The paradox: Suffering, instead of making people averse to birthing children (end suffering), encourages them to opt for larger families (share suffering). — Agent Smith
Why can't the experience that we feel correlate to the substrate? — Bird-Up
Don't you think brain-size matters? Do you think it's physically possible for an animal to have a large brain, yet avoid experiencing any level of consciousness? — Bird-Up
Someone shouldn't complain that life is unfair unless they have full knowledge of their innocence. Job thought he was perfect but in the trial proved not to be — Gregory
Nothing is "justified", existence doesn't require "justification" (e.g. Zapffe, Camus, Cioran, Rosset) – being here now is gratuitous. — 180 Proof
Why do we need to separate consciousness from neural/biological activities? What characteristic prevents us from grouping them together in the same category? — Bird-Up
We're caught in a trap of sorts - we don't like it (life) and so, we search for justifications to like it (life). That's positive thinking on a whole new level, oui? — Agent Smith
Algos & Thanatos (deadly duo of suffering) force us to imagine stuff like souls, the very essence of selves, that somehow survive both kinds of suffering...to live happily ever after. A fairy tale. — Agent Smith
If so, humans being (most) self-aware, are suffering (the most).
Draw your own conclusions... — Agent Smith
Do you believe that the hard problem does exist, and that it isn't being addressed properly? — Bird-Up
So the feeling is just information — Harry Hindu
The feeling would be objective if it didn't include information about yourself in some way. — Harry Hindu
donner kebab is my favourite — Down The Rabbit Hole
Makes sense not to increase demand for bringing sentient beings into a life of suffering, doesn't it? — Down The Rabbit Hole
What is subjectivity if not information about location relative to some other location - like your head? — Harry Hindu
Information would then have to be explained for how it can "generate a feeling" of subjectivity. — schopenhauer1
Fair enough. But which one of us is going down the rabbit-hole of the homunculus fallacy? Both of us? — Bird-Up
How does a "physical" brain create the feeling of visual depth perception? How do neurons generate the feeling of empty space between me and the other objects in my vicinity? The empty space is not made up of neurons. It is made up of information about location relative to my eyes. — Harry Hindu
Marxist alienation is when a person lives contrary to human nature. I think. — Tate
It does not matter if you are studying ECON 101 or ECON 501, the First Principles in Econ hold just as true as the First Principles in the cornerstone sciences. They simply do not change (with any regularity). — Rocco Rosano
We broke our primal urge to survive when we questioned it for the first time. What remained afterwards was a collection of excuses; some more useful than others. But we have yet to prove that any one of those excuses justifies our existence. If we had, there wouldn't still be such a heated debate about the topic. — Bird-Up
All who truly saw this flaw have perished. More who see it will die tomorrow. We are merely the survivors of this realization; each with our own unique set of excuses and distractions that keep us going. Each with our own delusion. Do the dead pity us? — Bird-Up
Anchoring is the "fixation of points within, or construction of walls around, the liquid fray of consciousness".[4] The anchoring mechanism provides individuals with a value or an ideal to consistently focus their attention on. Zapffe also applied the anchoring principle to society and stated that "God, the Church, the State, morality, fate, the laws of life, the people, the future"[4] are all examples of collective primary anchoring firmaments.
Whatever he means by it , he clearly means to separate off some specific intelllectual capacity of thinking from others, and I argue that he is mistaken here and is succumbing to a Romantic illusion about the bliss of ignorance or some such thing — Joshs
as if one could be ‘excessive’ in these processes of thinking, as if the child is happier than the adult , the primitive happier than the modern, the animal happier than the human. — Joshs
Which ability is he claiming has been over-developed? — Joshs
Human intelligence isn’t just one peculiar (and questionable) mutation among others, like some antler. — Joshs
Isolation is "a fully arbitrary dismissal from consciousness of all disturbing and destructive thought and feeling".[4]
Anchoring is the "fixation of points within, or construction of walls around, the liquid fray of consciousness".[4] The anchoring mechanism provides individuals with a value or an ideal to consistently focus their attention on. Zapffe also applied the anchoring principle to society and stated that "God, the Church, the State, morality, fate, the laws of life, the people, the future"[4] are all examples of collective primary anchoring firmaments.
