Come now. What do you think "Ayn Rand is to philosophy what L. Ron Hubbard is to religion" means? Plainly, it asserts a similarity between them and ho...
Far better than thinking the abyss looks back at you, or weeping over life, expounding on meaninglessness or crying "woe is me!" There is something vi...
It will be a historical curiosity, and interesting, not because it is a piece of paper but because it was money. What significance would it have then,...
If a ten dollar note (money) isn't a ten dollar note (money), what is it? Something else, which we merely treat as if it were a ten dollar note (money...
I'm well known in this forum as being inclined to mock and disparage Heidegger at every opportunity, and this inclination has, I fear, made some angry...
Dewey famously wrote that we only really begin to think when we encounter a problem, broadly defined as a question raised in the course of life or sit...
There's a real ambiguity in the scene, (which I think is a powerful one--Agnes Moorhead was superb in that brief role). The mother seems stern and col...
The hoi polloi dealt with and were bound by, and a part of, the immutable, changing, practical word. Therefore, the unchanging, perfect truth, good, e...
Charlie pushes Thatcher into the snow, using Rosebud. Father takes a swing at Charlie, but misses. Then-- Father: "Sorry, Mr. Thatcher. What that kid ...
Charlie pushes Thatcher into the snow, using Rosebud. Father takes a swing at Charlie, but misses. Then-- Father: "Sorry, Mr. Thatcher. What that kid ...
There's no indication the mother is insane in the film. Also, she already had money, and clearly wasn't trading him in to obtain more. Thatcher was a ...
Some of them do, for something in any case. I'm not sure what those topics may be. But if you confront people about large topics that may not yield re...
You had to mention Ayn Rand. When she's mentioned, I'm obliged to repeat that Ayn Rand is to philosophy what L. Ron Hubbard is to religion. Self-love ...
It's interesting that ancient philosophers taught that death was nothing to be feared, and should be faced with acceptance and even cheerfully. I refe...
Here's Cicero on gladiators in his Tusculan Disputations, Book I, On Contempt for Death: What wounds will the gladiators bear, who are either barbaria...
The belief that the Second Amendment right is absolute is of course silly. I'm curious why you're seeking an ethical view. No ethical argument will de...
There must have been smoke, for me, for any kind of drug but for alcohol, which I rather like smokey as well. Smoked tobacco far too much, but that wa...
Here's a thought about the Roman games, and pagan life generally. In the Greco-Roman world, before Christianity crushed most of it into the dust, the ...
For those who don't know, it's phrase taken from Juvenal, writing about 100 A.D. or C.E. or somewhat later (oddly, during the reigns of the Antonine E...
An uncomfortable truth, I think. There's something peculiarly male about this, for good or ill. For example, although there were female gladiators, th...
But that's not true. Some were, certainly. That was especially the case early on, when they were generally taken from conquered peoples. Some were cri...
Well, we're pretty strange, sometimes. But lawyering can be a kind of contest or struggle, especially in the courtroom, and there's an audience as wel...
First, thank you. Very true. Training, feeding and boarding gladiators was expensive and so were the games. That's why contests weren't fought to the ...
Good post. I think admiration of skill and courage is involved in the attraction to blood games, and would think mysticism of a kind could be signific...
A good question. From what I've read, reasons for their participation varied. Some were down on their luck and turned to the games, some merely wanted...
Oh yes. I can't understand Hemingway's fondness for bullfighting. No doubt there's risk involved, and I suppose the matador must, to be seen as admira...
These seem a different kind of game, though. In the Roman games, endurance of pain was valuable, but not the end in view, nor was it accepted or self-...
Yes--at least as a philosophical problem. I think this kind of pursuit has its basis in an obstinate rejection of the fact that all we are, and do, an...
A good question. Ultimately, though,whatever a "person" is, those three persons are supposed to be in essence a single God. The early Church faced a p...
I was brought up Catholic, and associate "doctrine" with its endlessly complicated beliefs and rules. The doctrine involving God as Ham Sandwich is on...
I don't think unitarians have any doctrine, nor do they support any particular version of a deity. They seem more in the way of deists. But I'm uncert...
If you're looking for something resembling argument, I'm sure you could find some supporting the Trinity. You could try Augustine's De Trinitate, but ...
I've thought about attending a unitarian meeting, or whatever they call the equivalent of a mass. But from what I read, it's too similar to a mass. Re...
Well, the Holy Spirit is supposed to be God according to those who accept the Trinity. So, if God doesn't exist, the Holy Spirit doesn't exist; if God...
I see more clearly what you're getting at now, so thanks. I think concern in this respect is understandable. I'm uncertain what we can do, though. Vir...
Only because of technology, though. Hmm. Is this a kind of Terminator or Matrix-inspired fear of manufactured products? It's the "self-perpetuation of...
You see, that's an assumption you make, and I don't. I think Nature, i.e. the "natural world", i.e. the world, includes human beings. Because it inclu...
No doubt someone who lived life in "the wilderness" would have problems surviving in the city as well. I don't see how a city would be less "reality" ...
I'd think "expert knowledge" would be required to know how electricity works, or gravity works. I doubt it's common knowledge. Does knowing how electr...
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