The 8 Greatest Philosophical Theories You Need To Know - Aperture

a reply to: strongfp

no. I mean what made you think the video or this thread was ever meant to be spooky?

Let's use the word, epiphany. Or I don't know, a term like a new thought process, or a new way to look at life. When someone reads say meditations by Marcus Aurelius, there's many instances that could trigger those thought processes, or reinforce them. Isn't that the whole purpose of philosophy, or just reading in general?

it sure is. What are new thought processes though if not taking the next step from what is there? And if you want to take the step you would obviously first have to know what's there.

I also don't get inspired by everything. This didn't do the trick for you: okay, maybe next time, aye?

a reply to: FurPerson

Well I mean when there's words used like "the 8 greatest" and "most profound" it kinda bigs it up dont you think?

a reply to: strongfp

I edited for you. The new is maybe what is missing and why we need to reach a new consensus on what is there before any meaningful 'new' is possible?

a reply to: FurPerson

Well, if I go back to my post earlier. The question become with the duning Kruger effect, is it a natural path of thought, or is it a learned one from conversation with others?

I tend to lean towards there's no real original thoughts, since we are a species of communication, conversing with others can bring out certain thought patterns or ideas. But at the same time things like trial and error are instinctive.

a reply to: strongfp

trial and error are instinctive

that is certainly true. But I would say that mostly only works for hands on things, or like 2nd level abstract things f.e. geometry.

But at a certain point you enter tools for the theoretical exploration of how stuff works, be it statistics or any record of 'what others have figured out and proven before you'

Your hands on approach won't work anymore because you'd spend all your life-time starting at zero.

a reply to: FurPerson

Okay. This thread is getting away from me. May never catch up.

I just watched the Unified Theory portion. I will probably never understand the quantum stuff.

What I did sort of relate to was that Geometry and Trigonometry, though both relate to triangles, are not the same. Different notations and functions are used, and the purposes are different (solving for different problems).

Okay. Finished the "Theory of everything". I'm getting too old for this. I'm ready to resign myself to knowing that I will be ignorant to the end. If people figure this all out it will be without my help.

Sorry humans I'm only human.

a reply to: FurPerson

Tools. Of course, extensions of our minds and physical abilities. But does the effect still apply, as tools can be seen as a form of communication, and requires communication to be able to effectly use them? A natural instinctive process is in there as well.

The thing about the effect, is that it assumes somehow a person just knows how to be good at say chess, or a good hockey player, and when they meet with the activity it just "clicks" with them. As if they had deep down in them this knowledge of chess all along.

a reply to: strongfp

No it is limited to theoretical skills/knowledge.

That's impllied in how they designed the study it was mostly evaluations in the tests, you can only get it right when you know stuff, and then self-evaluation how well you did, how you actually did in comparison to the group etc.

I must lessen my nostalgic trips down memory lane because I am only thinking of the past positive and it's muddying the present.

Is nostalgia bad for mental health?

there can actually be a downside to too much reminiscing. While nostalgia can be an effective antidote to stress and anxiety, when a trip down memory lane goes on for too long, it can actually make you feel worse.

www.goodhousekeeping.com...

That's why advertisers use boomer age music in advertising to evoke those nostalgic memories so that we will buy their product.

www.clearvoice.com...

Knowledge is power.

a reply to: FurPerson

A fine thread Fur.
I'm familiar with a number of those topics and so chose one I had not known to be a thing, the Nostalgia Effect. Rather than watch, I did a quick read into it and now know that it is a thing to consider. The balance of good and negative that nostalgia offers us is quite interesting.

Having been born in the late 40s, I grew up with a plethora of black and white, simplistic cowboy movies and serials. Good guy fights bad guy good guy wins. It was a simple time for me and others as well I guess.

There came for me a point after I had retired that I had a lot of free time on my hands especially in the mornings. I began to explore the internet and all of the chaos it offered. What I would do was to put on an old movie or cowboy serial on the tube behind me while I considered the complexities of our modern life at the computer at my desk.Just the unconscious sound of the voices and galloping horses and even the gun fights acted as a calming effect while reading about all the crap we are facing now. I guess I knew about some of that effect already.

So yes, thank you for this video. I usually spend an hour and a half at the Y doing water aerobics while listening to lectures and such and now plan on putting this video at the top of my list for today.

a reply to: quintessentone

We have a casino down the road about fifteen minutes. There is not much in the way of local entertainment where we live so when we first moved here we went the a couple of times a month.Gambling and dinners and shows. We felt at home. Only after a year or so we realized that one of the reasons for that was the music of the fifties and sixties they always played. And in looking around at the clientele realized that sure enough, the entire place was filled with boomers born in the 40s and early 50s.

