Is there any philosophical question that you don't know the answer to?

[Birdjaguar]

It's easy enough to come up with answers to these questions. Heck, I have answers to most of those questions too: "I don't know".

I know you have more answers than "I don't know."

Your answers.. are they better than that? Why or why not?

Of course they are. Their mine.

Intellectually answering difficult questions is as rigorous as one chooses to make it. If the goal is merely to arrive at something like "42" and be done, then such an exercise is pretty worthless in my opinion. Answers to life's mysteries should have a carry over into how one lives one's life. If they are important questions, then answering them should have important implications. All those tyoees of questions do is structure one's universe so you know what to do and how to behave. To struggle with them is to struggle with what it means to be alive.

And excuse me if I doubt your claim to have solved all of life's great mysteries That is a bit of a ridiculous claim.

But I have. I have answers that make sense and act as a framework for living. Are they the "true" answers? I certainly think so, but within those answers it says that each person must find out for themselves the best way to live their life.

The answers to the important life questions are plentiful and easy to find. what is hard is to choose. We just fear being wrong, unnecessarily.

 

[Harbringer]

For this reason alone I began an ideology notebook of mine, to answer every philosophical question I can think of in it. Some though are discussed in it, even through they turn out to be an I dont know. The one that always gets me is "when is a baby alive?"

 

[Xyan]

There are answers I don't know, but nothing I cannot understand by some serious soul-searching. I based my understanding on Buddhism. But then non-Buddhists will likely debate me on this. But with Buddhism as my grounding, even the Bible and Koran make sense to me.

As in, when I read the Bible, I see a kind man with the desire to help his people, designing parables and metaphors to raise his people's capacity. The positives are jumping out to me. But people who take these metaphors literally irritate me somewhat.

 

[Birdjaguar]

For this reason alone I began an ideology notebook of mine, to answer every philosophical question I can think of in it. Some though are discussed in it, even through they turn out to be an I dont know. The one that always gets me is "when is a baby alive?"

The entity that will grow into a baby is "alive" when conception occurs. That is pretty unmistakable. Maybe your question really is: "When is it sufficiently differentiated from its mother to be indentified as separate?"

 

[West 36]

Do we even know anything, man? Like, dude, how do we even know we know, man?

I don't know if I know anything and don't know if I ever will. But I try to.

 

[Harbringer]

The entity that will grow into a baby is "alive" when conception occurs. That is pretty unmistakable. Maybe your question really is: "When is it sufficiently differentiated from its mother to be indentified as separate?"

What makes that entity that will grow any less human? And even if you dont consider it human, you still agree that it will become one, so why no consider it alive?

 

[Birdjaguar]

The entity that will grow into a baby is "alive" when conception occurs. That is pretty unmistakable. Maybe your question really is: "When is it sufficiently differentiated from its mother to be indentified as separate?"

What makes that entity that will grow any less human? And even if you dont consider it human, you still agree that it will become one, so why no consider it alive?

Uh I do consider it alive, as I stated (see bolding above). I did not address the question of whether or not it is human, which I think it is. When I said "will grow into a baby" I was talking about that at conception it is just a collection of cells, that given time and luck will grow into a baby. A zygote is not a baby; neither is a fetus.

 

[Perfection]

I think the better phrasing is, "when does a person begin?" Certainly an embryo is alive and an individual organism of the speicies Homo sapien, but when does it become a person where harm should not be done to it.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Is there any philosophical question that you don't know the answer to?

Yes, this one:

What's your ontology?

 

[dwaxe]

How can free will coexist with divine preodination?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I think the better phrasing is, "when does a person begin?" Certainly an embryo is alive and an individual organism of the speicies Homo sapien, but when does it become a person where harm should not be done to it.

Yes, US politics demands a line be drawn where before none was needed and we cannot even decide who should draw the line.

Bozo, It is nice to see you posting again.

I guess Fifty has abaddoned his thread.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Philosophy provides answers? I thought it just generated debate and words. Might as well try then.


Is killing an embryo equivalent to killing a human? (Yeah, the philosophical side of that question)

 

[lovett]

One wonders whether the notice of this 'bizzare hubris' increases exponentially the further from fifties' views it gets

Regardless, to expound any view sincerely in debate one must neccessarily belive that the evidence points towards that view being correct. And therefore act like it probably is. If one does not believe that said viewpoint is correct, then what's the point?

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Goes without saying.

I mean, did Socrates really say that, or did Plato bat for both teams?

Nothing in this universe is for certain. And even if it is now, it might not be tomorrow. We thought we'd set down all the laws of science, and then Brian Greene throws his unified field theory into the gears.

 

[bardolph]

Offhand, I can't think of any philosophical question that I cannot answer with certainty. However, I reserve the right to change my mind as I grow wiser (or more foolish).

 

[Birdjaguar]

One wonders whether the notice of this 'bizzare hubris' increases exponentially the further from fifties' views it gets

Regardless, to expound any view sincerely in debate one must neccessarily belive that the evidence points towards that view being correct. And therefore act like it probably is. If one does not believe that said viewpoint is correct, then what's the point?

Why would Fifty's views be tha standard of anything?

 

[warpus]

But I have. I have answers that make sense and act as a framework for living. Are they the "true" answers? I certainly think so, but within those answers it says that each person must find out for themselves the best way to live their life.

The answers to the important life questions are plentiful and easy to find. what is hard is to choose. We just fear being wrong, unnecessarily.

It is not a fear of being wrong; it is rather the humbleness of saying "I don't know", instead of being wrong, like you likely are on many of these issues.

 

[Ansar]

Is there any philosophical question that you don't know the answer to?

Do you plan on being as awesome as Plotinus one day?

Or are you aiming more towards someone like Fred?

 

[Birdjaguar]

It is not a fear of being wrong; it is rather the humbleness of saying "I don't know", instead of being wrong, like you likely are on many of these issues.

I cannot judge your personal motivation for saying you don't know, so "humbleness" is just fine. I do not think that is typical when it comes to the big important questions about life, why we are here and what is true. Your experiences have left you in doubt; mine have not.

These are all questions to which there are "right" answers even if humans don't know or cannot agree on what those answers are; we are not likely to find scientific answers or proof. So where does that leave us? We can take your position of "I don't know." Or we can say "We'll never know." Or we can argue "rationally" for another 4,000 and still not get any answers. Or we can say "My experience has value and it tells me that XXX is true."

BTW, why am I "likely wrong on many of these issues"?

 

[bardolph]

Do you plan on being as awesome as Plotinus one day?

Absozoobilutely