Here we get a bit apprehensive. Frege believed in rigid, permanent definitions, Wittgenstein believed in cluster concepts, that use is meaning. Which one does that definition fall into? — SethRy

I'm not sure if I need to put my definition in the Frege or Wittgenstein box. 'Religion' is not like a mathematical definition with an exact meaning. And I never read Wittgenstein, so I don't really understand what he means by definitions.

If so, then our conclusions would all be subjective, and not necessarily true, because our conclusions vary by its premises; which includes the definition of 'religion'. These shifting variations shadow the answer to your question — SethRy

Then let's pick a definition that's most relevant. How about by 'religion' it means anything on this list?

Is that a universal truth? — SethRy

No, it's a definition I thought on top of my head. I didn't think much about it to be honest. Pick your favorite definition of religion. It doesn't matter much to me.

Choice.

I googled it. :razz:

(Disclaimer: I don’t really don’t plan to murder anyone. I’m not serious.)

Can someone please tell us a story that does not involve the use of trolls? — Purple Pond

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

There was a troll. — S

Introduce your friend to S. S knows all about dealing with obnoxious people. — Sir2u

Great idea! Hey, @S, how do you fancy coming to New York City and help me deal with my obnoxious friend? All expenses paid, of course.

I'll start.

I have a problem: I need to get rid of a crazy "friend".

I met this person who I thought was very nice, and indeed he has a nice side. When I first met him I didn't know that this person is really rotten person on the inside. At first when he talks to you, he will mention very nice things about you. As you get to know him he'll start complaining about everyone and everything. He'll say really nasty things about people, constantly judging them. Everyone is bad, everyone is stupid, etc.. Worst of all, he never shuts up. He'll constantly talk about things you don't care about. I really am repulsed by his company. For some reason he thinks we're best friends. He wants to hang out with me and spend as much time as he can.

Further information: We go to the same place that I have to go, and there's no avoiding him. He lives near me. I don't want any enemies.

Every story so far involved the protagonist turning out to be a troll. Interesting.. Love the troll idea, but it's starting to get old. Can someone please tell us a story that does not involve the use of trolls? It would be much appreciated. :ok:

There once was a kid who would always overthink things. In fact he was nicknamed 'Overthinker" by his peers. Overthinker loved to think about things so much he often got carried away. There was always an aloof expression on his face.

The kids in his school found him an easy target to bully because when insulted Overthinker would always overthink the comeback. For example, when a kid insulted him by saying, "you need testosterone replacement therapy cause' you ain't got no balls", Overthinker just stood there with a vague expression on his face trying to figure out what the bully meant by "balls". The bully would laugh at Overthinker, "hey Overthinker, what's the matter? Are you too stupid understand what I just told you? Overthinker walked away and felt really sorry about himself. When he got home after a day of overthinking the insult over and over in his head, he cried to his to his mother, "I cant stand it, I keep overthinking things all the time, why can't I stop overthinking? His mother said, "don't worry son, your father and me are both academic philosophers. You've just inherited our genes to think a lot. When you grow older and become a philosopher yourself, your abilty to overthink things will come in handy. And Overthinker for once stopped overthinking things and said to himself, "gee a philosophical profession would be nice."

New story!

One upon a time, there was a clear pond that was undisturbed by humans. There was sign next to it saying that anyone who disturbs this pond will not go to heaven when they die. The village folks that resided next to pond were devoutly religious. Nobody knew who put up the sign, but even so they were terrified to go near that pond.

Years and years past and the sign warning about disturbing the pond remained intact. Most of the folks in the village thought there was something supernatural about the sign because it didn't make sense that the sign will withstand the wear and tear of the weather through the ages. However in the village there was an extremely wise man. He knew that the sign said, "Those who disturb this sign will not go to heaven." He dared not disturb the pond, but he was still suspicious of the sign. After pondering for days he came up with a plan to see what was going on at the pond.

