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metaphysics
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16 Jun 2011, 2:35 pm

Janissy wrote:

Since none of us are policy makers (I don't think), none of the discussions are going to end with any real-world results outside of our own heads. Within our own heads, there are probably results. For myself, I have clarified my own position on some points (through having to defend it), changed my position on other points (from finding out things I didn't already know, rather than things I merely disagreed with) and found a position on some things I'd never before heard of (like Dielethiesm).

I have also found that practice making posts in PPR has improved my real-life skills in making arguments where how I present my side can actually change things- specifically at IEP meetings for my daughter.


Umm, I agree, and I think it is one of the several things that the WP helped.

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Sometimes and sometimes not. I don't always get my way no matter how skillfully I argue :wink: . And I think I argue more skillfully than before thanks to PPR. Political discussions affect how I vote. Economics discussions affect how I spend my money. Philosophical discussions don't really affect any specific decisions but they do help my arguing skills in general. Life is full of decisions that are made after discussions.

I agree all in my quotation, apart from your view that Philosophical discussions only" help arguing skills".I do not think "arguing skills" actually exist, but your real understanding.

Quote:
No debate on these boards is ever going to lead to some sort of firm decision whereby the "right" answer to the debate is announced. Even if the board somehow reaches unanimity on an issue, a lurker could go live and disagree. But that's not the point of PPR. We aren't changing anything here except our own minds and sometimes other peoples' minds (not the people we are debating with, the people who haven't formed a decision yet). Pretty much no thread on PPR has a definitive answer. There are only issues that people agree or disagree about.

I have nothing to do with thus.May learn very little from these, but I don't think it even worths my time that I will spend on it..


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I spend time in silence and meditation when I need to clear my head and calm down and detox from too much stress. It's not really related to anything on PPR. Silence and meditation can't really add to PPR. PPR is for throwing things wildly out there and seeing what catches the interest of other people. It's very dynamic and not at all silent. (The clickety-clackety of the keyboard counts.)

I agree. I already used to throw my row opinions here now.



RedHanrahan
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16 Jun 2011, 5:48 pm

Philologos wrote:
The number of people who actually want to discuss any given topic is strictly limited.

There are those for whom a discussion which does not end with a clear winner and loser is pointless.

There are those who are primarily interested in attacking those they see - for whatever reason - as their enemy or their legitimate prey.

And there are those who get locked into the infinite loop of rabbit - chicken - did - didn't - you're a liar - you're an idiot - which is the most common way threads get more than 30 posts.

And yet there are here ideas, and if you have a good bush knife and hack your way through the thorny vines there is actually some stimulation of ideas and insights.


As a New Zealander once all the north American domestic debates are eliminated there are very few threads that don't conform to these definitions and therefore of interest to me. Someone here once described this froum to me as 'little more than a pissing contest' and I am inclined to agree.
While I am as guilty as anyone of being rude and sarcastic to certain posters I do this out of frustration at this culture not of sharing ideas but using these forums as places to rattle their ideological drums and push their bandwagons or play games of one upmanship that are motivated by competitive urges rather than cooperative ones, posts made and threads started to vent emotional toxic build up are not constructive discussion. A discussion is a sharing of ideas and an argument is a collision of ideas, which is most constructive more often and which do we want?
I hardly bother anymore and I hardly even bother to read all of a thread, especially those pointless back and foward collisions of hard ideologues.

peace j


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