism also stinks badly and harms classss of people, sets equality and respect back, causes people to be racist and prejudiced, promotes false facts and half the story.

There are terrible people who are anti-woke. That doesn’t make wokeism good.

I wonder if Fire Ologist and others will acknowledge how much they’ve been influenced by the MAGA anti-woke movement. — praxis

How so? That’s dumb. And unobservant. I don’t really even know what MAGA stands for.

I’ve been annoyed by wokeism since before the term was popularized. Wokeism used to be called political correctness. Started in the 1980s, based on the ‘60s. I am not MAGA, and have learned nothing from them.

Will you acknowledge that you haven’t learned one thing from all that I’ve posted here?

I’ve learned that there are no good defenders of wokism here on TPF. I think that is because, it’s difficult to defend something that is so incoherent and self-defeating.

Whether the future and our plans warp the mind is contingent upon your Theory of Everything, aka your perspective. — Paula Tozer

Whether the religion and our God warp the mind is contingent upon your Theory of Everything, aka your perspective.

using Dylan Mulvaney’s trans identity — praxis

being preachy. — praxis

Same thing.

it's 'woke' because it was a cynical attempt at identity politics for sales point percentage by Bud Light. It has (almost) nothing to do with the simple fact that Dylan is trans and advertising beer. — AmadeusD

This is the precise fault line between woke and anti-woke.

The woke see that identity politics and victimization of certain classes are everywhere and systemic. And so the woke see advertising beer as a perfectly reasonable place to teach their ideological lessons. Wokeness is top of mind and systemically in front of everyone everywhere anyway. (That’s why they so quickly found issues with the AE ad too.)

The reaction against the Bud Light commercial wasn’t anti-trans. It was a statement against woke preaching being shoved in everyone’s faces from every direction, with every sip of beer. It was anti-woke, not anti-trans, at least primarily.

So there are usually two different conversations going on (which explains this thread). People talking past each other.

I still do not understand what you are saying. — Banno

Can’t quite capture the essence of my words?

ADDED:
So is that a problem with the words,
or with me the speaker,
or is something vague about what the words mean,
or is it a you, the interpreter, thing?

Language only involves interpreting utterances?
— Fire Ologist
No. Why did you choose to include the word "only"? Language involves interpreting utterances. — Banno

Because you won’t talk about anything else. For fuck sake! :lol:

I keep listing all of the other things language involves and you won’t talk about them. Like speakers, and what is spoken about (notice “what” or quiddity…”)

I think the undercurrent to all of this (and metaphysics generally) is indeed the search for definition, in the sense of the ability to see what is. When reduced to textbook examples for pedagogical purposes, it seems straightforward, but in real life, it's often considerably more difficult. — Wayfarer

I agree. Metaphysics is about what is. Throw out metaphysics, there is no point speaking about the world in any scientific way.

And it seems straightforward, but is considerably more difficult.

Seeking ‘what is’ is impossible (or pointless) if you think meaning is use, because if you think meaning is use, then ‘ what is’ becomes ‘what is used’ as well. We make reality up when we speak about it, so who cares about any other reality.

why do you raise the interpreter?
— Fire Ologist
Becasue language inherently involves interpreting utterances.

I'm sorry, I wasn't able to see what you were saying. — Banno

Neither do I see what you are saying.

Language only involves interpreting utterances?

How about more context for whatever you are trying to say.

Language involves utterances, a speaker who utters them, what the utterances are about.

What the utterances are about seems to be broken out into how the speaker interprets his words, and how the listener interprets her words.

So what? How does that say anything about essence?

Essence is what the utterances are as out. It’s how the speaker exchanges and idea with a listener through the language.

In essence, you are blowing me off as usual. You didn’t make your point.

I'd be happy to help reinstate essence. — Banno

Whoa. Then you want God’s essence? One step at a time.

essences are the metaphysical reality, and definitions are the signification of that reality (the signification of the quiddity). — Count Timothy von Icarus

Three things:
Speaker
Words (definitions, significations of..)
Essences (reality, what the words are about, quiddity)

I don't see what it is doing anymore. It just seems like a pointless field of study - trivial, redundant, not informative, not interesting in light of my perspective on the world. — Apustimelogist

Every time you see “what” you point to an essence.

