Any thoughts? — Jack Cummins

The irony here is that although with the image of the cave Plato is warning against the persuasive power of images he does so using images. And this is often taken to be not an image but the truth itself. — Fooloso4

To be African American is to be African without any memory and American without any privilege. — James Baldwin

Against stupidity we have no defense. Neither protests nor force can touch it. Reasoning is of no use. Facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied. In fact, they can easily become dangerous, as it does not take much to make them aggressive. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

He should have been hung for treason years ago. — Mikie

In other words, Platonism (or philosophy) and naturalism are contradictory positions.
— Lloyd Gerson, Platonism vs Naturalism — Wayfarer

There is no better source of why this is not true than the works of Plato. Several of the dialogues can be cited, but Timaeus, in which Socrates remains mostly silent, presents a clear picture of the inadequacy of the Forms. In this dialogue, much or which is a monologue, Socrates expresses the desire to see the city he creates in the Republic at war. He wants to see the city in action. The story of the city in the Republic is incomplete. It is a city created by intellect (nous) without necessity (ananke), that is, a city without chance and contingency. A city that could never be.

For a more detailed discussion: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/12008/shaken-to-the-chora/p1 — Fooloso4

The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality, and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These 'antirealist' doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry. One response to this loss of confidence has been a retreat from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity. Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial — notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit. — Harry Frankfurt, d.2023

That's our vanity. What's in it for AI? — Vera Mont

... lifelong career is bullshit [...] He wanted to prove he didn't get fired because of incompetence. He wanted to prove to them that he was bored to his skull. — L'éléphant

Most prostitutes are women, but men also prostitute themselves.

Questions:

Is it a good thing that "prostitution" (under any name) is stigmatized? — BC

Do you feel obligated to use the euphemism "sex worker" rather than prostitute or whore?

Is sex "work"?

Is sex "an industry"?

Is selling or buying sexual access a legitimate commercial activity?

If selling sexual access is a legitimate commercial activity, should it be officially recognized, regulated, and commercially encouraged, like any other trade?

Is buying sex a legitimate, normal, moral act?

Do you think "sex workers" (as opposed to "prostitutes") freely choose to sell sex?

Do you think adverse circumstances is the likely cause of people becoming prostitutes?

Does promiscuous sexual activity reduce the need for people to buy sex?

Is "unable to obtain sex any other way" a legitimate reason to use pr[ostitution?]

Hypothesize your reaction to a son or daughter coming to you and declaring their intention to begin a career as a sex worker ... — Baden

Does what we designate as time really only refer to the awareness of time? — Pantagruel

I also think you need therapy. One striking thing is lack of connection with others, which is an extremely important component to a happy life. — Mikie

Yeah, not sure if the Niki character is real, or it's just someone trying to bait folks — universeness

...
"Since the insignificance of all things is our lot, we should not bear it as an affliction but learn to enjoy it."

"'Why don't you ever use your strength on me?' she said.
'Because love means renouncing strength,' said Franz softly."

"The objection to shit is a metaphysical one. The daily defecation session is daily proof of the unacceptability of Creation… The aesthetic ideal of the categorical agreement with being is a world in which shit is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist. This aesthetic ideal is called kitsch…"

"As you live out your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom."

*

"A novel that does not uncover a hitherto unknown segment of existence is immoral. Knowledge is the novel's only morality."
~interview, 1984

"The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything."

