What is the Most Important Philosophical Question

originally posted by: Talorc

originally posted by: Willtell


Humans fear one thing and that is pain and the fear of pain.


The most important philosophical question objectively is what Buddhah sought. How to free ourselves from suffering


There are of course layers of this human conundrum and can be put in other words


Subjectively is what your own heart desires to do, that you only can answer.

Hmmm, forgot to respond to this.

It isn't pain itself which causes us to fear it, but our judgment of pain. Make the judgement that pain is an evil, something to fear and avoid at all costs, and we've bound ourselves to that determination.

However, conceive pain as indifferent, as something neither good nor bad, and the fear of it ceases. Buddha simply made the correct judgment about the nature of pain and suffering. That is, pain is neutral and outside of our power. A mere feature of living. No one can avoid it, no one can run away from it or banish it entirely, so why fret over it?

Or put another way: you can feel pain, but you needn't be hurt by it. Nothing can hurt you without your consent, without the judgment "I am hurt."

Human beings don’t really, I think, think that mechanically…We are mostly beings of existentiality more than intellection.

We cant easily become what we intellectualize but we can become what we perceive through cultivation….the very essence of true religion

so when you say

"It isn't pain itself which causes us to fear it, but our judgment of pain. Make the judgement that pain is an evil, something to fear and avoid at all costs, and we've bound ourselves to that determination."

I never said anything about evil I said “ fear” they can be related of course but the point your making basically is Roosevelt’s old the fear of fear

Buddha taught what you spoke which has to be cultivated not intellectualized mechanically. That's really hard to do.

It’s called in Buddhism equanimity

a reply to: Willtell

Roosevelt's words came from a standpoint grounded in millennia. And there is significant overlap between Buddhism and it's Western counterpart, which is where Roosevelt drew the idea. And that counterpart is.... well, I'd rather not say, you may already know.

You're certainly right, we learn and internalize through habit more than anything else.

The Buddhists, though, don't have a staple on equanimity. There are other avenues, but perhaps it only boils down to edifice and rhetoric. As for my interpretation being too "mechanized", like everything else, the logic is fruitless without practical application. Plus there's the fact that I simply don't know how else to put it into words.

If would could gather together all the sages of the world, they would agree unanimously that what they're seeking is the same.

@OP I'll respond more thoroughly when I've got time.

a reply to: Wang Tang

What is the Most Important Philosophical Question?

Perhaps it is this one. If we had the most important question, we'd be all that much closer to the most important answer.

But the questions that have most concerned philosophers for millennia are: what is there? what is it like? and what is the best way to live one's life?

a reply to: Wang Tang

I think attempting to narrow it down to one question puts you in a box. I think the most fundamental thing we can start with is truth. What is truth? What is its nature? Can we know it? If so, how do we come to know it? I think your position on our relationship with truth determines whether or not anything is worth pursuing to begin with.

a reply to: Wang Tang

As children the question is typically: What's this? Then they are told and then that's what it always is to them as a concept of what "it" is then they run into a language not their own, and it ceases to be that but it never really was that... just a conceptual representation for a consensus or mass conspiracy for what that is... all peoples, cultures and customs have grown to see "it" differently not respecting them and understanding the beauty of their view is domination, war, and simply put all out ignorance.

Then as children ask why... either Atlas shrugs or pontificates.

children ask why

I didn't even think of the children!! The most honest and pure of us all.

That simple question can be one of the most difficult to answer. My five year old does it and for the most part I can give her the answers. But a couple of times I've had to result to the "I don't know" or "that's just what people think" or "because mommy knows everything" types.

Asking "why" could be philosophical. Eventually you'll get to one where there is no answer, just speculation.

a reply to: PageLC14

It's good to let them give it back in the balance called simplicity, even though many see them as a complicated gift they present themselves over time... th more we wrap them up in the world as we know it the longer it can take them to unwrap themselves from all the complication and simply be who they always were.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Complicated little gifts they are. Sometimes need to remind myself that she is only 5! Everything for her is pretty mind blowing.

