Why is it that I want this formidable thing? Why is it that outside this thing all signs point to no, even my own mental roads, yet inside this thing all roads lead to yes? Why do I call myself rational and yet go against everything I would tell another person in this situation? Well not everything I guess, but everything I would have told a person in my position given everything in the past. I guess its human nature and there is really no more specificity to it than that.
[curse word]
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
On Psychological Egoism
Psychological egoism, an idea thought up by philosopher John Hobbes (yes, this is who the stuffed tiger hobbes in calvin and hobbes is named after, as his character can attest) suggests that every conscious action we commit as humans is done for ourselves, in one way or another. To put it simply: BY NATURE, HUMANS DO EVERYTHING FOR THEMSELVES. Humans will not commit an action that their mind does not perceive as benefitting them in some way. Lately I have thought up a few cases where this could be argued and then realized they do not evade the argument by any means. I will start off with a few examples to clarify this subject first.
1. A man walks to the store to buy bread. He buys bread so that he can feed himself. That one is obvious.
2. A soldier throws himself on a grenade to save his 5 other soldier friends. In this case, there must have been some mental idea present that being a martyr would benefit his name, that others might see him as a hero--he had SOMETHING to gain, whatever it was, he committed to the act because it benefitted him.
But here was an example that troubled me for a bit.
3. An immature teenager who is not all that bright gets bored so he decides to burn his arm. He doesn't know what will happen, he just does it. It hurts him, leaves a mark. Well it came to me that this example is the most obvious of all! The answer is within the very beginning of the sentence, too. He wants to free himself of boredom! Or his parents are perhaps neglectful of him and he wants attention, positive or negative, he doesn't care---just like in the case of a child trying to aggravate their parent just for the hell of it.
This can obviously be a horrible thing but on the other hand it gives me some hope for humans, as a race. The fact that we have enough nuclear weaponry to blow up the world over 6 times does not mean we would ever do that--why would anyone ever want to wipe out the entire human race? Perhaps they might wipe out a large portion of the race--but the human race itself is destined to survive.
Having said that I now feel like an idiot because nature could wipe out our entire race with ease by throwing upon us natural disasters of magnitude we could not comprehend. Then again, we do have space shuttles, but to where? There has to be somewhere else we could live, because the entire scope of our knowledge as humans is less than one millionth of what actually exists in entirety, and in addition to that, another thing outside of our scope of knowledge is what the FUCK existence even is, how the FUCK we know that WE even exist, god, its so overwhelming when you think that this could all be a dream, but what is a dream? What do we even fucking know? Do we know that there are 4 million other colors we cant see? We certainly dont know there aren't.
From all this, my conclusion (and digression) ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Love youself.
Much love,
-Zephyr
1. A man walks to the store to buy bread. He buys bread so that he can feed himself. That one is obvious.
2. A soldier throws himself on a grenade to save his 5 other soldier friends. In this case, there must have been some mental idea present that being a martyr would benefit his name, that others might see him as a hero--he had SOMETHING to gain, whatever it was, he committed to the act because it benefitted him.
But here was an example that troubled me for a bit.
3. An immature teenager who is not all that bright gets bored so he decides to burn his arm. He doesn't know what will happen, he just does it. It hurts him, leaves a mark. Well it came to me that this example is the most obvious of all! The answer is within the very beginning of the sentence, too. He wants to free himself of boredom! Or his parents are perhaps neglectful of him and he wants attention, positive or negative, he doesn't care---just like in the case of a child trying to aggravate their parent just for the hell of it.
This can obviously be a horrible thing but on the other hand it gives me some hope for humans, as a race. The fact that we have enough nuclear weaponry to blow up the world over 6 times does not mean we would ever do that--why would anyone ever want to wipe out the entire human race? Perhaps they might wipe out a large portion of the race--but the human race itself is destined to survive.
