Jack Cummins

I hope that I don't sound completely ignorant but I haven't read Stephen Jay Gould. I will google his name, to familiarise myself with his ideas.

You are missing the importance of interpretation of events in the development of happiness or melancholy. As the cognitive behavioral thinkers suggest...

The philosophy of the law of attraction is that it operates all the time, but that the reason bad consequences is due to contradictory wishes. That im...

Do you read all writing at the same speed? I vary according to what I am reading, but not simply on the basis of whether the writing is grabbing my at...

I admit there are plenty of times when I tried to approach life with gratefulness and optimism and had a horrible day. The advocates of the law of att...

I always consider it to be a bad thing if I am the last person on a thread, especially if it is one of my own. It is as if I may have written gobblede...

I definitely was brought up with the folk wisdom that 'everything happens for a reason', but it may be more patterns than actual reasons. Of course, a...

I do struggle with negativity but I think it I am better at coping with it than I used to be. Often, I do remind myself of the law of attraction and i...

Magical thinking is unhelpful which is why I am asking about the issue of whether the idea of the law of attraction is superstition. Nevertheless, on ...

Your reply points to the complexity of psychology and exaggeration of emotional affect. I know that at times this has worked negatively or positively ...

What I mean by repercussions is that there are ripple effects of actions, almost like a magnetism of energies. One really strange thing which happened...

I was not presuming that you see the law of attraction as mystical because I don't know your complete outlook. I think that this is the first time I h...

In some ways, the law of attraction may be less 'mystical' than it appears at first. It can be about how there are chain effects, with state of mind b...

One aspect related to this was Schopenhauer's interpretation of this with human consciousness as the thing-in-itself. Here, the human will is of criti...

The question may be, to what extent can the experiences of life be captured by the logic or propositions. Saying that, I am not wishing to suggest tha...

I like the idea of wondering if the bee is winking at you. I try to escape bees because I got stung twice on the arm. I am glad you have contributed t...

Here are a couple more prompts from the book which I referred to in the post above for anyone who is interested, and remember it is about experimentat...

As I was going through things in my room today I came across a book I had with flash fiction prompts, '101 Flash Fiction Prompts: A Very Short Story S...

I am putting in a prompt from 'The Pocket Muse.. 'The Bible is a magical repository for story ideas. Every story is a metaphor with limitless possibil...

Good story, and I was glad to see this thread appear. I do wish to continue to contribute to it..

I remember one time when I was on the tube and handed a man £1 for the little handipack of tissues, he almost tried to take the tissues. But I took th...

I really enjoyed your story. It had so much which seemed realistic based on my experience of people who live in the streets. I am definitely familiar ...

Generally, the problem which you raise is a problem which may be underlying the philosophy of consequentialism. Acts are seen as morally good from the...

I was reading this thread and noticed you refer to the law of attraction. I think that I have referred to it a couple times on the forum. However, I h...

I am just thinking that neuroscience is important in understanding various aspects of the mind but if it is seen as the 'absolute' picture of consciou...

Absolutely, and it can be asked is consciousness a matter of the brain or something more? Of course, the brain is connected to mental states but wheth...

You speak of 'biological function' and, I am not dismissing biology. However, it is one model and way of seeing reality. To what extent can everything...

Neuroscience is only one way of describing and viewing consciousness. I have been reading Noam Chomsky on the mind and body problem and he captures th...

I do try to experiment with mindfulness in different ways, but improvise mostly. I did go to a silent meditation in Central London a couple of days an...

I was just looking at your post and I thinking about mindfulness and someone becoming a suicide bomber. It may be that mindfulness could make someone ...

Reflection in relation to mindfulness has different aspects. One distinction which I came across in nursing theory, by a writer called John's, is refl...

It is extremely hard to ignore the 'dark side' by just being aware of it because emotions play such a significant part in life. It may be the most an ...

Ignoring darker aspects of the self may be by living with it as background noise. That is the way I tend to see it.

Thanks for linking in the article because it is really useful. A lot of the time, many people dismiss mindfulness as being just about reaching for the...

I like the story and am glad that the thread has not faded away completely. I may contribute to it at some point in the next few days...

The biggest problem is that the book is written 50 years after the evening which makes it like a fictitious fabrication. I came across so much writing...

Thanks for your reply and I am glad that you have read the book. I think that you are right to say that both Popper and Wittgenstein were looking 'opp...

I have found a discussion of the book by Sean Walsh (6. 2. 2021) in www. the article.com. Walsh says: 'The verdict? That Wittgenstein may or may not h...

I found the book in a charity shop a couple of months ago. There may be some discussion of it online and I will have a look to see if I can find any f...

I had no idea that Wittgenstein may have had some kind of autism. I once read a book that suggested that Kant may have had this too, although I guess ...

The question you ask could be answered partly in terms of the psychoanalytic thinking of Melanie Klein. She looked at object relations in infancy, esp...

I am not sure how you define perfection? People see it differently with some emphasising piety and some as about being the highest example of a human ...

Carl Jung saw the way in which religious perspectives, especially the history of Christianity, emphasised the goal of perfection. He maintained that p...

Interpretations are important as well as explanations because it involves seeing why people think in certain ways and critical examination of explanat...

It is likely that what form of meditation helps is so variable from individual to individual. Many don't meditate at all. As someone who is is a bit '...

That's an interesting point of view, the difference between philosophical reflection or one with it being effortless. I guess that I see mindfulness m...

It is difficult to pay attention to watch thoughts and feelings without judging them. The quote which @unenlightened points to from Krishnamurti is re...

It is probably true that the watching of thoughts is not exclusive to Buddhism. However, when such practices are done in mindfulness meditation it is ...

The idea of 'cancel culture' is often thought of as where ideas which are seen as unacceptable, as prejudiced, are edited, but it can be the exact opp...

When I was reading some philosophy as a Catholic teenager I was not aware of the complexity of the relationship it had with religion. The first niggle...