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isomorph

['Member']Joined: April 21, 2024 at 16:14Last active: February 25, 2026 at 15:454 discussions47 comments
Location: metro DC

Bio

I'm a retired bricklayer/stonemason. I've worked on everything from residential to commercial construction and the final ten years of my career I specialized in historic restoration. I also drove a bread truck for awhile, worked with business machines for awhile, and managed a restaurant for two years. It also took me thirty years to get a four year degree.

Favourite Philosopher

Arendt, Heraclitus

Favourite Quotations

How can we not afford to take care of ourselves?

"Nothing to be done!" First line of Waiting for Godot

Discussions (4)

Solitaire

December 11, 2024 at 22:22 0 comments Short Stories

Comments

In: The case against suicide  — view comment
Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus says that dealing with the topic of suicide should be of prime importance to philosophy.
January 07, 2026 at 20:42
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I wouldn't call them defects, but I would just call them reality. I have not said 'sciences, histories, philosophies, arts..' are illusory. Autochthon...
August 04, 2024 at 11:34
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
First, how do you get footnotes installed? I had footnotes on my piece but nothin copied. Second, I'm a little confused by your comment because your u...
August 03, 2024 at 11:51
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I have to disagree with you. It's not possible that we are a blank slate, our whole system comes pre-loaded, pre-wired, so that is not blank. As far a...
August 03, 2024 at 10:26
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I don't mean 'the current Western consumer society'. I think that is happening now. and that is the geopolitical situation obviating any human ability...
July 29, 2024 at 16:43
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
"...cultural adaptation to a particular environment..." I agree completely, however I think that the current geopolitical situation obviates adaptatio...
July 29, 2024 at 15:07
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
:up:
July 29, 2024 at 11:49
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
:up:
July 29, 2024 at 11:47
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
That's exactly what I'm not saying, and what I said can't be construed in that way. Misogyny is not simply hatred of women. When an Ancient Greek man ...
July 29, 2024 at 10:23
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
we are humans on this earth.
July 28, 2024 at 21:40
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I don't know that I would use a word like 'essential' because it would lead to a reification. There are things that are within the purview of being hu...
July 28, 2024 at 21:31
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
Thank you. I'll look at it.
July 28, 2024 at 17:54
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
No. The human condition is what we deal with on this earth. You may say that all of those centrisms are part of the human condition, but that is not t...
July 28, 2024 at 17:26
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
Thank you for your elucidation, and as much as I like Confucius, even he is more idealistic than what I am going for. I have the opinion that one of o...
July 28, 2024 at 16:58
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I had footnotes on this piece, but they apparently don't come up when I paste the article. Here are my sources: Bibliography A History of Chinese Phil...
July 28, 2024 at 11:26
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
I'm clarifying my thoughts. Wittgenstein said that when he was writing, he was thinking with his hand. sometimes you have to talk to yourself out loud...
July 28, 2024 at 10:37
In: The Human Condition  — view comment
It's not different. I am saying that humans have confused what their human nature is. Some philosophers have talked about 'authentic personhood', etc....
July 28, 2024 at 10:19
In: The Greatest Music  — view comment
Thank you for the link, but I have other rabbits I've been chasing for a while. thank you.
July 25, 2024 at 20:24
In: The Greatest Music  — view comment
Fooloso4 could answer the for you specifically, but my reply would still apply. The word might be theos or daimon or some case of those words dependin...
July 25, 2024 at 19:00
In: The Greatest Music  — view comment
All of the threads by Fooloso4 are educational. I don't know that I expect anything from philosophy, it just seems to be what I do. At my stage in lif...
July 25, 2024 at 16:05
In: The Greatest Music  — view comment
But Socrates did not write those plays. Hearing them, remembering them and reciting them does not require reading and writing skills. This is evident ...
July 24, 2024 at 11:46
In: The Greatest Music  — view comment
I have looked and have been unable to find an answer to my question: was Socrates literate? Greeks, as all humans before civilization, written languag...
July 22, 2024 at 18:32
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
I am not of the opinion that the world is not getting better. I am of the opinion that if we are not as advanced as we think we are. It could be much ...
