Philosophy?

Happiness is...

Succumbing to desire	2.2%	[ 2 ]
Self-indulgence	7.6%	[ 7 ]
Pleasing others	5.4%	[ 5 ]
The simple things that bring pleasure	40.2%	[ 37 ]
Being in a good state	17.4%	[ 16 ]
The aim of life	27.2%	[ 25 ]
Total Votes:			[ 92 ]

This poll closed on March 14, 2008.
No longer accepting new votes.

[Renegade-Smurf]

Anyone interested in philosophical discussions here?
I'm doing Year 12 Philosophy and find it fascinating... however I'm quite limited in the amount of people that share my interest, and so I have no one to explore the greater concepts of existence with.

So if you wanna talk about thinking about thinking and all the big questions in life- Come along for a chat and an imaginary cup of coffee (coffee is good for philosophy, unless you have some chai, or green tea... if you like you can brign a real beverage, or even snacks, to your computer as we're chatting and we can go from there)

(If anyone wants to be my friend they can also add me, since I happen to have no friends yet... sad )

[Renegade-Smurf]

Maybe I should get us started... here's a couple of questions to consider... a philosophical exercise;

What is the meaning of life?
What is happiness?
Can anyone lead a good life?
Why do you do what you do everyday?

Rock on!
Peace out...

[Rhealla]

Aww, I wish I got to study philosophy at school. Lucky.... smile I don't really know much about philosophy.

I remember there was a show on tv once where each episode had a famous philosopher. I wish I could find it and the episode where they talked about intelligence vs wisdom...Basically, intelligence is taught, a collection of facts and figures that you commit to memory. Most anyone can be intelligent but wisdom (and common sense) is far more rare. So true....I was friends with a girl who had the highest grades in the school yet when it came to common sense she was below the average person. She liked to think she knew everything though...

the meaning of life is....enjoyment. and sharing that enjoyment with others. there is no sense in leading a life that is another person's perception of good you have to do what makes you happy.

[GillyBBY]

"I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.

And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you."

Wish I got to do Philosophy in year 12.
I love that sort of stuff.
Normally when I can't sleep it's because my mind keeps burning away with things like that.

"Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due,

I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."

[Dea ex Machina]

I'm in first year philosophy at university. (: I'm loving it so far, and am taking all of the first year philosophy courses. I'm going to major in it, but I don't know if I want to get my Master's Degree in it afterwards - still undecided.

Philosophical questions aren't even limited to airy-fairy stuff like "the meaning of life" or "does god exist?" Philosophy comes into play in law, politics, religion, life, etc. etc. P: I'm particularly interested in the philosophy of law, but right now my two philosophy courses are "Philosophy in Literature" as well as "Problems of Philosophy" (which looks at "does god exist?" - arguments for and against it).

My philosophy in literature class is quite interesting, in that we're looking at destiny (Can you be held morally responsible if you were destined to do something?). Various philosophers argue both sides, in that some philosophic schools of thought hold that - while our destinies may be set, the means to achieving or reaching that destiny are not. For example, in the story of Oedipus, regardless of what Oedipus did, he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. But he could have done that in any number of ways, and it was only the end that was set. P:

What we're looking at right now in that class is related to desire - Does the good life (happiness) require the suppression of desire to be achieved? It's interesting in that some would argue that, no, desire should go unchecked for it to completely achieve happiness. Others would argue that desire needs to be checked, in that the fulfillment of our every desire produces less happiness. Then comes into play the definition of "good life" - can we be morally bad while achieving our every desire, but still lead the "good life"/ be happy?

Anyway, that's just what we're studying right now. :3 Last term, I had "Philosophical Text" (where we read Plato's Republic) and also "Philosophy, Law, and Society" - where we looked at war/terrorism, aboriginal rights (I'm in Canada~), poverty, and a variety of other subjects. (:

I suggest anyone who is even remotely interested in philosophy to take a course in first year university about it (assuming that your school has a program for it, and that you can fit in into your schedule).

