Noble Dust

Ultra-pensiveness as a way towards supplication... It's not that I would trade anything for it, it's just that she's steadily been draining the IV bag...

People.

Poetic Diction helped in my understanding of how the meanings of words change, and how metaphor is a fundamental component of how language happens. It...

Some stuff: Nikolai Berdyaev - The Meaning of the Creative Act Nikolai Berdyaev - Divine and the Human Owen Barfield - Poetic Diction Nietszche - The ...

All fine ideas, but what you're missing is a proper analysis of the state of the human condition.

This is categorically false, assuming "our" refers to the entirety of humanity throughout all of history.

Cool. I need to read more Berry. I like his unabashed individualism; not for it's own sake, but for the sake of saying what he feels needs said.

Interesting to see Wendell Berry on someone's list.

Befriend fools, not philosophers.

Well-being and hedonism are not the same thing. So, Jake, are you saying that well-being trumps goodness, or that sensual pleasures trump goodness, or...

There are ambivalent emotions that blend between the two. I don't mean that emotions ethically permit whatever act someone does. Hitler had an ethic; ...

Thanks for this.

Free will is predicated on consciousness. This is getting boring. You appear to employ an approach that doesn't allow for anything to actually be esta...

You have consciousness; the teapot doesn't.

But societal change is neutral; if you're chalking up changes in societal norms towards sexuality and race as positive societal changes, then you need...

But the reason I tried to show those moral complexities is because I think they show that the question of which statement is more insulting is not rel...

I think my problem is that the idea of not being sure "what kind of thing we are" is too vague. Can you elaborate on what the options are here of "wha...

I think we're in agreement.

No, I don't think so. What I was trying to describe is the complexity of these moral problems. Like I said, not wanting to see others suffer as you've...

I disagree; the kind of thing we are would include aspects like "has free will", or "doesn't have free will". Why would we need to start by figuring o...

I completely agree. But, re: your last paragraph: can we discover "universal laws" (scientific terminology), or is the process something different? Wo...

Why? As far as I can tell, it's that you were asking about "levels of freedom", but I was asking for a "definition". But now you seem to be saying oth...

By both ways, then, you mean "poetic"? I can't find much in my post that was poetic other than "futile devices", and maybe "learning how to grow". Are...

No I don't; I want to say "You and I". Is it unclear to you what I mean when I say "You and I"? No, I disagree; take a step back with me: It's rather ...

Yup... Why would it have to play specifically into their hands? Yes, this is a problem I wrestle with constantly. Ironically, I think you're bringing ...

You'd need to explain why you think that. Hmm, I can entertain that idea, but, on the contrary, I tend to come to the realization that, rather than di...

See my reply above.

But here you're just basing your conception of free will on how it's colloquially presented. There's no philosophical grounds (or there might be, but ...

Clearly you and I. Yes, this is definitely the crux of the problem; or rather, not what kind of freedom (kinds of freedom seems fallacious), but inste...

NYC, baby. How so? Why is the decision of which is a bigger insult something that anything should hinge on? What exactly is the hinge here? Are they/d...

(Y) (was hoping for an applause emoticon)

See my further comment above.

Ok, so I totally misread this, and that's on me. Overworked, sleep-deprived, and slightly tipsy. You may call yourself the Mad Fool, but that's me, fo...

Sorry if I was harsh; it's just that this is a philosophy forum, and I don't see what philosophical end this question serves. But there are other thre...

You seem to be equating emotion with pleasure here. If we "live for emotions" like the OP is saying, then things like duty and ethics would subsumed w...

I think your first paragraph is spot on; it's a very intuitive insight. It sounds to me like you're saying "experience is subjective; the experience o...

Why is this important, and how is it philosophy? The whole binary set up of the statements is useless. Are you actually trying to understand something...

Think about addiction on an individual level. The more severe cases require a person to spend years recovering; the process is long, and can take a li...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMszCiYdtts

Do you really consider playing an instrument and drunkenness to be the same experience? Have you experienced either?

Ok now...I work in the wine industry...perhaps it's just a simple matter of the antioxidants that red wine offers (thanks to the inclusion of skins) w...

Here's the problem. There's no antecedent to your use of "harm" here, if you're adopting the presumably materialistic view that phrases like "biologic...

Where do I sign up?..

More like this. The language of the headline suggests this study is the reason for American obesity. The underlying zeitgeist is that studies like the...

Maybe underlying principles is the wrong term. I come from a more or less fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and so I've seen first hand the mindset...

It's not... I'm not still not sure where the misunderstanding here is... Fair enough, there are religious references in my music, which is on purpose,...

It's a case of fundamental belief. Science is and should remain an inquiry into how the physical world works. It shouldn't be the basis for fundamenta...

I understand Wayfarer to mean that a religious view of science is a cultural malaise. I think the three of us are in agreement here, ironically. Seems...

Who is saying scientism is responsible for rationalization? I don't think anyone, including Wayfarer, was saying that. It's the other way around, or r...

I'm more interested in why you think intelligence surviving outside of the the context of the human race is a sufficient (or coherent, for that matter...