Philosophy Now Forum

how is it that people can end up in all kinds of ways, despite having similar encounters, influences, and circumstances? If these things are what create/mold the individual, then there would not be people who explore or think or function beyond their circumstances or experiences. I see how you feel...

I don't know why you said this. It seems strange to me. B is a determinist. Everything and -one is assessed as dominos fallin'. Accordin' to B, you're not much more than a link in a causal chain. She, B, sees herself in the same way. I, on the other hand, see you as a cause , an agent . Funny how t...

Nick, I think your honest answers to these questions and challenges will provide more clarity on what we each see. We learned that deeper discussion on the depth of the esoteric ideas within Plato's Cave allegory are too insulting and controversial to discuss. Who is "we"? Maybe you are mi...

By nurture I mean all the individual people , the material and temporal circumstances including where you lived as a child and where you live up to the present, the public ethos that has influenced you including the religion or the political stances that surrounded you and surround you, and acciden...

henry quirk wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 12:56 am Made you froth at the mouth many a time, yeah?

You are more than a little sick.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:42 pmgimme five minutes and I'll have her bouncin' off the walls

Is that typically the effect you have on people?

I can hardly believe you would feel "peace and love" if you chanced upon someone raping your child! Are you saying that if I cannot choose my feelings in every extreme example, then the possibility of doing so is non-existent? Of course, there are circumstances where anger might be helpfu...

We learned that deeper discussion on the depth of the esoteric ideas within Plato's Cave allegory are too insulting and controversial to discuss. Who is "we"? Maybe you are mistaken about "what was learned" by others. When you emotionally ridicule objective reality you are ridic...

… Belinda, thanks for your response. I agree with what you've described well. I don't know how else to explain what I experience and do -- when, for example, I experience someone being rude or crazy, and I choose feelings of peace and love over rage or hate. I don't even have to think about it. It ...

Imagine, a level of reality beyond the senses in which human meaning and purpose resides. SURE...but not the way YOU describe it as some kind of single objective reality . This is intolerable and too insulting to allow to stand. No, none of that. You give yourself and your claims way too much credi...

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2020 7:55 am I'm referring to the phenomena of being in the know. Especially when questions arise, can it be known to whom or what these questions arise, and for what purpose?

Ah, thanks for clarifying.

… Nick, with the distortion and dishonesty in your responses (as is often your style), I don't know how you can honestly think of yourself as a man of truth. Truth is not so sloppy. You can't even represent the truth here in discussions on this forum, yet you CLAIM to speak of an even GREATER objec...

This higher level must be rejected since to accept it denies secularism. Can you see how theists must reject anything outside of theism because accepting it would deny theism? :lol: I do not deny objective truth because it denies secularism -- I simply don't find it compelling. It doesn't make sens...

whatever example you gave me I'd show how the individual may have been caused to act by causal chains, causal circumstances, and natural laws. The only way someone can be more free than other animals is to use reason. "Self mastery of feelings" is a top rate example of the uses of reason....

The whole problem with discussing feelings is that they are not simple and most people have no idea what they are or why we have them. I can certainly understand that feelings can be brought on by all kinds of things. Thanks for your response and the links you provided. I have practiced (throughout...