April 30, 2024 at 22:45
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
From this statement, I think you are saying that morality is a balance, not morality in a religious sense, perhaps in the sense of Heraclitus, or in a...
April 30, 2024 at 14:31
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
"That begs the question..." That is a phrase that has gained some currency, and it has been incorrectly lifted from the philosopher's lexicon. Xenopha...
April 27, 2024 at 14:03
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
I agree with this 'upward trend' pertaining to science. That is Steven Pinker's position. I said we are technically more sophisticated than our forbea...
April 27, 2024 at 12:38
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Thank you for making me do my own research. It also means righteousness, and it is from dikaios, which means "of persons, observant of customs and soc...
April 27, 2024 at 11:49
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Thank you! I chose isoporph because I was tired of choosing a name and the machine said that name is already taken. I've put my own name in sometimes ...
April 26, 2024 at 22:56
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
I say 'maybe' because we have no way to test, however, what was accomplished from zero, the whole foundation upon which human civilization flourished,...
April 26, 2024 at 21:56
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Well, first of all, they are not just graffiti, some of the painting show depth, which requires a tremendous amount of attention and skill. The color ...
April 26, 2024 at 21:33
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Thank you.
April 26, 2024 at 11:56
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
I hardly feel that our idols are becoming less perverse. Perhaps in your mind as you have grown, but, humans, in general are subject to the same procl...
April 26, 2024 at 11:56
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Bacon's idols were, as Bacon thought, mental errors, and that is an appropriate human concern no matter what era. I use the word idol in a common way:...
April 25, 2024 at 16:28
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
(If) culture is Nature (which I haven't settled on) and hubris is "bad" (which I have settled upon). ... I would not say culture is Nature (capital N)...
April 25, 2024 at 16:11
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Lionino is right, the way I am using the word idol is akin to Francis Bacon's 'idols of the mind', which were mental errors. That is what I mean and a...
April 24, 2024 at 16:51
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Yes! We are able to achieve technical sophistication and gross errors.
April 24, 2024 at 14:52
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
The age of languages or civilizations is not to my point. My propositions imply that we are not necessarily smarter than our prehistoric ancestors, ju...
April 24, 2024 at 14:47
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Agriculture requires laws, not writing. The Inca civilization left no written records that have been found, but they built Machu Picchu. They recorded...
April 24, 2024 at 12:23
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Yes, I think you are reading it correctly, however, I should perhaps make it more clear that I think culture is a natural part of human nature/existen...
April 24, 2024 at 12:14
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Tom, my intention is to clarify my ideas about the human condition that have been inspired by Arendt's work. As I said, her book was from the perspect...
April 24, 2024 at 02:55
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Kizzy, I posted this in feral philosophy. It's my first post and I'm just learning how to work this. Thanks
April 24, 2024 at 02:50
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Tom, I am not advocating a return to a natural state, golden age, Arcadia, etc. I did not mean to imply that. I have to go back to the cloud metaphor....
April 24, 2024 at 02:47
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Thank you for the welcome. It seems culture and religion are tow sides of the coin. I am reminded of what Carl Sagan said about religion, i.e., we sho...
April 24, 2024 at 02:38
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
It only matters in relation to human existence. In an absurd universe, nothing we do ultimately matters, but if our survival abilities are clouded, we...
April 24, 2024 at 02:27
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
China is a cradle civilization and Confucius came out of the culture that sprang from Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun, both legendary and from the third ...
April 24, 2024 at 02:19
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
Yes, that is what I am positing. I am currently thinking of culture a a cloud. That is not an exhaustive metaphor, but it serves the purpose of explai...
April 23, 2024 at 23:43
In: Our Idols Have Feet of Clay  — view comment
I would say that knowledge comes under several headings (scientific, cultural, literary knowledge, social knowledge, etc.) but water freezing at 32 de...
April 23, 2024 at 23:01
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