“It just seems like a pointless field of study - trivial, redundant, not informative, not interesting in light of my perspective on the world.”

What is “it”.
What is a “field” and where are its limits? How do you limit thing thing you call “field”?
What is a “perspective” and is that different from a view or experience, and if so, what are the specifics.
What “world” - if we both have different perspectives, what gives you this notion of “the world” apart from our “perspectives on the world.”?

Essences are everywhere to study in your statement.

So if I throw a pair of dice, snake-eyes is in potential. Let's say snake-eyes shows up in actuality when the dice land. Where is an example of essence in this? — frank

It’s more like “what are dice?”
- they come in pairs
- each die is six-sided
- each side has a number 1 through 6 represented on each side.
- etc.

Dice are things in the world. These non-specific things are potentially “dice” when recognized or built by an intellect and actually dice when built according to my plans above…

Different things interact in different but reliable ways. — Count Timothy von Icarus

I don’t think that anti-essentialists think this is the case.

Which is an odd way of interacting with the world.

Are you saying the essence of a my dog, Bee, is her DNA? — frank

No.

I’m sure you’d rather hear Count’s answer.

You left out the interpreter. — Banno

I know. I had a longer post discussing that and took the interpreter (communicant) out. You don’t give me much time.

Like here, why do you raise the interpreter? I have no idea of what you are thinking or how/if this addresses essence. To me, you are now taking about the essence of communication, or of a discussion between two or more people.

Speaker.
Words
What they are about, to the speaker.

Interpreter
Same Words
What they are about, to the interpreter.

The words line up, because the same words are said as are heard, so enunciating and hearing are not your issue.

But when what the words are about lines up between the speaker and the interpreter, just like the same words line up, we have a successful communication.

So what? How does this scenario eliminate essence?

We still need at least all of these three ‘speaker/interpreter - words - about world’ to have meaningful language and exchanges - these are exchanges of ideas, of essences.

And when the interpreter’s meaning of the words and the speaker’s meaning for the same words don’t line up, the missing piece is something in the world to refer to upon which the two speakers/interpreters can argue.

Like which category makes sense for which elephant. You need to point to the elephants, not to meaning as use (because you haven’t used a distinction between Savanah and forest before, and how do you ground this distinction but again by drawing DNA samples from the world…. Discovering the different elephants sub-species supports essence, not use.

I do not think that there must be a set of properties that are necessary and sufficient to set out what it is for something to be a cat. I have consistently argued, using material from both Wittgenstein and Quine, that we use such word despite there not being such a set of properties. — Banno

“We use such word despite there not being…”

That means, “the essence of the word ‘essence’ is as a placeholder for speaking.’ You, and Quine and Witt just want to misuse ‘essence’. So Witt and Quine are avoiding the issues not resolving them.

And Count is right, this is metaphysics. “Despite there not being..” is something Witt said we shoukd be silent about.

I take effective language use as granted — Banno

But you have no use for the word “essence” and when people use it anyway you don’t take their language use for granted.

Language use begs the question. It doesn’t provide the answer.

Babies use language. So what? What are they doing?

To me, essences just seems like an easy way of being over-reductive about things in the world when often we can't even characterize what we are talking about in a way that is unambiguous, precise, unique, informative enough to deserve the name "essence". The whole thing seems completely redundant. — Apustimelogist

I think that this is what is going on. But none of that means “there is no such thing as essence.”

And no one, not Aristotle, no one says defining the essence of some thing is easy. Looking for essence is an easy method of saying HOW to say what things are, but there is no need to ever say we’ve ever listed every necessary and sufficient condition essential to some thing (especially if the thing is a physical thing, subject to change). Understanding and saying what is essential is the goal. We can know something essential about some thing in the world, but we have much more to know if we want to say we know the entire essence of that thing.

We all live in the same world of muddle for the senses and use and misuse of language. Essences help us organize it and speak about it.

I take effective language use as granted — Banno

So then why argue? “Elephant” has been sloppy use for years in Africa apparently.

no one here is saying cats don't exist. — Apustimelogist

I would think it would be more precise to say, no one here is saying things don’t exist.

The issue is how to say what each thing is, or, from where different things get identified as such?

