Philosophy

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Existentialism isn't all bullpoop (dreary anyway) but post-modernism, with a few exceptions like Juan Luis Borges, is mostly full of crap

http://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/li ... ca_v4.html

Ugh

I like any philosophy that causes me to think or open my awareness..

I've seen the PoMo essay generator. As far as I know, it's only a second-order Markov chain being told to generate yay amount of sentences, and produces output that I can't distinguish from almost any postmodernist essay I've ever read. That is ... incredible. In a bad way.

Best. Passage. EVAR:

Quote:

Just as liberal feminists are frequently content with a minimal agenda of legal and social equality for women and 'pro-choice', so liberal (and even some socialist) mathematicians are often content to work within the hegemonic Zermelo-Fraenkel framework (which, reflecting its nineteenth-century liberal origins, already incorporates the axiom of equality) supplemented only by the axiom of choice.

Religious 1 i'm a Christian

I've not read any philosophy, save for "The Prince." I can't recall very much of that little book, but other than that, I've taken in nothing.

Am I correct in saying philosophy is simply the set of ideas one has? For some reason "love of knowledge/wisdom" as some have it, does not make sense.

Anyway, on which is the "coolest"? Religion for me held the key very briefly. This world did not seem "real," and well, I literally thought I "experienced" God. Twas a foolish idea, as it turns out, but I truly believed it, until I was brought into church... Anyway, religion, specifically Christianity is full of lies and is self serving to the core, to keep it simple and blunt. "Good" things were not done because they were naturally good, but in order to "please" the heavenly thing. What a repulsive idea...

After I saw this topic, and before I posted, I did a little bit of reading. Skimmed over the various "philosophies" in wikipedia, and well I have to say the reading didn't do me much good. Was confusing. To be expected for the uninitiated I'm sure, but maybe the problem is the way I see the world in the first place. How do I see it? Well, from the reading I came across a hyperlink of a term I've heard about: nihilism. As I see it, this idea holds the most "truth" to it. "Post-modern" ideas have recieved a bit of flak in this thread, but I've not seen anyone address or mention this particular idea.

Does anything mean anything? For me, the ultimate factor in all of this grand nonsense is death. We all die. Knowing this, is there really any point in advancing ourselves, or others, or even some "greater good"? I give a homeless man a buck for a burger, he dies tomorrow-what have I accomplished? NOTHING. Just a small example, but it shows what I mean. I'm not a cold person, but it's the truth, for me anyway.

There just seems to be no actual "purpose" for anything. Things occur because of several "root reasons," which are at times completely unrelated to anything. There is one event, that causes another times a million billion trillion, that we as "individuals" are simply a part of.

Free will? An illusion. Good and evil? Total nonsense.

These are not ideas I've latched onto because they are "cool" or because they make "sense." When I've a bit clearer mind, perhaps I'll put up a blog, or a thread if the idea is coherent enough. In the meantime, does anyone have any viewpoints, good, bad, indifferent regarding nihilism? If good, any good reading on the idea?

I picked political.

Not Phil's Sophy topic

I have been into existentialism, phenomenology and humanism for about thirty years.

A close second is logic, and the art/science of reasoning correctly.

Formal logic is beautiful.

I chose metaphysics, 'cause it explains often what logic does not.