Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: Caparino on April 11, 2012, 04:37 pm
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I'll start: Friedrich Nietzsche. He breaks down principles and morality down to almost nothingness, proves them all paradoxical, and somehow makes sense out of them. He's simply magnificent and a great read for any psychonauts.
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I've always liked Albert Camus a lot. The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite philosophical essays ever written. I'm an existentialist and he's the one that brought me on to that world view.
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Nietzsche is my favorite to read. Also he's one of the few who concerns himself primarily with the immediate reality of man being confronted with existence and how to deal with that. I find it the most practical of all those German guys. Certainly Nietzsche does the best job of ascertaining the difference between strength and weakness and applying it to explain history and human behaviors.
I also like Ayn Rand, and though she may be incompatible with Nietzsche I find her appealing for different reasons. Her philosophical premise is interesting though fallible, but I think it achieves the correct conclusions for a political society.
I like Francis Bacon's discussion of the empirical method in science.
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I've always liked Albert Camus a lot. The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite philosophical essays ever written. I'm an existentialist and he's the one that brought me on to that world view.
Ooooh, an existentialist... I must read. I understand the overall basis of existentialism but Nietzsche completely destroys it in his "Will to Power"; so I only recommend that you read Nietzsche to understand the reciprocal view as I'm about to the same with this Albert Camus.
Nietzsche is my favorite to read. Also he's one of the few who concerns himself primarily with the immediate reality of man being confronted with existence and how to deal with that. I find it the most practical of all those German guys. Certainly Nietzsche does the best job of ascertaining the difference between strength and weakness and applying it to explain history and human behaviors.
I also like Ayn Rand, and though she may be incompatible with Nietzsche I find her appealing for different reasons. Her philosophical premise is interesting though fallible, but I think it achieves the correct conclusions for a political society.
I like Francis Bacon's discussion of the empirical method in science.
I've always steered clear of Ayn Rand because of anti-government reasons but now that I'm older, have an open mind, I'll be sure to add it to the list. Thanks mate!
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I've always liked Albert Camus a lot. The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite philosophical essays ever written. I'm an existentialist and he's the one that brought me on to that world view.
Ooooh, an existentialist... I must read. I understand the overall basis of existentialism but Nietzsche completely destroys it in his "Will to Power"; so I only recommend that you read Nietzsche to understand the reciprocal view as I'm about to the same with this Albert Camus.
interesting though fallible, but I think it achieves the correct conclusions for a political society.
I think that Nietzche's point can be included in existentialism anyways. I'm actually an optimistic existentialist, although most people think that the two contradict each other. But on the contrary, I find existentialism to be the most optimistic, realistic philosophy of them all. There is no God, and nothing in the universe really cares about us at all. At first, this sounds depressing. But I realized through my personal experiences that everyone can make their own meaning. We don't have to rely on the meanings given to us in various other philosophies. This is our life to live. I've done a lot of thinking while on mushrooms and LSD, and I've come to the realization that every human is an individual person, and we can make our own choices and live the life we want to if we don't get bogged down by everyone trying to tell us how to think.
Although I must say that I had a very interesting online discussion with a Hindi the other day, and I started to perhaps change my world view a bit. Because I've also thought about consciousness while on mushrooms, and I kind of always come to the conclusion that maybe the universe is actually a conscious being, kind of like pantheism. And we are the universe in a sense. The universe is learning about itself through us. And maybe consciousness really is separate from the body, and after death we do continue to live on, forever searching for that awareness and knowledge. I don't really know anymore. I definitely don't believe in a God the way most monotheistic religions see him, but I may be persuaded to come to the view that the universe is conscious and that death isn't really the end. I guess I'll remain agnostic on the subject until I actually do die!
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Jesus!
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I've always liked Albert Camus a lot. The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite philosophical essays ever written. I'm an existentialist and he's the one that brought me on to that world view.
Ooooh, an existentialist... I must read. I understand the overall basis of existentialism but Nietzsche completely destroys it in his "Will to Power"; so I only recommend that you read Nietzsche to understand the reciprocal view as I'm about to the same with this Albert Camus.
interesting though fallible, but I think it achieves the correct conclusions for a political society.