Some are saying you call this thing a “cat” and you call that thing a “squid” because people just do. And like things are in flux, what people do is in flux.

Others are saying you call this thing a “cat” because of something about the thing, and you call that thing a “squid” because of something else about that other thing. And you identify the “something else” (the property) because of, again, something about that thing.

Some are saying language of “cat” or “squid” comes first (we exist inside languages already being used) and we just jump in and do what people do with those words, and watch things all come together for speakers and language users, or not. And one’s recourse, when things go awry with language and speakers, is to reevaluate what’s been said and what speakers are doing.

Or,

The thing that is a cat or squid comes first, and we develop our language about those facts. When things go awry with language, they don’t just look at the speakers and what’s been said, but also at what was intended (purpose, final causality) by the speaker’s words - or in other words, by looking at the thing in the world that is being spoken about, like a cat, or a squid.

Final causality is probably the most relevant issue, not signification. — Count Timothy von Icarus

:up:

The problem with dogma is that no one but the absolute authority can disagree with it. — praxis

I guess I used the wrong word. I generally don’t listen to anyone. By dogma I meant well-founded principles.

Think on this a bit, if you will. It carried the very point Wittgenstein and others have made against essences.

You choose to ignore the fact that we ubiquitously use words without having at hand an essence. — Banno

I don’t ignore that. I get it. I said “you don’t say how to use “cat” either, you just use it” and I knew what I was saying. I get that it makes Witt’s point. You can stop there if you want, and sit in silence with Wittgenstein.

I think it’s just plain giving up. It’s not wise. I think we can do better. I see more than use.

Witt is leaving meaning and essence on the table as if they were never there. As if there never need be a table to use “table”.

We just don't need essences to get on. They are a philosopher's invention. — Banno

“Meaning is use” is precisely a philosopher’s invention. So “philosopher’s invention” is not helpful. And we DON’T “get on” without seeking the essence of things, or without seeking the meaning of our words, simply bumbling through ever-changing uses. We bicker and confuse and speak falsely. The lack of essence you see is only us using words poorly.

———

There is a trinity involved in speaking meaningfully.

There is the speaker.
There is the word spoken.
There is what is spoken about.

To even have this conversation at all, we need at the very least: ‘speaker - words - about what’. Three separable pieces need to attempt to line up for any useful, meaningful utterance.

All three are always there, where words are being used.
All three are necessary to even conceive of notions like “there are essences” or “meaning is use.”

But the “meaning is use” proponents simply de-emphasize what is spoken about. They ignore one leg of the stool. For them, meaning/use need only be found between the speaker and the words used.

That way you can use words and see if they work, instead of saying what they mean. But meaning doesn’t disappear; meaning and essence aren’t discarded, they are just ignored because they are difficult to find, and because they are only found in the world, in the things that are essentially unique individuals, in the muddle. We must do better.

Simpler to just say that some individuals are cats. — Banno

Are you simply trying to explain how to say things simply? Or are you ever actually talking about cats, and what cats do, and how cats are, and are not? Because in that case, it’s simpler to just say you are talking about what it is to be a cat.

It’s only simpler to say “some individuals are cats” after there are things that are cats.

———

essences are not about language or signification, except inasmuch that the former explains the causes of the latter (e.g., disparate cultures all developed a word for "ant" because there are ants). This is the same mistake your article makes, assuming that essences are entirely about philosophy of language. — Count Timothy von Icarus

There is the speaker.
There is the word spoken.
There is what is spoken about.

Essence is intimately connected to language, and intelligibility, but it is not wholly subsumed by language and more rightly sits in things, as “what is known and said about them.”

frouonandnsecualnorietstiin — Fire Ologist

I think that was supposed to be “sexual orientation.” Idk.

how old-time religion’s archaic values are the force behind the scenes for an authoritarian regime, and how confused the good citizens of that nation are when they try to tease out the knots of how it crept up on them and usurped their version of reality.
It's deeply disturbing to see siblings against siblings, — Paula Tozer

I get it.

Totally disagree with you and Nietzsche.

God is still just another thing in human society. For the vast vast majority of people, religion and church are just another activity (unless you are priest or active cult member). Maybe people give God and their religion highest honors and praises, but how much time and thought really goes into it for the vast majority of people trying to live?

