Tom Storm

Indeed. That is a salient question. I often ask something similar when I hear the old 'both parties/leaders are equally shit' trope. Things are rarely...

Looks like it to me. I assume you mean that Kant's project is concerned with the nature and source of knowledge, and emphasizes the role of the mind (...

What are your thoughts on the existentialist reading of Nietzsche? Is this illustrative of his fecundity, or is it a partial misreading in your assess...

I have deleted my earlier, less than generous response. You are doing your best and there's no real merit in my debating your presuppositions here. Go...

:up: Have you got a breif sketch of why you might argue this? I take a similar position, but I am curious how others see this.

Indeed. Which is why some also say sport is a sublimation for aggression. Hence George Orwell's famous observation:

No, that's not my argument. I said nothing about evolution. I said that god/s built a creation largely dependent upon cruelty and predation. No. Islam...

I’m not a philosopher, so I make no claims about what is real. It’s common sense to believe what we observe is real but anything common sense is worth...

But I don't think this helps us much. Colour isn't real in biology either. The colours we 'know' are created by our biology. Other animals see differe...

Get out of my light.

I would say secular thinkers are often way more obsessed with morality than Christians. Partly because Christians often think morality is simply doing...

Fair comment. God seems foundational to your OP and it stuck me as the most interesting part of what you said. This doesn't resemble an answer to me, ...

Deism seems to be a fairly pointless belief. If a god or gods made the world and fucked off and don't care about us, what is the point? Is all we know...

:cool:

Best short story of 2024.

With the right woman, that kind of gorgeous language will get you laid around here. Better than any sonnet….

Sounds very interesting. I've read some essays by Thompson and Varela and seen a few lectures. I've been particularly struck by how humans co-create r...

:up: Nice quote and thank you. Is there an essay, perhaps, on this you can think of that might be readable to a layperson? I'm trying to understand th...

:up: There's an important use of essentialism in philosophy and critical theory discourse. From Wikipedia: An example of this idea being parsed is in ...

I've never heard this take on thrownness before. Interesting. I always understood thrownness as a limitation or boundary that might impact upon our an...

Welcome Not sure about that. There are a number of Australians here, including me. The others know more than I do about philosophy. Philosophy has com...

This made me contemplate running for the first time in my life. I ran to catch a bus once or twice in the 1980's... Too late for me now, but what a wo...

Congratulations on getting there. But I have to say that there doesn't seem to be much benefit in being an Ubermensch if your account is definitive. C...

No idea if it stands up. It's one of those observations that can't really be tested empirically. I think you're right that the opposite may also be tr...

Absolutely ridiculous! Science is clearly nonsense and more fool you for even suggesting it might be useful.

Hmm, we're talking about a traumatised homeless boy, desperately escaping from a drunk, violent father, who flees with a runaway slave and along the w...

Sorry Chet I am unable to make sense of your answer to me. Might be best if I bow out.

It's an allegorical or fictional story about obeying god and the consequences of not doing so. Yahweh being a Mafiosa-style, don't-fuck-with me deity....

Ha! I try never to be sarcastic. Your response was helpful and resonated.

:up:

Now that is interesting. Do you have any theories why he appeals to them?

Well said. Yep, the car and the world we have created to facilitate our dependence on it is pretty dreadful. I've long disliked cars and our addiction...

There is no such thing as a person. Only choices exist. Discuss... Why happiness? Surely some people may be happy doing the wrong thing, or may be hap...

Sorry? I haven't been following this thread. But I agree that life is a bucket of shit and that there's a menu of distractions or tools we can use to ...

That's one of those common sense observations, isn't it? Not sure how accurate it is. Rich people feel a sense of hopelessness and also commit suicide...

I hear you. I got lost amongst theosophists, New Age types, mystics, Gnostics, Buddhists and Hindus for much of the 1980's and early 1990's.

[ It’s not hard to find enthusiasts for any kind of therapy or pseudo scientific practice, from crystal channeling to psychic healing. Nice. Did you m...

Naturally. Most nihilists I’ve known have been optimistic. I personally don’t see a connection between inherent meaninglessness and despair. I see mea...

Is it really possible to understand someone from their perspective and be free of one's own interpretative values and frameworks? How would one go abo...

I don't believe nihilism has a necessary connection to despair. With nihilism one can be resolute and cheerful, even if one holds that there's an inhe...

I have not defined medical practice. Exactly.

Many Westerners don't romanticize their history with mythology like other cultures do - unless they are right-wing. The left seems to focus on critiqu...

I hear you. My own take is that we can say certain actions are 'bad' in a contingent sense - the flourishing of conscious creatures is important to mo...

One of key challenges with goal setting is the critical question of A - 'achievable'. This generally influences all the other factors. And it's here w...

That makes total sense. A very interesting frame.

It's not all that ironic. Decades ago my father used to say that in a democracy the right have the easiest arguments. Mainly because these positions a...

:up: It's fascinating how this discussion has become so protracted and labyrinthine. It's such a small a matter; belief versus knowledge.

It shouldn't be overlooked. It's one standard component of goal setting. Take the SMART goal framework, which is employed by schools, universities, co...

Yep, as I say, there are some excellent answers and I will continue to use it, but always with some doubts. As it happened, I asked a similar question...

Like most activities, it can be done well or done poorly. The latter can famously result in analysis, paralysis. I think temperamentally some people a...