dog

I've retracted my claws after an offender's apology in my own life. It was sincere. It worked. That's when I apologized for being too outraged. (A wom...

Definitely. We can accrue a symbolic debt. Others can put us in the maybe-an-enemy category. An apology can resolve the ambiguity and reframe the even...

Good stuff. I miss the flirting stage. Best game in the world, perhaps. At least I can watch La La Land with the Mrs.

I love it. 'I guess you can kiss me now if you feel you must.'

I don't know if equality is implied, but there does seem to be some recognition of worth. I tend to more or less explicitly size up others. Are they t...

I do think that the gloomy person feels a certain loneliness. But this doesn't have to be the absence of real love. It may instead involve the limits ...

This is an excellent description of a mode. I've been there, and I may be there again. But the slogans that this mood doesn't buy are the truth of ano...

By this definition, a miracle would be an event that excited scientists to find an explanation --which is to say an unknown pattern in which such an e...

Perhaps this is useful. You seem to be fretting about (or just objecting to) an impure source of ideas. The biased though-factory outputs bad ideas, y...

Is thinking that theism is a mental illness itself a mental illness? I don't think so. But if we decide to call vaguely defined metaphysical positions...

No, in my view. I assume that most people would also answer 'no' here.

Well said. There are lots of reasons to say 'I'm sorry' (un-ironically), but I think that covers most of them.

I think this is one of those hopeless philosophical questions that depend on what you mean by the terms. If you sharpen your terms this way or that, y...

That makes good sense to me. We are anxious about losing what we love (or perhaps about losing our love itself.) Of course we also fear direct pain to...

I think there's some real insight in your post, but I read it as directed against a particular type of alienation/frustration. Because it's thoughtful...

To be clear there is a continuity of personality through moods. A good mood doesn't wipe out years of linguistic and physical habit. But a person in l...

For context, I'm an atheist. I live as if there is no divine intelligence running the game and looking out for me (or torturing me). That's practical ...

I'm not advocating, though. I am aware that I am conversing with a few individuals. I don't think such conversation will have much of an effect on the...

Why be born? Why leave early once we are born? We can dig for reasons. My point is that these are the voices of moods. If I get disgusted with life, t...

Interesting. I think it supports the idea that we rely on know-how that cannot be justified. It's like the hand trying to grab itself in this case. It...

To me this is like saying that apples make better banana than oranges do. I'm coming from the perspective that logic is the structure of our reasoning...

I suggest that we don't really have to agree on a starting point. Indeed, the starting point is often invisible (taken for granted). Having to agree s...

A nice description of a situation that can be generalized. There seems to be a limit to the malleability of basic beliefs. People have their revolutio...

Yeah, good point. If things are going well, we can manage more tolerant. But we all have our boiling point.

I hear you. One of the reasons I like anonymity is because I don't want to broadcast my own worldview to just everyone. I don't think I'm wrong, but I...

But can't the atheist view be easily rephrased as a positive belief? It's a vision of nature in which nature is unconcerned with humanity. Atheists va...

Nah. Drop them all. Make 'em work to decipher yer tone.

Is it better? I can't compare anymore. I don't remember being single very well. Different comforts, different discomforts. Indeed, no satisfaction las...

A depression can come and go for no apparent reason. A person can have the same worldview and the same lifestyle afterward. The gloom just clears like...

Good point.

I do think it's a lack of love. A person in love with a another person or a cause has pep in their step and purpose. That's why it's hard to empathize...

Nice.

What comes to my mind is the way that lust/curiosity transforms (with compatibility) into what's called love: trust, friendship, warmth rather than ex...

Perhaps. But it feels good to be working toward one's dream. At some point I stopped working menial jobs and got into a field I really liked. Even tho...

I'm sure that some depression is like that, but I've been hit by it a few times when it didn't make sense on paper. There was also a strong philosophi...

I hear you on lack of work. Perhaps it's a matter of having good work. Or if the work is unpleasant, there had better be a nice home life as a contras...

I recognize that process. For me the instrumental players would offer up some riffs they had written. I'd improvise some lyrics over the music, sugges...

I agree. I put up with a certain amount regimentation to afford a lifestyle free enough of worry, etc. There's a foggy calculation involved. This one ...

Most definitely. To quote Cornel West: time is real. Perhaps others can relate. A person can be young enough to still dream of a reinvention or two an...

Yeah. If I can find the time. I put my creative ambitions on the back burner to climb the big boy ladder. I did just spend a month getting high and pe...

'There is no joy in the tavern as on the road thereto' says a character in one of Cormac's novels. To truly feel on the way (the pleasure of anticipat...

I forgot about keyboards. In my little scene that was an underplayed instrument. I was the vocalist and managed to steer the concept via the lyrics (a...

Indeed, calling thought or behavior we don't like 'mental illness' at least can be bogus, especially if there's no physical variation in the tissue. '...

This is the part I like the best: What you call the classical retort is successful as far as it goes. While we're engrossed, we forget our absurdity. ...

I've thought about this too. In my opinion, the statements are just taken too literally. If someone says 'everything is relative,' they are sharing an...

The self that gives reasons does seem like a rider on a horse with a mind of its own. If we find ourselves in a reflective mode, we can reach into the...

That link didn't work for me, but it was a profile image for a site connected to the links you provided. It was a light brown color.

No. We can't get behind our getting behind, as far as I can see. Someone might say something revolutionary and clever and change my mind, I guess. But...

Awesome. What did you do in the band? Since you're a thinker, I'd guess vocals. I've done some music myself, but unfortunately have no comparable anec...