A couple weeks ago, though, she really surprised me with one of those immediate unanswerable questions; "Mommy, why are we here?"

I personally believe that our spiritual journey in life is most definitely a personal one so I will never try to force any belief I may have onto my daughter. I thought about her question for a minute and told her she was getting a little too deep for a 5 year old.... Then I told her, "that is one of the most sought after questions in the world. No one truly knows why we are here so there are a lot of possible reasons" Then she was silent for a minute before moving on to the next subject. I was surprised she didn't then on to the "where did we come from" but I guess that one was enough brain food for the day.

I wasn't expecting those types of questions until a little later but her intelligence tends to surprise me a little more every day.

a reply to: PageLC14

Was it an assumption that it was the big philosophical question? Seems likely as that is something anticipated or expected.

Well, where were you two at during that time..? and well why were you two there? That is the grounding in reality... why get dreamy and wax poetic in some dream other than what was already occuring?

In meditation nothing is supposed to be going on but sitting that's it not scratching, not thinking, not anything just sitting there. The awareness that all you are being or doing in that moment is just that sitting and not anything else at all.

It may sound simple but yet it is not when meditation turns into sitting and nothing else? One is finally doing it right... lol same with doing anything else. Otherwise where are you found to exist? In the body or chasing some random conceptual train down the tracks? Waiting to be tied up in some other time non existent, than what is right then and there?

Doing such is to experience reality directly. Otherwise unreality... that's the present; the gift of the moment of being, in and of itself... nothing added, nothing subtracted. Simply being, simply doing. The rest IS the complication, the suffering, the heavens and hells. We create right out of thin air; grabbing them like a balloon, after floating off to grasp one... and then give it weight as a reality.

Always something to do instead of chasing things around to do.

originally posted by: PageLC14
a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

Complicated little gifts they are. Sometimes need to remind myself that she is only 5! Everything for her is pretty mind blowing.

A couple weeks ago, though, she really surprised me with one of those immediate unanswerable questions; "Mommy, why are we here?"

As BBD was getting at: Context can sometimes be important. Like: where you actually were, when she asked: "Mommy, why are we here?".
Were you sitting on the top of a moving bus?
In aisle 2 at a sex-shop?
In middle of a testing facility, at a tennis-ball factory?

Just kidding. The answer you gave her was full of wisdom, and more than adequate for a 5-year-old.

So where do these philosophical questions come from? Is it the formative mind, or ego, that has noticed a difference between "we", and "here"? Is there a we without a here, and vice-versa?

From BBD's last post: if the true nature of reality, is at a more basic level, as a priority to any possible questions: is it possible to get to this understanding, without going through the questioning that we learned as young children?
If this is so: then the OP's question is outside of reality, but the beginning of the search, for the path to return to basic experiential reality.

originally posted by: Wang Tang
As a philosopher I often find myself questioning the importance of other fields. I have met several psychology majors who were completely oblivious to the inner workings of their own minds, let alone other peoples’. I’ve met ineffective Math teachers who could not communicate with normal people. I’ve met engineers who made good money but were thoroughly unhappy with their jobs. As a philosopher it’s natural to question the importance of other fields because we do not want to waste our time with pointless work. But ironically it is very rare that I see philosophers questioning the purpose of philosophy. Before delving any further into philosophy, I thought it necessary to find the best starting point in philosophy.

The most important philosophical question… is it the same question for all of mankind, or is the most important philosophical question different for each person? Is philosophy important for the sake of mankind, or for my own sake? Should I use philosophy to examine how I live my life, or is it more important to examine the true nature of reality? Suicide, morality, God, the greatest good, these are all things that famous philosophers have claimed are the most important philosophical question. There are many possibilities, but I am not sure where to go from here. Hopefully you guys can help me out.

