Hoo

Ecclesiastes is a book of wise "nihilism." It opens with "all is vanity." But it advises one to enjoy life, work hard at something one loves, find a n...

Bukowski is one of my favorites. He did find love. Even a good marriage isn't perfect. People are people. People have issues. I'll agree that much of ...

Thank you, powers that be, for such a quick and kind response.

Thanks for responding to my OP, M.U. I appreciate it! I think you are capturing something valid about a different structure than the one I have in min...

Would the forum powers-that-be mind changing my handle to "Hoo"? I would do it myself, but I don't think it's an option on this side.

I got Bukowski's Women off the shelf. It's still great.

I can't agree that happiness is an illusion. Happiness comes and goes, just like suffering. I've known moments where I understood all the "praise God"...

I'd say that lots of us (shrewdly) compare the amount of pain in a life to the amount of pleasure in a life. Suffering is a toll we pay on the way to ...

You tend to agree with me as if you were disagreeing. I suspect all thinking is relatively facile. We zoom out as much as we need to. Philosophy gener...

Those who say life is without meaning usually mean without absolute meaning. If you believed in God and the rest as a child, you probably have a notio...

"The world always expesses its meaning, no matter how much we want it to be otherwise. " I feel like you're aiming at saying something that I might re...

" Here is the understanding of the "uncaring universe." Our world will do what it does, even if that doesn't fit with our ideas of what is just. God (...

"Isn't that just plain relativism? Whatever suits you? You can dress it up with all manner of learned references but I think that is all you mean. " I...

You wrote: ' Philosophies, such as pragmatism and positivism, "aim at mastering reality, not at criticizing it." Man comes to dominate nature, but in ...

"So, my point was that stoicism should not be understood as a system of metaphysics at all, but as a system of therapeutics and transformation." Sure,...

"So intelligibility is pragmatism." I strongly agree with what I think you're getting at here. I "understand" insofar as I can make use of. Utility is...

"When do we know when we are actually studying nature, or the nature of nature, or if we're just telling ourselves a story? " From Popper and Kojeve I...

For me there's a "spiritual" version of nihilism. It's not that everything becomes valueless, but that all value becomes finite and temporary. It libe...

You make some good points, but my recent reading suggests (along with my intuition) that the concept of Nature or Zeus's will is very important to the...

I suppose I don't want my will and my doctrine to get too far away from one another. Or let's say my practice and my theory. To be clear, suicide seem...

I suggest not only that there is not one but also that there cannot be a "why the world is intelligible." This "why" (be it God or more nakedly synthe...

The "problem" with pessimism (life is essentially bad) is, in my view, that it lives in a state of contradiction. If life is bad, then suicide looks l...

To me that's a central question. Why ought we follow this "reason" thing? We have to be "unreasonably" invested in Reason to get the game going. Reaso...

A life that is only focus on preventing suffering sounds hobbled indeed. Assuming a godless sky and no afterlife, we do choose to survive down here be...

Facts about math are pretty weird really. As one moves away from applications, it's arguably not so different than changing mores. Are numbers sets? D...

It would be nice marketing if you could sum up your approach in the same way new rock bands are summed up. Of course it's bound to be a low-resolution...

It's like that flick The Matrix. Emotional investment makes the forum more fun but potentially more stressful. Unfortunately, when things get bitter, ...

I'm glad to see you quoting one of my favorite texts, Ecclesiastes. I interpret this book as suggesting the futility in seeking for fixed point or a S...

I like philosophy that is grounded in practice, relationships, and the body. I think science is so respected because it delivers the goods (technology...

I'd say that nothing is explained in a "deep" or "ideal" sense of explanation. Maybe there is progress in recognizing the futility of absolute questio...

I like this. It's as if the adept learns from the apparent sage or apparent Book that there is no sage and that there is no Book. I also agree that th...

Should we measure the success of philosophy in terms of professional consensus? Or the attainment of these things called truths? Is Newton's physics a...

Sincerely, that is a great question, and it's exactly the kind of question I began asking myself after exposure to philosophy. Roughly speaking, I lum...

Good point. Aren't universals just concepts? How much can we really say about what it is to have a concept? It reminds me of describing the experience...

I agree. I find instrumentalism descriptive. It's not clear to me that we have any greater or different purposes than the non-human cast of Monkey Thi...

Hi, darthbarracuda. Your post reminds me of a theme which (as Hoo on PF) I've written on many times. I tend to speak of "status" and "ego-ideal" rathe...

This quote also won me over: " We need the distinction between (a) persevering through grief and discouragement, and (b) having elan, feeling life to ...

From the essay: "Just as there is a natural orientation toward curiosity, activeness, relative self-reliance, relative power, there is a natural prefe...

Yeah, csalisbury. I liked that part especially, too. He justifies self-honesty without sentimentality. I also liked your phrase "faux-stoic self-image...

Hi, BC. For a long time now I've just assumed that consciousness "fades in" as nervous systems become more complex. Perhaps self-consciousness is espe...

Hi, everyone. I like what you've done with the place. I'm known as "Hoo" on PF. As shmik noted above, PF has degraded significantly. On the other hand...