Philosophy Now Forum

"You have to imagine, as a rather good Scripps student once put it, Socrates talking to Oedipus. Tragic Oedipus. Not Agathon’s tragedy (Agathon wrote a tragedy according to Aristotle whose title was The Flower ). Socrates talking to Oedipus and trying to persuade him: 'Look here, Oedipus—it was...

The sacred is something that cannot be violated. This is also relevant for atheists. That is, respect for parents, not because you logically proved it here, on the contrary, if respect is for obtaining some benefits, then this is already morally defective. "The world of moral man, the world wh...

Good to hear, and great story. So you already knew Eric in 1990?

I forgot that it's not just traditional gender roles, but also the difference in average height between men and women, for example. These are still "epi-genetic" changes in a loose yet literal sense: they are still relatively superficial (compare "epidermis"—although we should pr...

That's not entirely true, Saully. Actually that's not even sorta true. Not in the way it presupposes, anyway. Well, if you said "the way it seems to presuppose", I'd agree. But there's a back-and-forth between nature and nurture/culture as between genes and environment. Also, Neumann spea...

Honor the parents, u owe your parents, etc. It's one of those thoughtless repetitions i hear all the time. "Proper instincts are acquired through millennia of brutal, tyrannic imposition of a morality which then becomes self-evident to those so educated: 'Everything good is inherited: what is ...

And for you, isn’t respect for your parents sacred? After all, for atheists too, respect for parents is sacred, for the time being. After all, a scoundrel, by definition, is someone for whom nothing is sacred. The community of esoteric political philosophers (across time) can certainly be called a ...

You can't believe in miracles, because as soon as you believe in them, they're no longer miracles but just some of the many things you believe in, like cabbage.

I basically agree. I'll never not have my instincts. But it's so much easier now, when those start to kick in, to realize what's happening and what may at worst happen (again, not so much talking about the process of dying, which could still be torture, of course). 'In Greek mythology, as you may we...

I agree with the OP that awareness of mortality is the primal existential crisis. However, I think there's something deeply paradoxical about it. I think it's only a crisis insofar as one is still superstitious about death. As soon as it really sinks into your mind that death is most probably just a...

What needs to be done - and this is one of the most difficult tasks in psychotherapy - is, somebody has to lead ecmandu out of his delusional neurosis but make it appear to ecmandu as if he's done it himself. He can't be forced becuz that grants control to his therapist, and that's precisely what w...

"It's just that our (justified (true)) belief that we'll never have a different life is itself a factor codetermining our unfree will." 'Codetermining'? Hmm. If one happens to believe they may have a different life, would they then have an unfree will? I don't think belief (in either case...

promethean75 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 3:00 pm Wait! That says 'equality'. I thought it said 'inequality'. I read it too fast.

So we have to become more good instead or more evil, then?

goddammit

Sorry, that was a typo on my part. I corrected it the second time, but hadn't spotted this one. I'll correct it now.

Eternal Recurrence cannot be 'known' or 'experienced' as such, without differentiation and memories. You cannot 'know' that you're repeating the same existence, Well, to know and to experience are two different things. It's why I referred to knowledge as justified true belief. You may believe in et...

The gentleman is correct, Wizzz. In N's ER one wouldn't 'carry memories' into each life recurrence, but would still have them again becuz one would live the same experiences which would generate the same memories. Minor technicality. No biggy. Also comparing N's intent to K's intent with the catego...