The Ultimate Philosophy!

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Hi guys.

You may be wondering about my absence. Then again maybe not (perhaps I'm less known than I think I am).

Anyway, the reason is I've decided to take a philosophical holiday. I've given up on thinking. No doubt some of you are going to tell me that this bad or evil or foolish or whatever.

I have invented the ultimate philosophy/guideline/motto:

Because I feel like it.

It stops me having to provide any evidence or support for what I believe in, do or say.

Example:

Why don't believe in God?
Because I feel like it.

Why do you recycle?
Because I feel like it.

Why do you donate money to charity?
Because I feel like it.

Why do you hate [insert name of person or group here]?
Because I feel like it.

It is so perfect. I don't have to have a reason for anything, other than "I feel like it". If someone was trying to argue me into doing anything, they first have to try and undermine my reason for not doing it. If I don't have one, they can't.

Let's talk about the wording. It could be interpreted as "Because I want to", but somehow this doesn't quite fit. Wanting has a reason behind it. If you want to get a new computer, the reason is that you "want" material possesions or satisfaction etc. "Because I feel like it" should be taken less literally and more as "There is no reason. I am doing/believing in/saying it for no reason". It symbolises complete carelessness.

Now without doubt there are flaws in this which no doubt most/all of you will point out. Go ahead.

Um yea. By the way this works only on an individual scale. It gets far more frustrating when others start employing it.

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Re: The Ultimate Philosophy!

aperson wrote:

Now without doubt there are flaws in this which no doubt most/all of you will point out. Go ahead.

I don't feel like it.

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joe

aperson, I think you hit the nail on the head with your last line. Sooner or later, you are going to feel like being liked again.

Others can correct me, but I think you are actually suggesting existentialism and nihilism. So while you thought you were on philosphical holiday, in fact you were working even harder!

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Well I'm working harder now to refine my philosophy but I don't see how being existentialistic and nihilistic is hard work.

And I don't think nihilism quite fits the bill here. My belief is that the only thing that I know for certain is that I exist, and therefore it is stupid trying to work out whether God exists or anything else. I simply do "what I feel like". As for existentialism, I think that fits better, but I'm less trying to find meaing.

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hmmm...
you'll get over the feeling after the holiday is over!!! Laughing

anyways, this is a philosophy we're talking about here? a philosophy without any rationality or logic.... your giving a whole new meaning to the word...
*bow*
either way though, if you feel like it...end of argument right(considering that your not asked about what the stimulus for you 'feelings' was....there usually is!!!)....so anyways, end of argument...now what? doesn't it all seem too boring to you know....most people i know debate for the fun of it...
if we're ending things cuz 'you feel like it' no more curiosity is provoked...no more discoveries, evolution...

but you know what...if you feel like it: go ahead and do it!!!
till you eventually won't feel like it and will start wondering why you felt like it in the first place, okay...that was confusing...
we humans work in crazy ways....

Quote:

By the way this works only on an individual scale. It gets far more frustrating when others start employing it.

you're starting to see the end of it!!!

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aperson,

So presumably you have posted here "because you feel like it".....but that is not the full story is it ? One "reason" you are here might be as a reaction to those who would "seek reasons" for their actions. If you didn't care about that you might not be be here at all.

Okay - so in one sense this is a trivial illustration that we can find a "reason" for one of your actions but generally we should ask why people seek "reasons" at all. One answer is our desire to "predict and control". Those who see "a certain behaviour" as "a problem" for example wish to understand the origin and course of that behaviour in order to avoid it or take corrective measures. Nobody would seek "a reason" why you stopped at a red light, but they would if you failed to stop.

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Hmm... whenever you feel like it, there is still a reson. Something made you feel like it or not. You just don't know precicely what.

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I agree, Cyracuz. I cannot imagine an unmotivated behavior. Every action and, perhaps, thought reflects some drive, conscious or unconscious. To say that you do something for "no reason" other than that you simply feel like it is to say that you are doing it for the same reason that all of us do everything we do. And, of course, as Fresco notes, that's not the full story: why do you want to do specific things, why did one drive or set of drives prevail over other competing drives?

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[Hi JLN, etc........been a while; just a wee visit.]

Motivation is a 'mask' that sometimes covers the more visceral sources of our ideas, feelings, and reactions to life.

Since "absolutely nothing actually matters" (evident to anyone who actually looks with some discretion at the mechanism of the universe), then everything one does, in effect, gives 'meaning' to one's existence!

[so 'feeling like it' is then replaced with 'BEING like it'!]

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There's always a cause and effect on our beliefs and how we act.

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I can't believe it; BOGOWO is back (if only briefly. I'd like to know what you are doing that keeps you away so much).

I understand what you say about "motivation" being a mask that covers the more visceral sources of our ideals, feelings...." I was, in fact, referring to those visceral sources, the drives behind ideas and actions.

In one branch of sociology (symbolic interactionism), the phrase, "motive talk," is used to refer to those masks, the justifications for our behavior. "Motive", on the other hand, refers to that which drives our behavior (covert and overt).
Great to hear from you.

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Quote:

I have invented the ultimate philosophy/guideline/motto:

Because I feel like it.

As I see it, emotions are what we would call instincts in any other known sentient being. A creature without a clear sense of self or reason is driven entirely by it's emotional responses. Instinctive responses we call them. There is only emotion and reaction.

Sense of self and reason fits in between. A creature that attained this awareness would still feel the instinctive urge to flee at the sight of a predator, but now it could chose not to.

The introduction of this new awareness altered the structure of the experience. Instincts became what we refer to as emotions.

So the philosophy in question has certainly carried us far. For myself, I would have to admit that emotions weigh more than reasons, though maybe not by much.

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Cyracuz, I agree with your analysis; emotion is our instincts and visa-versa. In all my world travels, I have walked alone in large places considered "dangerous" without much fear or qualm. On my recent cruise from Buenos Aires to Rio, we had a port stop in Montevideo where I walked alone not far from the boat dock, and my camera I had hanging on my shoulder was snapped off by a young kid who ran off with it.

I'm not so sure that I will stop walking alone in strange cities, but I will never again have my camera hanging behind me in a case. My trust factor has been burst by that first and only incident - perhaps for the better.

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The Ultimate Philosophy!

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