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FWIW, I think that's already implicit in the narrative, which includes Nietzsche and eventually Heidegger, Rorty, and Derrida, pretty much explicitly ...

In my view, it's better to think of Nietzsche as an experimental skeptic than as an earnest bringer of truth. He had his manic-prophetic moments, whic...

I think you have a Nietzsche allergy that blinds you to his worth. No doubt he had some quirks. But I just a thinker by their best moments, and Nietzs...

I got the idea from Harold Bloom and James Joyce. I often think of the trinity of Jesus, Socrates, and Hamlet/Shakespeare. The third contains the firs...

Good point. It's impressive to what degree material challenges can be overcome if the mind/spirit is developed and trained to maintain morale and cont...

Along these lines, we can imagine a person who understands everyone, who can always look into a soul and find something familiar there, something he k...

:up: Beautiful line ! Entwining echoes gets it just right, and the synthesis is indeed climbing, greater than the sum of its parts.

:up: There's also the challenge of inventing a fascinating personality, becoming a success in a creative field : the personality as product. Strong po...

I lean toward us as the narrative (mythological) animal. We can also just look and see that humans mostly talk about ideas in practical contexts -- tr...

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Thanks ! Yes I get it now. That's what I was also getting at with my talk of the symbolic realm. Let me throw in a psychoanalytic theme too. Projectio...

One way (hardly the only way) to look at philosophy historically is as a zoo of intense personalities who react to those who came before and influence...

I don't think boredom is a universal problem. It could be that our age is so entertained that it's no longer a problem. Or maybe I'm a lucky eccentric...

:up: Becker's The Denial of Death continues this kind of thinking. How do vulnerable human beings make peace with their situation ? I'd say primarily ...

To me there is no answer to the ultimate why question. There can't be, which means maybe that the ultimate why question is not a proper question. I li...

Not exactly sure if I understand. Perhaps you could expand?

There seem to be evolutionary reasons for that. As the likelihood of shared genes increases, so does the likelihood of bonding and cooperation. I feel...

There's also the sublimated evasion, sort of what I'm doing, though I can't sincerely call it an evasion. Most people cling to life and avoid death mo...

I tend to see one myth displacing another. It's not that we get beyond orienting metaphors and heroic roleplay (defense mechanisms). We just (hopefull...

I appreciate the honesty, and indeed we are all personalities on a stage.

That might fit some of early Husserl, but it's very much counter to the later Husserl and to all of Heidegger. The phenomenon for phenomenology is not...

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Right. And, to be fair, they may be truly invested in or identified with their finite-exclusive personality. We can hide from our terrible ambivalence...

As I see it, antinatalism is extremely unlikely to succeed, become popular. Is that how you see it ?

There is something special about AN. I agree.

The balance involved is thermodynamic or biological. Game theory dictates that counterculture is a parasite. In my opinion, the free will thing is rou...

There's plenty of 'politicians,' though, who attack apolitical ironists as escapists. 'Ethical socialism.' The rule is grand social issues, the spirit...

Totally, and I think Beckett's work is part of that. He's grimly hilarious. He's willing to face the horror, describe it, while also acknowledging the...

I love this part of the story by the way. Freud might relate it to the death drive. Let's all just go to sleep. The answer to your question might be s...

Good question. As others have noted, philosophy has often associated the Real with the permanent, with that which defies time and refuses to change --...

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's wrong to argue AN on a philosophy forum. Anonymity and the lack of funding is important here. The politician is ...

Yes. What is the nature of humor ? Is it a sly confession of ambivalence ? Of the pleasure we take in disaster ? Sure. And gallowshumor references the...

Yes. There's also a psychonanalytic theme here. The 'surface' of a personality is a mask or a performance. The finite personality depends on what it e...

Great example. The criteria for membership in the planet category are contributed by us, though clearly within various constraints that we did not cho...

I agree. In everyday life, the framework is relatively transparent and trustworthy. I'd add metaphysics and epistemology to your list in the second se...

I suspect that most will agree that a binary approach makes more sense here. It's on that side of a continuum. On the other side there's the issue of ...

As I see it, it's our statements about things that depend on us and the world out there. An awareness of the contingency of our frameworks can make on...

I agree that it's about what's best to believe. But William James would probably agree with that. I don't know if you'd count me as an antirealist. Pr...

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I agree. No guarantees. But we do trust some reports more than others. 'Objective' has a use. I myself strive to be objective. It's a key philosophica...

I agree. The truth is the truth. Claims can be more or less objective, more or less biased. Private toothaches can function in the inferential nexus, ...

I agree with you that we just experience the plants. I think 'representation' works best in an interpersonal situation. Like a cop quoting a witness. ...

It's not a perfect distinction, but there's no need to treat it badly for all that. I studied math, and it's relatively analytic/syntactical. As with ...

More generally, think of a juror listening to testimony. Everyday we try to see reality through the people we talk with. That thread about media bias ...

I didn't take it that way. I think we maybe agree on the proper mix of appreciation and irreverence. Some of the old geniuses might be able to revolut...

. I agree. We experience the world, not our experience of the world, and not our experience of our experience of the world, and not our ... For me the...

I suppose that's connected to the philosophy of math issue. I'm open to the mathematical-logical synthetic apriori. It seems defensible anyway, and it...

So much could be said here, but we can talk about pork. Do we really need it ? Are pigs treated decently in order to make it ? I guess I'm cynical. We...

Note that this statement is aimed at the public concept of the rule for the use of the word 'same.' The family resemblance point is well made, so mayb...

:up: Yes, this is basically my view. The hardware is inherited from Darwinian evolution (one kind of history). The software is inherited mostly from c...