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Jack Cummins

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Some people do regard dreams as psychological 'garbage', whereas I am inclined to the view that they represent so much more. In saying that I am not g...
March 13, 2024 at 16:59
I wonder to what extent the experience of dreams is related to a different kind of consciousnes and memory. It may be different from the conventional ...
March 12, 2024 at 02:17
I am not wishing to dismiss the value of empirical understanding and evidence, in favour of a form of skepticism. It is possible to get carried away w...
March 12, 2024 at 02:08
Thank you for your detailed reply. You speak of the inner world and outer world, which is the main dichotomy between waking and sleep/dream consciousn...
March 12, 2024 at 01:49
Reading your response, makes me wonder about the specific division between 'sleep' and 'dreams'. It may be a commonsense one but it is not absolute, e...
March 12, 2024 at 01:35
Your reply seems a little simplistic and not embracing the dilemmas of transgender individuals. I have worked with people who are transgender in menta...
March 12, 2024 at 00:07
The division between sex and gender is complex because a person's identity as being male or female involves so much, including reproductive functions ...
March 11, 2024 at 23:26
The nature of dreams may raise the scope of 'mind' and 'consciousness' beyond daily life experiences and understanding. There is a twilight zone, espe...
March 11, 2024 at 22:16
One aspect of the idea of ghosts and spirits would be the idea of disembodied 'minds'. My initial understanding and reading of philosophy incorporated...
March 11, 2024 at 22:03
In the first place, my linking ideas of the esoteric with philosophy is meant to involve critical thinking about it as opposed to complete acceptance....
February 18, 2024 at 22:18
I am not sure that the risk of being seen as an outsider is the biggest risk of following an esoteric philosophy. The risk would be of being mistaken ...
February 18, 2024 at 21:57
I am inclined to agree @"Pantagruel"about the limitations of 'the mundane'. It seems such a 'flat perspective'. Of course, I am not wishing to go into...
February 18, 2024 at 19:15
The binary is the essential basis from which mood is assessed. I know whether I feel 'good' or 'bad' as a basis for assessing one's own wellbeing. Whe...
February 16, 2024 at 12:18
I didn't mean that it is not possible to work out the actual effects of thought. In particular, the ABC model of affect, behaviour and consequences is...
February 16, 2024 at 12:05
It is difficult to know to what extent emotions help or hinder in thinking. In some ways, it can end up in a picture of 'bias. Emotions may tinge the ...
February 16, 2024 at 00:36
a Absence of emotion is an interesting area. In particular, the philosophy and spectrum of autism, raises this question. However, if does come down to...
February 15, 2024 at 17:26
The idea of anger as 'frustration' may be important as it can involve so much experience of being 'put down'. The emotion of anger may involve so much...
February 15, 2024 at 17:17
What is a philosophical 'bitch'? Is it the absolute of opposition of thought? Also, to what extent do ideas which challenge us, represent 'enemy" thin...
February 15, 2024 at 17:07
Your point here about anger and philosophy discussions, including philosophy forums, is especially important. It may show aspects of investment and at...
February 15, 2024 at 17:00
I will look into Sartre's idea of anger and hatred as it seems particularly relevant. It may be that some people on the forum have looked into this wr...
February 15, 2024 at 16:51
Concepts of pathology may come down both ideas of 'normality' and 'disease'. Going back to ideas of physiology, some such thinking involves the basis ...
February 15, 2024 at 16:23
I am not wishing to get into unhelpful kits about the nature of 'pathology' but where it seems to me to be most complex is in the construction of idea...
February 15, 2024 at 16:11
The question of 'asexual love, involves the question of what is sexuality and how does it come into play in human relationships. What is the differenc...
February 15, 2024 at 15:25
Your full consideration of the spectrum of human emotion is very important. It is such an important area of the phenomenology of emotions. Of course, ...
February 15, 2024 at 15:18
The concept of hatred as opposed to love is a complex area of human life, ranging from varying perspectives of human nature and motivation and values....
