February 2012
23 posts
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
Part VI: What the Fuck Does This Mean?
Viewing consciousness as a relationship between at least two distinct physical organizations is part of a much broader philosophical problem than the question of consciousness. It raises questions as to the nature of space and motion. Apply the thought experiment from part V to a baseball in mid-flight. If you freeze it, it will stop. Thus, motion itself is...
“The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about...”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: The Great Sin
Why do so many people think this guy is ok?
“The objects with which we have to do in experience are by no means things in...”
– Immanuel Kant
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART V: ACCEPTING THE PREMISES
What I plan to do in this entry is offer a very straight-forward rebuttal of materialism, which will require a short thought experiment.
Imagine that you were having a lovely time, sitting outside a café in the summer at about 11:00 am. The air smells fresh, your coffee just cooled to a perfect temperature, you hear birds and see happy people frolicking up and...
“I absolutely reject the premise there is anything wrong with Black people...”
– Elaine Brown, Secretary of the Black Panther Party, professor of sociology. (via ifury)
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART IV: CHALLENGING THE PREMISES (Cont.)
B) Think about what scientists do. Have they ever attempted to study the non-physical. Of course they haven’t, nor would they ever attempt to. Scientists begin all investigations with the premise that all that exists is the so-called physical; this idea is inherent in science from its beginning; it is part of the very structure of science and is...
Hell is other people...
I’m at Starbucks. The bathroom is locked. I wait.
A fat, tall, bald, and droopy man exits the bathroom. I look into his eyes and see nothing. It’s like eye contact with a farm animal, with a cow. Fuck. It’s going to smell.
The toilet bowl looked like a stew; he had decided not to flush. Cows don’t know how, I suppose.
Sometimes I hate humans. Sometimes I think...
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART IV: CHALLENGING THE PREMISES
(This is about to get weird)
A) We just said that everything is material, but what the Hell is matter anyway? It is PERCEPTION, which is indisputably a product of the mind and can be understood in no other way. Thus, consciousness—that is, the mind—belies all matter.
The mind cannot, therefore, be debunked by so-called materialism. For the mind...
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART III: YOU ARE A CONFLUENCE, A SICK JOKE
In the vast scheme of the Universe, how much significance does a slight breeze have? What about a cloud moving through the sky? What about you’re greatest attributes or most sublime achievements? What about the love you have for your parents of siblings or anyone else important in your life? There really is no significant difference between any of the...
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART II: YOU ARE A CHEMICAL PROCESS AMIDST A CHEMICAL PROCESS
I look around and my conscious experience certainly seems to be something quite distinct from chemical compounds in my brain. However, it becomes extremely difficult to maintain this viewpoint when you acknowledge the existence of drugs that can alter people’s perception of reality or alternately, physical damage to a person’s...
WatchDr. Dimitri(us)’s Home Surgery Kit
A Soul Made of Meat? Struggling with Physicalism
PART I: STATEMENT OF INTENT
“tl;dr,” meaning “too long; didn’t read,” is now in common usage. Everybody hates those long-ass blog posts about trivialities that don’t concern them. Well, that’s what I have written. Several weeks ago, I wrote this along with several more entries on the same topic. For the next several days, I will be posting these entries. This is going to be like a travel blog,...
“If it were true that a heavy concentration of industry is destructive to human...”
– Ayn Rand, Return of the Primitive, Pg. 278
I’m not sure how I feel about this…
“…the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge...”
– John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Ch. VI, Sec. 57.
“A government that was genuinely responsible to the people would hardly be a...”
– Roderick Long (via whakatikatika)
January 2012
10 posts
“My friends, you don’t have to—you don’t need to do nation-building...”
– Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/high-tide-and-turn/2012/jan/29/ron-paul-and-israel-question/
“Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own...”
– The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand (via yourfavoritestory)
“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the...”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
I have just begun to think of this oft cited passage in a new way. Nietzsche expressed the paradox that currently faces the United States in terms of our foreign and domestic policy. As the original vision of this country is eroded more and more—this erosion fueled by...
A Rat Race No More: Eternal Life and Human...
I. Life has always been an ephemeral phenomenon. Like a sandcastle on the beach, it leaves without a trace once the tide of death washes in. Of course great individuals leave their mark on posterity, but as far as those individuals are concerned, they may as well have never existed. If you disagree, I ask you to think about a memory that you have no recollection of. Such an imperative is...
“Wow, you really put your foot in the shit now.”
– A newly created idiom by Marlee Clayton
December 2011
18 posts
“Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget...”
– ~ Neil Gaiman (M Is for Magic)
This is crony capitalism.
Crony capitalism - a capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials.
“It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless,...”
– Murray N. Rothbard (via haereticum)
Thomasina: You can’t stir things apart.
Septimus: No more you can, time must needs run backward, and since it will not, we must stir our way onward mixing as we go, disorder out of disorder into disorder until pink is complete, unchanging and unchangeable, and we are done with it forever. This is known as free will or self-determination. (1.1)
-Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
WatchThis video raises so many questions. Since the religious place their lives in God’s hands, should they accept all bad things that happen to them, even if caused by other people or negligence? What is the purpose of courts or prisons if God will see to it that justice prevails, if God will ensure that the right thing happens? If good people die, then they go to Heaven, and if bad people die...
Dots, Cyberspace, and Consciousness (and of course...
The above portrait, created by Chuck Close, is based off of a photograph taken of composer Philip Glass. By repeating over and over again the same exact dot at varying shades, Close created a complete image. The meaning of this portrait rests entirely upon the relationship between the dots, which each exist individually. This style thus places emphasis on the process—repeating and repeating and...
Who are the Front Runners?
Warning: Political Tirade
Skimming Google News, I came across this headline: “Romney, Gingrich battle could drag for months.” Hm, I moved along, and typed name Ron Paul into the search bar, since that seems to be the only way to find news about him—i.e., purposefully seeking it out. The first article that popped up was entitled “Ron Paul closes on Newt Gingrich: In time...
“… .There hasn’t been a righteous good time in Hollywood for over a...”
– Coketalk