God and religion are as much a boogeyman as any other. Blame has to fall on one’s own heart first if we are to be free. Religion taught me that.

Blaming parents is typical. Eventually we grow up and realize our parents are as full of shit as anyone else.

And we are full of shit ourselves, often when we see ourselves as victims. When are you really free - when you realize blaming others creates a hollow, empty world.

Everything about me, is up to me and me alone. Not religion or anyone else. I am responsible for me.

Then we can decide for ourselves whether to listen to our parents or our priest or Chris Hitchens.

Religion is as much a force for hope, charity, and love as it is for deception and evil. It’s full of people, so what else should you expect.

In fact, religion warps the mind of those who must operate within its confines. — Paula Tozer

That’s not absolute. You can replace “religion” with anything depending on the weakness of the person. For some “atheism” warps the mind. For others “pleasure seeking” warps the mind, for others “stoic self-denial” warps the mind.

Weakness in people will always be the root of all the badness. Weakness warps the mind and blaming others for our weakness warps the mind.

Shouldn’t you say government is evil? It has laws that allow it to arrest me and kill me and force me into war and make me kill others - it is absolutist in police tactics. The Catholic Church is a pussycat compared to a decent legislature and a couple of street cops. Why doesn’t the threat of government oppression warp your mind? Like it warps minds in North Korea - and 50 other places?

Religion isn’t the bogeyman. It’s been around since before the dawn of recorded history for a reason. People are built to believe in a future, and with death getting in the way of the future for all of us, we will never let go of religion to protect the future we seek to build.

The future and our plans warp the mind.

What I experience is people settling on what appeals to them aesthetically and culturally (often through upbringing ) so it’s contingent. Reasoning often seems post hoc.

An obvious response is: ‘If all is contingent, then there’s no right or wrong, and how can one view (mine for instance) be superior to another?’ But contingency only describes how values arise, not whether we can evaluate them. — Tom Storm

:up: Appreciate the response.

I tend to go more with a rights approach (I don't ground rights in humility or any brand of ultimate truth, just pragmatically) — Tom Storm

If we frame things more as rights, then, to me we are talking about how government and society can identify wrong-doers and enact and enforce laws against them. Like we all have equal rights to a public park, someone is not being equitable about who can go, we can fix that by enforcing the equal rights law.

But I was more talking about values. Woke values seem to be diversity, equity and inclusion. I’m saying better values to teach about and practice internally are respect and humility. If people take these values to heart, they will respect and include the diverse, they will humbly see the equal importance of all other people, at least enough importance in others to treat them better.

I think the conversation should be about something deeper than surface appearances like diversity and visible inclusion. We need to include people in our hearts, not just on paper with ethnic frouonandnsecualnorietstiin checkboxes.

There will always be new victim classes. You said you disfavor binary thinking and used me saying “progressives and conservatives”. I’ll work on that because I agree, those are cheap categories - they simply make it easier to have a discussion. No whole person falls neatly into any of the buckets we create. Just because you are white doesn’t mean anything more than an assessment of your skin - says little about the person inside. Wokeism is full of buckets of people, and identity politics. If that is all you mean by binary thinking then I agree 100%.

And to be consistent, I’m not creating a class of binary thinkers and saying all people who fit in that bucket are baddies. I’m saying all of us at times are binary thinkers - and we all need to work on that.

That shows you how the values of respect and humility work. I humbly, publicly, admit I have to do better myself with my “binary thinking” as we are calling group identification. And I apply this respectfully to all of us, not to any classes who are better or worse than me.

hope for a form of humility: or at least a lack of dogmatism and arrogance, — Tom Storm

People are too afraid of dogmatism. No one else can tell you what to believe, and arrogance is ugly. But I have no issue saying “all arrogance is ugly and foolish.” There is good dogma we can agree on.

There is no functioning society without some sense of absolute rights and dogma about them. These things can change in time, but we can’t live like the “right to life” is fleeting and up for discussion all of the time. It’s a sort of absolute. We tweak it at the edges with capital punishment, killing in self-defense, abortion, and have to continue discussing and debating these things. But as to two citizens walking down the street, the right to life is absolute dogma. Why avoid “dogmatism” writ large? Isn’t that a kind of absolute dogma in itself? We need to aim toward something - why not believe we could build a society that is so good some of our rules will never be questioned again (even if one day they are questioned)? The right to vote on those who rule us - the right to self-rule - make that an absolute dogma.

