Comments

  • A universe without anything conscious or aware
    I don't really take anything that me writes seriously. Dude sounds like he just had a bad day when forming this stuff.
  • A universe without anything conscious or aware
    But then wouldn't non existence also be rendered a null concept without existence? I just shows how absurd the argument being made it. To argue against the notion of existence is to argue against it's opposite as well rendering your point moot.
  • A universe without anything conscious or aware
    You know I never thought of that, when the people in the thread talk about stuff not existing even that is a concept itself. In fact everything he mentions in that is a concept, infinity itself is purely a concept as well. Which now that I think about it just makes all this sound like nonsense.

    In a world stripped of concepts, there is no existence as existence is itself a concept. Therefore, a fundamental prerequisite for existence is the existence of concepts. Concepts however cannot exist without a conceiving entity. Therefore, existence requires consciousness.

    The existence of a thing implies the existence of the concept of a thing. If the concept of a thing does not exist, we cannot refer to it in any way and thus its existence becomes a null concept. Thus, the concept of a thing and by consequence the thing, is a mere state of a hypothetical system that is responsible for consciousness or is conscious. I will refer to it as the conscious system.

    (1) Constant change implies that there is a never-ending action, because if action would cease to exist, then change would be at some point impossible and therefore it will not be constant. Thus infinity is an inevitability.

    (2) The concept of a thing is distinguished by the concepts of other things through the concept of not that thing. Thus, discreteness can exist, so that all experience does not merge into a single point, which allows dimensions to exist.

    (3) The fact that a thing is defined by a set of conditions, reflects the state of the conscious system, which further determines the next state of the system but also forces it to never be in (experience) the same state twice, because that would put the system in a loop which contradicts buttonion's first proposition as it would cause a stable organization in the system (that is all that is) and therefore no more change.

    Thus far I have asserted that all that exists is an infinite non repeatable experience.

    So when we say that a thing exists, we are really saying that the experience of everything that can exist, has existed or will exist if it does not now. Which sucks.

    https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/2268080/fpart/1/vc/1
  • A universe without anything conscious or aware
    But without existence as a concept how would it still exist?

    Sorry I'm just trying to wrap my head around your point.
  • A universe without anything conscious or aware
    But what would we be sitting on if we had no concept of such things let alone the concept of a "thing".
  • What if a loved one was a P-Zombie?
    I understood it, you would need a way to quantify inner experience for the question to even make any sense.

    Even then it doesn't matter either way.
  • What if a loved one was a P-Zombie?
    Source? From what I can tell there isn't a structure like that in the brain. So far they've isolated a bundle of nerves that turn it on and off but so far nothing like that has been found.

    ALso how could you prove a lack of an internal life? You can't really measure that.
  • Is being attracted to a certain race Racism?
    It is a thing. I just on average find myself more attracted to black men. It's got nothing to do with class it's just appearance.
  • Is being attracted to a certain race Racism?
    But it isn't a value judgment though, because we don't actually judge anything. It just is. Like when you like a certain flavor, there isn't a judgment, it just is. It isn't valuing one thing over others. Racism is different.

    There is a difference between liking something and believing it to be superior to all others or that others are inferior. I don't think vanilla is superior to chocolate, I just prefer it to chocolate. It's just a matter of taste. I don't think chocolate is worse just because I don't like it. Same with people. Just because I'm not physically attracted doesn't mean that I think you're subhuman trash.
  • Metaphysical Epistemology - the power of belief
    So there is no point then? Got it.

