Philosophical Ramblings

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Ramble here:

My stuff

*** The primary difference and seperation between people can be described wholly through genetic disposition and experiential relations. Space & time is a factor in both genetics and experience.

*** The mind/body duality is an erroneous and flawed method of describing human experience with the world. The mind & body exist together as a unified entity, which together sense and experience reality.

*** Metaphysics is a necessary compulsion of the human mind to comprehend the confounding notion of a subjective-objective universe through language. It is necessary, because both human language and the human mind are incapable alone to fathom the implications of existence itself.

*** Pure energy allows for existence in both living and non-living entities. Living beings are conscious of existence; non-living beings are not conscious of existence.

*** Academic philosophy is almost completely bullshit. The field is paid to stroke each others’ egos, especially their own. Though, somebody has to teach regurgitated garbage to the middle class college freshmen. If philosophers had anything useful to contribute within the last 50 years, it’d be popular by now. Original thinkers/professors who haven’t been corrupted by academic bureaucracy are hard to find.

*** Nihilism is the best path to understanding truth and meaning, because it is best suited to analyze how metaphysical foundations stand, are built, and are destroyed. Nihilism is a ‘naked philosophy’ that exposes the human animal for what it is–soulless in a meaningless universe of chaos. We build our hopes and meanings on the delusions of morality and the illusions of sensual experience.

*** Ethics explains the hows and whys of human interaction. When there is a child being swept away in river currents and you could risk your life to save this child, should you or should you not? Ethics itself has no answers–we bring our own reasons with us and create systems of ethics that define our social identities. When little Timmy hits little Ronny in kindergarten class, the teacher will rebuke Timmy and say, “It is bad to hit Ronny; that is not nice–it is wrong!” What is the teacher really saying??? The teacher is actually saying this, “Don’t hit Ronny, because I don’t want you to (based off of my personal reasons/morals/etc.)!” There is a miscommunication between the ethical reasoning and the language being used. This is also how hypocritical moral lessons are learned, but not understood.

*** The misunderstanding of why sleep is so important is because of how the mind is affected by stress levels. Sensing and experiencing the world on a daily basis is enough to ‘stress’ the mind, and therefore the body. Sleep is vital, because the brain shuts off the input to the senses. When we are unconscious; we do not consciously see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. That is precisely the point! By understanding how stress affects our entire being, then and only then will we link the importance of sleep with the mind and body.

*** You can only understand the meaning of life by first understanding the meaning of survival. This is from where true philosophy arises.

*** To truly understand and know something, you must first truly understand and know nothing. This is the beginning of nihilistic philosophy.

*** Philosophy is initially impractical within every manifestation, because it does not immediately produce tangible things or result in action. This can be corrected when a philosopher lives their philosophy. I believe this is linked to Socrates’ idea of an “unexamined life”. However, philosophy still has the potential to become practical in and of itself through the realization of ultimate truths. Philosophy is still lacking in this area, but there are clearly philosophers throughout history who have been on the ‘right’ track by describing reality in particular ways. This exemplifies that both human language and the human mind are continually evolving!

*** Art is valued by humankind mainly because of its ability to enhance and remember our experiential life from the past to the present. Pictures/videos recall to us visual images that we adore or despise; the other senses have the same relation with art. Music recalls melodies and moods, smells & tastes recall foods and pungent aromas, and feel recalls feelings of affection/sexuality.

*** If a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to hear it (or perceive it in any way), does anybody care?

*** The only difference between fiction and non-fiction exists as a falsely assumed context of “make-believe”.

*** ‘Love’ is a fairy tale. However, ‘true love’ is true and real. It is a manifestation of pure energy within social relations. Understanding ‘true love’ is identical to understanding reality. Both are filled with illusions and delusions–the philosopher is best fit to decipher what language is best used to describe these illusions of reality.

*** The best philosophers are poets. The best poets are philosophers.

*** To know where you are going, you must first know where you came from.

*** Expect to die from old age at 100, then attempt to accomplish all the goals in your life within the next year.

*** Nihilism is a dominating force within my life. Within every action and thought of my existence, I realize that possible meaning is inherent in one thing above all others–immediate survival. Without survival, I would be dead. So the conclusion to a living nihilist is that if (and this is a strong ‘if’ with conviction) life has any meaning to it, then at least it must be survival itself or have something directly to do with survival.

