Toughest Philosophical Questions

@Deftil,

To paraphrase Camus' philosophy -- if we're just going to die, and we can die randomly at any time, why do we even bother to do anything? Why even live?

He felt that that was the only important philosophical question worth asking.

3 Replies

@Aedes,

Aedes;31623 wrote:

To paraphrase Camus' philosophy -- if we're just going to die, and we can die randomly at any time, why do we even bother to do anything? Why even live?

He felt that that was the only important philosophical question worth asking.

That's a dumb philosophy. Sorry, Albert.

It's for the ride man!

Knowing we're going to die, and can die randomly at any time . . . if this can be truly understood and fully accepted I think the question would change from "why bother to do anything?" to "Why not do everything?" As long as you're not screwing up someone else's ride, why not just release a little of that death-grip on the safety-bar and fly?

The only philosophical question I would want to ask myself before my current consciousness winked out would be,
"Would I take that ride again?"

At this point, in spite of how really awful some moments of my life have been, I would have to say "Hell yes. Gimme another ticket!"

Regards,
Tock.

2 Replies

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan wrote:

That's a dumb philosophy. Sorry, Albert.

It's for the ride man!

Knowing we're going to die, and can die randomly at any time . . . if this can be truly understood and fully accepted I think the question would change from "why bother to do anything?" to "Why not do everything?" As long as you're not screwing up someone else's ride, why not just release a little of that death-grip on the safety-bar and fly?

The only philosophical question I would want to ask myself before my current consciousness winked out would be,
"Would I take that ride again?"

At this point, in spite of how really awful some moments of my life have been, I would have to say "Hell yes. Gimme another ticket!"

Yes, a rather near death experience or 2 shook me out of my rut and started me on the thinking about what I really want to do with my life. Plenty of awful moments and sadness, but I think of these as good material for the best selling novel I am going to write when my hands get too feeble to hold a saxophone. And I am still studying and would do so even if I knew I only had a few weeks to live. Does there have to be a purpose? If I look back on my life and say I did most of what I wanted to do that will be purpose enough.

1 Reply

@CarolA,

What is being?

Its a multi-millennia old question. Heraclitus, Democritus, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malbranche, etc. all struggled to answer it. But funny how metaphysics seemed to just fade away in the past hundred years or so.

1 Reply

@VideCorSpoon,

VideCorSpoon;32295 wrote:

What is being?

Its a multi-millennia old question. Heraclitus, Democritus, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malbranche, etc. all struggled to answer it. But funny how metaphysics seemed to just fade away in the past hundred years or so.

But not so surprising, really. The study of metaphysics doesn't exactly harmonize with the pursuit of material goods.

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@TickTockMan,

I just wanted to put a link in here to Pythagorean's thread 10 Great Questions Of Philosophy b/c a lot of the questions he presents in that thread could easily belong in this thread as well!

0 Replies

@Deftil,

Do you have to know pain to know pleasure?

If you try to fail, but succeed which have you done?

1 Reply

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan;32111 wrote:

That's a dumb philosophy. Sorry, Albert.

Hmm, the Nobel committee didn't think so.

Camus was intrigued by two big problems -- 1) the arbitrariness of death, by which we can die at any point unexpectedly rendering what we do meaningless; and 2) suicide, by which someone chooses that point.

So in more robust terms, his question is how is it possible for us to go on living once the true meaninglessness of life has been fully aprehended.

It's a more fundamental question than any other in philosophy, because it's in a way a direct outgrowth of Descartes' cogito. Fine, I know that fundamentally I'm a thinking being. But damn, what next if everything I -- everything we -- do will be wiped out by death?

And the answer to his question isn't your passion for life. It's a philosophical question about how we go on. The Myth of Sisyphus is where this is expounded.

2 Replies

@Aedes,

Quote:

how is it possible for us to go on living once the true meaninglessness of life has been fully aprehended.

In my opinion it is impossible to fully apprehend the true meaninglessness of life, just as it is impossible to apprehend the true flatness of the earth. One might as well ask how is it possible for us to commit suicide once the true meaningfulness of life has been fully apprehended.

0 Replies

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan wrote:

I do martial arts and spar on a regular basis. It's very difficult to buy this philosophy when a fist meets my nose. Why would I let a figment of my imagination get away with that?

I think you might have missed the true Solipsist question here. It's not just the suggestion that your pain is part of your imagination. But rather, that your pain is part of my imagination.

I dealt with a manically depressed Solipsist at an early age. They are difficult people. His question was "How do you know that you're not just a figment of my imagination?" To which I could only reply, "A more important question is; how do you know that I'm not just a figment of your imagination?"

1 Reply

@Solace,

Solace;34028 wrote:

I think you might have missed the true Solipsist question here. It's not just the suggestion that your pain is part of your imagination. But rather, that your pain is part of my imagination.

I'm okay with that.

If my pain is your imagination, then truly, you are God. Who am
I to question your plan for my pain?

1 Reply

@TickTockMan,

TickTockMan wrote:

I'm okay with that.

If my pain is your imagination, then truly, you are God. Who am
I to question your plan for my pain?

Oh I agree it's a messed up philosophy. But you hit the nail on the head. Basically, Solipsist's think that they're God.

0 Replies

@Deftil,

You actually met a solipsist? That's interesting. I can't imagine a worse way of losing ones reason. Under the circumstance manic depression seems a perfectly rational response.

1 Reply

@Aedes,

Aedes;33997 wrote:

Hmm, the Nobel committee didn't think so.

Well, the society of film reviewers didn't care for Silent Hill, and that's one
of my favorite guilty pleasure movies . . .

Aedes;33997 wrote:

So in more robust terms, his question is how is it possible for us to go on living once the true meaninglessness of life has been fully aprehended.

I'm still here . . . and I've got a pretty good grip on how meaningless it is.

Aedes;33997 wrote:

Fine, I know that fundamentally I'm a thinking being. But damn, what next if everything I -- everything we -- do will be wiped out by death?

My question is, "so what?" I live a life that is meaningful in the interim. So I die and it's all gone. Oh well. A million years from now, who's ever going to care?

Aedes;33997 wrote:

And the answer to his question isn't your passion for life. It's a philosophical question about how we go on. The Myth of Sisyphus is where this is expounded.

Didn't Sisyphus find meaning in his meaningless (absurd) task at the end? I thought that was more or less Camus' conclusion, that meaning is found in the confrontation with life's little absurdities . . . such as our relentless and somewhat deranged search for some sort of greater meaning?

0 Replies

@Deftil,

Does causality exist?

1 Reply

@jknilinux,

jknilinux;34141 wrote:

Does causality exist?

Yes. Something in this forum caused you to post here. Your post caused me to post back that the answer is yes.

It goes all the way back to the Big Bang . . . if not earlier.

1 Reply

@Deftil,

So you think...

The truth is, though, that the only reason why you say it exists is because of inductive logic. So, you can't know it exists with 100% certainty. Ha HAA!!

1 Reply

@Deftil,

The infinite regress of causality is a figment of human imagination. Energy is transferred as a function of time, the resulting state comes about probabilistically. This exists. Cause and effect do not, they are just human abstractions.

1 Reply

@Deftil,

How can probability not be the effect of a cause?

1 Reply

@Whoever,

Whoever;34236 wrote:

How can probability not be the effect of a cause?

Probability is not an effect. It's a description of a situation.

1 Reply

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