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 EllisDSox
King Hella!
Registered: 01/22/07
Posts: 25,730
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 Existence versus Essence 
#6977009 - 05/28/07 09:33 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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All right, load your guns and dig the trenches, it's time for a traditional philosophical debate.
Do you believe essence precedes existence, or existence precedes essence? Are we born as a blank slate and then made (either by ourselves or others) into who we are, or are certain traits and qualities of our being present from before our birth and therefore unavoidable?
Personally, I think that the passage of DNA through the generations gives us certain innate pieces of knowledge, but these can only be unlocked through particular experiences, which we must discover by ourselves. What do you all make of this debate. Are we born a blank slate, or something else?
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Disclaimer: If you have any kind of heart condition, my posts are not for you. You could literally die from reading the first couple of words in any one of them. Scroll down the page, live your life and prosper, but don't read my posts because your heart will probably explode. I am not joking.
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 backfromthedead
Activated
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 3,592
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: EllisDSox]
#6977057 - 05/28/07 09:44 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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This is my predicament. I can't decide whether information is encoded within the human being, the Akashic Record, as I've heard it described. Or, weather it exists outside the human somehow contained in an overmind or over soul. Or both, like we all have our own genetic predisposition but the current state of the collective pushes us around into a 'suitable' existence. When the genetic predisposition conflicts with the arrived at 'suitable existence' later on down the line, this is where I feel that 'issues' arise. Modern history in a nutshell for the average individual. Myself included.
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: EllisDSox]
#6977078 - 05/28/07 09:53 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Actually I think you're arguing more of a nature vs. nurture thing, rather than an existence vs. essence thing.
And I think it's a mixture of both. We're born with the potentials for certain things, and we're born with certain predispositions, but we aren't born angry or skilled at physical labor, for example.
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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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Psychoactive1984
PositiveCynicist
Registered: 02/06/05
Posts: 3,546
Loc: California, Monterey Coun...
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: EllisDSox]
#6977440 - 05/28/07 11:36 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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From the moment where brought into this world (from birth on), or from the advent of our creation?
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"Their is one overriding question that concerns us all: How can we get out of the fatal groove we are in, the one that is leading towards the brink?" Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
"We may not be capable of eradicating the corruption of reason, but we must nevertheless counter it at every instance and with every means." Dan Agin
"Politics is the best religion and politicians are the worst followers."
-It's ok to trip as long as you don't fall.
-Substance over Style.
-Common sense is uncommon.
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Veritas
Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: EllisDSox]
#6977477 - 05/28/07 11:45 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Are we born as a blank slate and then made (either by ourselves or others) into who we are, or are certain traits and qualities of our being present from before our birth and therefore unavoidable?
Born as a blank slate or conceived as a blank slate?
Though I would say neither, as it seems very likely that some of who we are is encoded in the genetic matter provided by our parents. But much of what we term "in-born temperament" seems to be learned/imprinted during the gestational period, so the slate is even less blank at the time of birth.
I agree that this is more a "nature vs. nurture" topic than "existence vs. essence."
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Psychoactive1984
PositiveCynicist
Registered: 02/06/05
Posts: 3,546
Loc: California, Monterey Coun...
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: EllisDSox]
#6977515 - 05/28/07 11:54 AM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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When I think of human beings and how we encode our experiences I think computer hard drives and use that as a basis for analogy. The experience is rendered, transfered, stored etc and composes the information possessed by us that we could later manipulate in any manner of ways.
So a blank slate practically, no favorite colors, no favorite recreations, no predominant hand, its all determined at a later date... as far as everything goes their is a degree of encoding involved in regards to reaction towards stimulu and what not, but just how we react to it is defined by who we are and how we process.
So nature versus nurture? Depends on the fact that your working with a sufficient base material to the effect that nature isn't all that inclusive otherwise we can be talking about a mentally defiicient human where nurture just isn't going to be of any consequence, so really their is no clear winner unless you assign since averages such as it is a human being of average intelligence.
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"Their is one overriding question that concerns us all: How can we get out of the fatal groove we are in, the one that is leading towards the brink?" Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
"We may not be capable of eradicating the corruption of reason, but we must nevertheless counter it at every instance and with every means." Dan Agin
"Politics is the best religion and politicians are the worst followers."
-It's ok to trip as long as you don't fall.
-Substance over Style.
-Common sense is uncommon.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate
Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 1 month, 3 days
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Re: Existence versus Essence [Re: dblaney]
#6978468 - 05/28/07 04:38 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
dblaney said:
Actually I think you're arguing more of a nature vs. nurture thing, rather than an existence vs. essence thing.
And I think it's a mixture of both. We're born with the potentials for certain things, and we're born with certain predispositions, but we aren't born angry or skilled at physical labor, for example.
Well, some people are definitely genetically more predisposed to excel at physical labor than others. And the womb-environment probably makes certain people chemically more likely to emote anger from an early age.
Whether we all carry past ethnic, geographic, cultural, religious information through the genetic passing of the collective unconscious I have no idea; I have strongly suspected before that my DNA carries such innate knowledge, but it could just be a result of my programming vis-a-vis how I view my own ethnic heritage and other world cultures.
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“Strengthened by contemplation and study,
I will not fear my passions like a coward.
My body I will give to pleasures,
to diversions that I’ve dreamed of,
to the most daring erotic desires,
to the lustful impulses of my blood, without
any fear at all, for whenever I will—
and I will have the will, strengthened
as I’ll be with contemplation and study—
at the crucial moments I’ll recover
my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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