Valentinus

The double bind of Gregory Bateson gets a new venue.

While the language does not encourage defining what the best polity may be, I think there is a degree of freedom for the individual to see utility in ...

Another tradition springing from the study of the Dao (which is closely related to medicine as treatment) was the development of the many "gongs" or t...

I read the Tractatus to be saying the opposite in regards to solipsism. The conflicts in our thinking are closely joined to what is said or not said. ...

It is only relevant if it is relevant. I understand keeping the frame of reference within one's experience to discuss it honestly. Suggesting that som...

Nice. I particularly like the Leibniz back flip at the end. There is a departure from Anselm here in that the transcendent creator is presented as the...

Got it. I will stand clear from relating the discussion to other points of reference than the text you are interested in.

I have read the books. I am not arguing on the basis of authority. You will have to forgive me for not being interested in your attempts to do so.

That observation about utility and perspective reminds me of one my favorite passages from Zhuangzi:

Spinoza doesn't claim it is the same. That is a statement you attribute to him. Spinoza outlines the connection to human experience through the propos...

Spinoza was not panpsychist. Consider: Ethics, Of God, Definition #2: "A thing is said to be finite ?in its kind if it can be limited by another thing...

By inviting us to follow a way that cannot be explained in the same manner as those we are accustomed to, are we not being asked to become aware of so...

I don't know if Kierkegaard will address your thinking about sin and punishment. I brought that quote up in response to your comments about fear. It s...

The quote is interesting to you but does not engage you as some part of what you worry about. That makes it sound kind of boring. I get how it bores p...

Thank you for the invitation. Being a "worn" person of much experience but little wisdom, I have long heard this verse as addressed to me as one "who ...

I read the importance of wu wei as recognizing that there is a process underway that is generated by the play of opposites but does not consume the op...

From the quotes given, it sounds like there is a psychology being proposed that incorporates particular elements of "scripture" that would attempt to ...

I think it is both in the sense that the "Empire" is presented as a condition that involves all those who participate in it rather than a result of a ...

I sing this to my stonemason knees when they complain:

What else have you read?

The way I view the matter is through how the the "holy spirit" is presented as an advocate in different ways in the text. In John 14:15, Jesus explain...

Those two are some pretty difficult questions. Martin Buber made some interesting observations regarding that tree in his book Good and Evil. What I f...

I read Descartes' wrestling match with doubt as being more concerned with advancing his Method than solving a problem with it. The Discourse on Method...

There are forms of physical effort and conditioning that last much longer than others. I have had very old people toss me around like a rag doll. I do...

There are certainly many pairs of elements and agents who are seen as set over against each other in Gnosticism. Many of the separated pairs are seen ...

Working in reverse, I think there is a desire to have things proved through bitter experience. Thomas needs to touch the wound. Seeing that connection...

As presented as a matter of experience, some things were considered as being more or less a result of "participating" in forms and whatever logic gove...

Was that an opinion about "matter"? The allegory strikes me more about thinking in ways that are comfortable and pleasing to us as a "show" versus str...

I look forward to your reference to the text you recall.

The God as depicted in Timaeus? The matter of geometry of certain shapes is presented against the need for dialogue to approach the neighborhood of fo...

I have read a fair portion of Plato, some of it many times. I don't have a clear idea of what "Platonism" might be. There are various thinkers who sum...

I have had a long career where the physical and the intellectual were intertwined with each other. I realize now, despite that extensive tutorial, I b...

I understand and agree that practical outcomes are not the central concern of pursuing philosophy. My response was meant to say that if such was the c...

It seems like passive aggressive gamesmanship. "I look down upon x from a height but risk nothing by doing so."

I don't stand upon firm enough ground to say what the emphasis upon "utility" may develop in histories of philosophy. What puzzles me is that the desi...

Pardon me, I was referring the book of The City of God by St. Augustine. My earlier reference to The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis is another...

I understand not wanting to live beyond the capacity to take one's life. I don't understand planning for what one will want in the future. One can str...

I have gone to some effort to not make it a problem of capitalism as such. I am getting the impression that you wish I was somebody else.

That is a fair question and I will try to come up with a cogent response. But what about you? Don't you live somewhere where the conditions I refer to...

The idea of exploitation presumes a theft has occurred. I am not interested in that argument. What I am saying is that the inequality is necessary for...

Sure enough. Profits are the result of getting more income than what is paid out. So if one can keep the cost very low, the profit increases very much...

I read the discussion closely. My opinion is based upon a considered response to the views offered. I included a post that explained my point of view....

I thought it was you that was intent upon setting the terms of the discussion.

One way to look at it is the emphasis upon diagnosis. One has to define it to support treatment. That approach makes sense from many points of view. I...

Arguments based upon authority are the weakest kind.

I was responding to your comment that observing differences in equality was about an agenda to level all experiences. Like a nuclear war or what not. ...

Which part do you not understand?

The problem with inequality is not that it fails to provide equality. When the means of exchange in a system are vastly different from each other, it ...

I have been interested in that statement since I first read it. It is an observation brought forward to argue about other arguments. The passage could...

While comparing different nations' means of financing government, a number of factors have to be kept in mind. The first question to ask is where the ...