Scientism

ZenMode said:
Do you have any idea what you're going to think next?
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Yes. I read your replies. Think about what they are asserting. I think of a response. I think of better ways of stating it. So, yes, my decision to respond to your comments means I know what I am going to think next--I consciously choose the process.
 
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BidenPresident said:
Yes. I read your replies. Think about what they are asserting. I think of a response. I think of better ways of stating it. So, yes, my decision to respond to your comments means I know what I am going to think next--I consciously choose the process.
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To clarify, I'm not saying thoughts didn't occur to you. I'm asking if you, a "self", knows what you're going to think before you thought it. We imagine that there is a self that exists outside of our stream of thought and is actually generating thoughts - aka a thinker of thoughts. If that is true, and there is a self that exists outside of our stream of consciousness, then we should know what we're going to think before we think it..
 
Cypress said:
The German philosopher Schopenhauer, who was famously pessimistic, didn't think there was any real higher purpose or meaning in life, but the way to get through it is by aesthetic enjoyment and pleasures.

That mindset doesn't appeal to me, but if one is a strict materialist who believes nothing is real but quarks and electrons, that might be a way of approaching life.
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...or at least to avoid hanging themselves off the banister. LOL

I'm a big believer in "it's the journey, not the destination". Not in a hedonistic way either. Just enjoying the gift of life.
 
ZenMode said:
To clarify, I'm not saying thoughts didn't occur to you. I'm asking if you, a "self", knows what you're going to think before you thought it. We imagine that there is a self that exists outside of our stream of thought and is actually generating thoughts - aka a thinker of thoughts. If that is true, and there is a self that exists outside of our stream of consciousness, then we should know what we're going to think before we think it..
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I do not think of the mind as a stream of consciousness. That is from William James and I do not agree.
Much of our thought is directed toward particular ends or goals.
 
BidenPresident said:
I do not think of the mind as a stream of consciousness. That is from William James and I do not agree.
Much of our thought is directed toward particular ends or goals.
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Right. Most people believe there is a self that stands on the banks of our stream of consciousness and is separate from that stream. I'm asking where in the brain is the "self" that exists outside of the stream? If there truly is a self, that feels feelings, experiences experience and thinks thoughts, then that self would have the ability to know thoughts before they hit our consciousness because that self would be the source of the thoughts, right?
 
ZenMode said:
Ok. What do you believe?
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If you say everything is physical--what philosophers call physicalism--then there is nothing outside of physicality.
But the system of physicality cannot say what is outside its system. Thus, can only be consistent. It cannot be complete.
 
BidenPresident said:
If you say everything is physical--what philosophers call physicalism--then there is nothing outside of physicality.
But the system of physicality cannot say what is outside its system. Thus, can only be consistent. It cannot be complete.
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Does that mean you believe in a non-physical force that is impacting your decision?
 
ZenMode said:
Does that mean you believe in a non-physical force that is impacting your decision?
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This is from Bertrand Russell, "“both mind and matter are composed of a neutral-stuff which, in isolation, is neither mental nor material” (Russell 1921: 25).
This is called neutral monism.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neutral-monism/#BertRuss


Does not matter what you call it. Russell is right, there really is not a distinction between body and mind. They are just types.
 
Doc Dutch said:
...or at least to avoid hanging themselves off the banister. LOL

I'm a big believer in "it's the journey, not the destination". Not in a hedonistic way either. Just enjoying the gift of life.
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It's true that we're not much different from animals if we do not try to transcend our base nature. and cultivate self improvement. Trump is only interested in power, material comfort, wealth, sex, food. Very basic and rudimentary insticts. There are MAGAs who aren't much more emotionally and ethically advanced than dolphins

It takes a something of a commitment to transcend our base nature and transcend primitive instinct. People like Confucius and Tolstoy worked at it their whole lives.
 
Cypress said:
It's true that we're not much different from animals if we do not try to transcend our base nature. and cultivate self improvement. Trump is only interested in power, material comfort, wealth, sex, food. Very basic and rudimentary insticts. There are MAGAs who aren't much more emotionally and ethically advanced than dolphins

It takes a something of a commitment to transcend our base nature and transcend primitive instinct. People like Confucius and Tolstoy worked at it their whole lives.
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IMO, that's exactly the difference between our animalistic base nature and using our ability to think in a greater dimension. Some people think bigger, but that's not common. Most people just want to spank their monkeys in the base material things you mentioned.

That's more Boomer stuff: "He who dies with the most toys, wins!"

I'm still curious if the Millennials become the 21st century's Greatest Generation because of all the shit Boomers are doing. LOL

In another thread the discussion was how "whites" will become a minority in the US by 2050. My response is that it will be like the Great Manure Crisis of 1894 and become a non-event because Millennials know "race" is a social construct and is a psycho-social problem, not a genetic one. They will have grown past their racist Boomer grandpas and a few grannies.

Maybe, by 2050, they'll have out grown people like #45.
 
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