tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post3286706983596370712..comments2023-11-03T11:32:01.540+00:00Comments on Thought Experiments : The Blog: PhilosophyBryan Appleyardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-60945252200411163392008-11-03T03:50:00.000+00:002008-11-03T03:50:00.000+00:00acer travelmate 3002wtci batteryacer travelmate 30...<A HREF="http://www.batterygoshop.co.uk/acer/travelmate-3002wtci-battery.htm" REL="nofollow">acer travelmate 3002wtci battery</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.batterygoshop.co.uk/acer/travelmate-3002wtmi-battery.htm" REL="nofollow">acer travelmate 3002wtmi battery</A><BR/><A HREF="http://www.batterygoshop.co.uk/acer/tm4200-battery.htm" REL="nofollow">acer tm4200 battery</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-79835589532195193342008-01-27T13:27:00.000+00:002008-01-27T13:27:00.000+00:00...when he says philosophy is just arguments about......when he says philosophy is just arguments about arguments or that it is little more than a way of finding good reasons to hold utterly conventional views...<BR/><BR/>I see philosophy, [and have studied the usual eminences formally], as an attempt to explain the already explained, such explanation not meeting with the mindset of a section of the populace who then become "philosophers".James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-38479700508596452162007-04-22T13:57:00.000+00:002007-04-22T13:57:00.000+00:00I must say, Bryan, that while I liked your book "...I must say, Bryan, that while I liked your book "Understanding the Present" a great deal, I felt somewhat let down by your introduction of Wittgenstein as a proposed solution to the issue of the loss of meaning that is the end result of the scientific materialist philosophy kicked off by the Enlightenment. At the time I read the book, I didn't "get" Wittgenstein at all. <BR/><BR/>But just Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04108945551064939734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-91178363175791633342007-04-22T00:19:00.000+00:002007-04-22T00:19:00.000+00:00Academic philosophy has come to see itself as a ki...Academic philosophy has come to see itself as a kind of research science. This has led to a tendency towards specialization and a narrowing of focus onto the sort of question it’s possible to write clever articles about (where "clever" means "showing analytical rigor" and does not mean "exhibiting profound insight").<BR/><BR/>Real progress has been made on a number of technical (and genuinely Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-55685509220933967552007-04-21T23:20:00.000+00:002007-04-21T23:20:00.000+00:00Interesting post, Bryan. I suppose I might as well...Interesting post, Bryan. I suppose I might as well contribute my pennyworth. <BR/><BR/>Oh dear, I can't think of anything to say. <BR/><BR/>No, no, hold on...Yes...I've got it: Philosophy is...is... for me (who else?), a matter of temperament. And I, for one, simply can't ignore it. You see, because I am so unsure about everything (and I mean everything) that I am naturally drawn to activities Neil Forsythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00240393170374161007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-60089228057151989182007-04-21T22:40:00.000+00:002007-04-21T22:40:00.000+00:00I find sceptical philosophers are, paradoxically, ...I find sceptical philosophers are, paradoxically, more life affirming. Conventional thought is so reason and science based that it zaps all enjoyment and spontaneity (humanity?) out of life.<BR/>In contrast, Schopenhauer saw art and love as being more important than logic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-11455044466135113422007-04-21T21:12:00.000+00:002007-04-21T21:12:00.000+00:00Perhaps philosophy necessarily inspires convention...<I>Perhaps philosophy necessarily inspires conventional views, but surely it should also inspire wonder in at least some form</I><BR/><BR/>The likeliest (in fact, the appropriate) emotion upon discovering a refutation of skepticism, say, is <I>relief</I>. Discovering a refutation of skepticism would be a paradigm of philosophy; philosophy needn’t produce wonder to be philosophy.Cirdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06161072165681849178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-38021306919831669002007-04-21T20:08:00.001+00:002007-04-21T20:08:00.001+00:00I tend towards philosophers who don't pretend we h...I tend towards philosophers who don't pretend we have all the answers. After reading Marx for a while in my late teens it was a total relief when i came across Schopenhauer-who at the time inspired a kind of nihilistic rush of energy.<BR/>Right now i'm really into John gray's stuff, which is very similar to Schopenhauer but with a political twist. Although i really like Buddhist philosophy in Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-5168782317766615562007-04-21T20:08:00.000+00:002007-04-21T20:08:00.000+00:00I preferred the dipper. I think I've always known ...I preferred <A HREF="http://www.bryanappleyard.com/dipper.php" REL="nofollow">the dipper</A>. I think I've always known what your target is, but it's usually a subtle theme; a groundwater flow rather than surface run-off.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-68587315512687560422007-04-21T19:55:00.000+00:002007-04-21T19:55:00.000+00:00I guess I have phases, Gordon.I guess I have phases, Gordon.Bryan Appleyardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08276787058430388582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-27736921940862953862007-04-21T19:39:00.001+00:002007-04-21T19:39:00.001+00:00Your recent posts, Bryan, remind me of Sunday morn...Your recent posts, Bryan, remind me of Sunday morning religious TV. Ostensibly about current affairs, it soon becomes clear that the issues under discussion are simply a cypher to communicate a religious message. Everything begins normally enough, and then, with increasingly frequency, all the usual dippy religious terms begin to enter the discourse: wilderness, sanctity, the sacred, wonder, Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-8847667350492065102007-04-21T19:39:00.000+00:002007-04-21T19:39:00.000+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Gordon McCabehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09151162643523937086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-66151368942314239552007-04-21T18:44:00.000+00:002007-04-21T18:44:00.000+00:00Reality is beyond, a wise man once said to me. Bey...Reality is beyond, a wise man once said to me. Beyond religion, beyond philosophy, art or any human striving. I guess this is what great thinkers instinctively understand. Very few of us get it straight away, some never get it, and most of us, perhaps, muddle and struggle around it. Andrew mentioned Daisetsu Suzuki. I've found his namesake Shunryu Suzuki quite helpful as a guide.