hypericin

"We have sex because it feels good. We do art because we like it." In what sense is this supposed to be philosophy? We have sex for all sorts of reaso...

Better? It's tricky. I think the quote works because it is clear while deviating from normal usage. In most contexts "useless" connotes no utility at ...

Not dour, just proper English. It doesn't seem to make sense that something can both meet needs and be useless. You seem to use "use" in a way that ex...

What do you think of this quote? You didn't say there was no hierarchy. But you neglected to mention it, though it is crucial to the topic. See my exa...

:up:

Questions of the meaning of life long predate the scientific revolution, so it is suspect to make it somehow responsible for a fundamental human quest...

Simply, farmers spend their time away from urban areas. Urban areas are where cultures mix, new ideas circulate, where you are constantly exposed to d...

I don't see this as an exception at all. Decor serves no pragmatic function, it is perfectly possible to live in an abode with no decor at all. Decor ...

It seems a very dour usage to call everything unpragmatic "useless". All these things may be unpragmatic, but they all serve needs. By "art industry" ...

People do not generally spend useful money on useless things. Yet, the art industry (inclusive of Pop art) is booming, as always. Art is full of purpo...

At this point, the question is difficult to ask. Duchamp showed that anything can be visual art, Cage that anything can be audible art. Therefore, art...

I think this is a clarifying example. You can imagine a series, from a typical house, to houses in worsening states of disrepair, to a heap of rubble....

I wouldn't say gatekeeping is "bad", and art is certainly a communal practice. But I don't think community vetting can ever be a reliable arbiter of w...

I could go either way too, but the more I think about it the more I am convincing myself. "Not art" and "bad art" are constantly confused. Both the ho...

Good question. Right now I am inclined to say that art is intentionally created as art by a creator. When the viewer misunderstands art as non-art, or...

Of course by "put in a museum" my meaning included all the gatekeeping. But to most of us, it is not a "we" but a "they", the art elite, who do the ba...

I think it is still art. There are two independent axes that are easily conflated: good art <---> bad art art <---> non-art "Art" is a way of interact...

I would say that would absolutely be art. As soon as you put it in a museum, it becomes an object to be appreciated, contemplated, and reacted to, rat...

Even Times New Roman, I would consider art, but art that has crystallized into use. The creation of Times New Roman involved innumerable choices, buil...

I don't buy this idea that paintings, and art in general, can be equated with narrative. Narrative rather seems like one form painting, and art, can t...

I think a painting is a type of drawing. The medium, paint, is the most obvious and least interesting distinction. Paintings are always aesthetically ...

Sorry you are going through depression, mate! I've been there. It sucks. In order to have a philosophical perspective on depression, you first need a ...

It is not merely other-regarding. There are multiple ideas here: * The purpose of our moral intuitions is to facilitate cooperation. * The moral intui...

Well, how about that. I see that Peter Singer is maybe even the founding figure in the animal rights movement. Someone actually translating philosophy...

Or, what about a cooperation that does away with the notion of out-groups entirely? I've long had the idea of morality as cooperation strategy without...

If there are many universes, some lawless and others not, this answers the question. Structure like ours can only arise in a lawful universe, lawlessn...

I think this is a misunderstanding of freedom. Freedom does not mean freedom from the constraints of existence. That is death. Think of it like a game...

Great topic. This is something that plagues me as well. In fact our stories are not dissimilar, I too took psychiatric medications that have caused me...

So sorry to hear this! Terrible news. I appreciated her grounded, wise posts and excellent fiction, and her generous constructive criticism to other w...

Dante and the Deflation of Reason - @"Count Timothy von Icarus" What Does It Mean to Be Human? - @"Vera Mont" The importance of the Philosophical Essa...

You're on to me, I can't slip by you anymore. And thanks! Oh, pshaw!

I guess when it comes to language I'm in the "describe, don't prescribe" camp. Which is not to say that ordinary language use doesn't conceal a raft o...

I would go further and say there is nothing whatsoever included in the notion of belief that it be consciously considered at the moment: "Are you curr...

Meaning it doesn't help to answer the question. Not only are these not objectively quantifiable, they are not objectively evaluable at all. Except the...

I think the best you can do is consensus of experts. Or, consensus of the general population. This is not quite objective, but not subjective either, ...

This does no good when not one of these itself can be objectively measured.

If it is a p-zombie of you, then presumably it wouldn't snort fentanyl either, just get shitfaced.

Maybe not a failsafe rule. But I think we can reasonably analyze many cases. Anna cognitively believes her husband is an impostor, in a way that is in...

AIs simulate, they aren't rational agents outside their ability to simulate of agents who may, sometimes, be rational. If we made AIs that modeled the...

That is too strong. Nothing in the same brain is unrelated. Affective and propositional attitudes inform one another, and they coincide with one anoth...

To me the natural conclusion from examples like these is that we have propositional attitudes and we have affective attitudes, and these do not always...

Think of an AI simulating human behavior. This ai would get shitfaced, because humans get shitfaced and it's been trained to do what humans do. Somewh...

:up: Ah, I didn't notice we were supposed to be doing full anonymity with this one.

Since @"Moliere" did not make this explicit in the rules of entry there is no reason to suspect anyone would have this expectation. The private thing ...

what is unfair about making the essays public? That is just the basic expectation of posting in a forum. I think few if any of the posters were even a...

@"Amity" The discussion group is all back-and-forth, no time for reading. I was wanting to give interested people a chance to read before we began the...

@"Moliere" Could you make the essays public? I have an IRL philosophy group that I attend on Friday evenings, and the topic this week is actually the ...

I think I had a similar thought. But the essay works in spite of that distinction. Functionally, there is a parallel. On both sides, you have the obje...

I like this one a lot, very readable and compelling. Not a dry survey, we take a brief and personal trip with the author on a search for meaning. One ...

I feel attacked!