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On Copious Socratic Surprises
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/ Re: Can Philosophy be
of Any Value to Big Business? [#4] /
/ NGZ: alt.philosophy,
alt.religion.apologetics / 26Sept02 /
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> On 23Sept Sterling Motors
([email protected]) say:
> Most Big Business tycoon's
would not have the patience
> or time with any of this
so the answer is no. -- Sterling
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textman replies: Hi
Sterling. Your answer reminds me of a
very similar attitude (ie.
the so-called "worldly" attitude):
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Jesus: My kingdom belongs
not to this world. If My kingdom were
of this world, My followers
would have been fighting to keep Me
from being handed over to
the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is
not from here (this world);
[it has no such origin or source].
.
Pilate: Then You are a King?
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Jesus: You say it! [You speak
correctly!] For I am a King. This
is why I was born, and for
this I have come into the world: to
bear witness to the Truth.
Everyone who is of the Truth [who
is a friend of the Truth,
who belongs to the Truth] hears and
listens to My voice.
.
Pilate: What is Truth? [On
saying this he went out to the
Jews again and told them]
I find no fault in Him.
John 18:36-38 / Amplified
Bible (mangled by the offensive one)
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Thus we see that businessmen
(and Romans) are very like
philosophers in at least
one sterling quality; and that is
that the pessimists outnumber
the optimists by nine to one!
.
Talk about fighting
an uphill battle. Oy!
x
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>> textman previously wrote:
<snip> There is a great danger
>> facing anyone who is about
to embark upon any study of
>> philosophy (at whatever
level of depth), and this danger
>> is that nine out of every
ten philosophers are pessimists!
.
> On 23Sept Mike Dubbeld
([email protected]) replied: 'They' have
> good 'reason'. The mind
is insanity in its natural state.
> Logic and reason can be
used to show anything. Including all
> else being not real. As
the measure of all things - I can do
> no wrong. And if I can
do no wrong - you can do no wrong.
> And if you can do no wrong
- the rest of the world can do no>
> wrong. Therefore it is
proper to conclude the world is mad.
> There is no order in the
universe. 'Do it to them before they
> do it to you.' 'The law
of the jungle.' 'Live for today.'
> 'When you are dead you
are dead.' 'Always be moral - when
> people are watching.' I
call it 'Existential Despair'.
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textman sayeth: I call
it madness and irrationality to the nth
degree. Therefore it is only
natural to conclude that it is not
the entire world that is
mad (although it surely is a strange
mixture of chaos and order,
light and dark, love and hate,
etc); only that part of it
named Mike Dubbeld (along with
all those of a like mindset,
of course).
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>> And it may well be *this*
fact of ubiquitous pessimism that
>> turns people off the most,
and forces them to give up on
>> philosophy entirely.
.
> I think they should. It
is as likely or more so that
> looking at Western philosophy
will increase a persons
> confusion as not.
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A little confusion
at first is only to be expected, and is
not in itself harmful. It
is the lack of discipline involved
in not working through the
confusion that is harmful.
.
> Intellectual understanding
is actually very shallow. A man
> can preach as a university
professor the subject of Vedanta
> for 30 years and proclaim
- 'I am not afraid of death. I
> know what death is. When
we die we reincarnate. I have no
> fear of death.' But when
death comes knocking this man will
> be afraid. Intellectual
understanding of things is NOT good
> enough.
.
With this I agree 100%!
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> The people on this NG not
knowing any better think them-
> selves to be their minds
as they know no other. Indeed,
> they worship their minds.
From knowledge comes power.
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My father used to tell
me constantly (when I was very young)
that 'knowledge is power',
and over the years I have come to
appreciate that knowledge
is indeed powerful; but it is not
the essence of power, not
by a long shot. Now I have a new
slogan: Love is Power!
.
