Deleted User

We'll start with you first, because I already asked you the question. After that we'll move to your definition. In other words, answer the question.

"So a philosopher is someone particularly interested in basic questions about the world." No, you said interest defines a philosopher. You also said s...

Yes, that seems to be the case. Here is the definition of philosophy: The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especi...

Notice you say actions now, or, as I said, behavior? You didn't say that. You said: That's not action. Again, your brain is all over the place. You ar...

Notice how this goes beyond mere interest? Here is the definition of philosophy: The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existe...

Effects inform your morality. This is what you said: If somone ponders something, but doesn't commit it, then nothing of moral significance has occure...

This is an incoherent statement. What you do has first and foremost an effect on you. What you do is not something that can be experienced by others, ...

Morality doesn't involve me - the individual experiencing reality - but involves others, or individuals experiencing reality. I am embedded in society...

So, when you are alone morality isn't a factor?

So, if I'm interested in biology, that makes me a biologist?

"Because we are individuals and are confined to our own bodies and consciousness, it follows that morality is an individual practice. Meaning, you can...

Your mother owes you an apology.

Beyond doubt.

Yes, fair. Desire to be something, or claiming to be something, is not being something. I thought that was the argument you were making.

Your conclusion does not follow from your premise. Illustration: Because politicians can be split into separate camps, belief in truth defines what a ...

Not a writer any less, are they? I know someone whose musical work is so far beyond those of whom you hear on a regular basis, qualitatively speaking,...

Contribution to philosophy, then, defines the philosopher in your mind. Interesting. I wonder, if a scientist never contributes to the body of accepte...

So, because you think philosophers can be separated into camps, means you think a belief in truth defines what a philosopher is?

Decisions are, of course, an aspect of philosophy, but that doesn't mean decisions constitute philosophy, anymore than decisions constitute science, e...

Here is the definition of philosophy: The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an acade...

Is that same standard applied to physicists, artists, or authors in your mind? Do they have to be dead to be great?

So, all those who love wisdom and seek it are philosophers. Very good, hard to argue with.

So, remembrance beyond death makes one a philosopher?

And little girls?

Because we are individuals and are confined to our own bodies and consciousness, it follows that morality is an individual practice. Meaning, you cann...

True morality consists of behaviors that maximize the well-being and happiness of the individual performing the actions, while simultaneously respecti...

Ethics is the category of thought responsible for generating behaviors conducive to both individual and collective well-being, flourishing, health, ha...

I mean, read all philosophy as a base rule, I would say. Heidegger is good for learning what you are up against in the world, and how seductive such s...

Nietzsche was overcome with hatred, I do believe. Which is what he generated, a philosophy of human negation, relegating morality to that of master an...

Lol, Frantic Freddie, good one. I'm not too fond of him either; however, his intellect was clearly towering. Fondness for Rand is something acquired. ...

Right, but you seem to be missing something rather important. It isn't about your interest in the philosophy, which, if you regard yourself as a philo...

That's exactly the kind of fallacious argument I would expect from someone so utterly uninformed of what Objectivism is as to have issued your origina...

Money is not a fiction. It is a natuarlly emerging, labor saving device used by actors in markets to exchange goods, labor, and value. Money will alwa...

No, Rand is not to philosophy what L. Ron Hubbard is to religion. We study Rand in ethics class right next to Kant, Hume, and Descartes. Furthermore, ...

In a word: No. First of all, there is no "The West." We are all individuals with rights that are not alienable. One of those being the right to your o...

I did, yes. And I do think you both diverge, but the constituent elements are present in both epistemologies that hearken to the same objective proces...

I'm afraid I must agree with you. Value comes from that which exists, whether existence is an accident or not. The Buddhists were obviously on to some...

Animals have no capacity for reason, ethical thought, or deliberation. Nor do they have those characteristics as something either anomolous, or intrin...

A good point. However, gradualistic increase in self and world awareness is itself enlightenment, if achieved. And ego cannot be an illusion if one de...

Yes, that's an issue. The Enlightenment was called that becuase of the mass proliferation of philosophical material and social commentary. People feel...

Get back with me if you feel like chasing this down further. I thought it was a great question from OP. It's healthy for us to revisit long-establishe...

Yes, as in, the body of philosophical work dating back to the presocratics and the Easterners. Waking from your state of cluelessness is what enlighte...

Journey to enlightenment? Enlightenment is a state one journeys through life in, not a place one journeys to. Enlightenment entails the recognition of...

Very good work for a first, full-throated go at epistemology. However, if you haven't familiarized yourself with the first few chapters, at least, of ...

Difficult topic. I know a man who is clearly a genius, but is completely moronic and deluded in so many ways. I've gotten to the point where I regard ...

To be enlightened is to have discovered that you know nothing without the application of philosophy. -G

It isn't, anymore than cognition can be separated from the body and survive. You are your ego. What I think is really being emphasized in the idea of ...