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06074816573442173758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-33418813736600876832007-04-21T15:01:00.000+00:002007-04-21T15:01:00.000+00:00the unexamined life is not worth living. the exami...the unexamined life is not worth living. the examined life, however, is fraught with epiphanies, some of which are painful indeed.<BR/><BR/>art is the solace. Stoppard, who's had more to say of a philosophical nature than any other living playwright ("Arcadia," "Travesties," "Jumpers," "the Invention of Love," "The Coast of Utopia") is my model these days.<BR/><BR/>love is also good, but art Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-52021612960755101102007-04-21T14:58:00.000+00:002007-04-21T14:58:00.000+00:00I'd have to have been an idiot to have missed the ...I'd have to have been an idiot to have missed the last few weeks. Pressure, pressure. <BR/><BR/>Bryan, your comment on philosophers and philosophy strikes the right note.James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-86303975487870472102007-04-21T14:13:00.000+00:002007-04-21T14:13:00.000+00:00Peter,That's the nicest thing you've ever said abo...Peter,<BR/>That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me! Thanks.Duckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08852569465893563139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-72566960364151238302007-04-21T13:07:00.000+00:002007-04-21T13:07:00.000+00:00Duck/Amanda/andrewSuch cynicism. Much as with the...Duck/Amanda/andrew<BR/><BR/>Such cynicism. Much as with the post below on evil, we see impressive minds rushing to assure us it's all artificial, useless or futile, but also as with that post you skip over the question of why we are inexorably driven to pondering all these questions in the first place. Do you believe mastering the Hegelian dialectic confers survival advantages?<BR/><BR/>I feel Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-11143243231838770412007-04-21T13:02:00.000+00:002007-04-21T13:02:00.000+00:00the Wittgenstein quotations remind me of Wallace S...the Wittgenstein quotations remind me of Wallace Stevens, a similar mental attitude, of the simplicity at the heart of things, and the compexity of our situation.<BR/><BR/>We live beyond our intellectual means; a fact acknowledged by men like Nietzsche, Wittgenstein - that to be human is to be finite within infinity; so to stake out your intellectual terrain and say "this is everything that is, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-17358409757775541512007-04-21T12:14:00.000+00:002007-04-21T12:14:00.000+00:00I guess by philosophy you're talking about epistem...I guess by philosophy you're talking about epistemology.<BR/><BR/>It seems to me that the history of western epistemology is the attempt to show that what we know to be true (or want to be true) by common sense can also be proven by reason.Brithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00390560583798960760noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-41650684329720681822007-04-21T11:58:00.000+00:002007-04-21T11:58:00.000+00:00"True philosophy is a system of metaphors, a way o..."True philosophy is a system of metaphors, a way of talking about something that cannot be discussed at all."<BR/><BR/>That's about right. Which makes the phrase "systematic philisophy" an oxymoron. Philosophy is what's left after you discover the discoverable. It's what science cannot prove or disprove.<BR/><BR/>Part of the problem is that we think our minds can grasp anything, but they can't.Duckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08852569465893563139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-70231887451544081912007-04-21T11:31:00.000+00:002007-04-21T11:31:00.000+00:00Agree with your assessment of academic philosopher...Agree with your assessment of academic philosophers doing their quadrilles around the obvious, but what about Roger Scruton? He takes on big tough questions e.g Islamism, Wagner and so on. But then the small-minded Academy evidently couldn't cope with him. So he farms and hunts in Virginia instead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-33779404309478771552007-04-21T11:07:00.000+00:002007-04-21T11:07:00.000+00:00Is philosophy that ceases to inspire wonder, still...Is philosophy that ceases to inspire wonder, still philosophy. Or is the philosopher who ceases wonder, still a philosopher.<BR/>The simple answer to both is Yes. A philosophy that ceases to inspire, did inspire once. While the philosopher is now dead. The act of wonder is part of what it is to be human.<BR/> And on your other best, I wonder about salmon wrapped in prosciutto with peas mint and Vincehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09442327549417743472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-65697198142121600192007-04-21T09:46:00.000+00:002007-04-21T09:46:00.000+00:00For me a philosophy that inspires wonder is from M...For me a philosophy that inspires wonder is from Marc Chagall. A friend of mine was close to Chagall for the last ten years of his life. One day he found himself in Chagall's atelier - the artist was very protective of his private work place. My friend was amazed to see many paintings all around the walls in various stages of completion. Some seemed to him to be finished.<BR/><BR/>"Marc, how do Richard Havershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15309594787689405779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-4116025901700978332007-04-21T09:35:00.000+00:002007-04-21T09:35:00.000+00:00When you put the right words together after each o...When you put the right words together after each other then you get ideas and when you get enough ideas together in a row then you get philosophy which is the Darwinist evolution of the words ensuring their own survival at the macro level. And the strongest ideas and philosophies eat up the weak littler ones which have failed to adapt to the reality environment which proves it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23400750.post-20626049758974249902007-04-21T09:06:00.000+00:002007-04-21T09:06:00.000+00:00Some months ago I gave an alternative definition o...Some months ago I gave an alternative definition of philosophy which was perhaps a little in jest but not too much, with academic philosophy probably the specific target:<BR/>'Philosophy is the creation of mental problems, the solution to which is forbeidden unless it is seen that the solution gives birth to more problems.'<BR/>Philosophy is meant to be the love of wisdom, but it seems often to Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com