But it seems you can never quite say what "catness" is. — Banno

Neither does anyone say how “catness” is used. You just use it.

No one is saying it is easy to define the essence of cat. Not one is saying that it is easy to say what catness is.

Catness - involves a certain shaped ear and face on a typically furry four-legged……..

You want to throw out the the whole substance baby with the lack of completeness bathwater, yet you are willing to use catness over and over and leave it all incomplete and vague anyway.

look instead to the use. — Banno

I understand that. I think looking to the use only, over many uses, reveals what could be called an essence. You can ignore the word “essence”, use words like “use in context”, and instead look to the use.

I think this is not just looking to use, but an overlooking if emergent meaning.

Another difficulty with ignoring substances — Count Timothy von Icarus

That’s really what I don t get - why do we ignore what is essentially right in our face every time we speak, every time we point?

So

Essence is the meaning of a word that might be compiled from an analysis of all of the uses of a word - if we quantify and collect all of the uses of a word and find its mean use, we’d hold the essence.
— Fire Ologist

What does this even mean? — Hanover

Meaning is use.

You find the word in a context.
You gather up as many uses and contexts.
From them you could distill an essence, a meaning of the word in the most contexts.

Sloppy thinking, but that is what analytics seems to make of seeking whatness.

you need to explain what the essence is. — MoK

Like it’s a form floating in Plato world, or a substance emerging in Aristotle world?

I said from the start it is hard to say. We are asking what it is to ask “what?”, so we have already presumed our answer.

“What the essence is?”

Do you mean to ask “How the essence is?”

Because if you are asking for “what” the essence is then you are asking for the essence of “whatness”. Essence IS whatness. So go read my above post again to keep restating “whatness” and “essence”.

But if you, like @wonderer1, are really asking “how” an essence can exist, that is a great question, but another subject (more along the lines of “what is ‘being/becoming’”). Do we really need to get into that to think through “essence” a bit more?

What is wrong with my post above about essence? You are asking me to say more. To say what the essence is. But show me where something I said doesn’t help define “essence” already.

A being is something that objectively exists and has a set of properties and abilities. — MoK

That is one way to say it.
Another way to say it is that every being that independently (objectively) exists has an essence (set of properties).

So why do you need more? You seem to be in full agreement with all that I said. What do you think an essence is, that you have not invoked “essence” by talking about a being that objectively exists with a particular set of properties?

the Mulveney campaign was overtly woke. In your opinion, was the Mulveney campaign humble or self-aggrandizing? Did it respect diversity or demean gender? — praxis

I’d be happy to address that but you need to address a couple things I just said. I need to know how you think a bit more. We need to stay on some paths a bit longer and I can’t provide all of the analysis for this to be a conversation.

Why don’t you answer your own question in detail, discuss Mulveney, what “overtly woke” means in the context of selling beer, for all to clearly understand, and I can respond to that, instead of just answering your questions, and instead of you answering the questions I posed? How about you give a little more?

patterns — wonderer1

What is a pattern?

Lines drawn distinguishing this from that, as this repeats and in a repeatable pattern.

What links this to that to reveal some repetition?

A pattern is multiple different instances of some one sameness, some essence. Otherwise you wouldn’t notice the repetition and call it a pattern.

So something essential to any “pattern” is repetition of something fixed.

This doesn't suggest that you are willing to consider — wonderer1

It doesn’t suggest anything regarding what I am willing to consider. I’ve considered many things and will do so again. I am considering your post now.

The recognition you have, of the patterns you recognize is a characteristic of your mind rather than a recognition of something essential to things — wonderer1

Not now that I am reading your words. I am considering characteristics of your mind, not mine, or else we are speaking different languages. I am looking for what is essential to your meaning. You sound physicalist. I guess essences sound spiritualist to you, so they need to be refuted as “something to things.”

I haven’t really discussed how essences exist, just what they are, and pointed out that they are. How? Maybe magic, or neural patterns and brain functioning. That’s an essentially different conversation.