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 Samsa
Shameless Devotee To Finntroll
Registered: 07/11/08
Posts: 44
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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 Favorite Philosophical passage? 
#8623031 - 07/11/08 05:36 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Just asking around for anyone's favorite philosophical passage, and why.
Mine is one titles 'The Trees' by Franz Kafka (you can find it in the book 'Metamorphosis and Other Stories'), which is my signature. I find it really profound as it, in quite a simple way, describes the extremely subjective nature of perception, and how everything we see, feel, and think in this world is based on several assumptions, such as 'This is Happening', and 'I exist'.
Any comments, or other philosophical passages?
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For we are as tree-trunks in the snow. Apparently they are merely resting on the surface of the snow, and a little push would be enough to knock them over. No, that's not the case for they are firmly attached to the ground. But see, even that is only seemingly the case.
- Franz Kafka
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wyldeman007
Student
Registered: 06/03/06
Posts: 309
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Last seen: 20 days, 9 hours
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Samsa]
#8623294 - 07/11/08 06:59 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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“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?”
- Epicurus
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"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins
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Samsa
Shameless Devotee To Finntroll
Registered: 07/11/08
Posts: 44
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: wyldeman007]
#8623320 - 07/11/08 07:09 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Interesting... arguing against God based on logical arguments about the state of the world, and the existence of evil?
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For we are as tree-trunks in the snow. Apparently they are merely resting on the surface of the snow, and a little push would be enough to knock them over. No, that's not the case for they are firmly attached to the ground. But see, even that is only seemingly the case.
- Franz Kafka
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 Mr. Mushrooms
Spore Print Collector
Registered: 05/25/08
Posts: 13,018
Loc: Registered: 6/04/02
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: wyldeman007]
#8623745 - 07/11/08 09:12 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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From a flawed concept of what constitutes ability. Omnipotence does not mean a being can create a round square, violate their nature or give created beings free will but deny them the power to use it.
Epicurus was wrong.
My favorite passage:
Why would anyone want to raise philosophical questions such as these? The answer is that without philosophy life is lived on the intellectual surface of things. People may live intense lives without philosophy. They may devote themselves happily to their careers, love their families, care deeply about social causes, have interesting hobbies, and travel to beautiful faraway places. Their lives may be rich in experiences and beneficial to themselves and their fellow human beings. But their lives will not be deep because they will not ask truly probing questions about life. I am not saying that a life without philosophy is a bad thing. (Besides, almost everyone's life has some philosophy in it.) I am saying that a life that does not include serious and extensive philosophical probing of itself has left an important and rewarding dimension untouched and unfulfilled.
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Samsa
Shameless Devotee To Finntroll
Registered: 07/11/08
Posts: 44
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Mr. Mushrooms]
#8623769 - 07/11/08 09:21 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Senor_Hongos said:
From a flawed concept of what constitutes ability. Omnipotence does not mean a being can create a round square, violate their nature or give created beings free will but deny them the power to use it.
Epicurus was wrong.
My favorite passage:
Why would anyone want to raise philosophical questions such as these? The answer is that without philosophy life is lived on the intellectual surface of things. People may live intense lives without philosophy. They may devote themselves happily to their careers, love their families, care deeply about social causes, have interesting hobbies, and travel to beautiful faraway places. Their lives may be rich in experiences and beneficial to themselves and their fellow human beings. But their lives will not be deep because they will not ask truly probing questions about life. I am not saying that a life without philosophy is a bad thing. (Besides, almost everyone's life has some philosophy in it.) I am saying that a life that does not include serious and extensive philosophical probing of itself has left an important and rewarding dimension untouched and unfulfilled.
Where'd you hear that? That's good.
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For we are as tree-trunks in the snow. Apparently they are merely resting on the surface of the snow, and a little push would be enough to knock them over. No, that's not the case for they are firmly attached to the ground. But see, even that is only seemingly the case.
- Franz Kafka
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blewmeanie
Sativa Cyborg
Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 27,595
Loc: 
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Samsa]
#8623872 - 07/11/08 10:04 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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"Myself acquainted with misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate."
