The Philosophy Thread

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Here's one that fucked me up. let's say, for this scenario only, God existed. One day God says to you, to save 6bn people on Earth, he'd have to kill 1bn.

However the burden is on you, the proverbial red button. What do you do?

Needs of the many outweigh few or an eye for an eye makes the world blind?

[Dion 2,476]

Here's one that fucked me up. let's say, for this scenario only, God existed. One day God says to you, to save 6bn people on Earth, he'd have to kill 1bn.

However the burden is on you, the proverbial red button. What do you do?

Needs of the many outweigh few or an eye for an eye makes the world blind?

The choice is between either 1bn people dying (and 6bn surviving) or 6bn people dying (and 1bn surviving)?

If that's the case I would gladly push the button for 6bn people live instead of only 1bn. I'm sort of an adept to utilitarianism. You didn't add any details so I'm assuming every person is worth the same, so 6bn > 1bn. If the choice was between 6bn infertile people vs. 1bn fertile people I'd go for the 1bn. It all depends. Another interesting scenario would be if was amongst the 1bn, I'm not sure I'd be able to do what's best then.

[Kieran. 6,317]

ok fuck im on acid and since the start of this thread, ive re-evaluated my life six times

[Spike 12,049]

ok fuck im on acid and since the start of this thread, ive re-evaluated my life six times

lol

You just wait till the walls start vibrating with life.

[boshman 1,073]

Thrte is no 'meaning'. Life needs certain things to happen. Those things were around however many billions of years ago life started. There is no meaning to it, in fact i don't even believe we are supposed to be here. We serve no purpose. We (life) just happened.

[Spike 12,049]

Thrte is no 'meaning'. Life needs certain things to happen. Those things were around however many billions of years ago life started. There is no meaning to it, in fact i don't even believe we are supposed to be here. We serve no purpose. We (life) just happened.

Well life is real and we are here. We give it our own meaning, each individual. If my life had no meaning to it, I may as well be dead.

[Dion 2,476]

Well life is real and we are here. We give it our own meaning, each individual. If my life had no meaning to it, I may as well be dead.

That's what he said, he's talking about a greater purpose or meaning beyond ourselves (or that's how I understood). We can only give it our own meaning because it has no meaning at first, it is a blank paper. Every person must build their own meanings for their lives, their own paths.

[boshman 1,073]

Well life is real and we are here. We give it our own meaning, each individual. If my life had no meaning to it, I may as well be dead.

That's what he said, he's talking about a greater purpose or meaning beyond ourselves (or that's how I understood). We can only give it our own meaning because it has no meaning at first, it is a blank paper. Every person must build their own meanings for their lives, their own paths.

Yes, Dion is right in what i was trying to say.

Of course we all have a purpose in our own personal daily lives, and to our nearest and dearest. But i mean life in general. The question was 'what is the meaning of life?' 'Life' is everything. Humans, animals... plants and trees, even going back billions of years to the living cells that fell to earth on meteorites. As humans we always try to find an explanation for things we don't understand. Always look for answers, and that is a good thing. But what if their isn't an explanation or an answer? Things sometimes just... happen.

[Dion 2,476]

Which reminds me of the free will examination. To what extent or degree do we really control our decision making? Do we really decide anything at all? Or do we only have the illusion of choice, when in reality every choice we make is the only decision possible considering the person we are in the moment we make them? And maybe the person we are in every given moment is not a product of our choices but the product of genetics and our previous experiences - both of them beyond our control.

One could come and say - Hey! But we can choose our experiences, that part isn't beyond our control. To which I would reply - not exactly - our first experiences are totally and completely beyond our control and they will already influence and taint every other decision we make in our lives from that point. Even when we're still in our mothers' wombs we're already being influenced by her nutrition, stress levels, hormones, external sounds etc. All that will have effect on how our bodies and minds are going to work in a similar fashion to a "butterfly effect" or like a rolling snowball, that coupled with genetics, of course. At the end of the day their influence on us may be so big that in reality we would be just a byproduct of it all and we wouldn't be really deciding anything in a conscious manner. Every grain and fiber of ourselves, our every reaction and decision would have been molded by factors totally out of our control.

Giving rough examples and ones which affect us in a smaller degree than what I'm talking about - I may think I chose to play tennis on my own accord, but in reality I had a massive influence from Gustavo Kuerten's (brazilian tennis player) success at the time I was a child. And then I meet a girl in my tennis classes and I decide to date her, well that decision in itself was already tainted by Guga making me play tennis prior to meeting her and many other circumstances in which I had no say. I may think my detached/aloof way of relating to my friends may have been somewhat a choice of mine but in reality the fact that I was always moving from city to city due to my parents jobs have played a huge part in it, if not in all of it. And the same logic applies to pretty much everything.

[boshman 1,073]

Which reminds me of the free will examination. To what extent or degree do we really control our decision making? Do we really decide anything at all? Or do we only have the illusion of choice, when in reality every choice we make is the only decision possible considering the person we are in the moment we make them? And maybe the person we are in every given moment is not a product of our choices but the product of genetics and our previous experiences - both of them beyond our control.