I think that Nietzche's point can be included in existentialism anyways. I'm actually an optimistic existentialist, although most people think that the two contradict each other. But on the contrary, I find existentialism to be the most optimistic, realistic philosophy of them all. There is no God, and nothing in the universe really cares about us at all. At first, this sounds depressing. But I realized through my personal experiences that everyone can make their own meaning. We don't have to rely on the meanings given to us in various other philosophies. This is our life to live. I've done a lot of thinking while on mushrooms and LSD, and I've come to the realization that every human is an individual person, and we can make our own choices and live the life we want to if we don't get bogged down by everyone trying to tell us how to think.
Although I must say that I had a very interesting online discussion with a Hindi the other day, and I started to perhaps change my world view a bit. Because I've also thought about consciousness while on mushrooms, and I kind of always come to the conclusion that maybe the universe is actually a conscious being, kind of like pantheism. And we are the universe in a sense. The universe is learning about itself through us. And maybe consciousness really is separate from the body, and after death we do continue to live on, forever searching for that awareness and knowledge. I don't really know anymore. I definitely don't believe in a God the way most monotheistic religions see him, but I may be persuaded to come to the view that the universe is conscious and that death isn't really the end. I guess I'll remain agnostic on the subject until I actually do die!
My view mirrors that of the Hindu* you spoke to, although I can't really classify myself any religion. The idea of God is that it is an entity that controls everything in the universe. What if the universe itself is God? All of our choices affect the universe on a microscopic scale in comparison. But if we're a collective consciousness, then everything in the world is God. And the stellar forces that are thought to "control everything"; maybe that's just the collective consciousness of ones/spirits/individuals who once, or never, "lived" but affect the universe in their own way; our dimensions are may be either converged or separate.
Jesus!
There's a troll in the basement!
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Epictetus. I like practical, well-reasoned advice on how to live life. And he was the best at what he did.
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Epictetus. I like practical, well-reasoned advice on how to live life. And he was the best at what he did.
Thanks for another philosopher to add to my "To Read" list.
+1 Karma :)
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alan watts, because he truly understood the zen school of thought and was able to bring it to a western audience.
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Does someone like Aristoteles?
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Does someone like Aristoteles?
He's on my list; please elaborate his overview.
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Wittgenstein if I'm sober.
Terence McKenna if I'm not.
:D:D:D
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All of them. :)
We all have a lot to learn and philosophical questions and the proposed answers that have been given throughout history all have something to teach us.
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Ooooh, an existentialist... I must read. I understand the overall basis of existentialism but Nietzsche completely destroys it in his "Will to Power"; so I only recommend that you read Nietzsche to understand the reciprocal view as I'm about to the same with this Albert Camus.
davebowman, you demoralizing cunt.
and existentialist are those hung up on whether their reality is really so. it just sounds to me to be a lot of backed up seamen in his wiener. translation.
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Ooooh, an existentialist... I must read. I understand the overall basis of existentialism but Nietzsche completely destroys it in his "Will to Power"; so I only recommend that you read Nietzsche to understand the reciprocal view as I'm about to the same with this Albert Camus.
davebowman, you demoralizing cunt.
and existentialist are those hung up on whether their reality is really so. it just sounds to me to be a lot of backed up seamen in his wiener. translation.
lolwut
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I think anybody who feels a bit adrift in this world, should take some classes in western philosophy and go from there. From Aristotle and Plato, if you have a good teacher it can be really exciting. I mean, sure, it's useless in one sense, but I felt like finally thoughts that were kind of unformed and incoherent in me, had been voiced and thought about before I was even around.
I noticed David Hume hadn't been mentioned, but he seemed to pull the rug out from beneath rationalism and empiricism both, simply by showing that we don't really know if nature is uniform, so where do our laws come from, and all we really know is from experience. And it's all perception anyway. Kant is another one that woke me up, especially the categories just being human constructs...
Nietzsche is brilliant, and probably the antecedent to the previously mentioned existentialists anyway...he's said just about everything that can be said, and better than the guys who followed him anyway. Convicts invariably love him, and think he is talking about them, as the supermen, but again, every convict who ever read a book thinks he's above morality blah blah blah...
Another dark one is Schopenhauer, mostly seems similar to Kant, to me, but it's his aphorisms and essays that are appealing.