Distraction is when "one limits attention to the critical bounds by constantly enthralling it with impressions".[4] Distraction focuses all of one's energy on a task or idea to prevent the mind from turning in on itself.
Sublimation is the refocusing of energy away from negative outlets, toward positive ones. The individuals distance themselves and look at their existence from an aesthetic point of view (e.g., writers, poets, painters). Zapffe himself pointed out that his produced works were the product of sublimation.
Those who hide from this total freedom, in a guise of solemnity or with deterministic excuses, I shall call cowards. Others, who try to show that their existence is necessary, when it is merely an accident of the appearance of the human race on earth – I shall call scum. But neither cowards nor scum can be identified except upon the plane of strict authenticity. Thus, although the content of morality is variable, a certain form of this morality is universal. Kant declared that freedom is a will both to itself and to the freedom of others. Agreed: but he thinks that the formal and the universal suffice for the constitution of a morality. We think, on the contrary, that principles that are too abstract break down when we come to defining action. To take once again the case of that student; by what authority, in the name of what golden rule of morality, do you think he could have decided, in perfect peace of mind, either to abandon his mother or to remain with her? There are no means of judging. The content is always concrete, and therefore unpredictable; it has always to be invented. The one thing that counts, is to know whether the invention is made in the name of freedom. — Existentialism is Humanism
Why are we still eating cauliflower in 2022? — Bird-Up
Despite their partial contingency on minds, truths too have nothing to do with what one might prefer to be. — javra
It seems to me that one needs to explicitly present this ethical standard for what is morally disqualifying if even the possibility of such a morally disqualified world is to be rationally entertained. — javra
If this ethical standard in fact is platonically real, then a platonically real Good existentially occurs - resulting in some form of metaphysics wherein an absolute moral good is part of the overall world we dwell in (I gave examples of such in my previous post). If, on the other hand, some form of non-objective ethical standard that is rooted in one’s current emotive biases is maintained, all I currently have to say in reply is that neither the grunts, nor the verbally expressed emotions, of one or more agents could of themselves constitute a rationally coherent argument for the world being morally disqualified. And I so far don’t see a viable third option here. — javra
For me, the premises aren’t true. I again will lean on those typically unliked metaphysics of Buddhism and Neo-Platonism: both uphold the reality of a nondualistic absolute good – the first Nirvana and the second “the One” – wherein there is pure being devoid of selfhood (i.e., where no selves occur so as to interact) and, furthermore, both maintain the existential occurrence of this absolute good (such that the actualization of this absolute good is possible to accomplish). And, if these general premises are true, then Cabrera’s position would be unsupportable. — javra
As to some people’s preferences winning out, if there is a moral good, how can society progress toward it without those preferences aligned to it succeeding at the expense of those that aren’t? This by sheer necessity of their so being a moral good. — javra
And it doesn't even need to go that far.. hence in the OP:ease being boiled in oil or roasted alive! :snicker: — Agent Smith
This existence then represents what I will call "the slow burning evil of the squishy middle". It is not an immediately intense state of pain and torture like the hell scenario mentioned at the beginning, but it is not the heavenly scenario of everyone's preferences realized in the other scenario. Rather, it is stochastic, statistical, and varies in intensity of preferences not satisfied. And this may be for the worse for humans as there will be slow realization of it being morally worse off. It also leads to continual conflict between those whose preferences are being at least minimally satisfied (those who don't mind let's say working to survive), and those who would have never asked for this if the world aligned to their preferences. — schopenhauer1
Zero-sum game! — Agent Smith
I'll try to come back to this later, but can you better explain your meaning? As I so far interpret it, the "some" preferences still gets filtered by that which is morally good. — javra
That would make our existence in current form not absolutely good, but either moving toward this state of existential being or against it. And this would nevertheless be an aspect of the existence we're in. Such an outlook would then not make "this existence morally disqualifying". — javra