Near the village there was a hill that was a perfect view of the environment. You could even see the pond with binoculars. So the wise man climbed on top of the hill and looked in his binoculars. He waited and waited until he saw a dog take sip of water. The wise man gasped because it was common knowledge that all dogs go to heaven. And if a dog is disturbing the pond, and all dogs go to heaven, the sign is false.

The wise man reasoned that some crazy environmentalists wanted to keep humans away from the pond and made a sign scaring everyone away from it. The wise man wanted to show this mysterious environmentalist a lesson. So he went over to the pond and dumped his collection purple dye into the pond. And the pond was forever known as the Purple Pond. The end.

Obesity is only a problem because there's too much food around today. In hunter gatherer society, in which we evolved, food was scarce, and you had to burn a lot of calories just to get it. If anything people who are obese now would have more of a chance of surviving during the hunter gatherer period. Those with higher metabolism or those with little appetite would die off during a famine because their bodies aren't efficient at storing fat.

So obesity isn't so much of self harm in that it's more like a maladaption to modern society.

The Passover holiday is coming up and I don't know what to do. The Jewish holidays kill me because I end up doing nothing. I live in a very religious neighborhood, but I don't participate in their religious rituals. I don't get involved in things that I don't believe in. I'm just very annoyed that I go through this every Jewish holiday.

I'm not one to mention names. It's not directed at anyone specifically because I don't want a confrontation. I'm not angry at anyone, just annoyed with people in general.

What's grinding your gears?

Sometimes when I try to have a serious discussion it gets spoiled by people who think everything I write is a joke. Even if you think everything I write is a joke, at least have the decency to use good humor in return. There's an edit button in your brain, please use it. It isn't wise to always write the first thing that comes to your head.

no ones giving me any money. — Mr Phil O'Sophy

I would love to give all my money to a complete stranger! I mean, it's not like I need money. There's always the homeless shelter.

I understand your need for money, especially when someone you know uses it all. .



:rofl:

I'll start.

The Philosophy Forum is an excellent place to express your philosophical ideas and engage with people who are interested in philosophy. The moderators and administrators do an excellent job running this site. The forum layout is beautiful and user friendly. I absolutely recommend this forum! * * * * *

I could get angry that you cursed at me. I could say fuck you back. I could say that I don't like sushi. But I won't. I'm an person with integrity and if is say anger is bad, then I will avoid getting angry.

I will defend myself by saying that I don't think I wrote anything that I deserve to be cursed at.

It's 11 here, so I'm just wallowing until I fall asleep. — Wallows

Just let me know when you fall asleep. Oh, wait. :chin:

I suppose some melatonin — Wallows

Done, 10 mg. Let's see if it works this time.

Humour is a good remedy for everything mundane and boring. — Wallows

I need to be bored. I am bored, therefore I sleep. I believe Descartes used similar logic.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/

My favorite Rolling Stones song. :starstruck:

Of the examples you've provided, I can't see myself getting behind any of them. Maybe if you give me enough time I can think of a thesis statement worth arguing for. Until then, anybody else can jump in.

137
Given the interest in the ethical and meaningful aspects of Happiness, together with the posters' definitions, here are a few thoughts about a thesis or statement. — Amity

You can't make people happy. Why?
It is unhappiness that motivates philosophers.See philosophical pessimism (Schopenhauer).
You must Know Thyself before prescribing happiness for others. Why?
A definition of happiness is not necessary to know what it is.What do you mean?
Happiness is not good for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88jj6PSD7w
Happiness, like Beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. In other words, happiness is subjective.
Happiness is a habit and can be learned. If you can unlearn fears, can you learn happiness?
Happiness can't buy you Love.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srwxJUXPHvE

The bold is what I think.

Some good thoughts regarding structure. Intro, main body, conclusion. But it sounds a bit like we are producing an essay for academic purposes. Perhaps that is what is required, but it's not what I was thinking of as an exploratory discussion. I need to think more about this. There would be no foregone conclusion. That might come at the end of the process. — Amity

We can have our cake and eat it too! It can be partly exploratory, and partly a thesis. I mean we can make conclusions on what we know about happiness, and leave some wiggle room for some exploratory content, for example, the part of happiness that we are not sure about.

