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I like the marker hypothesis. It seems to model a 'deep' subrational self. Great quote from apo too. The brain as hardware, with the help of cultural ...

Could you elaborate on the bold part ? I think I grasp the underlined part.

:up: The word 'postmodern' is a bit of a hot potato, too.

. :up: Any thoughts on how AI might affect our existential or technological or thermodynamic situation ? I think a storm is coming, beautiful and terr...

:up: I never thought of it that way. I understand the bold part. Could you say more about the underlined part ? I think you are saying we should expec...

Granted that it's an invention, does it persist because it accomplishes something ? What is it to be a discursive self, the kind Descartes took for gr...

Oh that's a tough one. Yes, if we focus on how useless these philosophers are, how much fun they have splashing around in their confusion. Regular fol...

Yes. The doer is a fiction, so even 'deed' is no longer the right word. But taking phrases as tools, as flags being waved, screwdrivers being twisted,...

Sure. A bouquet of W quotes: It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists. ... The experience that we need in order to u...

The dominant memes (tropes) of a generation (of a form of life) are the tentacles it uses to explore and grasp any novel object. We are cyborgs to the...

Thank you for the kind words ! Especially from you they are valued. I agree. But what do you make of 'wondering at a tautology' ? Do you see/feel why ...

Cats are different than roaches too. As I see it, anything we can make any sense of is for just that reason 'part' of the same inferential nexus. So I...

This also gets at the heart of Heidegger : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gadamer/#DiaPhr To put the point more generally, and in more basic ontol...

. I think the unity is software rather than hardware. We learn to take responsibility for our bodies. We learn to talk about what we see and what we t...

I say : so you assume. So you happen to interpret, projecting expired metaphysics on our fellow mammals. <smile> Even thermostats respond differential...

:up: We've all caught the Hamlet virus by now.

Yes. Semantic norms. Appropriate and inappropriate use of a flag or siren.

:up: We need stability. We cling to terror management strategies, orienting myths. To me we get this 'software' from the culture, picking and choosing...

How might you account for technological progress ? Or the enlightenment goal of increasing autonomy ? In other words, how does timebinding fit in here...

:up: I don't think it's pure distraction. It matters whether abortion is legal. But it looks like a consolation prize.

Thank you ! Have you looked into Moloch as a game theory metaphor ? A generalized prisoner's dilemma ? Moloch demands a tower ! We must play this game...

In careful, technical conversation, it's hard to make sense of qualia. It's hard to even point out the logical difficultly to people, because our ordi...

:up:

As you may know, Bloom quotes Hegel noticing that Shakespeare's characters overhear themselves and for that reason change. We are dialectical protagon...

:up: We might think of the icing or top layer of 'Spirit' in terms of a self-referential complex of concepts-metaphors. Theology is that part of the l...

As I read the situation, some of the Germans of this era were transforming Christian pessimistic memes into humanist (Satanic?) optimistic memes. You ...

You are correct ( I think ) that he got it from Fichte, but he did use it, at least implicitly. The key idea is determinate negation, which allows us ...

Yes, but we can still talk. We are still 'in' the same language.

Yes. This is the normative, discursive self. The one that is ashamed or gets a trophy. This self identifies with this or that virtue or hero myth. So ...

:up: In other words, many theories get something right but go too far ( claim to much ) or leave something out ( completely ignore something vital ). ...

It totally makes sense that life responds differentially and can (must ? ) be interpreted as seeking and avoiding. But qualia are slippery eels.

This is a deep issue. Kojeve talks about stoics and skeptics focusing on what they could control, digging little bunkers in themselves. The world coul...

Feel free to correct me. I'm spitting out some of my take on Heidegger below. To be historical is to be the kind of social being that has a world, a f...

These quotes might help : The subject that sees objects in the world cannot see itself seeing, Žižek notes, any more than a person can jump over her o...

The boundary is rough, uncertain, controversial. I grant you that it's only things that give a damn that can have problems (and tentatively project gi...

Yes. You are touching on 'the' issue maybe. As you probably know, Hegel obsessed over Antigone. His master/slave relationship foregrounds a willingnes...

To this I must object, for how did the clever blokes figure out they were illusions in the first place if they weren't so curious about themselves ?

There's a case to be made for that kind of self (pure witness, the thereness of what's there), but I don't think it's the revolutionary/heroic self di...

:up: You, sir, are the icing on the cake.

Looks like you touched on it here. This collective (embodied) mind(ing) is discussed by various philosophers (Hegel, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, etc.) Th...

I can relate.

Perhaps you can also comment on the self in relation to the community, as something like the way a body is held responsible.

Good to see you back!

Sure ! But the use of 'but' doesn't make sense here, because you are merely expanding my point.

:up: And he's a fucking delight to watch. Charming dude.

I don't know what it means to say so. Yes, I can talk the usual fuzzy talk. That's why I say look to deeds. We incinerate the dead, anesthetize the li...

No. I don't disagree. I just don't think we know very well what we mean.

This is an empirical question. Some humans nurture plants and beetles. Few if any nurture rocks.

Anemic mythology, the fascination of negation. As poetry, as celebration, it's fine. Lou Reed had a nice song about White light. As the labor of the c...

This is the night in which all cows are black. Wondering at a tautology might be an expression of love for life, for just being here.