Tom Storm

Oops - apologies, TC, if I've been clogging your OP with unrelated frivolities. I'll stop now.

Not for me.

I never expect anything much to make sense - but it's a human trait to build ourselves little stories of meaning. Descartes versus Gautama sounds like...

It was just an excuse for an alliterative quip. I take nothing much from this.

I had nascent thoughts similar to this some years ago, but never as developed. Does this seemingly inevitable switch to or preoccupation with form ind...

Well, philosophers have criticised Descartes on this idea. The Cogito isn't necessarily correct as 'I think therefore I am', it might be, 'there is th...

Always found it interesting that the creator of the most ruthlessly rational figure in fiction was himself a flake. :razz:

I'll listen to any version of this and other pieces as I like multiple interpretations - even 'wrong' ones :wink: I'm talking about the earlier one. I...

Ah, empirical evidence! I'm now convinced.

Almost seems a deflationary version of 'the real'. I like it. I am sympathetic to this. I don't find myself needing or using the world real much in th...

You mean like this? I forget.

I need to read some more theorized views on 'the view from nowhere' or the Archimedean Point. :wink:

Snap. Thanks. I had a chat to Wayfarer off line at one point and he indicated that he wanted a change of scene - nothing dire.

As far as I remember one of the mods provided this when asked.

Yes, we were advised about 3 months ago that Wayfarer had opted out of this forum. I understand he felt he had come to the end of his stint here - per...

:up:

Cool and thanks. I've enjoyed this too. I hear you, but I have some sympathy for this argument. Not the 'special' 'afterlife', 'sin' part of it, but t...

Is this an insult? We are exploring an argument, not trying to slight each other, right? We disagree (partly) in a discussion forum - nothing wrong wi...

Just in saying that demonstrates to me you don't understand the argument. Do you want to keep going in circles or have we reached the end for now?

It's on YouTube - was part of the Bach anniversary. Just pop that in and you'll get it. Rondeau is an extraordinary player. The older I get, the more ...

You've probably missed the argument about the nature of god then. You're approaching this in human terms and thinking of god as a kind of very special...

Mainly just for the kinds of anthropomorphic, cartoon gods of evangelicals. I'm not sure how you have determined god's state of mind to conclude it do...

I'm not certain about that. I keep coming back to this - I would say a more apropos syllogism might look more like this. a) It is unwise to reach conc...

:up:

You can see how totalitarian systems were influenced by Christianity. Stalin studied to be a priest... go figure.

I don't intend to be rude, but this sounds like a creative writing essay topic rather than philosophy. To answer your question - who knows? How would ...

Yep. And that's the scary part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnyB0a8G71Y

JS Bach: Goldberg Variations - Jean Rondeau (harpsichord) A Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht

Perhaps. Just asking. Is there hierarchical thinking predicated in this construction? You've stated that you privileged self-awareness/journeys of per...

There could also be people who may be unable to do so. How would we know which is in operation?

a - If god exists we seem to have no demonstrable way of knowing what their nature is, or if god is even present in the physical world. I guess I woul...

I think it's pretty important to explore and talk about the things you don't believe in, don't you? I get a lot from hearing what others believe and w...

No. 'Mental initiation' is not a term or process I recognize. But if you are just saying people see and try new things and orientate themselves in the...

Interesting. How would we expunge statism from human behavior? Is it possible?

How does one demonstrate that having no government doesn't automatically generate some other form of tyranny or overarching organizational process?

Thanks. :up: Yep. This notion of 'underlying concepts' needs to be made coherent.

:up:

I wish we were able to hear more about @"ThinkOfOne"s notion of ‘underlying concepts’. I think he is sincere and he really can’t believe that others d...

Yes, that is interesting. Keep up those flimsy contributions, Cobber! :wink:

There's no real way out of that one other than playing a speculative game about the text holding underlying concepts, which hasn't gone so well.

Interesting that you choose again to attack and belittle rather than to clarify. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you are challenge...

Thought experiments are only useful if they provide insight on the matter you are trying to illustrate. We disagree about whether you were successful ...

Oh, and are you able to address my response? Particularly this which you can't avoid with a scenario which doesn't remotely match the situation we are...

If you are unhappy with a comment or an approach, just say so plainly. This is a dialogue. No need to embroider your comments with imputations of a pe...

Why psychiatry? I'm not sure what you mean here?

Sorry, I didn't read it carefully enough. You need to watch this sort of claim. You don't know what was omitted by intention or otherwise. I usually r...

The key difference is we can readily demonstrate that Einstein actually lived, was a real person and we can demonstrate what he did. And we can readil...

Fair enough. So my argument from earlier has been - I don't think anyone here has demonstrated that nihilism invariably leads to anti-social behaviour...

I liked what you wrote and it rings true. Thanks. There's an imaginative poetic subtlety involved in Taoism that can't be readily described - hence th...