Pantagruel

I think our concept of materiality, or more specifically, the presumed dichotomy between mind and matter, is archaic, given everything we have discove...

Yes, I agree that the degree to which "long-term" as opposed to immediate goals or stimuli influence our decisions is a key element in the will-phenom...

Wouldn't that be Trump? Isn't inciting this pretty much in direct contravention to his oath of office?

lol. No biggie. Mind you, it is such a subjective phenomena, I don't know if you can ever provide a sufficient objective description, IMO. We know tha...

I did. I don't agree example 2 is a case of willpower, it is simply utilitarian calculation. I think actual willpower applies to situations where one ...

Interesting examples. I think you are correct in couching them in terms of temptation. We are tempted always to take the easy route, the path of least...

I like Aristotle's description of wisdom. We regard as wise the man who can grasp things which are difficult, not easy, to comprehend.

A lot of focus on ideology. Remember, an ideology is not equivalent to a personal set of beliefs. Ideologies are constructs arising from particular se...

I think in the trivially evident sense that some people appear to possess greater will-power or self-control than others.

I think that depends on the degree of "will". It does appear that we are not all "equally constrained" though. Or "equally free" I guess.

The whole idea that an intention should correspond to its results tacitly assumes there is a rational connection between the two. If you intend to "do...

Organically, this very phenomenon seems to emerge as life complexifies and evolves. Even the very early phenomenon, the formation of a cellular membra...

The Savage Mind, by Levi-Strauss

There is a lot of talk about culture as if it was something separate from man. Culture is what makes us what we are. Cultures cannot be morally repreh...

Lucky 42 for me. Listed in approximately the order I read them, except the fiction is lumped together in the middle starting with Sartor Resartus. R.G...

The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz

One description of exo-individual consciousness might be that of distributed cognition. The article talks about this being a framework for studying co...

History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Vol 3: The Age of Revolution by Winston Churchill

Yes, it's called "deliberative democracy". It is a tough read though. Personally, I think that is important. We should challenge ourselves. Sometimes ...

Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas de Quincey

Just finished Cassirer's Essay on Man, which is...a survey of culture from the perspectives of myth, religion, language, art, history, and science. So...

It sounds as though you would really enjoy Habermas' book Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a discourse theory of Law and Democracy. it aligns...

Well, according the Cassirer chapter I read this morning, all historical interpretation is a creative-imaginative project. So in that context, all ide...

Well, every idea is both new and original since it is idiosyncratic to its context, and no two people can have precisely identical contexts. So you mu...

That may be true. But what qualifies one persons' actions as "an effort to discover truth" and another persons' actions as something other than that? ...

Well, our "notion of reality" isn't just an intellectual one, is it? There is an implied belief and value system behind every significant action that ...

Human beings are thought wrapped up in a meat blanket. Thought and matter are interacting. I think, I move matter around. It's trivially evident.

Sure, why not? Thought affects matter and matter affects thought every moment. The event is undeniable. Just because we can't explain is itself no rea...

Absolutely. We need to be working towards an "inclusive materialism" if anything. Our science should aspire to expand its horizons. Popper's ideas abo...

Science may have the strongest claim to truth...but, the scientific worldview also has to integrate into the overall project of humanity, viz, supply ...

:up:

Well, it is an attempt to define what it means to be human across a vast number of domains, ranging from art, history, science, myth, religion, and la...

One of the books I'm currently reading fits in with the broad strokes of your requirements: An Essay on Man, by Ernst Cassirer.

I agree

The average individual can reach a piece of fruit seven feet high, let's say. By standing on another person's shoulders, they can reach a piece of fru...

Why would you assume that is not so? All evidence is that collectives of entities can specialize and cooperate in ways that maximize their mutual bene...

Yes. I shot speedballs at 4 am with strangers in the late eighties at the height of the AIDS epidemic, so I know something of subcultures myself.

If I want to get a sense of the darker side I just read some Dickens. We live in a utopian paradise compared to those Victorian workers man.

I thought that was a zen buddhist adage.

:up:

You know, speaking of the artistic merits of philosophy, I think it was a seminal system's theorist, von Bertalanffy, who said that what substantiates...

I read Fritjof Capra's 2014 synopsis of the scope of Systems Theory and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. You can list authors to me anytime. Tha...

I believe "reciprocity" is the pivotal concept. I think, in the mode of bad faith, whatever limitations you place upon your generosity to "the Other,"...

Isn't this the core of Sartre's concept of bad faith? This has always been the cornerstone of my beliefs.

:up: If you enjoy the artistic merits of philosophy then you would really like Henri Bergson's writings I think. And John Dewey's.

I'd like to apologize. I got a bit hot under the collar when you implied that pragmatism somehow was a slippery slope to scientism. However I do respe...

Maybe read some evolutionary biology. The notion that what constitutes an entity is relevant to your frame of inquiry seems to elude you. A genetic po...

Isn't this really an established fact? I have pretty much always assumed what you are proposing is the defining dialectic of human culture. The schism...

Dude. Seriously, take some science classes.

Ah ok. My degree is in literature, so I certainly appreciate Shakespeare, and I am also a musician. I guess I didn't think of the fine arts as strictl...