    Because all I am seeing is a wall of text that changes nothing at the end of the day.
  • Is being attracted to a certain race Racism?
    Being attracted to something, anything is underpinned by a value judgment and invariably one likes what one thinks is better. Ergo, if you feel attracted to a particular race, it amounts to saying that that race is better and that's racism. You may prefer your own race over others and that's your run of the mill, garden variety racism but you may also like a race other than your own and that's auto-racism.TheMadFool

    How exactly is that racism? Being attracted to black men doesn't mean I think they're better than any other race, I'm just physically attracted. It's not like I think they are superior. I don't think vanilla is superior to chocolate, I just like vanilla. Like and dislike isn't really the same as better/worse.
  • Problem of Induction Help
    This is what I am referring to about the link ^
  • Metaphysical Epistemology - the power of belief
    What exactly is the point of this though?
  • Problem of Induction Help
    [Much] of what contemporary epistemology, logic, and the philosophy of science count as induction infers neither from observation nor from particulars and does not lead to general laws or principles. [Induction] was understood to be what we now know as enumerative induction or universal inference; inference from particular instances:
  • Problem of Induction Help
    But the link itself says that we don't, or rather can't make inductions.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    Making meaning was not his solution. He was explicitly against it because it was not confronting the absurd but running from it.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    That actually was not the point of Camus at all. He said that making personal meaning was not a solution and just a way to avoid dealing with the absurd. We are not radically free to choose our own (wrong author).

    Have you read him?
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    Ah but they do have meaning though, otherwise they wouldn't be enjoying life. They find meaning in those little things and food on the table. They haven't lived without it they just express it differently. Even you did, though you seem largely unaware of it. The people you met were the exception not the rule, I've seen the norm (it's pretty ugly).

    As I said, values and life goals are the only reason people live. The folks you met haven't even pondered nihilism so I don't get what you thought was going to overturn what I said.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    It doesn't really give you a key though. Camus is still dodging by assigning meaning and value to living. Nihilism says there is no meaning or value.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    From what I can tell nothing mattering isn't what Buddhism says though it appears that way.

    I still stand by my last point. Nothing mattering would just evaporate any reason for living.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    I fail to see how nothing mattering can be empowering.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    Everyone has an Ego so when we say "nothing matters" that is a claim to objectivity and can only be emotionally held on to as a meaning in life. The fundamentals of karma work. Do evil and evil comes to you. Do good and you won't go to hell (maybe you'll just be annihilated). But justice and fairness are not the same thing. The universe allows itself to be just to us but our lives might not be fair in themselves, or in comparisons between usGregory

    no such thing as Karma, or good and evil for that matter. Doing evil doesn't make evil comes to you and doing good doesn't mean much either.

    Justice and fairness are pretty much the same thing.

    The universe doesn't allow anything, it just is.
  • Why do many people say Camus "solved" nihilism?
    Why should one kill oneself at all? Why do one need "values" or "life goals" to live? Enjoy the joyride. Sure there are people that live shit lives, mental disorders or whatever. People that run into hopeless situations. Those people also probably dont think much about values and stuff, they know bloody well their pain and thats probably it. But for anyone not in a current hell, why suicideAnsiktsburk
    Values and life goals are pretty much the reasons why anyone is alive at all.

    Life is not a joyride, it's hell unless you're in the developed world.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    Again, chance. There is no design to evolution. That's the first mistake they correct in class.

    Adaptable mutations are lucky because it is a role of the dice that they don't hinder the organism. There is no "mold" they fit, that's just you projecting design.

    I would be willing to wager, if I actually likely pinball. But they're just lucky. Much of our lives is based on chance and not really our own efforts.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    Reread the definition. It presupposes and external entity imbuing it.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    No standing still is not worse. Stop trying to affix to life qualities it does not possess.

    The creation cannot imbue itself with purpose. Purpose is imbued by an outside force not from within. So it cannot be given to oneself.

    Why cannot it be true that the purpose of nature works THROUGH evolution?

    Too much emphasis is placed on the randomness of evolution by ppl who only look at mutation in genes. Yes, that mutation is indeed random, but the mutations that are accepted...are they merely random? No, they must be adaptable; and then we come to the question of what is adaptability, and we must allow that it means something like, “what fits in to the scheme of the universe”.

    It’s like if someone said, “pinball is a game of pure chance, for there is no way to know how the ball will return to the paddle, at what angle or speed. The player just pushes the button by reflex, and hopes it sends the ball into places where big scores can be racked up.” But there are, in fact, “pinball wizards”, who correspond to our evolutionary adaptability, able to choose the random things that fit into the scheme of the game.
    Todd Martin

    But that would be misunderstanding evolution. The first mistake is that people believe it has a purpose. It doesn't. It just happens. Organisms that fit the mold survive and reproduce while the rest die. There is no purpose or reason behind it. It just is.