*** There is a ‘how’ and ‘why’ to everything, which can be easily explained using reason. However, there is no ‘how’ and ‘why’ to nothing, which confounds everything. Because of the paradoxical existence of nothing, the mystery of philosophy and human existence has yet to be unravelled.

*** Academic philosophy is useless, since philosophy itself is impractical. What is the point in creating elaborate systems, terminologies, or connections between dead philosophers when philosophy produces nothing practical in the end? The only way it can do so is by joining the scientific arena–in which case philosophers aren’t really philosophers anymore, they’re scientists. Academic philosophy (above the undergraduate level) should be abolished as an institutionalized area of study from public colleges. Students should not be allowed to get a degree in philosophy.

*** A secret about Socratic philosophy is that everybody lives an unexamined life, unless they are “enlightened”. To become “enlightened”, a person must literally know nothing. Therefore, nobody’s life is worth living…

*** Behind everything you say or do, hides one hundred thousand years of human history and more…

*** Most people cannot differentiate between fiction and non-fiction. Thus, the masses live in “dream worlds”. (a phrase taken from Aidan’s nihilistic philosophy) The difference between these masses and a philosopher is enlightenment of an awareness to these dreams. This is what I call “[b]philosophical truth[/b]”. The philosophers are aware they are dreaming, while the masses do not. How a philosopher reacts to this realization is what separates him/her from other individual philosophies/philosophers.

*** My personal philosophical explanations that claim that reality is based on illusions/delusions is directly understood through Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. What people base their ‘reality’ on, philosophers included, is not what is truly real in the first place. These are illusions. Reality is illusive! Metaphysics is the attempt by philosophers to grab a hold of the concept of ‘reality’ and reign it in. It is natural and compulsive for philosophers to act on this, because it is what every human animal does in order to base their conceptual knowledge. Any person who claims to have no involvement/concern with metaphysics is lying (a.k.a. Faust)

:stuck_out_tongue:

*** ‘Subjectivity’ and ‘objectivity’ are outdated concepts due to the fallacious assumption of duality. The universe, all life forms, humans, etc. are all ‘inter-subjective’. In other words, all living beings relate to all other living beings due to a few base commonalities above everything else. (I will not explain those here, because you people will steal my ideas and label them as your own!! :astonished: :laughing: )

*** All ‘truth-based’ statements are made true ultimately by an appeal to authority. This is the greatest realization one should have about how language ‘works’.

*** All statements are assumed to be true, but are unexamined by the ‘common mind’.

2

I agree with all the above except that existance can’t be fathomed by the human mind or explained with language.

3

i, you’re wrong.

4

Here’s a fun one I wrote about one of the many experiences I have had with dim-witted capitalists who shouldn’t be allowed to breathe…and yet they own and operate their own businesses because of this “freedom of enterprise”. Where is Mao when you need him? This guy I worked for would be better suited for fertilizer.

I was not satisfied with the wage I was offered…so I proceeded to reveal just what a dip-shit this guy was, how excellent I was, and then quit.

…I told the boss that I could tell the general skill level of a carpenter, and approximately how long he has been doing it, in less than a sixty seconds. The boss laughed and said it would take at least a day, and that’s assuming he could perform all aspects of the work in a day, which is usually impossible. I told the boss that because of the nature of the job, several specific things are extremely repetitive. Things like using a/the saw, or a pneumatic tool. How one positions himself on a ladder, how they organize their station, etc. Because of this, there are basic preliminary skills that should be acquired before anything else. The boss said that this wasn’t true because people work differently, and asked for an example.

“See Joe over there?”

“Yeah,” said the boss.

“He’s right handed, is he not?”

“Yeah, he’s right handed.”

“Then why does he have his tape-measure in his right pouch, and why is he cutting the casing backward and pulling his measurement form the left?”

The boss said, “I dunno…maybe he likes it that way.”

“If he holds his pencil with his right hand to make his marks when cutting, he has to first take his tape-measure out of his right pouch with his right hand and pass it to his left hand so he can get his pencil. If he put the tape-measure in his left pouch, he could grab both the pencil and the tape-measure at the same time. He would save approximately four seconds.”

“This is silly,” said the boss.

