Tom Storm

Thank you, and thank you also for your nuanced, thoughtful reply. That's an interesting angle. And I have often felt this way myself as I have made my...

I think it's folk materialism - the idea that the world is real? Whatever that means. There's definitely a whiff of self-refutation here but no doubt ...

Nice. Food for thought.

Indeed. Irrational fears often have the biggest hold on us. When I've worked with people dying and in palliative care, it used to surprise me how ofte...

Most people are 98% dead.... Sorry, a cheap shot I couldn't resist.

Yes! Especially the Cohen (as he was dying himself). That's a very nice formulation. I suspect the joy of courageous creativity helps people to bear s...

I think this is my favorite song about death.... yes I know, Bill Shatner. I always laugh at this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uol6HRMryoo

I think that's fair. I understand fear in the process (the messiness) of dying. But being dead seems like a doddle... I recall a colleague telling me ...

Nice. Interesting survey. The latter I would have thought. Almost sounds Stoic. I wondered about that when I read it back to myself. That's good. Me t...

Hmmm... I find the histrionic narcissism repellant. 'I... I... I... me... me... me... blood... courage... goblins...

I like that.

Thank you for taking the trouble to do this. Do you personally find the idea of eternal recurrence compelling? I think translator Walter Kauffman migh...

Dickens also used to laugh as he wrote, and he even did all the voices of his characters out loud as he penned their dialogue. I would give anything t...

Sure. These stories do interest me. Speculating wildly now, but can we be certain, even if we accept a different account of metaphysics, that past liv...

Now don't spoil it Mr Flag... I was enjoying my achievements. And yes, it does mean I was also responsible for Pol Pot and Hitler and that sitcom, Fri...

I put anecdotes and compilations of anecdotes under 'That's Interesting But...' I'd be curious to see some independent investigation on this one. I sp...

As long as you get the money and the girls, what will it matter? :cool:

That sounds tantalizing. I'll look forward to it.

That works. Thanks.

Thanks, yes, I kind of got this from the initial thought experiment. Not sure I'd do it all again. Let alone for ever. You?

Naïve question: in essence what is Nietzsche hoping his readers will gain from ER? What is the point of it? I can grasp its introductory use as a kind...

Then you appear to be stuck. Sorry.

I remember the Fordigraph machine (before photocopying technology) - you wrote on a page and purple ink via a wax role would appear on the churned out...

Interesting and I feel for you. It sounds exhausting. Also sounds like there's a lot to unpack here but that's beyond the scope of this kind of site. ...

Thanks for clarifying. I guess it is just one of those fears that you either have or don't have. Is there something which helps manage it?

:joke: :cool:

Solipsism doesn't sound that bad to me. It means I wrote all of Beethoven's string quartets, directed all the great movies, and was the seminal (and o...

I make no argument against the texts themselves, the problem sits with me as an inadequate reader of such texts - for reasons of capacity and temperam...

What is it about solipsism that affects you?

I saw this some time ago - it's astonishing. Courage... Ardono... truth as a way of life... small 't' truth... you can't fully grasp the way the world...

That said - I love your contributions and the focus and scholarship you bring to the discussions. :up:

I do undertand your position and believe I have, if you'll forgive me, a reasonable, intuitive grasp of your perspective. But I have no personal intui...

:up:

The way I see it, the problem with faith is located in its instantiation. Faith in what? In Yahweh and the associated scriptures? In Allah and sharia?...

I come from outside philosophy and am here mainly to understand what others believe and why and to have conversations which might enlarge my perspecti...

There appear to me so many dimensions to philosophy I don't think we can say what exactly it is let alone how we need to think to do it well. Is philo...

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. Are you referencing Jung's theory of individuation (which is generally a benign construction)? I don't think...

Faith is always about something - it doesn't stop at god, it incorporates what god wants. Having spent time discussing belief with South African Chris...

For me faith is belief without good evidence. I would rarely use the word outside of religious context. I do not have faith that a chair will accommod...

Wise words.

He never had the moxie for moska. I find that much Nietzsche reads like black comedy - possibly apropos given the Dionysian revels from which comedy t...

I've worked in the area of suicide prevention and have supported many suicidal people over decades and have not often seen this. But it is the case th...

Until you can demonstrate this in an actual argument this is just an empty assertion. I have never considered a higher power at any point and never ha...

This may be an imprecise question - but in your view how difficult is it to obtain a useful reading of Heidegger? How would a student begin a process ...

I find it unreadable so I can't comment, but I am interested to obtain a general understanding of his themes and subjects. An awareness of different r...

Yes, it seems absent amongst my social groups and me personally. Of course people might 'cheat' and say that it's an unconscious fear that animates al...

Do you think this terror is ubiquitous?

If you don't believe in capital T truth then by definition all value systems are perspectival human artifacts. Which means that values comprise of ind...

I don't think this is relevant to my example and certainly not how this person would view human nature. I was trying (badly) to describe an aspect of ...

Value is always subject to a criterion or scale and is generally contextualized though personal experience or a community. Like anything human 'value'...