Can I give you one
example of what I mean? ... 4X: If a
student does not love philosophy
(or learn to love it; the
hard way!), then that student
can only gain an intellectual
knowledge ABOUT philosophy;
which is (at best) a kind of half-
knowledge. Being half a philosopher
(even though some paper
say otherwise) is not the
same as being a philosopher. It's
more like not being a philosopher
at all. For you see, you can
have philosophy in your head
(somewhat), but if you don't also
have it in your heart, then
you may as well give it up. This
is why the ancient Greeks
named it Love-of-Wisdom in the
first place!
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Welcome to Philosophy
101 - Prelude to the Introduction
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LOL ... :D
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> The ego seeks power over
the world to control it and gain
> security. This is its natural
function and springs from
> survival mechanisms in
the body. Understood properly it is
> neither good nor bad. But
it is NOT understood properly as
> people think they ARE their
minds. Pathetic.
.
Was it Emerson who
said that a man's life consists of what
he thinks about all day?
There's a lot of truth in this
observation. A vulgar man
leads a vulgar life because he thinks
vulgar thoughts all the day
long. And then at two in the
morning he wakes up screaming
and wonders why life is so
meaningless! Therefore I'll
agree that we are our own worst
enemies, but this is chiefly
because most people go through
life in what I can only describe
as a semi-conscious state of
existence. Moreover, the
purpose of our minds is certainly not
to pander to the instinctive
drives and impulses of our bodies.
Such a proposal strikes me
as ludicrous in the extreme.
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>> That is most unfortunate
indeed, because there is nothing
>> inherent in the nature
of philosophy to predispose anyone to
>> pessimistic conclusions
and world-views. Pessimism is some-
>> thing that the philosopher
(and the student, of course)
>> brings with him as he
first sets foot upon philosophical
>> shores. Sartre's philosophy
cannot be considered an
>> objective and dispassionate
account of human being and human
>> realities (for it is actually
the manifestation of his inner
>> attitudes), but 'Being
and Nothingness' does everything
>> humanly possible to make
us believe that this is so. There-
>> fore the first word out
of any philosophy-teacher's mouth
>> must always be 'BEWARE!
Here be Dragons!"
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> Believe me I do not need
a pep talk. My hubris is to the
> extent that I am attempting
to discover exactly what is
> WRONG with ALL of Western
philosophy.
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:) ... Good luck with
that! Such a project seems deliberately
designed to reach pessimistic
conclusions and nihilistic
discoveries. Sortta like
setting out to prove that people
are bad-tempered by nature
by walking the streets and poking
people at random with a pointed
stick.
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> That was my intent from
the get go. Not only am I not
> impressed with ANY of it
- it is actually pretty boring for
> the most part and is testament
to how easily Westerners are
> impressed. To give you
some rough idea to the extent of my
> conceit for Western philosophy
as a whole I nearly have a
> completely airtight case
against the ENTIRE field of science
> in general as nothing more
than another dogma no more valid
> than Christianity. Think
that is brave?
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No. Foolhardy, maybe.
The presence of my computer (a direct
product of "science in general")
upon my desk here absolutely
refuses to be reduced to
the rank of mere dogma.
.
> I got lots more. Still
deciding how I am going to launch
> this. There are penalties
for doing this too soon. The
> level(s) in which I dismantle
this house of cards on a
> hippopotamus's back is
at stake. But so what? I doubt more
> than a handful would know
what it meant anyway.
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Sometimes ignorance
IS bliss!
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> It is quite appropriate
by reading things said in this NG
> that 'anything could be
the cause of anything.' 'If anything
> could be known - we couldn't
know it. And if we did know it
> we could not convey it.'
You might as well believe in the
> tooth fairy cause the JUNK
that is dispersed in this NG for
> the most part is totally
useless. Time to go trash another
> AI fan. -- Mike Dubbeld
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Gee, your kindda like
Wittgenstein in overdrive (after being
brainwashed by Satan). But
seriously, Mike, there's nothing
wrong with you that the love
of a good woman couldn't cure.
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- the almost supremely amused one - texttman ;>
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P.S. Our thinking and reasoning
can move in several
directions at the same time, but the world is one.
x
Even
More Can Philosophy be of Any Value to BB?
textman
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