simplicity wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:03 pm
RCSaunders wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:23 am
Since you seem to be implying my thoughts are not my own, as though they were things everyone else thinks, why is it that almost everyone disagrees with my views, as you do. Since there are damn few others who think what I think, who are those one's you think I'm only emulating.
If you step down from your pulpit for a moment, you might discover although you believe you are
really different [than "everybody else"], reality suggests that we are all 99.9% the same. It's just the tiniest bit that makes any of us different. I know that kind of blows your "I'm a super-radical thinker" meme out of the water...sorry. How different can any of us really be?
Good grief, I make no claims to any special kind of thinking. Perhaps what I think is the same as most people, but if it is, why does almost everyone with an ideology, philosophy, or religion want to change what I think?
As for how different individuals are from one another, every one is different. Except for the fundamentals of human nature, their essential biological nature, and the fact they are conscious rational volitional animals, every individual is unique. In every way, each individual is different, with different backgrounds, inherent abilities, and learning. No two people have exactly the same tastes, interests, desires and aspirations. Everyone has different natural abilities, talents, and capabilities. Even physiologically not two people are identical and one of the great defects of modern medicine is the belief that the same symptoms always indicate the same maladies and the same treatments are appropriate for all individuals.
This view that all human beings are pretty much the same defies the essential nature of a human being, the volitional nature. Unlike the instinctive animals who have no choice but to live exactly as their nature requires, human nature does not require any specific manner of living. The requirement for human life is unique--human beings are required to discover or learn what their life requires, and to use that knowledge to think and choose how to live.
Every individual is whoever and whatever they have made of themselves by their own chosen effort. The importance, significance, and value of every individual is determined solely by what that individual has chosen to do with their life, how they have chosen to develop it, what they have chosen to learn, what they aspire to, the work they have chosen to do, and what they have produced and achieved.
[I've addressed this in two short article: "
Ten Mistakes—6. Everybody Is Different," (part of a short series), and "
Sui Generis—If You're Not An Individualist, You're A Racist."]
simplicity wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:03 pm
Let me give you an example. I am a physician. I practice "differently" most others in that I truly believe my job is to educate patients and allow them to make their own decisions [after all, doctor = teacher]. Many of my patients over the years have appreciated my approach and have told me how wonderful I am to do this but I have always told these folks that 90% of what I do is controlled by government and corporations so you still must act as your own advocate and do your homework, that is, I can only do so much to help you out. You must take primary responsibility for your own health.
That is both commendable and exceptional, especially today, when most doctors treat patients as, "subjects," and themselves as, "authorities." Well done.
simplicity wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 5:56 pm
... I do not believe we can truly know anything. You seem to believe [like most] that you can know quite a bit.
Most who have not had their minds corrupted by academia
do know a great deal. In fact, without knowledge human life is not possible and all human success is directly proportional to knowledge and its use in productive effort.
[My short article here on PhilosophyNow, "
Certain Knowledge," just suggests the innumerable things one knows for certain if they are still alive. My article, "
The Only Path To Success And Happiness." explains why human life and success are totally dependent on knowledge.]
simplicity wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 5:56 pm
We are all here to simply exchange views with other people who enjoy such [not to convince others that we have figured it out]. And believe me [although it's impossible], should "somebody "figure it out," everybody will know in five minutes.
RCSaunders wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 2:23 amThat's doubtful! There is hardly a single discovery in history that wasn't resisted, and those making them persecuted and vilified. The last thing most people want is the truth and they will go to almost any length to evade it.
Look how long it took, "everybody," to accept the discoveries of Kepler and Galileo and the persecution Galileo endured. It took twenty years for William Harvey's discovery that blood pumped out from heart, returns to heart to be accepted.
In 1902, Rear-Admiral George Melville, chief engineer of the US Navy, wrote in the North American Review, that attempting to fly was 'absurd'. In 1903, Simon Newcomb, professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University published an article which showed scientifically that powered human flight was 'utterly impossible,' and would require the discovery of a new force in nature. A few weeks later, Wilbur and Orville Wright did the scientifically impossible.
For five years after the Wright brother's first successful flight, most American scientists, science editors, and science writers in the
NewYork Herald, the
North American Review, and the
Scientific American dismissed the many demonstrations of powered human flight as a hoax.
Humphry Davy's demonstrated nitrous oxide anesthesia in 1830, and by 1842 chloroform and ether were being used to perform painless surgeries, but academia, especially the religious versions, and the medical establishment resisted and repudiated the use of anesthesia which was not fully accepted until after 1850.
Every electronic device or machine we use which is powered by electricity from the power grid, as well as, the power grid itself is proof Michael Faraday was not the charlatan his contemporaries accused him of being when he announced he could generate an electric current simply by moving a magnet in a coil of wire. The truth and significance of his discoveries were not recognized until after his death.
I am sure you would concur that information flows a bit quicker than in did in the 19th century.
[/quote]
I don't see what difference that makes. The world is still dominated by religions and superstitious Eastern philosophies. People still consult astrologists. Doesn't seem like the information highway has reached most people yet.