Having said that I now feel like an idiot because nature could wipe out our entire race with ease by throwing upon us natural disasters of magnitude we could not comprehend. Then again, we do have space shuttles, but to where? There has to be somewhere else we could live, because the entire scope of our knowledge as humans is less than one millionth of what actually exists in entirety, and in addition to that, another thing outside of our scope of knowledge is what the FUCK existence even is, how the FUCK we know that WE even exist, god, its so overwhelming when you think that this could all be a dream, but what is a dream? What do we even fucking know? Do we know that there are 4 million other colors we cant see? We certainly dont know there aren't.
From all this, my conclusion (and digression) ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
Love youself.
Much love,
-Zephyr
Monday, June 28, 2010
Hypocrisy
Am I losing my morals and values? Am I going against things which I very strongly believe in? Am I even worth shit if this is the case? Am I merely human? Well yeah....
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
A Guided Meditation? (Not in the traditional sense, of course...)
And I said unto mike...
Z:At times the sentiment prevails within me that I often, if not constantly overthink trifles and underthink relevant and self concerning matters. Is this normal?
M:God Bless America!
Z:On a less shallow level than that, of course...(I hoped...)On a personal, non materialistic level, closer to psychological egoism than anytthing...something which I want to learn to overcome to the best of my ability. The obvious answer which you just gave me is troubling, not because you gave it, of course, but because it iis in fact the obvious answer. [to my question]
M:I know. It sucks. But there's nothing to keep you from being the exception to the norm.
Z: Not a damn thing I can do about it? The only way to succeed is to play ball, I suppose.
M: I don't really understand what you're saying. my experiences hitchhiking disproved psychological egoism at least in enough people for me.
Z:What I mean is that social situations which affect the well being of my ego at certain times seem to take precedence over serious matters concerning my existence and the good that can come of it.
M: When that happens, look at your hands and see if someone's opinion of you is making you disintegrate. Ignore that advice if you're on psychedelics.
[end]
M
Z:At times the sentiment prevails within me that I often, if not constantly overthink trifles and underthink relevant and self concerning matters. Is this normal?
M:God Bless America!
Z:On a less shallow level than that, of course...(I hoped...)On a personal, non materialistic level, closer to psychological egoism than anytthing...something which I want to learn to overcome to the best of my ability. The obvious answer which you just gave me is troubling, not because you gave it, of course, but because it iis in fact the obvious answer. [to my question]
M:I know. It sucks. But there's nothing to keep you from being the exception to the norm.
Z: Not a damn thing I can do about it? The only way to succeed is to play ball, I suppose.
M: I don't really understand what you're saying. my experiences hitchhiking disproved psychological egoism at least in enough people for me.
Z:What I mean is that social situations which affect the well being of my ego at certain times seem to take precedence over serious matters concerning my existence and the good that can come of it.
M: When that happens, look at your hands and see if someone's opinion of you is making you disintegrate. Ignore that advice if you're on psychedelics.
[end]
M
Saturday, May 22, 2010
As of today revisited
---
Obviously I dont have anything more than a rough idea of what I would enjoy doing for a living. Perhaps teaching, as a professor at a university? Or perhaps trying to make it as a musician, of any sort, really, perhaps a seat in a symphony. But how do I just decide arbitrarily what will be best for me? Take chances here? I'd rather not. Philosophical thought, to me, is a stable, logical and therefore trustworthy way of reasoning. Philosophical thought is a rather broad term, I know. What I really mean is certain methods of the aforementioned elements are garnished with the also aforementioned traits, respectively .This is why a major in Philosophy, to me, just makes more sense than anything else at the moment. I could find myself as a neurosurgeon in thirty years for all I know, on the other hand I could be dead. Until I have practiced these "stable, logical and therefore trustworthy" methods of thinking to a satisfactory degree, in accordance to myself as well as those in this field more knowledgeable than I, I see no hope in trying to dream up a future for myself.
If this strikes anyone on a discordant note, please, explain why, and tell me how you would reason this differently.