    The mutations ARE random. It's really luck that a mutation generates a benefit for the organism. There is no adaptability to the level you think there is. That isn't how evolution works. There isn't a scheme to the universe.

    Pinball wizards are really just lucky. It happens. People misattribute such things as skill when it's luck. The same goes for success or promotions. We say it's skill because it gives us a sense of control in our lives. We don't want to admit that our accomplishments are really just about luck.

    I really don't think a philosophy forum is for you, maybe try some new age nonsense.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    But we agree - creating goals and behaviours in life (like helping others) are what give you purpose. But everyone has different ways of achieving that.GLEN willows

    They don't though.

    Purpose is something imbued by a creator, evolution has no purpose it simply is a force that happens. If you want to say purpose it would be something given by parents I guess but even then that is more a desire.

    Goals and behaviors in life can't give you purpose for you will have none at the end of the day. All they can do is distract you from the reality of existence.

    In my philosophy I only have one life, so I'd better get moving on it right now! :wink:GLEN willows

    Why? Why get moving? You won't remember any of it when you die and you can't take it with you (assuming an afterlife). There really is no reason to get moving or do anything.
  • A puzzling fact about thinking.
    They came together.Ken Edwards

    No they didn't. It's clear you don't have any real evidence for your claims.

    But what I said about psychology is the truth, so much so that even my professors grudgingly admit it. Psychology has always been the least accurate of all the sciences so it's no surprise your evidence is incorrect.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    To correct you, no it isn't.

    None of that is to create warm or a star, it's to delude yourself into thinking such things exist in the universe and ignore what IS.
  • A puzzling fact about thinking.
    Again, still wrong.

    Pretty sure the conscious mind came first otherwise you wouldn't have language. I wouldn't put much stock in research put forth by psychology since half of it had to be thrown out due to reproducibility and from what I learned in psychology courses in college it's not the best indicator of how humans work or their minds. So many theories yet nothing truly conclusive.

    "However, I think the conscious activity is just like the tip of the iceberg, and there is a vast amount of non-conscious activity going on, which is supporting a tiny amount of conscious activity. We could represented it like a pyramid, the base being non-conscious, with the point at the top being conscious. Since it is activity we are talking about, represented as a thing (the pyramid), there is continuous back and forth throughout this proposed "thing".Ken Edwards

    There isn't. The unconscious as we have found out turns out to not be some hidden brain but more just upkeep processes of the body.

    Scientist applied motion detecters to lips and tongues and vocal chords and observed that when guys thought in words tongue movements, sometimes just tiny little twitches, were invariably recorded but never registered with non word thinking, admiring a sunset or something.Ken Edwards

    And yet you have many saying they don't including me so they're clearly doing something wrong. It's more likely the inability to keep the tongue still. I mean it's fairly tricky for humans to remain perfectly still even if they are sitting down. Their study had nothing to do with thinking and words.

    But I guess psychology is desperate for something to publish since that blow it was dealt.
  • What is the purpose/point of life?
    That's not really an answer as a self generate purpose is no different from nihilism. I mean...it's sort of like saying "it's true for me" in an argument (depending on the subject) it renders all discussion meaningless.

    But to correctly answer the question, there is no purpose to life. Even generating a purpose yourself is little more than just avoiding the inevitable and ignoring the void we live in. It's a band-aid solution but not a long lasting one as once you glimpse the void attempts to patch it again continue to fail. No philosopher has successfully conquered it either without giving into the desperation to make meaning.

    The purpose of life is precisely this thread,: to create, to explore, to share, to enjoy.MondoR

    No it isn't.

    The purpose of life is make good on the struggles of all previous generations, by using what is thereby gained to secure the future for all subsequent generations; to know what's true, and act morally with regard to what's true - to live, to know, to live!counterpunch

    Also no.
  • A puzzling fact about thinking.
    Sorry but those experiments are flawed. As has been shown plenty of people don't move their mouths at all while thinking.