“But Wait, I’m just getting started. He also has his speed-square in his right pouch, which means it has to be passed to his left hand as well. But let’s move on. See the way he cuts his mark? He touches the saw blade to the casing just barely, and then slides the piece to the left or the right a sixteenth or so. He is also leaning to the left to do this. If he simply stood in front of the blade without leaning to the left, and looked down the blade with one eye, as if sighting a rifle or pool-cue, he could see the alignment before touching the blade to the wood, and could therefore make one single motion and make the right cut. This would save him approximately four seconds.”

“Are you being serious here,” asked the boss, with a sarcastic sigh.

“Well you are also saving money on saw blades because he isn’t having to touch the blade that extra time, causing the blade to become duller sooner. You save approximately six cents per nine houses.”

The boss rolled his eyes.

“Now see how he cuts his coped edge? He turns the saw to a forty-five degree angle. Instead of this, he could just leave the arm loose and tilt the blade to its equivalent forty-five degree miter angle…and spare himself the effort of having to grasp the latch and lock it into place each and every time he makes his cut. Not to mention doing it this way allows him to slide the piece from the right, which in turn is complimentary to him being right handed. The other way causes him to pull his measurement from the left, which means he must cross his right hand, which is holding the pencil, over his left to make his mark. This looks silly and clumsy and also costs him more time. He would save approximately six seconds if he did it the way I described.”

"And now he’s nailing baseboard. See how he starts at the left side, nails the piece in its inside corner, then goes to the extreme left side of the board…and nails that inside corner?

“Yeah,” said the boss.

“He is causing himself to have to walk back across the distance he went once already, while he could’ve just nailed the piece as he went, from the right to the left. He would save approximately five seconds doing it this way.”

“Now watch how he nails the piece to the wall. He tries to stand directly in front of the stud marks on the wall, which are revealed by the dots of drywall mud. If he just kept the gun in front of him and learned to watch the top of the piece of base and how it snugs up to the wall suddenly if you hit a stud, he could, in two shots, at least hit the stud with one of the two nails…which is all that is necessary. Also, you can hear it when you hit a stud. The thump is distinct and not like the sound when you miss. He would save approximately five seconds per piece…depending on how long it was.”

“Okay what is your point,” asks the boss impatiently. “Are you trying to tell me that a few seconds is even important?”

“Well yeah, technically, but that wasn’t my real point here. My point is that regardless of whether or not these meager seconds save you any money, it is in principle faster, and therefore better, than the way he is doing it. The better carpenter would have naturally discovered this principle by himself already, and changed his methods. In ten years this guy is still doing it the wrong way, because he hasn’t the ingenuity to enhance his own performance and get better. Someone would have to teach him and explain why the other method is better. This marks the inferior carpenter, and in less than sixty seconds, during any of the above scenarios, I can determine if he is deserving of the wages he wants as it is the average wage for a carpenter with X amount of experience.”

“If you weren’t such a dumb-ass yourself, you would have noticed this and tried to teach your workers the best and most efficient methods for this work. But because you are a dumb-ass, I quit. You couldn’t make a rational and intelligent decision about how much I should get paid if you don’t know this much. Now go read a fucking book, Dale Earnheart.”

5

You sound like me, a perfectionist. First I learn how to do a job completely then I try to do it better.

6

I have to be, or else I am expendable. Unfortunately, the context creates competition between the working classes, those who have the same interests. When I work for a wage, I make it known that I am better than the other employees. But isn’t that detrimental to the other workers? Of course it is.

In reality, the workers should UNITE and get rid of the fucking capitalists.

Right now I am working off and on for a millionaire. He pays me $15 dollars an hour. I have, in three weeks, completed a project that would have cost him $30, 000 had I not worked for him. The job I did was bid at 30 grand by an alternative framing crew. I made roughly $1000 from the job…and saved him 29 grand.

I recently asked for a dollar raise. He said “fifteen is about the best you can get around here” and denied me the dollar raise. How soon this parasite FORGOT about the 29 grand I saved him.

This guy is also a Christian.

He has given ownership of the condos to his minor aged daughter…so he can avoid property taxes. He is lying.

THIS GUY IS ALSO A CHRISTIAN.

Did I say that already? Oh sorry.

I have a very special treat for this guy, which I will give him when the time is right.

[wink]

7

I love hard-core Marxists…

8

I’m small fish, realunoriginal.

Check this out: homepage.ntlworld.com/rosa.l/Why … e%20DM.htm

I call her “Triple M”- the “Mother Matriarch of Marxism.”