One could come and say - Hey! But we can choose our experiences, that part isn't beyond our control. To which I would reply - not exactly - our first experiences are totally and completely beyond our control and they will already influence and taint every other decision we make in our lives from that point. Even when we're still in our mothers' wombs we're already being influenced by her nutrition, stress levels, hormones, external sounds etc. All that will have effect on how our bodies and minds are going to work in a similar fashion to a "butterfly effect" or like a rolling snowball, that coupled with genetics, of course. At the end of the day their influence on us may be so big that in reality we would be just a byproduct of all of it and we wouldn't be really deciding anything in a conscious manner. Every grain and fiber of ourselves, our every reaction and decision would have been molded by factors totally out of our control.

Giving rough examples and ones which affect us in a smaller degree than what I'm talking about - I may think I chose to play tennis on my own accord, but in reality I had a massive influence from Gustavo Kuerten's (brazilian tennis player) success at the time I was a child. And then I meet a girl in my tennis classes and I decide to date her, well that decision in itself was already tainted by Guga making me play tennis prior to meeting her and many other circumstances in which I had no say. I may think my detached way of relating to my friends may have been somewhat a choice of mine but in reality the fact that I was always moving from city to city due to my parents jobs have played a huge part in it, if not all of it. And that applies to pretty much everything.

I think i can see what you're getting at in the last paragraph and i agree with you i think lol. I believe our path is set out for us. What job we get, what partner we decide to marry (or not marry) the day and way we die. People will say it is the decision we make that will decide that and yes that is right but we made that choice becaue whatever resulted from the choice was always going to happen because it happened if you get what i mean? For example i am going to die one day. The day and way i am going to die is already set because when the time comes it is going to happen. You (Dion) were always going to meet the girl in your tennis class because it actually happened, it was part of your life path.

I hope that makes sense.

[Dion 2,476]

I think i can see what you're getting at in the last paragraph and i agree with you i think lol. I believe our path is set out for us. What job we get, what partner we decide to marry (or not marry) the day and way we die. People will say it is the decision we make that will decide that and yes that is right but we made that choice becaue whatever resulted from the choice was always going to happen because it happened if you get what i mean? For example i am going to die one day. The day and way i am going to die is already set because when the time comes it is going to happen. You (Dion) were always going to meet the girl in your tennis class because it actually happened, it was part of your life path.

I hope that makes sense.

Yeah. Kind of like that. I met the girl because I decided to play tennis. I decided to play tennis because of Gustavo Kuerten. And I only met her because I happened to live in the same city as her. And because this class happened to be the closer to my house. And because my parents moved to the city some years before. And Guga only had this kind of influence on me because I happened to be born in Brazil. And that keeps going further back until the day you were conceived. Every thing that happened since you were born led to that moment. And the first things that happened were beyond your control. If the first ones were out of your control, so are the others that came subsequently, if that makes sense. And because every experience molds you to be the person you are and every single one of them happened no matter what you had to say about it, we could also say that you didn't even choose to be the person you are in the present.

What you said is a consequence of this train of thought. Because all of these things are out of everyone's control, things are going to happen in a set pattern and there's nothing we can do about it.

[killer1257 3,282]

True happiness?

I agree,but the question is "how to achieve true happiness?".

What can make a human being happy?

Health can make a human being happy because a healthy person has all the nutrients it needs to produce high amount of hormones,which in the end cause the feeling happiness.Also,a healthy person does not feel pain and pain causes stress,which obviously is not good for us.But only nutrients will not make you happy,although you have a good fundament to get happy.

Family and friends ,who give you love,can give you happiness and love is something that every human being needs.Without love,human beings will not live long.All people,who do not receive love,will commit suicide,or will automatically die because our body knows that there is no reason for growth,so it starts to decrease everything.

Sex is also something that makes people happy,but I do not think that sex only can make you happy.It is not that simple.In the short term,it makes you happy,but I do not think that only sex will make you in the long run .

A lot of people say that money makes you happy and in some ways I think that is also true because money basically means material wealth.As a matter of fact,most people are searching for material wealth because material wealth provides you also reputationMost pPeople want to be famous and material wealth gives you that.Furthermore,you can also buy everything your heart desires(house,airplane lol..).In fact,people with money are also in some ways carefree because they do not have to think about how they will survive the next day.They have all the money to buy enough food for themselves and a house to live.But money does also has its side effects because you do not know if your new friends like you because of your character or if they like you because of the fact that you are rich.

Inner peace is also something that will provide you happiness.If you accept yourself,with all your positive and negative characteristics,I think this will make you very happy in the long run,even if you do only have enough money to buy yourself good food.Studies have shown that people,who meditate,are in general more happier because our body basically activates "good genes",which make you happy.These "good genes" have an effect on your behaviour,a positive effect.You are much calmer and happier in general.Our system needs inner peace for giving us energy for the day.

All in all,I think the most important aspects of finding true happiness is love and inner peace.The reason for that is that without love,you can´t survive and without the acceptance of your body and your characteristics,you do not have the chance to be happy.

[gouk 4]

TO DO MEANINGFUL STUFF...

[Spike 12,049]

TO DO MEANINGFUL STUFF...

and junk. Stuff and junk.