Leghorn

@"john27" So what do we have that we can base our self-worth on that is immune to “the slings and arrows” of fortune?

To become enlightened was originally a quality of a few philosophers who saw that the truth about the world and ppl was diametrically opposed to what ...

@"john27" Would you agree that when you place your self-worth in things that can be taken away by fortune, you put it on shaky ground—whereas when you...

I think we just did, and I think you reversed your opinion: Is your “intuition” different from your opinion on this matter?

@"john27" What about the Olympic table-tennis player then? Do you really believe that if he were bereaved of his ability to play, his selfhood would b...

@"john27" I forgot to mention John, when we embarked on this discussion, one of the essential rules of dialectic: that you are to answer questions acc...

How about this parameter: one’s selfhood is not subject to chance or fortune or accident?

@"john27" Since you agree that we cannot subjectively determine our essential character, do think we might be able to do so objectively instead?

Therefore, when you said this, you said something false, didn’t you? Because you just agreed that it’s not our belief or opinion that establishes our ...

@"john27" So just because you can’t imagine yourself without your sight or hearing or whatever else the loss of which you think would end your selfhoo...

@"john27" Do you think that someone’s perception of himself and view of what attributes are essential to himself can sometimes be wrong?

@"john27" And it is much easier on my brain to hear “easier” than “more easier”, but I’m just poking fun at you... Let me ask you this then: if you we...

@"john27" So sight is essential to who you are but not hearing?

What if you lost your hearing? Would you no longer be you?

@"john27" If I may ask, how is your sight profoundly correlated to your character?

@"john27" So if you were to lose your sight, you would not be diminished in any way as to who you inherently are. Would you agree with that?

@"john27" Correction: “two”separate things.

@"john27" Would you also agree that the user and what he uses are to separate things?

@"john27" Would you agree that there is a general situation of a user and an instrument that he uses? For example, a cutter who uses a knife, or a sho...

@"john27" Would it be correct to say that your eyes are instruments that you use?

@"john27" So do you recant your statement that it is your eyes that do the counting, and replace it now with the one that it is you that does the coun...

I’m surprised you didn’t say, “No, it is my eye that counts two stars,” for you earlier said,

Absolute power corrupts absolutely...but amusingly.

The whole notion of banning and censorship here evokes that imposed upon philosophers from the earliest times. The Enlightenment was nothing more than...

No, but you can be Pilate...as long as you wash the blood off your hands.

Are you saying that the expression of dogma and prejudice is not allowed in this forum? that if Zwingli had instead said, “I’m an unrepentant animal h...

So the fact that philosophers and certain web-browsers are both unfettered by rules makes them equal?

That pretty much sums up what I’m saying. Philosophy is never welcome in any “house”, for houses always have rules, and philosophy is unfettered by ru...

In debating this most recent banning, this forum should consider what philosophy is, since this is a philosophy forum. One of the most salient charact...

@"john27" Neither have I, and I think I’m too old to ever dare do so—unless it were a party of octogenarian women who had been drinking heavily... ......

@"john27" Have you ever gone to a party entirely nude?

What about a blind man: is he unable to “perceive a set of things”?

@"john27" Of course! By means of the telescope. Now, let me ask you: by what instrument do we perceive two?

@"john27" Sorry, John: I am sloppy tonight. My belly is bloated with Thanksgiving dinner, and it oppresseth my mind. Let me ask my question again: wit...

@"john27" Sorry: I forgot to prompt you in the previous post.

And with what instrument do perceive celestial bodies too small to be seen by the unaided eye?

@"john27" Isn’t it by means of the microscope?

@"john27" With what tool do we perceive a microorganism?

@"john27" You are the most agreeable person I think I have ever met in this forum, John... ...but let me ask you this: do you believe that there are c...

@"john27" So, the mathematics that allows us to know that there is a center of the universe—would you agree that it is not a different mode of detecti...

@"john27" Would you say then that there is a means of detection that is different from the either aided or unaided sensory sort of detection?

@"john27" So for example, though it is scarcely conceivable that anyone could ever journey to the center of the earth, or even send a probe there, we ...

@"john27" By “”naturally” I suppose you mean directly by means of our unaided senses of sight and hearing etc., but I didn’t mean that when I said det...

@"john27" Then what is real exists and what exists is real. Can we go further and say that what exists and is real is detectable, and that what does n...

@"john27" Since you appear to assert that the dragon you imagine does not exist, and that its image in your mind does exist, are you willing to withdr...

Do you say then that the image of something is the same thing as what it is an image of? In your example, is the image of the dragon the same thing as...

@"john27" Would you agree that whatever is real exists, and that whatever is not real does not exist, and that, similarly, anything that exists is rea...

I agree. Having read your posts in this thread I can see that you are a materialist, and by that term I mean that you are are a reductionist: you want...

The “human shells” you speak of are our bodies, within which our souls abide, and it is the latter, not the former, that ethics or morality is concern...

I would say rather that the dead are unequal according to how they died. Would you equate the death of a citizen who died in a mudslide with one who d...