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unenlightened

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Death solves all problems. It is the way out when there is no way out. In particular it solves problems of the form 'wherever I go, there I am'. We ha...
May 09, 2020 at 07:06
Personally, I do not accept 1. I do not like pain, and not liking pain keeps me safe. Therefore pain is good.
May 09, 2020 at 06:42
In the past month, Covid-19 has killed more Britons than died in The Blitz. https://appeasement.org/?fbclid=IwAR0FgnPPk_u8TVeZInqm_lAtLQ42UWwsIbgP8SzT...
May 09, 2020 at 06:26
You have to be careful which version of the principle it denies; not the one you quoted. I think as soon as you introduce the term 'indiscernable' the...
May 09, 2020 at 06:23
It's quite hard to get your head round this, because the universe is being described as if from the outside. One tends to imagine a box or a sphere wi...
May 08, 2020 at 17:08
That's an excellent principle, but I would add "...and don't assume that people who don't clap are lazy stupid or mean." In particular, there is the r...
May 07, 2020 at 18:15
Why doesn't it exemplify the care and clarity it recommends instead of this sensationalist macho hyperbolic tone? No, i think it betrays a real attitu...
May 07, 2020 at 16:05
It explains why social sciences are in such an appalling state. It is an inherently authoritarian dogmatic attitude to take that might be appropriate ...
May 07, 2020 at 11:06
I wasn't taught that mnemonic. It doesn't look to me to be a good recipe for communication (because communication is a two way process), and thus a re...
May 07, 2020 at 09:30
When I dig the garden, I am not considering my happiness at the garden being dug I am not calculating that the effort will be compensated by the produ...
May 07, 2020 at 07:55
No I don't. I don't need convincing that people can and do find motivation in anticipation of rewards. I need convincing that there can be no other mo...
May 06, 2020 at 18:02
Ok, but what are we doing here? It looks like anthropology or psychology. But the philosophy is that it is impossible to be unselfish, that it is impo...
May 06, 2020 at 14:10
Again you confuse the imagined reward with the reward. When you are shivering on the bank having just rescued the damsel in distress from the icy lake...
May 06, 2020 at 13:03
A proposal for sites we like. https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/ecc/?fbclid=IwAR3bWvGVzEJHLhZHDSERmcyvYKyDuUPpOCFGA-1yTiIIEJKmc3iSNmABRLA#hwps
May 06, 2020 at 12:24
There is a knot here. first, I think it is useful to distinguish the imagined reward which gets one out of the chair, with the actual reward, that com...
May 06, 2020 at 10:33
I don't feel it that way. I feel that it is an ugly situation and it would be ugly to find any beauty in either the torture or the imprisonment. And W...
May 06, 2020 at 10:20
I think he's suggesting they'd feel rather cold.
May 06, 2020 at 08:46
In: Trust  — view comment
Thats a really attractive slogan. What of the protection of minorities? What you have there is the tyranny of the majority, the dictatorship of the pr...
May 06, 2020 at 08:39
In: Trust  — view comment
I think there's a time lag. Of about 50 years. Which has to be added to the 50 years for, say, Wittgenstein to become the orthodox philosophy. So expe...
May 05, 2020 at 18:21
In: Trust  — view comment
Well we disagree. I agree with this, but philosophy percolates through social science that again most people ignore, and from there into think tanks, ...
May 05, 2020 at 15:46
No. 'Sugar is sweet' is not analytic. 'Sweetener is sweet' is more or less analytic. 'These apples are sweet' is actually worth knowing, because 'thes...
May 05, 2020 at 15:30
Here's one I made earlier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gunxW0olBt0
May 05, 2020 at 14:40
In: Trust  — view comment
No apologies required. This is exactly where I want to end up. Lies, propaganda and the manipulation of beliefs are destructive of meaning and destruc...
May 05, 2020 at 14:03
What this means is that 'hedonistic act' becomes an oxymoron. All sugar is sweet. So no-one bothers to advertise "sweet sugar", because there is no ot...