As a fun side note, it's been proven in a couple of U.S. and Canadian comparisons that philosophy undergrads do better on a lot of the graduate entrance exams than business students, etc. (: Makes me laugh at my friends who are studying business, when I'll probably do better than them in the long-run. domokun

[Modus Tollens]

Yay! Finally a discussion I can sink my teeth into! (Senior philosophy major, here!)

Is anyone interested in symbolic logic or metaphysics?

[iRovan]

I like Philosophy

I don't like coffee

=(

[Dea ex Machina]

Symbolic logic?
I haven't heard of it. (: Care to describe it and why you find it interesting?~

[Modus Tollens]

Sorry for the delay; I got sidetracked. sweatdrop

Symbolic logic is the study of the structure and validity of arguments. I have just begun the class this semester and so I will describe what I have learned so far.

There are five major operators in the study of logic: and, or, not, if and only if, and if...then. They are represented by symbols in logical problems: and represented by "·" (a raised dot); or as "v"; not as "~" (a tilde); if and only if as "≡" (three horizontal lines); and if...then as "⊃" (a sideways horseshoe).

Now I will put these symbols in to play. I'll start with a simple example because I am just learning this myself. Let's consider the following sentence: "If George and Marie are going to the party, then Sam will go too." I'll let G represent George, M for Marie, and S for Sam. I would map out this sentence in the following way:

[(G·M)⊃S]

Since whether Sam attends the party or not depends heavily on whether George and Marie go, this is why I have chosen those three as the subjects of my sentence. We must first learn how to phrase sentences symbolically before we can move onto applying it to arguments. My first exercises had me to choose the major operator of the sentence. In the previous sentence, ⊃ would be the major operator since the main function of the sentence is provide an if...then statement. I enclosed the bit about George and Marie in parentheses because "and" is a secondary operator in that sentence. In order to find the major operator, you must start from the outside. I'll give another example from my homework.

((a · b) v ~(b · c))

The major operator is "v". This is because it gives the sentence its function. The sentence can be read "A and B OR not B and C." The OR connects the two "and" phrases together.

We've learned more and I'll post about it if anyone's interested. I'm sorry if my explanation wasn't very clear. I'll try to clarify things more if anyone wants me to. If anyone else has more experience with logic, then please feel free to correct me.

[hybrid_hound]

questions: can we actually touch anything?
if a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around, does it make a sound?

[Vest Man the Original]

Happiness is something that is an abstract concept, we link it with a supposed "good" feeling, releasing endorphines into the body, but happiness is just a word. Words are an abstract thing just like happiness, so yellow is grey and red is white, but only you know what is right, and what is an illusion, on the threshold of a dream.

[pooka91 v2]

mmm intresting ...and how old are you....you seem well educated...i would love to have a chat with you^.^

[Sikurri]

Click to Help Hatch My Eggs!

I remember talking about them in my philosophy class. Fun.

I think the meaning of life is to do the things you want. =w= That's all. If you want to make money, then that's your meaning of life. But since things we want changes most of the time, it makes life similar to a river ~ right?~ The meaning of life is not only to do the things you want, but to accept changes that happen during the things you want to do or be. So in the end, the meaning of life is yourself living.

Happiness is what you get pleasure from. Whether it be bad pleasure like inflicting pain, or good pleasure, it's still happiness and no one can tell you what makes you happy. Only yourself.

Anyone can live a good life, I don't believe in God or anyone that says something like, "Your life is decided when you were born". Everyone can make their own choices, it's not like there's something in your heart that commands you to do things you don't want. It's your own choice and decision to lead yourself where you want to be. No one to blame if you mess up but yourself. Although, yes, influences can play a part, but again, it's up to you to decide to take the influences directly or ignore it.

I do what I do everyday because I want to! x3

[Vest Man the Original]

kaji-san16

mmm intresting ...and how old are you....you seem well educated...i would love to have a chat with you^.^

Who was this directed to, the OPer?

[Komodra]

hybrid_hound

questions: can we actually touch anything?
if a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around, does it make a sound?

a tree will still make a sound. its like asking if no one is around are you breathing? its a simple question of if no one is around to see or experiance anything happenning, is it ever considered to happen since everything in life is written down to prove it happened