Philosophy Now Forum

The search for pleasure is the search for God, and the taste of pleasure is the taste of God. Some pleasures are brief and related to specific situations – we call these ‘pleasures’. Some pleasures last long and are felt in many different situations – we call this ‘God’ Normal life is a long, labori...

I think you'll find me a useful sounding board -fire away!!

Nikolai

Hi Arvind, Firstly, trying to understand secularization from the standpoint of individual psychology (why did Augustine do this, whereas Voltaire did that) is futile. I agree, and I haven't been considering Augustine and Voltaire as individuals at all but rather as figureheads for their periods. Som...

Your thesis only works if you assume two things: 1) That Augustine was able to shrug off pre-existing secular ideas 2) That the enlightenment thinkers thought they could shrug off Christianity but in fact couldn't. I've asked you twice now but you have been unable to justify these two assumptions. Y...

Hi the doc, I would agree with this in that in most cultures only a few of the members who are most aware of religious concepts would give much, if any, thought to dualism. Arvind was critical of duality as an explanation and for good reason. It is a fairly noticeable difference between east and wes...

Arvind, You didn't really address my main query but rather restated it. I'll demonstrate the inconsistency as it appears in your latest post. On the one hand you say: St. Augustine and he completely reinterpreted and transformed the concept into the modern notion of free will, which had almost nothi...

Hi Arvind - thanks for your reply I agree with much of what you say and the more I read the book the more I realise its importance, but it perhaps doesn't go far enough... My chief queries are related to the following quotes: Thus, by becoming parasitic on pagan ideas and distorting them, Christian ...

Thanks for that really interesting reply Arvind. I find what you are writing and the book really intersting so I've started a new thread here if you want to carry on

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9902


Best wishes, Nikolai

The kind of questions that Europe/West asks about human beings (especially in fields like psychology and philosophy) don't make sense to anyone who is not born within the framework of semitic religion (Christian, Muslim, or Jewish cultural background). All its claims about human beings, that human ...

I read the Introduction on the pdf. I'm not sure I would find the book very interesting. My own view is that all the world religions are alike, in that they are different ways of expressing a truth which in itself is indescribable. I also consider all philosophy, science and art as attempts at the s...

John Gray isn't an economist, he's a philosopher. You should read the book, it's probably the most powerful work of 'popular' philosophy ever published. I can't think of anything else that manages to be aimed at the everyday reader and yet be utterly provocative. Like it or loathe it, I'm not sure t...

Jung was one of those fascinating thinkers who was both a scientist and a truly original spiritual thinker and able philosopher. He really was a rarity. His problem though was that he didn't quite fit into any camp in particular and so has been ignored. I think he must appeal to that philosopher who...

RickLewis wrote:Well done on getting to the end. I flaked out at the end of chapter 2, I think.

Oh dear. Are you sure you're fit to edit this magazine?

Hi nameless, "The understanding of other Perspectives furthers our acquaintance with Reality!" I am hearing a perfect example of The First Law of Soul Dynamics; "For every Perspective, there is an equal and opposite Perspective!" The coin is both Heads and Tails. The thing I find...

Hi Arising, I disagree, a thought is a 'perception' without the source and its due to memory. Yes, and so do 99.9% of people. You don't need to tell me about what you think thought is. I know what the common sense view is. And I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying that there is another equally ...