It's easy to get all superior and phony with philosophy, but fuck all that: they can give you a whole lot of comfort in an otherwise cold and unfeeling universe. Heroin, jails, it's nice to find that maybe it's not you, but the world around you that's fucked...most of the great thinkers seemed to think that ethics was where they really wanted to be, but had to explain what was what, first, and then come up with reasons why we should act good anyway...
I was in a war, and a friend sent me kafka and camus...but I needed to get a bit of western philosophy under my belt before I could understand what camus was saying, tho with freedom--and despair--at least I could crawl out of the hole and make my choices, and live with the consequences...seems like all of camus is just saying why carry on at all, if it's all for nothing?
And certainly makes heroin defensible....
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Emmanuel Levinas L'Autre
Jacques Derridas- L'Adieu (to his teacher Emmanuel Levinas, a eulogy and call to ethics. Powerful)
Veblen, soltaire, foucault, i mean really all of them
but mostly the ones that call for compassion for all...
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I think anybody who feels a bit adrift in this world, should take some classes in western philosophy and go from there. From Aristotle and Plato, if you have a good teacher it can be really exciting. I mean, sure, it's useless in one sense, but I felt like finally thoughts that were kind of unformed and incoherent in me, had been voiced and thought about before I was even around.
I noticed David Hume hadn't been mentioned, but he seemed to pull the rug out from beneath rationalism and empiricism both, simply by showing that we don't really know if nature is uniform, so where do our laws come from, and all we really know is from experience. And it's all perception anyway. Kant is another one that woke me up, especially the categories just being human constructs...
Nietzsche is brilliant, and probably the antecedent to the previously mentioned existentialists anyway...he's said just about everything that can be said, and better than the guys who followed him anyway. Convicts invariably love him, and think he is talking about them, as the supermen, but again, every convict who ever read a book thinks he's above morality blah blah blah...
Another dark one is Schopenhauer, mostly seems similar to Kant, to me, but it's his aphorisms and essays that are appealing.
It's easy to get all superior and phony with philosophy, but fuck all that: they can give you a whole lot of comfort in an otherwise cold and unfeeling universe. Heroin, jails, it's nice to find that maybe it's not you, but the world around you that's fucked...most of the great thinkers seemed to think that ethics was where they really wanted to be, but had to explain what was what, first, and then come up with reasons why we should act good anyway...
I was in a war, and a friend sent me kafka and camus...but I needed to get a bit of western philosophy under my belt before I could understand what camus was saying, tho with freedom--and despair--at least I could crawl out of the hole and make my choices, and live with the consequences...seems like all of camus is just saying why carry on at all, if it's all for nothing?
And certainly makes heroin defensible....
Useless in one sense? Thats if you use it in present sociocultural context! Philosophy is philosophy and shouldn't be so much taken in context of a society, but humans overall. Forget morals, forget ethics, forget what you've learned from religion and government; what's left? Just a human being with intuition and instinct; what would they do is what really matters. Most western philology only works with present day humans and not each throughout history and that's what halts my belief in it; although it's still a good read.
As far as Nietzsche goes; his Ubermensch theory is right on. We're just stopped by our current morality system, as he says. Convicts love him because they were put into prison for not following the ethics of the current system; it's only fitting for them.
What does Schopenhauer speak on?
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Dostoevsky and Camus for (relatively) accessible existentialist novels.
Allen Wheelis- "The Way We Are", a quick read about the human condition. He's a psychoanalyst, which I'm not really into, but parts of this book really resonated with me, especially after going on a long Nietzsche binge.
Speaking of Nietzsche...there have already been good suggestions for him, but I also recommend his essay "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense," especially if you liked On the Genealogy of Morality.
For Buddhism, I suggest Dogen's "Moon in a Dewdrop" or anything by Nagarjuna. The Diamond Sutra. The parable of the poison arrows. Any koans. I also liked Brad Warner's punk rock interpretations of Buddhism, like his book titled "Sit Down and Shut Up!" Good stuff.
I like lots and lots of other stuff, but I may have to vote Epicurus as my all-time favorite. He was just a baller.
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
and "Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure."
Paradoxes and placing pleasure (though not necessarily hedonism) above all else? Yes, please.