Valentinus

"You are a fluke of the universe, you have no right to be here." That is a parodist response to the Desiderata, which "argues" that a person has reaso...

The A.C Muller version gives a different emphasis on the quality of the fear by translating the character of j?ng in its meaning: "to startle." Muller...

I agree that the context of heaven and earth is important. I brought up Verse 5 earlier because the "cosmology" sharply differentiates the two realms ...

He describes the error from different points of view. I am not sure about it as an act of "naming." That is an interesting question. I will think abou...

I gave a clear answer. It involved challenging the way you are asking the question. You aren't doing any work here, just repeating what you think with...

You are right. I wished I hadn't piled on.

As someone who self identifies as a rigid narrow-minded moron, I take offense at your attempts to cancel me.

I don't recognize any of my previous statements in your reply.

Spinoza went further than that by diagnosing the "wonder" as the result of thinking of God as making stuff to satisfy our ends. To that extent, he is ...

That sort of projection of human experience is precisely what Spinoza went to great effort to reject.

I am being helped by all the contributions given by all the contributors and am glad there is a discussion with enough center of gravity to allow the ...

And what is that end? Sounds like that will require some thought.

Good point. Your observation reminds me of the coined phrase: "don't go postal on me."

Does that mean you agree with my comments? I don't understand the use of the term "spinozism". Unlike "Platonism", we are not discussing a class of th...

The way you put it is far removed from the way Chalmers has presented the problem. The limits of those models don't establish the limits or capacity o...

I am not sure what you think the "hard problem/combination problem" to be. In the essay I linked to previously, Chalmers says our experience of consci...

That is not self evident. Experience with other animals brings that presupposition into doubt.

It does make a big difference. I do think there are separate experiences being considered here. I will mull in the idea while considering the other tr...

The meanings do seem to change in different verses. Maybe it has to do with us having to pursue different paths to approach what is the same. I like D...

I agree. I was trying to express that up-thread by saying that the agenda Lao Tzu strives to replace is not the same kind he is advocating for. That d...

I read the works as centrally concerned with how to navigate the real world. There are elements of the mysterious that are important not to exclude. T...

I like that too. It closely hews to the Lin version I was trying to articulate earlier but is more elegant.

Your comments regarding the logic of the characters reminds me of the fierce debates that surround the book Chinese Written Character as a Medium for ...

To my reading, being sensitive to resistance leads to perception of what one is working upon. Some element of that is moving with careful attention: '...

The pitcher must exist for it to be a benefit to one. The utility that makes it beneficial is possible through the non-being. The wheel makes carriage...

I read Possibility's remark to mean the benefit is the direct utility of the result; The pitcher holds water. The wu permits it to be filled and empti...

The text does not agree with your impression: One thing I like about the passage is that paying a penalty is on the basis of some kind of justice that...

I think it was a philosophical problem tied to an ethical crisis. There was a prevailing set of categories and standards and they were found to be def...

I like the way you touched upon terms of conflict on the way to measuring a proportion of effective methods versus not particularly helpful Platonic i...

Before going further along my line of thought, I would like to ask if it seems like complete blather or is there a point of departure where it made so...

That is very helpful to me. The absolute infinity doesn't have a dancing partner in an Antinomy. *Valentinius smacks forehead*

One element that seems to be consistent in all the text is the disdain for pompous rulers and extravagant wealth. There is the often repeated relation...

I agree that Spinoza emphasizes that a vast sea separates human experience from whatever that might mean for the God we are in. But Spinoza goes to a ...

In contradiction to the way I was just representing the Sage as playing a part in nurture, I think it is important to look at verse 5 where it seems n...

Your point is well taken that 'philosophy itself is not (equipped to effectively engage) in the 'theoretical explanation' business." In the paper I li...

Chalmers argued that the "problem" could not be solved by reducing the fact of experience to a result of functions: "When it comes to conscious experi...

Your interpretation touches on a quality that greatly interests me. A method is being promoted that often sounds like a rejection of all method. But i...

When I was a young teenager, I read science fiction novels to escape the drudgery of my existence. The more immersive they were, the better. I used to...

In D.C. Lau's version of verse 10, he makes a reference to how the Heavenly Gate is described in Zhuangzi that may interest the ongoing discussion of ...

The letter is interesting. One can certainly see the anguish in The Metamorphoses. It makes a chilling passage in the story even more chilling: The dr...

You expressed what I was thinking better than I did when you said: Whatever makes it possible before it happens exists without interruption afterwards...

One way to approach the matter is that "consciousness" was/is not a property or quality that can/could be recognized as a thing in itself without desc...

I was looking at the attempts to understand experience that was framed in the language established here. It is not about my point of view as a thinker...

I see that but he didn't seem interested in alternative responses as changes in the narrative. The narrative is a player too. In another aphorism, he ...

I read a good portion of Kafka as pointing out how we become partners to agents intent upon our demise. The general ethic I get from those observation...

Thrasymachus returns.

I recognize the emphasis on a way of being that is beyond "discursive reason" is central to what is happening in this book. But the work also provided...

Being a child of the South in the U.S., I can report that a lot of things changed upon an interpersonal basis. The political element was critical to c...

I am not very far along but I have received many tangible benefits. I did not mean to suggest I had any direct feeling to the book through my practice...

I am glad you mention that because I was introduced to these ideas as guides to a practice. It was only after a long time of reading that I became awa...