I want you to look at things from my perspective for a moment. Here is this “Rosa Lichtenstein” who plays with the most advanced logic like little kids play in the sandbox. How could I possibly take anything ever said at this forum, or any other, seriously, after discovering Rosa?

I’ve been ruined, realunoriginal. Never again, after meeting Rosa, will I take anything but Communism seriously.

9

Tortoise isn’t in this thread! :-s

10

Oops. I’m losing my mind man.

I edited the post.

11

Actually I loved Marxism and Communism when I was first introduced to them during college. The problems with both of these -isms arose mainly from the Cold War in which propaganda skewered the fundamental ideals of them.

From what I remember, Marx said that Communism was the conclusion to Capitalism anyway–and I agree. Capitalism is too ‘soulless’ to last indefinitely. The system of money is inherently at odds with itself when it comes to coinciding with human values/meaning.

Capitalism helped build and emphasize the American hypocrisy.

12

Improper management ruined any attempted communism, and sanctions against communist countries didn’t help either. Today, however, technology is too advanced to make the same mistakes. There are no more Mao’s initiating great leaps forward, failing miserably, and causing the worst famines this earth has ever seen.

One of the major risks taken by historical communist systems was in trying to become a superpower too fast. But you must understand that evasive action was necessary in the race against capitalist nations. The cold war is an example.

Here is a fact that might work to help in the humiliation of American capitalism: the biggest reason why America’s industry is so robust is because it is seated on the most resourceful continent on the planet. In terms of global competition…America was dealt a hand from a stacked deck. I assure you American capitalism is not a success because of its…[cough]…intellectual integrity. Remember, the most googled topic on the internet in 2005 was Paris Hilton. This is where America’s mentality is at.

13

America capitalism was built on the near-extinction of Native American Indians and centuries of slavery. I know where the American hypocrisy begins and ends. :wink:

14

Adam Smith’s revolutionary idea was only in reaction to the prior economic systems that existed at the time. Obviously capitalism is better than feudalism, for example, but it is not better than communism. Smith was submitting a temporary solution to a present problem…without being able to predict the disastrous outcome of capitalism a couple hundred years later. But that is how it works. Smith is not blame for being the father of this monster. Who is to blame for this monster is the working classes. It is entirely up to the working class to bring about revolution.

It may be said that capitalism exists only because it is not yet destroyed. NOT because it is the proper economic system. Capitalism is a phase, and leads directly to socialism. The soil is ripe…the workers are not…because they are busy watching Nip-Tuck on TV or arguing over who gets the last hamburger.

15

Oh, about the indians. Interesting story, that is. Originally, the settlers, a large majority of which were Calvinists (a branch of secular Christianity…the premise that only certain people can get into heaven…entirely ruling class elitist), actually believed that the indians were sub-humans. The settlers first activity here on American soil was the crusade. Make everyone a Christian…or execute them.

16

(bump to receive more ramblings from others)

17

Start rambling people! I need some company and I thought you were all ‘philosophers’?

18

It’s unified to the outside world and maybe to the conscious mind too but it is not unified in its thinking. This non-unity is reflected in psychological disorders where the mind and body is out of synch.

This is true of just about any profession though. Each profession has an overly sense of its importance in the contribution to the whole.

I think sleep is for the mind to think, unfettered by the body. This is where real out-of-the-box thinking comes from as it is less limited by the direct perceptions of space and dogma. In the daytime you are too occupied with physical existence to do any original thinking so you really do it at night when you’re sleeping.

The purpose of existence is first to survive then to live.

Philosophy will always be at the margins of society because society is materialistically oriented.

The thinker cares, the doer don’t. The mind cares but the body don’t.

Fiction is for the mind, non-fiction is for the body. The body only cares for materialistic things, the mind is the dreamer in all of us.

Love is the desire of the body to join with others. We conquer through love and war.

19

Your criticism of academic philosophy is applicable to a plethora of other disciplines and areas of study in higher education.

Why offer English degrees? People can read on their free time and nothing is being produced.
Why offer any liberal arts degree? “”

So, you want universities and colleges to become nothing more than feeder institutions for industry? Glorified trade schools with curriculum based primarily on the foundations of quantitative science?

20

Sure, why should taxpayers spend money on teaching impractical professions in the first place?

Let the field die–private universities can pick them up at will. Who cares if a PHD in English is out of work???