May 05, 2020 at 13:43
If you make this a universal truth, and you certainly can do that, you are not saying very much. The masochist wants the pleasure of pain; the altruis...
May 05, 2020 at 10:26
Ah, sorry. A colloquialism, Irish I think. "Your man" = 'the aforementioned person' or thereabouts. He who advocated rage; a Welshman, but honorary Ir...
May 05, 2020 at 09:57
No. I am clearly and explicitly talking about "people who are afraid of death" I don't think you are, but about people who "die quietly".
May 04, 2020 at 23:21
Who? People who die quietly? People who keep the rage inside? People who are afraid of death? Do be careful that the they in my quotation is the same ...
May 04, 2020 at 23:07
It's not your man's fault if people don't take his advice. Quite often when people are afraid of death, they are even more afraid of life.
May 04, 2020 at 22:45
That was a reference to Wittgenstein who used to talk about the book he did not write, and whereof one cannot speak and reserved a large space for the...
May 04, 2020 at 20:02
That is a slightly different question. Do you find yourself meaningless because you are not infinitely big? The daffodils have finished, and the tulip...
May 04, 2020 at 19:26
"Those who know, do not take the piss; those who take the piss do not know." Un Tzu. I am more brave. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/6287/t...
May 04, 2020 at 18:51
Nor should you. But fear is too small an emotion for the case. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRec3VbH3w
May 04, 2020 at 18:29
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must waffle. So do you want to talk about 'whatever ideologies' or 'self-surrender,' or 'the practice of ecstasi...
May 04, 2020 at 17:46
In: Brexit  — view comment
Politics is like chess; it's the pawns that generally get sacrificed, and the players move on to the next game even if they lose.
May 04, 2020 at 16:13
Indeed. And circularity results from conflating the imagined effect as cause of action with the actual effect as result of action. I act to realise an...
May 04, 2020 at 12:54
Why do people have accidents?
May 03, 2020 at 17:26
Talking of infinite loops. Have a chat with a compulsive gambler, who may be a close friend of the compulsive arguer. Why do you gamble? Because I lik...
May 03, 2020 at 17:25
Imagination is a wonderful thing. I'll back out now I've got the social scientists and statisticians bickering.
May 03, 2020 at 17:04
It's crude measure. Consider that the highlands of Scotland Mid Wales, and the Pennine hills have a density of maybe 1/km2. And France has the Alps, t...
May 03, 2020 at 14:16
In: Trust  — view comment
Indeed so. Annoying, but i completely agree with this. So could we say that the Klansman is reliably untrustworthy, whereas the shamefaced racist is u...
May 01, 2020 at 19:57
In: Trust  — view comment
That is a heck of a big question. But I'm happy to move on to it, as we seem to have reached the point where the disagreement is more about terminolog...
May 01, 2020 at 13:42
In: Brexit  — view comment
Not at all, he's moving his business to Ireland so he can stay in the EU. You lucky, lucky people.
May 01, 2020 at 12:47
In: Brexit  — view comment
It's bevvies dear boy, short for beverages. Enough of this parade of working-class credentials already. We're gently mocking your sensibilities; there...
May 01, 2020 at 12:29
In: Trust  — view comment
Ok. I don't know if it will rain or be fine so I take a coat. Ok. I know he's thieving bastard, so I lock the door when I go out. (You can trust Mr Th...
May 01, 2020 at 12:16
In: Brexit  — view comment
But you like being dominated, sweetie, and I am ever so understanding.
May 01, 2020 at 11:50
In: Brexit  — view comment
Could you translate that into proper middle-class English for me darling?
May 01, 2020 at 11:32
In: Brexit  — view comment
True, but you have shown us enough of your front ground to leave an impression.
May 01, 2020 at 11:26
In: Brexit  — view comment
And yet we let you post here on equal terms, to show how open hearted and fair-minded we are. :rofl:
May 01, 2020 at 11:19
I think he invented the term mainly to explain religion to himself. I should have said 'superstition', rather than propaganda, as a better contrast wi...
May 01, 2020 at 11:00