Tom Storm

Personally I don't think it much matters. But perhaps the only 'meaningful' response to such a question would be in locating happiness in the context ...

Not convinced anyone has access to an objective morality - even the religious, who might argue that morality (in theory) has a foundational guarantor ...

I don't think Dad jokes are a thing. There are just mediocre jokes that when uttered by a middle aged man are dad jokes and when said by a young and o...

Nicely done and helpful.

That's a witty line. :wink:

What's interesting here is that you say 'utmost rigour' - which I do not disagree with. But what does utmost rigour look like in this domain? Judgemen...

I try, Banno, but it keeps drawing me in. :groan: This philosophy stuff is really fuckin' hard...

Thanks - this does propel me once again towards the phenomenologists, of which I suspect I am an inchoate and untheorized variation.

I guess for a person everything around them is information; everything one can sense is providing us with information about our environment and inform...

This is an engaging and interesting thread and it's also beginning to resemble one of those slippery debates with Christians - especially fundamentali...

Very many did lose their faith and the enormous cultural or secular Jewish diaspora is, in part, testament to this.

:up:

Totally agree. I would say those men who are toxic are by no means in the majority.

This is proving to be a fascinating thread. Seems that Nietzsche is still a source of acrimonious and contested views. I wish I could read him but I f...

I've seen numerous examples of toxic masculinity over the years. The term may be controversial to some and even misused, but the behavior exists. Exam...

A piece of advice a monk gave me: if you get caught sleeping at work, slowly raise your hand and say, 'In the name of Jesus, Amen."

I prefer my T-Shirt - "Sisyphus was a patsy!"

I would have thought that mystical knowledge is beyond human reach. Am I to take it you are a mystic in the Sufi tradition?

I would have thought that these kinds of transcendental 'truths' are the by product of other worldly beliefs, so this goes without saying, right?

There are blindspots in everything - that's where the light gets in... (Sorry Leonard). Think on this - how do you tell the difference between a blind...

I prefer to imagine Sisyphus happy...

I take the view that we probably don't have access to absolute truth or reality. These ideas are likely to be constructions of human minds. What we do...

Yes, for some it means pretentious gluttony and fat restaurant reviewers. :gasp:

Not really odd when you think about it. Many people think that true pleasure and happiness comes from moderation (rather than indulgence) and cutting ...

Indeed. How are your claims any different to those made by Catholics; Mormons; Scientologists; Hindus? Or anyone who makes pronouncements about the na...

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rud...

I generally find art more confronting and uncomfortable than real life, so I generally avoid it. The idea of aesthetic contemplation does not seem res...

OK. I was actually responding to your comment on his comment about the need for personal experience :up:

Moderate drinking is defined fairly clearly in clinical services as 2 to 4 standard drinks in a single day. No more than 10 standard drinks a week. Yo...

Indeed. And flawed too, right?

I have always thought that human judgements are flawed and also located within worldviews or value systems, so they are not much more than positions h...

Interesting. Apart from playing Monopoly when I was a small child decades ago, I have never played any kind of game - no cards; video games; chess; wh...

I think many people hold a view that much of our lived experience is the product of subjective communities of belief/agreement. For me it seems (among...

:up:

I was under the impression that there was no scientific method. The idea seems archaic.

I think Blake may have got that wrong. Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will vote you President.

Maybe you need to provide an example of this principal in action. There are some claims for which there is no good evidence. Can you eat battery acid ...

Don't see it as a scapegoating (which is the wrong word - I think you mean 'excuse' here), see it as a partial explanation. I don't think people are e...

Well this is one of various 'official stories' available about geopolitics that you can accept or reject, depending on your presuppositions - i.e., ho...

I would never say humans are essentially good, or essentially bad. We seem to be, for the most part, stupid apes. There's no such thing as 'power' per...

Nice - what would be a good example of this?

Yep.

Whatever. :wink:

Jeez, this the shoutbox, Man - I was just having a play with the quote and took umbrage at the supercilious notion of splitting the world into categor...

Don't care - quotes are for reinterpreting and rehabilitating - they often have unintended meanings.

No idea what that means. I was just following through the thinking about delusion.

Of course, Jung is here demonstrating the very problem we face - delusions are so ubiquitous that we routinely mistake an unhelpful falsity for a pric...

Mine is serious.

Here's another discussion idea we could have more of: "I have a fatuous question to ask you all, one for which there is no discernable answer and for ...

Who says I rely on John? I already mentioned Bishop Spong. As it happens, I have read much of the Bible - I grew up in the Baptist tradition. I also u...