You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Nikolas

Comments

Since we are as we are, everything is as it is. If this is true the knowledge of the internet and philosophy debates are meaningless since they are on...
March 06, 2021 at 18:42
You seem to be describing mechanical faith which is instilled in someone by adapting to society or indoctrination. Expand your example to the question...
March 06, 2021 at 16:17
You can be part of a very important minority who will help to keep the great ideas alive in the world. It beats complaining about Trump IMO Who were t...
March 06, 2021 at 04:41
Simone Weil wrote: Religion in so far as it is a source of consolation is a hindrance to true faith; and in this sense atheism is a purification. I ha...
March 06, 2021 at 01:38
What we do is an expression of what we are both individually and collectively. Since we are as we are, everything is as it is. What we are is witnesse...
March 06, 2021 at 00:58
Mechanical faith is what you were taught to believe. Emotional faith is belief based on fear which is why it is considered the blind faith of slavery ...
March 05, 2021 at 19:54
Which quality of faith do you refer to? For example Gurdjieff taught that: Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is...
March 05, 2021 at 16:20
It is true that lacking consciousness we cannot prove that conscious humanity exists. But we can verify the human condition as it exists in us by maki...
March 05, 2021 at 02:21
True, but all this happens at the exoteric level. But what if it is possible to consciously develop from being fixated on fragments to experiencing th...
March 04, 2021 at 23:58
Maybe so. Do you believe that all the ancient traditions initiating with a conscious source exist at the exoteric level and devolve into opposing opin...
March 04, 2021 at 22:37
You refer to the attractions of the exoteric level of reality and the rewards of cave life and I refer to the small minority attracted to what is nece...
March 04, 2021 at 21:36
Suppose the transcendent unity of religions is a reality as described in the following book. They all disagree at the exoteric level but can unite at ...
March 04, 2021 at 20:21
Directed attention which is our ability to concentrate on one desire with one part of ourselves is a secular skill. Consider all these people enchante...
March 04, 2021 at 16:20
Simone was not well known before her death. I think there were only seven people at her funeral. Now she is loved around by those who admire her intel...
March 02, 2021 at 23:53
Simone Weil is known as the Patron Saint of Outsiders for all who feel like outsiders. Many feel that there is great value in the Catholic Church but ...
March 02, 2021 at 18:42
Can the Beast described by Plato and the Great Beast described by Simone Weil also refer to the ID described by Yung? If so we can't deny it but must ...
March 02, 2021 at 14:17
I think this will be more clear when we read (3) (3) Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds o...
March 02, 2021 at 03:22
As I understand it the universe is sustained by both mechanical laws and consciousness. Each of the seven layers of reality within creation is a disti...
March 01, 2021 at 23:08
It is possible that you like many others have never experienced esoteric or perennial Christianity but just turned off to literal man made secularized...
March 01, 2021 at 17:38
What if we are all crewmen on the Ship of Fools from many paths who have taken over the ship? They argue over who knows the way home. They are all equ...
February 28, 2021 at 17:06
Jack, I remember reading once that rat poison is 98% good corn. It is that 2% that gets them. Many worthwhile ideas begin with good intentions but nat...
February 27, 2021 at 23:00
It could be tht you are commenting on what Kierkegaard called Christendom or man made Christianity. Christianity as I understand it is a perennial tra...
February 27, 2021 at 18:56
Do you accept the possibility that perennial philosophy has always existed? Those who do believe that conscious evolution is not the result of learnin...
February 27, 2021 at 16:41
Why do people need religious beliefs and ideas? Plato defined Man as " - a being in search of meaning" What gives us meaning differs between people. M...
February 27, 2021 at 01:32
We are not that far apart. Years ago when I had my first mystical experience I was a musician who drank too much. I assumed life was meaningless. Then...
February 25, 2021 at 23:50
Plato distinguished between knowledge and opinion. Socrates said "I Know Nothing." What then is knowledge and what does it mean "to know?"? Knowledge ...
February 24, 2021 at 20:20
As I understand it, there are levels of religious understanding beginning at the exoteric level or the Man of opinion. Once a person experiences the f...
February 24, 2021 at 03:54
Can the seeker of objective truth through science and/or religious psychology make progress without first experiencing either satori in Zen, Metanoia ...
February 23, 2021 at 22:10
We are fortunate that there are some in the world who have a similar need though at different intensities. Yet there are some with a great need for tr...
February 23, 2021 at 17:22
Simone Weil. The patron saint of outsiders
February 23, 2021 at 05:10
Time in Buddhist cosmology is measured in kalpas. Originally, a kalpa was considered to be 4,320,000 years. Buddhist scholars expanded it with a metap...
February 22, 2021 at 18:42
Of course. Most questions invite all sorts of BS to avoid controversy and invite peace and love.. Seriously discussing the implications of Plato's Cav...
February 21, 2021 at 17:49
This question is better avoided. It is both disruptive and corrupts the youth of Athens. It is asking why we are in Plato's Cave. It is too insulting ...
February 21, 2021 at 15:56
From Book VI of Plato's Republic (here Plato critiques those who are "wise" through their study of society): I might compare them to a man who should ...
February 21, 2021 at 03:04
The closer deeper philosophical ideas are to being objectively true, the more they will be hated. Consider why Jesus and Socrates had to die. They rev...
February 20, 2021 at 21:58
Why time can be defined as the repetition of a moment is really another deep topic but I do believe that karma describes what takes place below Plato'...
February 20, 2021 at 02:41
Many years go a group of intellectuals formed a committee to learn which is the most hated of all machines. After weeks of deliberations it was finall...
February 20, 2021 at 02:13
Quite true. The whole meaning of Plato's cave analogy is that Man is asleep in the Cave and attached to the shadows on the wall with the potential to ...
February 19, 2021 at 17:52
There is good movie on this idea called Groundhog Day" In this move our hero is an obnoxious weatherman. For some reason he is forced to relive Ground...
February 19, 2021 at 01:39
The purpose of philosophy is to enable a person to experience the path to meaning that otherwise mindlessly accepts absurdity. I like to find people w...
February 19, 2021 at 01:23
Can modern civilization become able to accept the complimentary rather than the divisive relationship of science and the essence of religion? That wou...
February 18, 2021 at 20:36
Are you referring to self awareness or being self conscious? For me self awareness is the conscious experience that the human organism has a mechanica...
February 18, 2021 at 19:54
From the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed b...
February 18, 2021 at 04:36
I see valuing liberty is on the way out in favor of the promises of socialism for three main reasons. The first is the different ways society values e...
February 17, 2021 at 23:28
Before deciding on the purpose of human life it seems we have to decide if the universe is here to serve Man's needs or does Man exist to serve the un...
February 17, 2021 at 16:07
Human psychology interests you. You want to understand the human condition as it exists in the world and why you are as you are and can believe any ol...
February 16, 2021 at 22:08
You've raised several question important if philosophy can have any higher meaning other than the secular. First of all do you agree with the four mod...
February 16, 2021 at 18:12
Searching for and combining related facts is the process of inductive reason. Einstein is referring to the value of deductive reason or combining unre...
February 16, 2021 at 15:13
Since Einstein and others seemed to agree with Plato and the value of noesis, at least I'm not alone in a world dominated by inductive reason. 1930 "M...
February 16, 2021 at 04:10
Interpretation normal for the visible realm we experience through our senses are not the forms. The forms are universal ideals. A perfect circle would...
February 16, 2021 at 03:51