"These days, when sexuality is no longer taboo, mere description, mere sexual confession, has become noticeably boring. How dated Lawrence seems, or even Henry Miller, with his lyricism of obscenity!" — Milan Kundera, d. 2023

... committing the naturalistic fallacy (which is close to the is/ought fallacy). — Tom Storm

I don't necessarily subscribe to the 'you cannot get an ought from an is' [ ... ] I believe that implicit within facts are values. From this paradigm, there is no gap between fact and value. We do not merely percieve a fact. Even in our most unlearned state, we filter that fact through biological and mental apparatus that we have inherited from millions of years of evolution, and that fact holds a relevance for us beyond it's mere 'is'ness - the two are inseparable. — Kaplan

There is no wasted life - there is only unappreciated life. — Vera Mont

I’m also basically jobless/unemployed, and not interested at all to run his (my father’s) businesses ... — niki wonoto

Prayer is a sacrament for you, not for me. Obviously my will is always done on Earth as it is in Heaven. And I already know what you want and the answer is going to be "No." except when you happen to want what I will. But you like to assuage your feelings of helplessness and even pretend to get your Mother Mary to ask me for for you. But really, all you need to say is 'sorry', and 'thank you' and even that is for your own comfort, not for my benefit. The Creator needs nothing from his creation.
— God — unenlightened

the "argument from the history of ideas". The general form is: Lots of people used to believe X, but then in modern times (glossed as appropriate, usually the Enlightenment or the 20th century) people mostly starting believing Y instead, and that's the current orthodoxy, but X has started making a comeback because look! A, B and C are contemporaries who believe X and they say Y is on the way out!" — Srap Tasmaner

I used to always ignore these paragraphs ...

So here's the question: what sort of point are you making when you post something like this? 

Kantian space and time are not experiences. — Mww

↪180 Proof in a post above, responded to my question : "Is human intelligence merely an accidental pattern of a hypothetical "universal cellular automaton"?", with : "Define 'human intelligence' ". Of course, he was not really interested in my opinion on the subject ... — Gnomon

180 Proof, Carlin was a better theologian than some professional theologians. — Art48

In Ambrose Bierce’s “The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary,” we have: “Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.” — Art48

So, I worship the sun. But, I don't pray to the sun. Know why? I wouldn't presume on our friendship. It's not polite.
I've often thought people treat God rather rudely, don't you? Asking trillions and trillions of prayers every day. Asking and pleading and begging for favors. Do this, gimme that, I need a new car, I want a better job. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday His day off. It's not nice. And it's no way to treat a friend.

But people do pray, and they pray for a lot of different things, you know, your sister needs an operation on her crotch, your brother was arrested for defecating in a mall. But most of all, you'd really like to fuck that hot little redhead down at the convenience store. You know, the one with the eyepatch and the clubfoot? Can you pray for that? I think you'd have to. And I say, fine. Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the Divine Plan?

Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago, God made a Divine Plan. Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn't in God's Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a Divine Plan. What's the use of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayerbook can come along and fuck up Your Plan?

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing.

So to get around a lot of this, I decided to worship the sun. But, as I said, I don't pray to the sun. — George Carlin

Space-Time is not an objective thing... — Gnomon

A theory of “consciousness” is just the pursuit of a ghostly spirit stuff. Or can you frame the task in a way that is scientific rather than a search for immaterial being? — apokrisis

I think Trump would be seen by Nietzsche as an exemplar of the last man. The uberman is first and foremost not a matter of dominance over others but of self-dominance, self-mastery, self-overcoming. The uberman is a higher man, a superior man, a man of a higher order. The creator of new higher values not someone who disregards values. — Fooloso4

I don't think the so-called "hard problem" is the main, or even a significant, focus of neuroscience. It's mostly the philosophers who worry about it. — Janus

Would you (180) also accuse Fredkin ... of "hasty generalization" and "unparsimonious and the pseudo-speculative equivalent of (neo-Aristotlean / neo-Thomistic / neo-Hegelian) intelligent design"? — Gnomon

Is his "law enforcement agent" a god-of-the-gaps posit to cover our ignorance of ultimate answers?

Is his "computer" a self-programmed natural intelligence, or an artificial intelligence created by an even more intelligent Programmer?

Is human intelligence merely an accidental pattern of a hypothetical "universal cellular automaton"?

And when it comes to taking literally the claim that “reality is a computer program”, you have to scratch your head at how it can in any sense run without material hardware or a handy power socket. — apokrisis