    Myself included. Not sure what you were getting at here. I think we can call this "fact" false.
  • Is morality just glorified opinion?
    Well, no moral statement, that's my point.
  • Is morality just glorified opinion?
    Ethics is nothing but value judgments so it's impossible to be unbiased.

    And "what really matters" will be what counts for us (how we will account for ourselves), what we will take as our culture, our words, that we will be heard in, be bound to, answerable for (or flee from).Antony Nickles

    No.

    The fact is that harm (e.g. hunger, pain, bereavement, isolation, etc) always causes dysfunction, or worse, especially when it is ignored and not alleviated adequately somehow. This is objective because it obtains whether or not "everyone sees it as bad".180 Proof

    Again, no. That is still mere opinion. Dysfunction is implying a state of deviation from normalcy which itself is a value judgments. So no it doesn't cause dysfunction. It isn't objective. You're still wrong.

    And why isn't this an acceptable description of where we are in a moral moment? There are such things as actions: a slight, or betrayal, lies, recrimination; and also reactions: an excuse, qualification, etc. And if we look at what they tell us about moral action, we might see that there is the act, then there is the reckoning for it; that there is a responsibility after the consideration of ought and the founding of morals. Most times we know what to do and what to expect, but then there are times when we don't know exactly what to do; nonetheless we act (or fail to). The moral realm is where we stand for what we say (or not), act beyond what is good and right, or against it. But we are held to it, we are separated by it. Where our knowledge of morality ends, we begin; into our future, our self--can you live with the results?Antony Nickles

    No, again. Because when it comes to morality people want to dress it up with words that in sense avoids responsibility. Saying something is right means you are doing it simply because society deems it such or that you need to validate your choice. That is what people do in moral moments, well technically there are no moral moments.

    I said there is no right or wrong but actions and results and it comes down to if you can live with the results. It's not about what is right or wrong. It's responsibility in it's truest form to me rather than hiding behind labels.
  • Is morality just glorified opinion?
    If you mean right as in true or correct in terms of facts then that's a different story.

    But morality speaks in terms of should and should not, which is what they mean by right and wrong. In this sense they are value judgments and as such morality can never not be an opinion. If by Xing you mean some act then sure.

    Obviously as stated the conclusion doesn't follow. It needs the following premise added to it

    1. Different people and groups have different moral beliefs
    2. If different people and groups have different moral beliefs, then morality is individually or collectively subjective
    3. Therefore, morality is collectively subjective
    Bartricks

    Incorrect. Premise two is redundant and unnecessary. Premise 3 logically follows from premise 1. Though judging by your post I find you to be an idiot.

    Because what you have listed are still just value judgments and I already said that everyone sharing a value doesn't really make it objective fact. Not everyone sees pain as bad or crippled as bad either.

    Regardless though, if you agree that:

    1- People generally have the same moral compass.
    2- There are and will continue to be punishments for immoral acts
    3- You have no basis on which to say those should stop.

    Then really your view is practically the same as meta ethical realism or relativism. You will continue to try to be moral and avoid being immoral to avoid punishment. And you will not have a basis to argue something like “Murderers should not be punished”. And you will probably also continue to feel like murderers and such “deserved it”.

    Which is why I think meta ethical questions are usually a waste of time.
    khaled

    1 is false. People I come across have quite the different moral compass when it comes to a variety of issues. I'm still reminded of abortion debates or welfare or government assistance. Folks don't have a moral compass.

    2 isn't entirely true and some "immoral" acts are quite legal and people can and do perform and get away with them. Repeatedly.

    3 is on you to say why they should even start to begin with.

    I'm not trying to be moral or immoral, I just avoid conflict if possible. Sometimes that involves "immoral" acts and not as much. I have a value and act in ways to facilitate that. I do in fact have a basis that murderers should not be punished, mainly that there isn't a basis to begin with when punishing them. I don't feel they deserve it either, but I don't feel they don't either.

