Tom Storm

In responding note also to highlight the quote and select 'quote' so we know who you have responded to

You seem not to understand me. The point is about what decisions? Every situation is different. Right or wrong about mass murder or right or wrong abo...

Objective to which question and in what context? To be right or wrong about aesthetics is rather different than on capital punishment, say. I think it...

Are you asking for individual approaches to these two separate questions, or if there is an 'objective' approach. Right or wrong about what? By what c...

Greats are never concerned about their own greatness - that's what makes them great. And it is interesting you raise him as this suggests his intrinsi...

Abortion will always be a fact of life. Better to supervise and allow it rather than let it go backyard...

I agree with the sentiment but all that we do rests on the shoulders of luminaries who came before us. Everything from the germ theory of disease to v...

Maybe this is not the place but I'd like a few more words on this notion. I was often taken by this quote - pretty sure it's J Krishnamurti "Enlighten...

Shit.. it's like we all copied each other's answers in a high school test. :joke:

I think we do - endlessly repeated phrases - 'it's only a movie' or 'it's just a video game' spring to mind, which I believe stands for 'it's phoney'....

Now that's a cute piglet. Visual therapy.

That is my sense too. Thanks. Nice line. :up:

Will the fashion for Stoicism ever end? I've read Marcus Aurelius and Seneca's letters and found them of little interest (not that this impacts on the...

The Protestant apologists would argue that logic and meaning is only possible if there is a god who acts as a guarantor for all meaning. Hence the oft...

This is just a variation on old ideas. Christian apologists (Alvin Plantigna, et al) have argued for decades that if you are a physicalist scientist, ...

Translation? Does the first sentence mean - provoking someone to a state of anger? What does 'imprisoning someone in their own ego' mean? An ego is al...

:up: Reminds me of a far less classy anecdote. Norman Mailer had dinner with Diana, Princess of Wales (and Charles) sometime in the 1980's. They got t...

I was being wry - Socrates was killed because he 'told the truth' isn't that the tale? What did Nietzsche say about Christianity? It failed because th...

No, I'm sorry for them because in the history of philosophy discussions it is these folk who are looked down by many for their lack of adventure or in...

I've generally held that people are attracted to ideas for emotional reasons. Truth or 'truthiness' is not really the point, nor is it a criterion of ...

I think this matter is extremely complicated. Personally my trust in institutions is not at an all time low and my life doesn't feel crappy. Many peop...

I can't imagine it was easier when Stoicism was a thing.

Most issues are not caused by just one reason. But what do you have in mind by, 'having difficulty engaging with ideas that challenge their views'. Ex...

This is a digression but I say sympathy because those folk who are said to be in chains are generally derided. People like to look down on those poor ...

Does it say that the person who does not return to educate the others is not a philosopher and is a poseur? It's more about a responsibility to share ...

Interesting point of view. Kind of low-rent bodhisattva action, hey? Poser? Maybe the word you want is egocentric? How did you determine that someone ...

I think the beholder part is largely true. It's also a product of experience. If you are an academic who has been trained to read more, shall we call ...

Yes, you listed these so I added this one. :smile:

Not necessarily dishonest, just easily misunderstood or unhelpfully veiled. While some of your points about context, language and effort may be true a...

In the system I work in treatment is free.

:up:

Interesting. Thanks Joshs.

I have worked in the area of mental illness and addition for three decades. Many people with depression struggle to compose a shopping list. Cognitive...

Yes, and this goes against all the Nietzsche-lite wanna be supermen who have read a few aphorisms and consider themselves Nietzsche's heirs. Do you ha...

Thanks for your lengthy response. This is key I think to art discussions. Art (whatever it might be) is separate to craft or technical proficiency. I ...

I don't think this is a hard one. If you are alone and unhappy about it: problem. If you are alone and happy: no problem. There is no 'meant to be' st...

My thoughts precisely.

Nicely put. Reification?

A former Prime Minister Bob Hawke once shared a modest joke - If a politician and a kangaroo were involved in hit and run accidents on the highway wha...

Yep - has been for years. I wonder when Rupert dies (I will throw a small party) if his company will continue to fuck the world with Lachlan in charge...

Bloody killjoy! :razz:

A kangaroo can reach heights from anywhere between 3- 7 feet (1 to 2 meters) and can weigh between 40 and 200 lbs (18-100kg). I don't live in a kangar...

That's certainly what critics of religion argue - that it provides an anodyne for suffering. I suspect however that a transcendent meaning will only s...

This is certainly a common view. I wonder if life would be any less tedious or fraught if idealism holds true. What do you suppose is the advantage of...

Generally underlying a question like this is an attempt to locate some kind of transcendent meaning that perhaps can't be found in physicalism (howeve...

Maybe my language was sloppy. It doesn't mean nobody knows. But it also doesn't mean somebody does. How would we know?

Philosophy got me thinking about goats recently. Before COVID days I was speeding in my car through the incipient outback on my way to Broken Hill, Au...

I got ya. I agree completely. As an occasional advisor to a various departments over the years, I've seen precisely this.

That question is floating in the air for me. Why do you ask it? I can't say that I have ever seen a meritocracy in action anywhere. It sounds idealist...

Oh do tell. Which bit was common sense and which bit was laughable or were they the same bit?