Comments

  • Plato’s allegory of the cave
    More to the point: what is outside of reality?
  • What is Conservatism?
    ↪Vera Mont
    :up:
  • What is Conservatism?
    IME, conservatism seeks to conserve (i.e. propagandize, police) the social-political-economic status quo ante, and thereby, in practice, rationalizes illiberality with terms like "traditional" & "patriotic", "family values" & "human nature", "essence" & "ideal", "faith" & "duty", "law" & "order"... Policy prescriptions such as e.g. deregulation, lowering / eliminating taxes, smaller government (austerity), border controls, [insert country here] first / isolationism, etc are just campaign slogans and partisan window-dressing (i.e. fundraising talking points) which distract from the illiberal ideology.

    'Conservatives' themselves seem to bifurcate the world by tribe / sect such that they tend to be very pessimistic about "Them" (i.e. much less cosmopolitan, urban & prospective) and yet not quite optimistic about "Us" (i.e. much more parochial, rural & retrospecttive); therefore, as history of the modern era amply shows, 'conservatives' are just as, or more, comfortable with autocracy (i.e. centralized minority rule – 'political Right' (i.e. "Us & Them" trumps Right & Wrong / True & False)) than they are with democracy (i.e. agonistic majority rule – 'political Center').
  • Evidence of Consciousness Surviving the Body
    Your logic and philosophy is really bad Sam! — Nickolasgaspar
    :up:

    ↪Sam26
    :eyes: Well, sir, "alien abduction" videos are more my jam; "haunted house" "astral projection" "reincarnation" or "perpetual motion machine" Youtubes not so much.

    Anyway.

    Resuscitation is not resurrection. "NDE" presupposes resurrection and yet none of the claimants, in fact, have been resurrected. Brain-death has not occurred until it is irreversible; ergo the "D" in "NDE" is nothing but an ad hoc ex post facto confabulation (à la false memory) of some non-ordinary mental state(s) of an unresurrected, still-living brain. "See the light," blind man. :yawn:
  • Politics fuels hatred. We can do better.
    Poltical hatred – autocracy vs democracy? There's nothing new in this at least since Magna Carta began rolling back monarchy in 1215. Apparently roiling the electoral politics of developed nations in recent decades is a significant and committed plurality of hateful, grievance voters who openly prefer ethnic-sectarian autocracy to pluralist secular democracy. The decade of the 1930s was a tragedy; might the 2030s be rhe centennial farce? The rhyme of hate's history ... TBD. :mask:
  • Thoughts on the Meaning of Life
    Two thoughts:

    Perhaps 'the purpose of existence' is for existents to recognize that existence itself cannot provide existents with "purpose" thereby engendering in existents a "metaphysical need" that also cannot be satisfied (i.e. "a useless passion") and yet persists as a meta-"metaphysical need" to deny – via idealism (e.g. fideism) or nihilism – the "metaphysical need" itself. :eyes:

    Besides, "purpose" is a map and the only map which can describe, or apply to, the whole is, of course, the whole itself; thus, the "purpose of existence" is existence itself, and the "meaning of life" is life itself.

    :sweat:
  • Politics fuels hatred. We can do better.
    The central problem is not hate, but fear. Fear and stupidity*.

    (*This is a brand of stupidity that has existed since the beginning of civilization, but has now grown to pandemic proportions.)     — Vera Mont
    :clap: :100:
  • Fear of Death
    For me the challenge would be to find joy in decline ... — Janus
    :death: :flower:
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    ↪schopenhauer1
    :up:
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    ↪schopenhauer1
    No doubt they were.
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    ↪schopenhauer1
    The issue l addressed is the questionable merits of Christ's preachings and not "his tendencies" (whatever they were) or "the oppressive ... status quo".
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    ↪Art48
    Well, for my shekels, I prefer the Nazarene's contemporary Seneca's good teachings for how to live as superior in every way to the "Sermon on the Mount" & "Kingdom of God" preachings of the crucified, rabble-rousing, street rabbi.
  • Does Consequentialism give us any Practical Guidance?
    ↪RolandTyme
    Maybe these links make my position a little clearer:
    ↪180 Proof
    (&
    ↪180 Proof
    ).
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    ↪NOS4A2
    :eyes: Putin's Bitch was engaged in a cover-up of 2016 crimes while squatting in the Oval Office by signing reimbursement checks to his fixer in 2017. MAGA is as MAGA does. :shade:
  • What is a good life?
    ↪Vera Mont
    ↪Vera Mont
    :fire:
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    I'd say that science + goals can give us oughts. Think of science as a map... — Art48
    :... experience-based goals (i.e. hypothetical imperatives). :up:

    Some "goals" are moral and some are not; how do we tell the difference?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Remember when Republicans complained bitterly that Obama had the audacity to appear at a press conference wearing a tan suit? — Wayfarer
    Because of his brown face – yeah I do. Everyday, still. :mask:
  • Pop Philosophy and Its Usefulness
    Why examine oneself if not to improve oneself? — Noble Dust
    As I see it, though the former implies the latter, the latter neither presupposes nor implies the former.
  • Fear of Death
    Too irrelevant would be my pick. — Janus
    :smirk:
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    ↪Wayfarer
    Yup. :up: 'Superceding indictments' for felonies related to State Campaign Finance Fraud and State Tax Fraud (and maybe Grand Jury Witness Tampering (e.g. M. Cohen, A. Weisselberg, et al) are coming.
  • Pop Philosophy and Its Usefulness
    Pop philosophy is about self-improvement. Real philosophy is about self-examination. — T Clark
    This. :up: A pithy distinction (à la sophistry / dialectics) that better illuminates for me a seemingly intractable family dispute.
  • TPF Quote Cabinet
    I am completely an elitist in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness. I love the spectacle of skill, whether it's an expert gardener at work or a good carpenter chopping dovetails. I don't think stupid or ill-read people are as good to be with as wise and fully literate ones. I would rather watch a great tennis player than a mediocre one, unless the latter is a friend or a relative. — Robert Hughes, art critic
  • If there was a God what characteristics would they have?
    ↪TiredThinker
    Why ask if you've already answered for yourself contra every extant, religious-"god" tradition?
  • Pop Philosophy and Its Usefulness
    Australian art critic Robert Hughes, a man of modernist, old-school inclinations. — Tom Storm
    :clap: Brilliant quote. (I miss his work and interviews.)