---
Obviously I dont have anything more than a rough idea of what I would enjoy doing for a living. Perhaps teaching, as a professor at a university? Or perhaps trying to make it as a musician, of any sort, really, perhaps a seat in a symphony. But how do I just decide arbitrarily what will be best for me? Take chances here? I'd rather not. Philosophical thought, to me, is a stable, logical and therefore trustworthy way of reasoning. Philosophical thought is a rather broad term, I know. What I really mean is certain methods of the aforementioned elements are garnished with the also aforementioned traits, respectively .This is why a major in Philosophy, to me, just makes more sense than anything else at the moment. I could find myself as a neurosurgeon in thirty years for all I know, on the other hand I could be dead. Until I have practiced these "stable, logical and therefore trustworthy" methods of thinking to a satisfactory degree, in accordance to myself as well as those in this field more knowledgeable than I, I see no hope in trying to dream up a future for myself.
If this strikes anyone on a discordant note, please, explain why, and tell me how you would reason this differently.
---
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
OH man...
Sorry, this wasnt intended to be a space where I document my dreams, but this one is just too fweird (yes, the word is a combination of fuckin and weird)
There are some parts I definitely wont write, because theyre just too...wrong.
Go home to visit family, only to find my dad has bought a ferrari. What?
Then I look at my car, which now has huge wheels, and a weird painjob...I rush to my car, only to find the license plate is different, then I see mine just a few feet away, in its normal condition...except...
I go up to it, to see that some punks have spraypainted all over it, and keyed the paint off in some places! Like..this is really bad!
My dads deceased best friend is sitting on the front wheelwell, pondering life. He refuses a ride when I offer it.
When I finally enter the vehicle, there is a strong smell of primetime cigarettes (yeah, little cigars? I call em cigarettes, bitch, cant hide shit from me). I think, "shit! someone has been using my car for a smoking spot? Not chill! I Move around in my seat a bit, and I hear someone grunt behind me. Now this shit is just too weird to comprehend. Someone is hiding in my car? What? I turn around, only to realize that the back bench seat (which comes up to reveal a small storage space/ the car's battery compartment) seem strangely out of place, it lifts up, to reveal Kristin sitting on Sohrob's lap. Kristin is still holding a bud light in her hand, and her first words are "how did I get here? I dont remember coming in here."
Sohrob just sits there.
Fuckin' Sohrob....
I did drive my dad's ferrari in my dream, and it was sick as fuck.
There are some parts I definitely wont write, because theyre just too...wrong.
Go home to visit family, only to find my dad has bought a ferrari. What?
Then I look at my car, which now has huge wheels, and a weird painjob...I rush to my car, only to find the license plate is different, then I see mine just a few feet away, in its normal condition...except...
I go up to it, to see that some punks have spraypainted all over it, and keyed the paint off in some places! Like..this is really bad!
My dads deceased best friend is sitting on the front wheelwell, pondering life. He refuses a ride when I offer it.
When I finally enter the vehicle, there is a strong smell of primetime cigarettes (yeah, little cigars? I call em cigarettes, bitch, cant hide shit from me). I think, "shit! someone has been using my car for a smoking spot? Not chill! I Move around in my seat a bit, and I hear someone grunt behind me. Now this shit is just too weird to comprehend. Someone is hiding in my car? What? I turn around, only to realize that the back bench seat (which comes up to reveal a small storage space/ the car's battery compartment) seem strangely out of place, it lifts up, to reveal Kristin sitting on Sohrob's lap. Kristin is still holding a bud light in her hand, and her first words are "how did I get here? I dont remember coming in here."
Sohrob just sits there.
Fuckin' Sohrob....
I did drive my dad's ferrari in my dream, and it was sick as fuck.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
As of Today
I have a purpose---
to learn how to think, to analyze how others have thought, to analyze how and why they may have thought these thoughts.
And most importantly, to figure out how NOT to think is my primary goal here.
These are my preconceived thoughts, officially, on what I feel the purpose of my Philosophy major should be. I will be a little more specific as things go forward.
to learn how to think, to analyze how others have thought, to analyze how and why they may have thought these thoughts.
And most importantly, to figure out how NOT to think is my primary goal here.
These are my preconceived thoughts, officially, on what I feel the purpose of my Philosophy major should be. I will be a little more specific as things go forward.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