Cabrera develops an ethical theory, negative ethics, that is informed by this phenomenological analysis. He argues that there has been an unwarranted prejudice in ethics against non-being, a view he calls "affirmativity". Because affirmative views take being as good, they always view things that threaten this hegemony as bad; particularly things like abstention from procreation or suicide. Cabrera criticizes affirmative ethics for asking how people should live without asking the radical question of whether people should live tout court. He argues that, because of the structural negativity of being, there is a fundamental "moral disqualification" of human beings due to the impossibility of nonharming and nonmanipulating others. Nonharming and nonmanipulating others is called by him the "Minimal Ethical Articulation" ("MEA"; previously translated into English as "Fundamental Ethical Articulation" and "FEA"). The MEA is violated by our structural "moral impediment", by the worldly discomforts – notably pain and discouragement – imposed on us that prevent us from acting ethically. Cabrera argues that an affirmative morality is a self-contradiction because it accepts the MEA and conceives a human existence that precludes the possibility of not-harming or not-manipulating others. Thus he believes that affirmative societies, through their politics, require the common suspension of the MEA to even function. — Julio Cabrera Wikipedia Article
Let the academic philosophers make your argument for you ( or with you) and force your respondents to deal with them. — Joshs
Cabrera develops an ethical theory, negative ethics, that is informed by this phenomenological analysis. He argues that there has been an unwarranted prejudice in ethics against non-being, a view he calls "affirmativity". Because affirmative views take being as good, they always view things that threaten this hegemony as bad; particularly things like abstention from procreation or suicide. Cabrera criticizes affirmative ethics for asking how people should live without asking the radical question of whether people should live tout court. He argues that, because of the structural negativity of being, there is a fundamental "moral disqualification" of human beings due to the impossibility of nonharming and nonmanipulating others. Nonharming and nonmanipulating others is called by him the "Minimal Ethical Articulation" ("MEA"; previously translated into English as "Fundamental Ethical Articulation" and "FEA"). The MEA is violated by our structural "moral impediment", by the worldly discomforts – notably pain and discouragement – imposed on us that prevent us from acting ethically. Cabrera argues that an affirmative morality is a self-contradiction because it accepts the MEA and conceives a human existence that precludes the possibility of not-harming or not-manipulating others. Thus he believes that affirmative societies, through their politics, require the common suspension of the MEA to even function. — Julio Cabrera Wikipedia Article
all conceivable evils get accommodated and realized as intended without any negative repercussions - — javra
The best kind of existence would be one, perhaps, that is suited to each individual tastes/preferences without infringing on other people's tastes/preferences. That would mean by necessity everyone would have to enjoy their favored existence without infringing on other people's favored existence (if this existence was trying to be moral and it was agreed that enjoying one's own preferences was deemed as moral). — schopenhauer1
In a relationship of earnest love, for one example, there is neither victim nor victimizer among the parties concerned; all parties concerned are nevertheless willingly restricted to not victimizing each other, and this while each gains greater happiness via such relationship. This, I think, in itself evidences the quoted strict dichotomy erroneous. — javra
This is a circular argument - In order to be happy you have to be unrestricted. The things that make you happy restrict you. QED. It is immoral to be happy. — T Clark
The hard problem is only a problem for dualists and physicalists, or those that believe the world is composed of a quantity of static objects independent of other things and then try to reconcile that with the qualitative aspect of the perception of quantities of static objects. — Harry Hindu
The map becomes confused with the territory. Or perhaps, the territory has no room for the specific kind of territory and we are back to square one.
If you go and say "but material can be inner aspects" the question is "how". If you say "illusion" that has to be accounted for. If you say that physical is qualitative, then you become a sort of panpsychist or idealist and no longer a materialist. It's more tricky than you are letting on. — schopenhauer1
Sometimes someone's preferences can also hold them back; for instance Moses' preferences were not to step out into the world/public sphere because of his speech impediment, but God had other plans and was able to see the real good for Moses beyond his preferences. — Moses
I see a sort of dominance here of the people who get their way when they like the status quo... They will justify it by saying, you NEED this. Those are some hefty implications there.. mainly of the comply or die variety. How do you justify complying? Well, make it into something of a value/moral dimension whereby the current reality is something people NEED to work through, even if it doesn't conform to their preferences. Apparently, because SOME PEOPLE (who like the status quo) don't mind it (at the moment of inquiry at least), it is a necessity for ALL people, and any negative qualities are necessary for OTHERS (who would not prefer this situation) to endure.
Thus those with preferences set to higher thresholds of tolerance for the realities of THIS world get THEIR way, but those whose preferences set to lower thresholds of tolerance for the realities of this world do not. — schopenhauer1