    Is there not a place for articles like this, and pop philosophy in general? — Mikie
    It's the same place where e.g. Musak, juice bars and horoscopes belong.

    Are they helpful or do they do more harm than good?
    Same as sugar.

    Was my initial reaction just an instance of snobbery, a kind of intellectual elitism?
    Elitism. :up:

    Can it even be done better than the philosophers and spiritual leaders from which it derives?
    'Cheap knock-offs' are just that: cheap.
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    ↪Fooloso4
    :up:
  • Reasons to call Jesus God
    I’m merely asking you to entertain for a few minutes the idea that Jesus was just a normal human being who had some good teachings about how to live. — Art48
    I don't think so. For instance, Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef is reported to have taught support of "evil" by not resisting "evil-doers" (re: "turn the other cheek" Matthew 5:38–42, "love your enemies" Luke 6:27–31, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" Matthew 16:24, etc). :brow:

    Not a "word" preached against marital rape or incest, against slavery, against executions, or in favor of thinking for oneself – nothing but teachings on how to live self-abegnating lives like "sheep" to be flocked and fleeced by "the shepherd" for his piously mysterious (i.e. "revealed") purpose.

    If the idea were true, would there be some sort of reason or motive for people to say Jesus is God anyway?
    Idolatry. Familial/sectarian indoctrination. Masochistic gullibility (re: conversion).
  • If there was a God what characteristics would they have?
    ↪Tom Storm
    :100:
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    1 down and three to go in 2023
    The timeline of MAGA Loser #1's legal reckoning for his 2016-2023 crime spree (excluding potentially ruinous civil lawsuits) is taking a definite shape:

    1. NYC felony indictment 31Mar23 :up:
    "34 counts of Business Documents Fraud Crealing and/or Covering-up Felonies", etc

    https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-full-document-640043319549?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=RelatedStories&utm_campaign=position_02

    2. Fulton County, GA  (pending by 1May23)
    "Suborning Election Fraud", etc

    [link indictments here]

    3. South Florida (pending by 1Jun23) "Mishandled Documents & Obstruction of Justice", etc

    [link indictments here]

    4. Washington, DC (pending 1Sept23 > DoJ might save this one for 1Dec24 :eyes:)
    "J6 Insurrection", etc

    [link indictments here]
  • The hard problem of matter.
    I need an explanation as to how an activity is "matter". — Metaphysician Undercover
    Aren't 'things' periodic patterns of ("indivisible")^ events? Re/acquaint yourself, MU, with thermodynamics (re: plasma, steam, liquid ...) Also, read old Epicurus (and/or Lucretius) on 'swirling swerving atoms^ recombing in void'. :fire:
  • The hard problem of matter.
    ↪jgill

    What is the known ontology of matter? — Metaphysician Undercover
    Fermions & bosons.

    OTOH, the (modern) specularive ontology of matter has been designated "an idea" (Berkeley), "a phenomenon" (Kant) or "res extensa" (Descartes) ...
  • If there was a God what characteristics would they have?
    What are the prerequisites of being a god? — TiredThinker
    You tell me. Epicurus' "Riddle" (linked above) suggests some essential "prerequisites. Whatever they are, they should make the entity worthy of being worshipped (i.e. worthy of being called a "god"), no?

    Besides, of all the "gods" we can imagine, TT, the only (creator) ones consistent with the world as is it in all of its pitiless, raw & brutal indifference, as I've already stated, is either a "sadist god" (i.e. demon) or "fictional god" (i.e. hollow idol).
  • Fear of Death
    ↪green flag
    :fire:
  • The Being of Meaning
    I call myself an 'atheist' as a shorthand for not 'that' kind of theist. My God is a devouring fire. He eats atheists himself for breakfast. — green flag
    :clap: :halo:
  • What is needed to think philosophically?
    At what point can thinking be classified as having the attribute, philosophically? — Alexander Hine
    I suppose when first-order calculation (object) becomes higher-order reflection (meta), one begins thinking "philosophically".
  • Collective intelligence and collective moral
    ↪Vera Mont
    :up:
  • Fear of Death
    The fear of God Time is the beginning of wisdom philosophy. — green flag
    Wonder in spite of "fear" – the shock of 'appearing and disappearing' – may spark deliberative reflections; absent wonder, however, I think "fear" itself just reinforces superstitions.

    if life is evanescent and everything is eventually forgotten, then the moment matters more. — Tom Storm
    :fire:
  • Bannings
    @green flag Welcome back!

    @fdrake @Baden :cool:
  • Neuroscience is of no relevance to the problem of consciousness
    Neuroscience has nothing to say about phenomenal consciousness. — bert1
    :roll: I can think of several significant cognitive neuroscientists who have plenty to say which is informed by observational data on this topic, unlike philosophers who only speculate about their anecdotal, folk ideas of "phenomenal consciousness". Maybe you should read some of the relevant scientific literature, bert.
  • If there was a God what characteristics would they have?
    Can we assume they aren't omnipotent? — TiredThinker
    As Epicurus concludes "then why call him God?"
  • Thoughts on the Meaning of Life
    ↪0 thru 9
    Thanks.
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