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Mr. Mushrooms
Spore Print Collector
Registered: 05/25/08
Posts: 13,018
Loc: Registered: 6/04/02
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Samsa]
#8624063 - 07/11/08 11:19 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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One of my college textbooks. I saved a few of the books from the courses I liked. I like that quote in particular because it seems balanced. It doesn't really piss on people who don't care for philosophy, but it says without it you're missing something.
People who like philosophy can dig that quote.
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truekimbo2
Cya later, friends.
Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 9,234
Loc: ny
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Mr. Mushrooms]
#8624176 - 07/12/08 12:33 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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"Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.'
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You can check the last post in my journal for contact info.
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Mr. Middle
Registered: 07/11/99
Posts: 6,522
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: truekimbo2]
#8624196 - 07/12/08 12:48 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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By believing passionately in something
That still does not exist, we create it.
The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired - Franz Kafka
Philosophers are often like little children
Who first scribble some marks
On a piece of paper at random
And now ask the grown-up "What's that?" - Ludwig Wittgenstein
There is more wisdom in your body
Than in your deepest philosophy - Friedrich Nietzsche
Science is what you know.
Philosophy is what you don't know - Bertrand Russell
For manifestly you have long been aware
Of what you mean when you use the expression 'being'.
We, however, who used to think we understood it,
Have now become perplexed - Plato
I hate quotations.
Tell me what you know - Immanuel Kant
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backfromthedead
Activated
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 3,592
Last seen: 3 years, 9 months
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Mr. Middle]
#8624872 - 07/12/08 09:17 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Madness
Socrates begins by discussing madness. If madness is all bad, then the preceding speeches would have been correct, but in actuality, madness given as a gift of the gods provides us with some of the best things we have. There are, in fact, four kinds of divine madness:
1. From Apollo, the gift of prophecy;
2. From Dionysus, the mystic rites and relief from present hardship;
3. From the Muses, poetry;
4. From Aphrodite, love.
As they must show that the madness of love is, indeed, sent by a god to benefit the lover and beloved in order to disprove the preceding speeches, Socrates embarks on a proof of the divine origin of this fourth sort of madness. It is a proof, he says, that will convince "the wise if not the clever".
-Phaedrus
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Mutatis Mutandis
Disgustipated
Registered: 02/23/08
Posts: 278
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: wyldeman007]
#8633541 - 07/14/08 12:36 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
wyldeman007 said:
“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?”
- Epicurus
awesome, i havent read that before...
thanks for sharing
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"what is it called when the assassins accuse the assassin?"
"Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you'll be up again, but life goes on."
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Cervantes
Devil's Advocate
Registered: 09/23/03
Posts: 13,363
Loc: Dark Side of the Windmill
Last seen: 3 hours, 49 minutes
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Merlin motioned,
"Come to the edge."
But they held back and said,
"It is too dangerous."
He beaconed,
"Come to the edge."
But they said,
"We might fall."
Then, he commanded,
"Come to the edge."
So, they went to the edge...
And he pushed them...
And they flew.
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I know you think you understand the words I have just said to you but, what you fail to realize is, what you thought I said is not what I actually meant by saying what I said, when I said it.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate
Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 7,357
Last seen: 14 hours, 51 minutes
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Cervantes]
#8634790 - 07/14/08 06:04 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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"Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes
open, and our heads above the water.
And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate!
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for." ~Hopi elder
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Lion]
#8634890 - 07/14/08 06:29 PM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Lion said:
We are the ones we've been waiting for." ~Hopi elder
No, no, that was Obama.
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"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"
"Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword"
- John Mayer
Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Gomp
¡(Bound to·(O))be free!
Registered: 09/11/04
Posts: 10,206
Loc: I re·side [primarily] in...
Last seen: 3 days, 16 hours
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 Re: Favorite Philosophical passage? [Re: Samsa]
#8636553 - 07/15/08 05:14 AM (3 years, 10 months ago) |
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In being free to do anything we set out mind to..
We can, use that very freedom, to bind ourselves..
We can claim, not being free; thus be!
We can, ...
We can, choose!
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Disclaimer!?
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