Jack Cummins

I agree that this is an extremely difficult topic for a public forum, and it does seem that so many of the topics are, but we live in extraordinary ti...

That was a quick response. I am interested in the actual pursuit of esoteric knowledge, but also interesting in critical examination of the power stru...

I am probably more likely to engage with you on this thread than your one on Wittgenstein because I have read a lot on esoteric ideas generally. I am ...

I will have a look at your Blue book thread. It is simply that I usually only participate in threads of books I have read already. I know that you inc...

I am sure that my own perspective is one that may bother some people, but it is simply the way I see the matter at present. I am searching and I am ho...

I probably don't see it in exactly the same way as you do because I think that there is a whole spectrum in between consciousness and unconsciousness,...

I am probably complicating matters further, but I am wondering where the unconscious comes in. I am afraid that I am influenced by Jung, but I do see ...

I think that you offer a very good summary of various ideas previous to the the time of Descartes.

I am glad that you can see the yes and no, because it seems that many people seem to be all one or the other. Mind you, the two opposing viewpoints ar...

I just see that you both come from different perspectives, and it is related to the wording of the question as 'Should..' I don't see the matter as be...

But you have not explained how or why consciousness came into being in the first instance. I think it is a matter of not just connecting it to the phy...

I am trying to say that we should not underestimate the ancients really. I am sure that they thought in very sophisticated ways and that they had thou...

I just noticed your comment, 'Wittgenstein is psychedelic'. Taking the word psychedelic in it's true meaning, as simply mind expanding, I think that y...

So what you seem to be concluding is that they were aware of a problem. I just think that there awareness was different, on a subtle level. They did n...

I am sure that some of them were aware of the problem on some level, as you have pointed out about Socrates. However, we have developed all the langua...

Perhaps the ancient philosophers didn't see the mind and body as split in exactly the same way as those of Western thinkers. It was probably Descartes...

Perhaps it doesn't really matter whether we call it energy or God ultimately. It may be a choice of language more than anything else. Some of the new ...

I do agree that language is mysterious because it captures so much shared meaning. Sound is important too, and conveys so much beyond words, as in mus...

Yes, I think that you capture how hard it is to understand the whole nature of experience. I think that people often say they understand to try to mak...

That's fair enough, and I do agree that the about the parable of good the Samaritan being central. Just imagine a group of philosophers standing debat...

I would imagine that you probably never believed in life after death because you weren't brought up in a religious background. I was taught to believe...

Yes, I am sure that you are right that there is a lot of progress. It may be that we just need more synthetic understanding rather than simply more ne...

Thanks for the link to Feuerbach. I will try to have a read of some of his ideas.

I am reading an ebook of 'Being and Nothingness' and it would probably be easier in a paper copy. I remember looking at the book in a library and thin...

I think that whether progress has been made in the progress of ideas. There is so little consensus in shared ideas and so much fragmentation. Some can...

You ask me if I know Sartre. Strangely, I just began reading 'Being and Nothingness' this week. I am finding it hard work really. The one quote which ...

I do agree that it is often more subtle than outright insults. This is probably true in all levels of life beyond debates. There are backhanded compli...

I am slightly changing the slant of your question because I wouldn't really want to be a bat, but I think that it is also interesting to to what exten...

I see insults as being the worst aspect of debate, because it seems to be going beyond that, to personal attacking of someone. Once a person goes off ...

The whole question of shared existence is a very important aspect of knowledge and the way we go about our individual searching. This is where the rel...

You are quite right to query my use of the word 'solved' and, strangely, I don't think that anyone has done so far. I am turning it into the language ...

You are probably correct to speak of 'subjective monotony' as it is the opposite to the contemplation of the mysterious. In life, there can be gravita...

Your question does bring me back to a question which came up in my thread on Jung and God, which is whether the whole expression of our consciousness ...

I think that you make some extremely good points and your posts are worth reading but the matter is not straightforward. The seeker may sometimes find...

I think that it is a mixture of both reading others thoughts and inner knowledge. As it is, most people don't even read the ideas of the wise ones.

I do agree really, but just think that, aside from the politicians' biases, we need to go about the quest with a certain amount of balance. However, I...

You are most probably correct to say that contemplation is probably the meeting point between philosophy and meditation. We probably need to be involv...

In your post, you ask about why we wonder. I believe that it interconnected with being human and the nature of consciousness. It is likely that wonder...

I am not dismissing the importance of your emphasis on searching for answers within, but just wondering about whether meditation is not the best pract...

Actually, in the last six months I think that I have probably spent too much time reading and not meditating as much as would be helpful. I am hoping ...

Your comment was very good and I particularly like, 'A philosophy thinking about the truth is like is just like a blind man thinking of the light'. I ...

I definitely agree that, 'There is no wisdom without creativity'. While I do spend so much time wondering about the mysteries which I identified I wou...

It is probably a paradox. You can't have mind without body and vice versa, but probably as Sartre suggested, 'Existence precedes essence.'

I think that free will is a recurrent theme in philosophy, but probably in other related disciplines. In psychology, there is the nature vs nurture de...

I do collect books, but I do wish to see my reading and thinking being more than just a 'materialistic thirst for knowledge.' I don't think that philo...

I have read some of your thread on ontology. I can see that you are trying to understand consciousness. It is a complex problem. I ponder it and I thi...

So are you advocating for a dualistic model?

I see the mysteries of philosophy as being part of my interest and quest, and do believe that exploration of fear is part of this too. It takes time a...

I don't think the systems of the world are anywhere near perfect at all. In your thread about medical expertise, I simply was suggesting that England ...

I wonder if it is possible to go beyond the labels because they may be only approximations and, may be inadequate.