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Sorry for the poor quality (five year old iPod touch camera), but I made some Broccoli Salad. 4 cups raw broccoli 2 cups halved, seedless grapes 2 cup...

No, no, you got it all wrong, man. This is deep-shit philosophy; it's obviously apparent that there is a direct relationship between how profound and ...

So, a strawman handwave to excuse your handwaving. Pardon me but do you actually have an argument here?

tgw, if your standard of argument is going to be a dismissive handwave, then I don't see any reason to continue to discussion. Psychological pain is n...

What I'm saying is that psychological pain (unless it is caused by a disorder or disease) is perpetuated by our choices and perspective. Regardless of...

Having a greater sense of reason means that we humans can look at the ecosystem and realize how much of a pyramid scheme it is, realize how much an or...

Or, you could look at these pains like I do, and realize that they are self-caused. Boredom can be relieved and can be a motivator for action. Lonelin...

I can agree with this. From Charles Sander Pierce, father of pragmatism: We cannot begin with complete doubt. We must begin with all the prejudices wh...

Right. Presumably, however, we could invent technology that could get rid of the aspect of pain that we find uncomfortable and replace it with simply ...

twg, just to remind you in case you forgot, I'm waiting for your reply regarding this: It could be mitigated, but new pains would arise. Those who med...

Welcome to PF. :D If you aren't religious you can still have an ethical system based upon empathy and compassion, which would result in you becoming a...

I got lost about two-thirds of the way down the previous page in the sparring ring between you and TGW. Something about tornadoes and a weird desire t...

It's too bad that 180 Proof doesn't hang around here often, I think he would agree with my statement that suffering is merely one of many incarnations...

Couldn't have said it better myself, shmik. Suffering is a part of the world, not the structure of the world.

For mass-produced bacon, a single individual's desire for bacon has no effect on whether or not the pig is slaughtered.

Interesting, I haven't heard of this before.

Wittgenstein, then.

How so?

I was going to say something myself, actually. ;)

They would have been slaughtered regardless, and the meat would have been wasted. I agree that ideally we shouldn't kill sentient animals, but they ha...

Which, incidentally, also means that the previous statement is also unverifiable. We cannot trust our senses, nor can we trust our rationality. I see ...

I agree with you that philosophy is something that is inevitable. However since there is no way to actually verify that our thoughts are correct, as i...

So meta.

Let's try to keep the martyrdom at a minimum.

Found an interesting interview of Peter Unger, who thinks philosophy is a bunch of empty ideas: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2014/06/philo...

But why? This is the question. Kant did not just pop out of the womb and write his Critique. He had access to education, something females did not at ...

I don't see the connection. In fact, all I'm seeing here is a generalization; i.e. how Schopenhauer himself feels he would react to such a situation b...

Dukkha is pretty much synonymous with dissatisfaction. What is this metaphysical structure you are referring to? If we get rid of the manifestations o...

I would like some examples of these harder problems. Are you referring to things like cancer and tornadoes?

Google "female scientists". Hypatia, Lovelace, Carson, Curie, etc. Plus I happen to personally know five successful female scientists and engineers. W...

Very peaceful song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgkVasro6lQ

You and I do not disagree that male humans have been the dominant force in "progress" and development. What we disagree on is why this is. I believe f...

Historical evidence that is written by man simply because man has bigger, stronger muscles. You may also recall that practically every single war was ...

My mistake.

I would consider myself one of the newer guys still in the PF network, as I've only been here for a little over a year now. I may be alone in this, bu...

You are not alone with this sentiment. Although I personally do agree with many of the things Schopenhauer wrote (alongside other "machismo" pessimist...

That's the whole pessimistic position on progress. It's constantly fighting the force of entropy, and will eventually lose. Eroding away everything.

Progress is ultimately doomed though, whether it be from our own self destruction or the eventual heat death of the universe. It is inevitable.

You can access all of your threads by Comments.

You can access your threads via your Discussions tab on your Personal About page.

Yeah, I don't see how a person who isn't discontented with their current situation would be willing to give up their liberties and current values. To ...

I actually had a different take on the show. Although it ends in a quasi-optimistic way with no real explanation why, I like to think that the directo...

Glad you mentioned Paxton, he brings a good description of what Fascism entails. Fascism is such a reactionary political position, it exalts anti-inte...

I'm picking up on the sarcasm here, but this is actually very important to the discussion, I think. The average depressive attitude of the pessimist d...

Good insight regarding Islamo-Fascism and the theocratic fascist state. The values of anti-intellectualism, brutish war mongering and group-mentality ...

Oh, gotcha. I was gonna say, damn, I got popular.

I have moderated my position. Yes, I remember that post I made a year ago...when I was very angsty and depressed. I am getting better now. And I can a...

But I read your comment before it was deleted urging me to read your previous replies to other people. So I did. Eh. How big of a deal are you making ...

I think your post got deleted.

I've been thinking about this more and would like to share some thoughts to further the discussion. From a Buddhist perspective, most suffering is cau...