    You keep trying to foot the whole thing on me but the reality is that it's on YOU and anyone espousing morality as to why such things are right or wrong to begin with. But YOU can't because it's just opinion.

    Bob and Alice decide it would be good to tie you down and do to you things that caused you some experience (what does not matter much). Are your experiences capricious and arbitrary?

    Or another way. You see in the newspaper a photograph. What is it a photograph of? Is it a photograph? What is it?

    The point is that meaning is provided at an appropriate level or closeness of engagement with the thing to which the meaning is given. Not so close or far away that meaning is lost. And that meaning is neither capricious nor arbitrary, rather instead it is meaning itself, and according to the precision of that application, absolute.

    We usually do not question if good things befall us - maybe we should. But these matters are usually honed and stropped on bad things. So the question becomes what is the value of the capricious and arbitrary. If your objection to being hurt by Bob and Alice is mere arbitrary caprice. What claim can you make on them to get them to stop?
    tim wood

    Yes they are capricious and arbitrary. I wouldn't like them doing that, but that's still opinion as me wanting them to stop. I cannot make a claim on them to get them to stop that wouldn't be personal opinion. Only force would do so. In fact that's the only way moral claims carry weight, the threat of not doing them. Essentially morality is about forcing your views on other people.
  • Is morality just glorified opinion?
    I read your posts but your arguments are wrong.

    The necessary moral conditions for communicative debate are not in place. Language is made up, therefore it's all bullshit! :vomit:unenlightened

    It’s more like nihilism knows we made all this stuff up. It is similar to language and one could argue it’s all BS because we made it up but considering language is what we need to communicate I’m not putting it on par with morality. You sound like the rest trying to desperately create some objective standard to live by when it’s foundations are just opinion.

    The only problem we end up with is what do we make of the person who has no conscience and can live with the consequences of anything: murder, rape or genocide. That is where things become a bit tricky with what I will call the subjective utilitarian approach. Do we say that there is no objective criteria and that there are no objective moral principles at all? This is where we begin to get into the rough waters and possible moral nihilism. Okay, most of us have consciences but, unfortunately, not everyone does.Jack Cummins

    That’s not a problem at all, again you are attaching aspects that don’t exist on to actions, in this case murder and death as bad. If they can live with that then I have nothing to say, same with someone who is intent on killing me. I can tell them no but in the end it’s only my opinion against their own.

    Moral nihilism is pretty much what morality is from what I see. Anything else seems like lying to yourself.

    "We" did make it up; that doesn't mean it is merely arbitrary and capricious opinion. It's is also true, especially in your case, that your mere opinion will not outweigh everybody else's.Bitter Crank

    I mean...when you get down to it the whole thing IS arbitrary and capricious opinion. That’s not my opinion that’s a fact. Morality being a value judgment can’t be anything other than opinion.

    Also I would like to reply to the beginning comments that I don’t believe that everyone agreeing to something makes it objective, just means that everyone agrees. But how many times have people done that and it led to ruin? Plus isn’t that a fallacy or appealing to popularity?
  • Reason for Living
    Changes nothing.
  • Reason for Living
    If someone says they don't value improvement, and they feel no shame at all in the refusal to take part, there is no reddening of the cheeks as they refuse the relationship, then so be it. I'm not sure I would believe them.bert1

    Such people tend to be smarter than most.
  • Reason for Living
    Heaven help the person who jumps off that bridge, with certain death imminent, and who, in those five seconds of falling, realizes he hasn't thought things through as thoroughly as he first assumed he did before jumping.

    Not playing the proverbial game is much harder than just offing yourself. If you think that by offing yourself, you'll exit the game, then you're still giving supremacy to others, still letting others dictate your life, and you're even devoting those last few seconds of your life to them. To people who don't care enough about you to be there for you. Now that's a shame.
    baker

    No you aren't. You aren't giving supremacy to anyone. By opting to not play you win. Think about what happens when enough people stop playing the game, there is no game anymore.

    What's a true shame is how you can't see that. The reality is that we have been convinced we must play, so the only way for others to win is to keep playing.

    Also some might have regret but some experience great peace knowing it will all be over.