Philosophy in general

[petro]

Over the last few years I have turned my attention to philosophy. (AKA: thinking.)
I thought I would share some of the more important things I have learned.


I don’t believe there is any way to know anything with absolute certainty. (Even that statement is not absolutely certain.)
The next best option is acting on probability.

Evidence raises the probability of something being true.
And that begs the question: What is evidence?
Take for instance if you refused to act upon the evidence your own senses present to you. You will die quickly.
So, we have a base definition of evidence here as: evidence is what you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, and so forth.

This is about where I am up to. I am currently asking myself questions like:
Can what I read in the papers and hear on the news be considered as evidence?
And that can be a very hard question to answer…


I have also looked extensively into morality and what I would loosely call letting go.
Why morality? Because I am sick of being attacked by immoral people and the only thing I can do about it is to make myself more moral.
Trying to become moral leads to questions about truth as you can’t be very moral if you don’t know how to understand what should be considered as true and what shouldn't be.


Not being able to let go leads to depression. The Buddhists call it clinging.
I’m not ashamed to say I had this misunderstanding about the world as well. Mine was particularly to do with women.

What’s actually happening, without many people knowing, is that they are using people (mainly) as fuel. You could also call it motivation.
The problem with using things which come and go as fuel is; eventually you will have no fuel and without fuel you will die.
I found an alternative fuel source that never disappears but it is not something I am comfortable talking about because giving the answer openly will impede people’s understanding.

If someone needs it badly enough they will look and they will find it…

 

[Jasminebed]

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How I get philospy questions right on trivia.

I am Epicurean as a philosophical system of beliefs. If you have your creature comforts met, you have little interest in going out and spreading misery, you would rather spread joy. It is not only misery that loves company, and happy people are more fun to be with.

I have no morals, but I do have ethics.

Nitpicking perhaps, but to as far as I understand the difference, morals are based on religious beliefs, ethics are based on philosophical and societal beliefs.

 

[petro]

I believe what Socrates believes when it comes to good/bad behaviour.

It's always the best thing to act morally. Those people that disagree are simply short sighted.
If they were smarter they would agree with Socrates and I.

 

[weesie]

I am in agreement with Jasminebed.

Morals seem to imply religious beings. I am not one.

But ethics is a very good equivalent without the "religious" connotations
.

 

[nisosbar]

This kind of endeavor goes all the way back to the aforementioned Socrates and likely as far back as man existed. Kind of what Europeans refer to as a classical education, I suppose. It's useful in its own way, but I'm not really sure what commercial value it has, and if you're paying for that education, you want a return, which most people would generally get by engaging in commerce.

I think it's terrific to ask yourself these question and to read the classical philosophers, contemporary ones, too, and to talk about philosophy with others. Just save time for dancing and drinking and enjoying your life.

On a side note, I wouldn't say that I'm not a moral person, but I'm definitely NOT a religious one.