As time went by a decade later we would only go a half dozen times a year and i noticed that the music had also changed, more to the late sixties and seventies. They were playing to the next generation to have retired. Now, though we have not been there in a couple of years I would not be surprise to hear them playing disco..Ugg.

originally posted by: BingoMcGoof
a reply to: quintessentone

We have a casino down the road about fifteen minutes. There is not much in the way of local entertainment where we live so when we first moved here we went the a couple of times a month.Gambling and dinners and shows. We felt at home. Only after a year or so we realized that one of the reasons for that was the music of the fifties and sixties they always played. And in looking around at the clientele realized that sure enough, the entire place was filled with boomers born in the 40s and early 50s.

As time went by a decade later we would only go a half dozen times a year and i noticed that the music had also changed, more to the late sixties and seventies. They were playing to the next generation to have retired. Now, though we have not been there in a couple of years I would not be surprise to hear them playing disco..Ugg.

I noticed the casino music choice change too and it's all to make us spend more money while we think we are partying with those flashing lights minus the LDS (as Captain Kirk would say).

a reply to: quintessentone

Next steps would be to open one's mind to explore both sides of the coin.

For a coin to stand on its edge, both sides must be in perfect balance and harmony.
The happy medium.

Great study material, thanks OP!

a reply to: quintessentone One of the silliest things I have ever seen was in that casino.

Near the front door was a bank of slots, maybe six in a row backed by another six in a row. At each machine sat a slot player. Around that whole complex was a cordon of felt rope on gold stanchions and standing inside the cordoned area was an announcer announcing a slot contest going on while giving a play by play account of the action.

And each slot player was sitting there using one finger on the button on the screen going poke poke poke poke poke as fast as they could. At first I thought this was the most pathetic thing I had seen, until I looked a little farther. There, standing all around outside the cordon were a couple of dozen spectators. I quickly move on to the poker room.

I don't know exactly how that fits into the scope of the thread being the eight great philosophies, however it we were to extend that topic to 9, I think that the topic of how ''overly and easily entertained' our society has become would would fit in perfectly.

a reply to: BingoMcGoof

In actuality, the casino environment feeds us dopamine and the levels needed to maintain that feelz always increases, hence the addiction.

So another question here may be how much does our physiological needs govern our decisions and ideologies?

a reply to: quintessentone

The balance between physiological limits and psychological limits is an interesting study to me. I have studied quite a bit of psychology over the years and am in the process of catching up on the physiological looking for info on the balance, kind of like a TOE between the quantum theory and relativity theory. I"m such a glutton for this stuff.

I find this video to be very non-controversial.

Sure the Dunning–Kruger effect makes me feel a bit guilty; not only for spouting ignorance as fact, but also not speaking about what seems obvious to me, thinking that it must be obvious to everyone. There are two sides to Dunning–Kruger after all.

Let's take "The Egg Theory" for instance:
It is not a theory. It is a short story. Speculative fiction.

There are so many ways to explain empathy without it.


I am rather perplexed by humans thinking that they are immortal in some way shape or form, as if immortality is the default of reality. It isn't. It just plain isn't.

People have gone so far as to claim that the laws of thermodynamics "energy can't be destroyed" proves immortality. It doesn't.

a reply to: FullHeathen

Well that depends to what ideology you belong, to people who are convinced the mind is energy it totally proves that whatever gives you thought might change composition but never ceases to exist.

If you don't think mind is energy (I also don't I cringe a little when I try to think that):
what is it?

a reply to: FurPerson

For one thing. That law was written to explain steam engines. I think it needs an overhaul.

Kinetic energy like a hammer hitting an anvil converts to heat, by the molecules continuing the kinetic energy. Heat dissipates.

Batteries: Chemical interaction causes electrical charge. Just like chemical metabolism in the body creates energy. Our minds use that energy.

Battery breaks, electrolytes leak out into the ground, no usable charge created. Same with people, humans and animals.

I think mind is energy, at least thought uses energy.

(29) Jesus said: If the flesh came into existence because of the spirit, it is a marvel. But if the spirit (came into existence) because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. But as for me, I wonder at this, how this great wealth made its home in this poverty.
- Gospel of Thomas -

Of course spirit is probably a whole different subject.

a reply to: quintessentone

Nostalgia gives us a sense of continuity of self. Amnesia is no good as a way of life.

Did you ever watch Pulp Fiction in the theater? The whole audience burst out laughing when the dance started. It was a nostalgic moment for those remembering Saturday Night Fever.