Posted: 4/4/2021 5:00 AM
(Edited: 4/4/2021 6:22 AM)
Post subject: Philosophy
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Zeupar
Joined: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament
In recent times, I have been getting drawn more and more into philosophy, experiencing the pros and cons associated with going the extra mile and seriously diving in this field of knowledge (maybe the only one, in a way?). For starters, I would like to share a few insights that I think are important when one wants to explore philosophy: I feel that openness is a key concept (in both its philosophical and its psychological variants): This site's general atmosphere is a paradigm of the former, which I suspect is what ultimately drove me to post this topic. Regarding the psychological variant, I think it's important to try to be open to new ideas, especially those misaligned with one's own ideas, making an active effort to avoid our many natural biases in the process of internally asessing them (this is in general not easy at all and a daily fight). It's important to try to be honest with oneself and others, as I feel that such an approach to life enhances individuals to completely accept themselves, which in turn retroaliments their openness to new ideas. I suspect that openly sharing with people that love you the internal battles that you struggle with on a daily basis catalyzes the processes of both forgiving and fully accepting yourself. It's interesting to reflect upon the idea that the very nature of language might preclude the existence of truth. Can truth, if it exists at all, be only reached through either logic or introspection? We could use this topic to share and discuss interesting philosophical ideas. I will include them in the following list: - Authenticity - Dream argument - Eristic - Eternal return - Descartes' Evil demon - Microcosm-macrocosm analogy - Ship of Theseus
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Posted: 4/4/2021 5:56 AM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
I have sometimes thought of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment, and how it applies to us. The original question is: Suppose there's a seaship. Over the years and decades, parts of it get broken and replaced. As enough time has passed, every single original part of the ship has been replaced with a new one (perhaps even several times in some cases). Can it still be considered the same ship? A more modern variant: You buy a brand new computer. However, over time parts of it break and you replace them. First the internal parts, and at some point even the computer case itself. After some years not a single part of the computer is original. Even the main hard drive has been replaced with a new one, just with the data from the original copied to it. Can it still be considered the same computer? How does this relate to us? Well, consider that it's estimated that every single molecule in your body will have been replaced with a new one in the span of about 7 years. This means that 7 years from now it's likely that not even a single original molecule remains, and your entire body has been replaced. Can you still be considered the same person? Or are you just a "copy" of your own self, from 7 years ago? And an imperfect copy at that. Suddenly, the Ship of Theseus thought experiment doesn't sound so silly or trivial anymore.
Posted: 10/16/2022 12:27 PM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11475
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
NES TAS of 2011
Zeupar wrote:
Can truth, if it exists at all, be only reached through either logic or introspection?
Verifiable reality is discovered through research and verification. Hard to tell if it's objective reality as it is, but at least reliable info about it can be learned, examined, and used in practice. This info can obviously be gathered by blind experiments, but nobody can keep doing those indefinitely, so examining and analyzing factual data is also important: to make new experiments more efficient and practical, and to learn from old experiments. Facts will give you info you can't get from pure logic, no matter how advanced your knowledge is. And without analysis facts won't help you either. So to reach the truth, you need to combine them, which requires conscious effort.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.