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what we are
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2016-02-09 at 7:04 PM UTC[FONT=courier new]What are we?
We observe thoughts and feelings, a body and a mind. Are we these thoughts and feelings, or are we the observation of these thoughts and feelings? Or are we something else?[/FONT]
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2016-02-09 at 7:45 PM UTCThe division between body, mind, and feelings is like a 17th century split that most people don't really hold to anymore.
I mean, think about it, there's no real empirical division one can make between feelings, body, and mind. All of them are a physical product. The conversation usually becomes about qualia at that point but the argument is basically people begging the question. -
2016-02-09 at 7:57 PM UTCI entirely agree with you that there is no real separation between body, mind, feelings and thoughts, rather they are just conceptual aspects of the same thing, a persons existence. But are you the type of person that really identifies with your body, mind, feelings and thoughts? Or do you feel like you are something else that is just observing all these things, this life?
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2016-02-09 at 8:40 PM UTC
I entirely agree with you that there is no real separation between body, mind, feelings and thoughts, rather they are just conceptual aspects of the same thing, a persons existence. But are you the type of person that really identifies with your body, mind, feelings and thoughts? Are do you feel like you are something else that is just observing all these things, this life?
This is a question very close to my heart. I'm kind of an oddball here because I'm a really large proponent of Descartes' Cogito as a starting point and became a huge fan of Kant as I got a little older. I know it's disputed in Philosophy and a lot of people have "moved on" from the "Rationalist" and Empiricist" diatribe but I probably ask myself this question at least once a day. As a matter of fact, I own hard copies of everything Descartes wrote and periodically read it.
Reading Sartre's Nausea cleared up my thinking on this a lot.
If you ask me, I most undoubtedly exist as a mind. Almost everything else is a statement of faith. Granted, these are statements of faith built upon several tools which validate their "correctness," but they're still ultimately axioms. It basically comes down to what your standard of evidence is.
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2016-02-09 at 9:43 PM UTCWE ARE NIGGAS!
*kicks op into a well* -
2016-02-10 at 12:13 AM UTC¿Porque no los dos?
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2016-02-10 at 12:54 AM UTC
If you ask me, I most undoubtedly exist as a mind.
And of course that depends on how we define 'mind' but I think it's safe to assume that we would all include "thoughts" somewhere within that definition. I would like to point something out here. You have no more control over your next thought than you do over my next sentence. If you pay close attention to your thoughts you should realize that they seem to come from nowhere. You aren't authoring your own thoughts; that would require you to think about what you're going to think about before you think it. Now, some people can "stop thinking" through forms of meditation. They learn to "silence the mind" which I think is a beneficial activity but also reveals something about the nature of our thoughts; they are not an essential component of what we identify with.
Of course it is natural to identify with your thoughts, just like we naturally identify with our feelings and our bodies and so on, but if we don't author our own thoughts and we don't stop existing when we stop thinking it seems like the "real you" is something deeper than thought alone. Which is why we might choose to define 'mind' in a different way, or use another word to describe our "essential self", if such a thing actually exists at all. -
2016-02-10 at 1:04 AM UTC
And of course that depends on how we define 'mind' but I think it's safe to assume that we would all include "thoughts" somewhere within that definition. I would like to point something out here. You have no more control over your next thought than you do over my next sentence. If you pay close attention to your thoughts you should realize that they seem to come from nowhere. You aren't authoring your own thoughts; that would require you to think about what you're going to think about before you think it. Now, some people can "stop thinking" through forms of meditation. They learn to "silence the mind" which I think is a beneficial activity but also reveals something about the nature of our thoughts; they are not an essential component of what we identify with.
That's actually not entirely true. It's true of a lot of people who don't have disciplined mind, but a major component of meditation is learning to train the "Monkey Mind." Basically, people's thoughts swing from one thing to the next throughout the day like a monkey swinging from vine to vine. When one begins a serious journey to take command of their mind, they begin by taming the "Monkey Mind." Granted, there's a stream of consciousness, but it is harnessed and controlled through discipline. Meditation is a key factor.
Eventually, you have control over your thoughts, can analyze them, direct them, and let them flow freely. -
2016-02-10 at 2:03 AM UTC
If you ask me, I most undoubtedly exist as a mind.
I do not disagree with the notion that you or I exist as a mind but I also believe that we exist as much more than minds. A person is more than the sum of its parts and a persons existence reaches far further than the chemical and physical realities that constrain that body alone. The human cannot refute physical existence so it has advanced to contemplating its existence. It contemplates ego and after contemplating the ego, the self and the nature of being it draws a conclusion that it is above, beyond, below, before or otherwise dimensionally segmented from the irrefutable physical reality. But I believe it is not that we are constrained to our mind as self. I say this for the same reason Descartes can, while currently having no mind, tell me,that famous phrase "I think therefore I am". Sure I cant talk to Rene but I can still experience him in some way. Seutonius does something similar with his biographical work on the 12 Caesers. Through his work we can have a multifold experience. On the one hand we can experience and know of the Caesars, on the other hand we experience Seutonius.
What we are lies beyond chemical and physical bounds. We as an entity can express ourselves in many ways and that expression can take many forms from a wave of sound existing for mere seconds to an action that dictates the flow of a course of events even beyond the physical bodies decomposition.
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2016-02-10 at 2:13 AM UTCI am only human, and I could use a hand sometimes.
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2016-02-10 at 6 AM UTCWe are insignificant specks of energy floating along the cosmos passing through space and time. We have yet to understand even 1% of the entirety of existence and the known universe
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2016-02-10 at 6:07 AM UTC
We are insignificant specks of energy floating along the cosmos passing through space and time. We have yet to understand even 1% of the entirety of existence and the known universe
Things you never hear a Wall Street trader or CEO say.
Its true. But its not a practical philosophy -
2016-02-10 at 4:06 PM UTC
What we are lies beyond chemical and physical bounds. We as an entity can express ourselves in many ways and that expression can take many forms from a wave of sound existing for mere seconds to an action that dictates the flow of a course of events even beyond the physical bodies decomposition.
That's a great way of looking at it. -
2016-02-10 at 10:24 PM UTCAre we human? Or are we denser?
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2016-02-10 at 10:38 PM UTCRemember when you built this?
I do. How come you don't play anymore? 1.9 will be coming out soon. -
2023-06-27 at 11 PM UTCBump