Or perhaps the most important philosophical question is in fact: “what is the most important philosophical question?”

Since the beginning of time religion and philosophy exist to answer the four great existential questions:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What does it all mean?
4. What is going to happen to me when I die?

Having the questions is one thing. Answering them is another. Some people believe in the existence of unanswerable questions and some of these may fall into that category. Other people believe there are no unanswerable questions. Some people think the English language itself is our primary limitation to answering these questions. Not many people have ask the question: Have you ever thought about what your brain is doing between thoughts? Regardless of self-referential semantic loop de loops, I will make an attempt at answering the four great questions. Of course, everyone probably has their own way of answering these questions.

1. We are who we are when we make choices under certain stressful conditions.
2. We are the Universe's way of experiencing itself. We are here to experience ourselves interacting with existence.
3. It all means nothing. But it also means nothing that it means nothing. So it is up to each of us to choose what it all means since it all means nothing anyway.
4. When you die, you stare into the face of God's infinite love. At that moment, time and conscious thought cease to exist as you are completely bathed in white light for all eternity. Everyone get's to look into the face of God regardless of our earthly sins or how we practiced our religion. If you don't think this is true read number 3 again.

The only thing I will add is how to find and achieve happiness. Happiness in life comes from playing games of chance with a small group of friends.

Okay, there you have it. That's all you need to know.

originally posted by: luthier
a reply to: Wang Tang

As a fellow philosopher it can be different based on society structure or lack of.

For a civil society it is the topic of duty. Specifically how should I act.

Good one.

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
WHY is reality here anyway?

Reality exists so God can experience the thrill of having limitations.

originally posted by: Willtell
Humans fear one thing and that is pain and the fear of pain.

I'm not sure I agree with this one. To have pain is to be alive. Most people fear not having pain.

originally posted by: Nothin
Seem to always be late to these philosophical threads.
The original question seems intriguing, but then...
By the time it's found, the thread has degenerated into: semantics; personal arguments; ego-boasting; trivialities; and endless proselytizing.

Why does this always seem to happen?

Not saying that y'all aren't smart, because all the answers have been read, and many are very thoughtful and intelligent.
But it's always overtaken by intellect. Why?
Why do some seem to believe that there are answers in knowledge?

Is this reply even ego-free? Probably not.

Or even worse they degrade into meta-posts about the thread or the posters!

originally posted by: Nothin
Seem to always be late to these philosophical threads.
The original question seems intriguing, but then...
By the time it's found, the thread has degenerated into: semantics; personal arguments; ego-boasting; trivialities; and endless proselytizing.

Why does this always seem to happen?

Not saying that y'all aren't smart, because all the answers have been read, and many are very thoughtful and intelligent.
But it's always overtaken by intellect. Why?
Why do some seem to believe that there are answers in knowledge?

Is this reply even ego-free? Probably not.

Or even worse they degrade into meta-posts about the thread or the posters!

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: Wang Tang
The principles of Mathematics are an unchanging truth. You understand a Mathematical concept once, and you fully understand it.

I humbly disagree. I discovered this book in college, and never looked at mathematics and its inherently faulty symbolic structure the same way again:
www.goodreads.com...

I was thinking the exact same thing. He needs to study Godel.

originally posted by: PageLC14
a reply to: Wang Tang

You just made my whole week with your reply!

Maybe the answer is meaning and joy comes from other people admiring us.

originally posted by: PageLC14

children ask why

I didn't even think of the children!! The most honest and pure of us all.
That simple question can be one of the most difficult to answer. My five year old does it and for the most part I can give her the answers. But a couple of times I've had to result to the "I don't know" or "that's just what people think" or "because mommy knows everything" types.

Asking "why" could be philosophical. Eventually you'll get to one where there is no answer, just speculation.

I once heard a story about a little girl describing how she was different than a computer as "I am a feeling computer."

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite
What and who are we really?

What seems the more relevant question.