Jack Cummins

I am thinking about the search for freedom, but the special way we have to walk the careful and intricate path between the negative and the positive i...

I am replying to your today's comment rather than giving a response to the link because my thinking feels rather foggy at the moment. What you have sa...

One of my biggest worries is that we are are on the verge of totalitarianism and I think that it may be a completely unbearable form of existence. I a...

I am glad that you are still keeping up the thread consistently, as I never thought that it would last so long. I am still thinking before replying to...

I have read Julian Jaynes' work and one aspect which is interesting is that he suggests that early humanity experiences thoughts as 'voices' because t...

Your reply is interesting and, you are right to say that apart from our conscious positions of optimism or pessimism we have intuitions. The opposite ...

Yes, there are so many interesting books to read. I keep finding them, e-books and paper ones, and I have been given plenty of recommendations on this...

I have more of an arts background, but, increasingly, I do find myself searching in the sciences section. One book which I am starting to read is, 'Th...

The idea of 'no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn,' does seem to blend together the whole idea of gratification with eternal pun...

I have read some Rimbaud and he is a very powerful writer. I also agree with the quote you gave on suicide. It does seem that suicide is often an impu...

When I woke up this morning, I read your dialogue with Proof and had mixed feelings. I do think that the study of pessimism and optimism would be an i...

I am glad that the Doors crept in, especially as Jim Morrison was inspired by Nietzsche. It was Jim who led me to Nietzsche's books in the first insta...

Yes, music is so central. I usually listen to about 2 to 3hrs music a day. I saw you referring to Neil Young on a music thread. I do have some albums ...

I am not sure if I can narrow down to the most important idea, but it is a good question, so I will have a think and get back to you.

That is a fascinating area. I have read some Dennet but not the others. I am going to see my mother tomorrow, and have a large book of readings on the...

Sorry that my reply to you is brief, but I have been busy writing on threads. However, what I wish to say that I am interested in your discussion of H...

I am replying to your post because even if you speak of God you don't seem like a fundamentalist religious type. I am also writing because I have an i...

I definitely wouldn't be able to pick out numbers, and I do believe that pherenomes play some role but in a couple of my own experience I was not in t...

These threads seem to have a life of their own, and it was waiting for your response. Anyway, it was good to hear from you.

I expect that you are opposed to any belief in and extrasensory perception, but you are quite welcome to say it as I am into critical analysis, in the...

Your reply has just sprung to life like an energy after this thread died about a week ago. I think glad that someone believes in some kind of energies...

I think that the reason I was interested in your discussion is the way you spoke of the philosophy of mind. I have been reading this thread today, fin...

My own take on it is that it sometimes seems that there are so many potential obstacles that I am amazed and grateful that things go as well as they d...

You may be mistaken in seeing the pessimism and optimism as a matter of believing in life after death or not. One of the main heroes of pessimism, Sch...

Yes, I think that makes it a lot better, and it was not a criticism, just a wish to be able to read what you had written.

You say that you are not literate. I think that you are extremely literate, but just need to break up your great long paragraph. I found my eyes could...

Of course, we smile and things often do get worse. It is difficult to know how much is just us seeing patterns, or how much impact our subconscious wi...

Yes, I am glad for your little elegant post, to steer the thread back on track. I do think that the wish to live, or die, is at the centre of the cons...

I am about to go out, but will have a think before I reply because it is a really big question.

I think that a lot of threads on this site ask about the cause of consciousness but we can also ask what is consciousness, and how it fits into the sc...

You are raising several philosophy questions really. Mainly, you are asking whether we have free will. Also, you are asking about causes which include...

It is a complex area, involving the question about our basic nature and our quest for meaning. In some ways, it could be argued that thinking and phil...

I think that you raise an important area for considering because, on one hand, there is human nature, although, of course, there is no one single theo...

I have read 'The Mayan Factor,' by Jose Arguelles. It is an inspiring book. One I am reading at present is 'Cosmic Consciousness,' by Richard Maurice ...

I think that it is also worth considering what does is involved and what is dreaming exactly? We have dreams every night and from what I have read in ...

One thing which I think about in relation to the poll question is that it is so easy to become caught up in finding pleasure for oneself and miss the ...

Actually, what this has made me wonder is how pessimism and optimism fit together with the whole life instincts. I am making the connection with Freud...

I think that we are all probably looking for a worldview that works for us. That is probably central to the whole philosophical quest and it is so int...

No, I am not referring to the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia at all. I apologise, because I didn't explain what I meant at all. Melanie Klein spo...

I think that the problem with your discussion is that you keep leaping from one area to another, transgender, souls and, reading through the thread it...

Perhaps it is all about polarisation, and a tendency to see the other as the enemy. I think that the psychoanalyst makes a useful point in speaking ab...

Actually, you have just reminded me of David Icke's idea that the royal family shapeshift to become reptiles...

He does look like he is in a rather strange state of being.

You're quite a fan of Paul Simon. I do like him, especially Graceland album.

I was interested in your remark to Madfool about how clinical paranoia. I do believe that these are exaggerated defense mechanisms. It seems that peop...

I have not come across that particular quote from Nietzsche and it is a great quote. I also really like your images of 'pessimism as a tall tree with ...

It does seem that the whole approach to alcohol problems, even AA is based on a disease model. However, a lot of the people with alcohol issues seem t...

We would definitely need to omit the 12 step approach. Even though you say AA is for reform, I think that some people use it to offload, because many ...

Perhaps it would be Pessimists Anonymous.

My music gets much darker. My pessimistic music includes The Doors, the Jesus and Mary Chain and an ultimate album for being down is Slipknot's, 'When...