Now that we have ideas on what happiness is we can start brainstorming on how to make others happy:
Sell them a product; Help someone in need; Complementing them; Offering your friendship: Hosting a party: These are just some examples of making people happy, for what it's worth.

We can start the OP with writing an introduction on happiness where you argue that happiness is not one thing, but rather a multiplicity of things that are different to sets of people. In the body paragraphs we can add all the different ways happiness means to each person. We can include all the contrasting views of happiness presented here by S, me, Baden, Unenlightened, and perhaps Amity. In the conclusion we can argue why happiness is important and what we can do to make people happy.

What do you think?

I foresee a few problems. We still haven't decided on who's doing the OP. How are we going to include the different views of happiness presented here without copying and pasting different writing styles into the OP. And lastly, what arguments are we going to include in our thesis on happiness?

:flower: return to sender — Amity

I give up on women. :cry:

How can something be understandable without reference? What does it mean to "understand" in your book? — Harry Hindu

Why must something have a reference for it to be understandable? All that requires for something to be understandable is for it to have meaning.

"It" refers to the state of affairs - the conditions outside - the weather. — Harry Hindu

No it doesn't. The weather or "the states of affairs", is the rain. It cannot perform the raining.

What else would it be referring to? — Harry Hindu

How about nothing?

What do you mean when you say, "It is raining"? What information are you trying to relay? — Harry Hindu

It depends on the context. Most of the time the speaker means that you'll need an umbrella to go outside or you will get wet.

If I were to look out the window and see that it is raining and you tell me that it is raining - wouldn't that be redundant since I already see that it is raining? How can the statement, "it is raining" be redundant if the statement doesn't refer to anything? — Harry Hindu

The information is redundant because I already know that it is raining, not the sentence. The sentence is fine.

Also, when translating languages, what is it that you are translating? What the words refer to. — Harry Hindu

No you're not. You're translating the meaning of the sentence.

Exactly. Why would you look out the window, or go outside, instead of look in the refrigerator or pour a glass of water? Because the state of affairs that the sentence refers to is outside and not in the kitchen. — Harry Hindu

So the "it" in "it's raining" refers to outside?

I don't think that's correct.

Can you answer this question? "Planet Earth is blue" refers to what?
A: Earth.
B: Planet Earth being blue.
C: Other.

How did you understand ''it's raining''? Can you describe what it is that you apprehend from it? — TheMadFool

If I go outside, or look out the window, I will see rain.

If someone tells me ''it's raining'' then I would take it as ''at this time it's raining''. The speaker, because it's obvious, doesn't mention ''at this time''. This is how I understand the phrase ''it's raining''. The reference is there. — TheMadFool

But we already get the "at this time" from "is", which makes it redundant. So "time" would be your reference in "at this time it's raining"?

Well, this is a matter of grammar. ''Is raining'' is grammatically deficient, so we add ''it'' for syntactical reasons. — TheMadFool

And what does 'is raining' mean?

The point is that the sentence refers to something in a context so obvious that it's not worth mentioning. — TheMadFool

Can you name a context that it is so obvious?

If one were to be specific and clear the sentence would be ''it's raining now/today/in Paris/etc.'' — TheMadFool

Funny thing is the reference is still missing even when you add those words.

The "is" already means "now", not the "it". That would make it redundant. What else could "it" refer to?

You said:

Can we understand a sentence without the referring in a sentence being completed?

No. — TheMadFool

Why not? I already gave an example of and understandable sentence where no reference is completed. "it's raining". What does the "it" refer to? Nothing.

An example to help me... — TheMadFool

'It's raining' has no reference, but it's perfectly understandable.

''Harry Potter has a glass eye'' isn't a true statement but it's about/refers to Harry Potter. So, reference/aboutness can occur without truth. — TheMadFool

I think you are correct here.