Bartricks

I am not lost and I know exactly what I am talking about. You asked me some questions - such as the difference between therapy and philosophy - and I ...

yes, because it is a good example. I have never encountered a Buddhist who stuck to providing evidence rather than reverting to appeal to therapeutic ...

I think some Stoics are therapists, some are philosophers, and some (most, I suspect) are a bit of both. A therapist is just trying to treat a person ...

I would have thought that the last person someone who needs counselling should see is a philosopher!

I am not sure what you mean. I think extremely aggressively. That is, if someone tells me their worldview, then I try my hardest to show that it is fa...

Well, I think to be deserving of the title 'Stoic' one surely has to have a body of views that bear a strong resemblance to those of the historical St...

It isn't a straw man. If you're unhappy and want to be happy, you see a therapist, not a philosopher. Why? Because a therapist is someone who's an exp...

I accept - and mentioned this earlier - that psychology is a branch of philosophy in that it uses reason to find out what's true. But whereas a psycho...

I see no evidence of that. If you knew about Stoicism you'd know that the views I mentioned - such as that grief is irrational and that wrongdoing is ...

Same difference. Business ethics is ethics applied to business. Anyway, how is this about Stoicism? It's just you venting your frustration at me after...

Would you like another argument against the physical universe - one, admittedly, beyond the ken of your average five year old? Here: 1. Anything that ...

Er, where are you getting that from? Ah, I see what you've done - you've applied your reasoning skills to some other arguments I have made about the r...

You want an argument against the reality of the physical universe? Well, how about this one (and yes, I realize this is as pointless as presenting thi...

We do not live in a physical universe and it is certainly question begging to assert that in the context of a debate about an argument for the soul - ...

Do some research.

Again, relevance? I said that philosophy is the project of using reason to discover the truth. You then provide a quote that makes a different point -...

I do not know why you are telling me about Sextus or about scepticism. I have said that philosophy involves using reason to discover what's true. You'...

Why? Shouldn't the most informed person decide? And you've just said - and demonstrated - that you do not know much philosophy. For the claims I attri...

It was a trichotomy. And it wasn't false. Failed again.

Gibberish can't be false. And it isn't gibberish. It is a coherent statement. And it isn't false. It is true. You have failed.

Er, why did you quote the first bit and not the rest??? I said that Stoicism is either therapy, banal or false. Three possibilities. Three. Not one. T...

No I didn't. There are some people who claim to be philosophers, but are not. And some of them would claim to be Stoics. But I am not thereby claiming...

Yes, that's the gist. Although what we ought to do and what a philosopher does qua philosopher are not necessarily the same. That was my point about h...

First, I never claimed that Stoicism was not a philosophy. Indeed, I said in numerous places that I am not denying there are Stoic philosophers. But, ...

I sit around thinking nothing all the time. It's easy.

Well, I'm not surprised. No, it really isn't.

Really? You are sure about 'that' are you? How? Kindly defend your claim without contradicting yourself.

I don't think they do. But anyway, they're clearly different concepts. If you believe you are loved, that does not entail that you are loved. If you b...

I don't think so, because even if doing philosophy does turn out to be therapeutic, that is not the reason a true philosopher does it. A true philosop...

Have you considered Buddhism? I recommend Buddhism to you. It encourages you to think nothing. I think you'll do well.

No, you're not listening. I patiently explained, for instance, why simply making claims about psychological states - their causes and regulation - is ...

No. Mind. Mind a lot. Warm, fuzzy words do not a philosophy make.

True. It is irrelevant to its truth. To do philosophy well you have to get over yourself and follow reason instead. That isn't the view I asked you ab...

Stop being so self-involved. So it inspired you. Doesn't matter. That won't make it true. Now, once more, is it true that all wrongdoing is a result o...

Yes, it was Socrates' view too. And it is absurd, yes? I didn't ask you who else believed it. I asked you if you thought it was true.

Obviously false. What prevents two or more people from having identical worldviews?? You need to start listening to reason rather than car adverts. Re...

Why? Give me a Stoic principle. Let's go through some one by one and examine them. I have mentioned some of these. For instance, a view associated wit...

Why bother what? I am interested in what's true. Whether a claim resonates with me (whatever that means) has no bearing on its truth. You, I think, ar...

I don't know what you're saying. Sounds wishy washy and makes Stoicism into a label for nothing very clear. There's a science of psychology that inves...

Because my usage is not eccentric. It is the sense of the term according to which all of the following (and many others, of course) would qualify as p...

So? Just imagine there's a pill that eradicates grief directly then - the point remains that if your partner has just died you ought not take it, othe...

The project of using reason to figure out what's true with no regard to anything else is a distinctive project. And it has come to have a name: philos...

It doesn't complicate it, it just renders vivid the point - which is that sometimes we ought to hurt. If the pill eradiated grief, it would be wrong t...

I agree with your assessment of the author's critique of Plato's argument. Clearly talking about parts does not address it. I also agree that, as stat...

But philosophy as I - and I think most contemporary analytic philosophers - conceive it is not about being wise, but about figuring out what's true. T...

Yes, I am asserting it - but I only assert it because it appears self-evident to my reason and the reason of virtually everyone else. We recognise not...

Here is another example of a Stoic teaching that seems obviously false: that wrongdoing is always a product of ignorance. This seems false to first ap...

I am not sure what you mean. I think we often have reason to feel emotions such as grief, anger, sorrow and so forth. Whether we do feel them or not i...

Like I say, if a loved one dies and you feel no unhappiness at that, then you're not right. There are a whole range of negative emotions that we ought...

But what's that got to do with the price of tea in China? To what extent a view resonates with you, or bears similarity to another view, has nothing w...