February 15, 2024 at 15:08
You may be right about common sense of ideas about what constitutes anger. However, pathology in itself is a construct. Here, I am not trying to sugge...
February 15, 2024 at 14:58
I wonder to what extent anger is a response or something more. You may be correct to point to the significances of a response, especially in terms of ...
February 15, 2024 at 13:53
I find that life and ideas have become rather shallow and 'trivialised' in the information age, with clicks of smart phone, Wikipedia and links. It se...
February 14, 2024 at 07:56
The question of the esoteric and default issues of meaning is a good question. Meaning, or lack of meaning are arbitrary and objective, and esoteric i...
February 12, 2024 at 20:03
Derrida and Foucault are important as means of perspectives of critical thinking. If anything, what I see as being the worst possibility here, is wher...
February 12, 2024 at 16:30
The concept of the 'esoteric ' has indeed covered so much and been used and disbursed in so many ways. Its use probably goes back to Hermeticism and P...
February 12, 2024 at 15:43
I also wonder how how much of understanding of the esoteric, as opposed to the exoteric, stands in relation to the information age. Knowledge as 'out ...
February 12, 2024 at 15:07
My understanding of Kant is that he saw epistemological basis of knowledge as being a complex interplay of both the empirical and the nature of reason...
February 12, 2024 at 14:47
Thanks for your reply and the whole issue of the esoteric and academic are an interesting contrast, especially in relation to the development of knowl...
February 12, 2024 at 14:30
I have read 'Phaedo' a few years ago and did read some of the thread on it on this forum, which I found helpful in thinking about the book. The entire...
February 11, 2024 at 21:23
I find it hard to know how Socrates and Plato thought of immortality. I was taught by a tutor on the philosophy of religion that immortality may consi...
February 11, 2024 at 18:19
Misconceptions and blindness may have variable effects for people, depending on circumstances and intention. Fantasies and delusions may inspire great...
February 11, 2024 at 16:29
At the moment, I don't feel overwhelmed by questions, and the actual existential aspects of life are greater. However, there have been times in which ...
February 11, 2024 at 10:38
The movement of freethinking is a useful one, in spite of its link with freemasonry. As far as the idea of flourishing despite the presence of mysteri...
February 11, 2024 at 05:37
Your post raises the whole question of what is trivial and what is not in the understanding of life. The approach of the esoteric or exoteric may or n...
February 10, 2024 at 15:54
As far as forum writing goes, it is so different from so many other forms. The reason why I have used this forum is because I find that the dialogue w...
February 10, 2024 at 11:53
I used the term 'esoterica', which is a rather vague one, as used in the magazine published by the Theosophical Society. But, in relation to your ques...
February 09, 2024 at 20:23
Regarding the idea of the whole and the parts, it may be a mixed issue. To go beyond academic thinkers it is a bit like the song by the Waterboys of s...
February 09, 2024 at 18:32
I am sorry that I do not quote in my replies. It is because it does not seem possible on my particular model of phone. I would probably need to be abl...
February 09, 2024 at 18:11
Jaynes' theory is also important for thinking about psychosis itself because it also suggests that people heard voices. Even within psychiatry there i...
February 08, 2024 at 23:09
The way you describe the difference between the Gnostics and Plotinus, demonstrates the divergences in esotericism. In particular, it points to the wa...
February 08, 2024 at 22:51
It is possible that in everyday terms people often muddle the idea of esoteric and obscurity, even to the point where philosoph itself is seen as esot...
February 08, 2024 at 22:38
The way in which you combine Hegel and the idea of Hegel is especially useful for considering the concept of the 'supernatural'. It may have led to so...
February 08, 2024 at 16:22
Your way of understanding 'concrete' is useful and important, and another approach which is particularly important in relation to esotericism is the u...
February 08, 2024 at 16:04
I guess that even the idea of concrete thinking has varying meanings and associations. I have come across it's used mainly in psychiatry, when referri...
February 06, 2024 at 17:49