Philosophy Now Forum

Nick_A wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:05 pm

Belinda wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:30 pm

Nick_A wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 4:50 pm

What is so ethical bout BLM and antifa expressing the ethics of their education by destroying the good works of others? Perhaps a person having been trained in how to use and value a gun has a quality of understanding those indoctrinated into acceptable ethics is yet to learn.

Nick, please edit and post this again using the correct bracketing. Your bracketing makes it seem I have said what I did not say.

You lost me here. Are you saying that all these students involved in riots with the intent on destroying what others have contributed to society are not the results of academics teaching ethics? How do you define ethics?

I am saying here you got your bracketing wrong in your previous post. Wrong bracketing can make a post incorrect, and your previous post is incorrect because of your wrong bracketing.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:48 am

commonsense wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:55 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:12 pm

so...

there is no brooklyn college

there is no professor of math education named laurie rubel

there is no twitter

and the fictional prof from the fictional college does not regularly post to her fictional thread manure like 2+2=4 "reeks of white supremacist patriarchy"

well, I'll be damned

It’s fake stuff, cooked up by people who want to make it look like all anti-supremacists are off their rockers. Everyone knows that if this is true it doesn’t have anything to do with the real people who oppose bigotry and racism.

make up your mind

I didn’t change my mind. I said IF

What is responsible for this increasing descent into lunacy by American Academics

most academics live sheltered lives

the ivory tower warps the thinkin'

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 4:30 pm What is responsible for this increasing descent into lunacy by American Academics

most academics live sheltered lives

the ivory tower warps the thinkin'

Very true.

"When a man joins a political party, he submissively adopts a mental attitude which he will express later on with words such as, ‘As a monarchist, as a Socialist, I think that …’ It is so comfortable! It amounts to having no thoughts at all. Nothing is more comfortable than not having to think." Simone Weil

This what happens to many people in politics, especially the young, living sheltered university lives. They live by conditioned beliefs and talking points. Susan Sontag concludes an essay on Simone:

Yet the person of Simone Weil is here as surely as in any of her other books—the person who is excruciatingly identical with her ideas, the person who is rightly regarded as one of the most uncompromising and troubling witnesses to the modern travail of the spirit.

How many academics, especially in politics, practice what they preach? Humanity demands to be lied to. What does this say about humanity?

Nick_A wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 6:35 pm
Humanity demands to be lied to. What does this say about humanity?

It is true that some human beings demand lies. Look to the current pandemic and you’ll see this is so.

A segment of the human population adheres to conspiracy theories and falsehoods.

This segment has a distaste either for the facts as they are or for the people who subscribe to the facts as they are.

commonsense wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:40 pm

Nick_A wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 6:35 pm
Humanity demands to be lied to. What does this say about humanity?

It is true that some human beings demand lies. Look to the current pandemic and you’ll see this is so.

A segment of the human population adheres to conspiracy theories and falsehoods.

This segment has a distaste either for the facts as they are or for the people who subscribe to the facts as they are.

But how many understand the facts as they are? If this were true someone like Hitler would never gain power.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he. Karl Kraus

The success of the demagogue depends upon human gullibility and the belief that people understand the facts as they are.

too damn trusting

Nick_A wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:18 pm

commonsense wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:40 pm

Nick_A wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 6:35 pm
Humanity demands to be lied to. What does this say about humanity?

It is true that some human beings demand lies. Look to the current pandemic and you’ll see this is so.

A segment of the human population adheres to conspiracy theories and falsehoods.

This segment has a distaste either for the facts as they are or for the people who subscribe to the facts as they are.

But how many understand the facts as they are? If this were true someone like Hitler would never gain power.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he. Karl Kraus

The success of the demagogue depends upon human gullibility and the belief that people understand the facts as they are.

Yes!

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:46 pm too damn trusting

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

commonsense wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:51 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:46 pm too damn trusting

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

it's the cynics who'll save the rest of you (if you listen)

we're the canaries in the coal mine you ought to be mindin'

you won't, so: my conscience is clean

commonsense

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

Are the cynics the cause of social division or just the result of the human condition: of what we are?

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 11:11 pm

commonsense wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:51 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:46 pm too damn trusting

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

it's the cynics who'll save the rest of you (if you listen)

we're the canaries in the coal mine you ought to be mindin'

you won't, so: my conscience is clean

There is an important difference between cynics and sceptics (skeptics).

Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:57 am commonsense

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

Are the cynics the cause of social division or just the result of the human condition: of what we are?

They’re the ones whose presence reveals that society is divided. They are more reactive than causative.

commonsense wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:09 pm

Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:57 am commonsense

Right—some are too damn trusting, but others are too damn cynical; they’re the ones who divide society.

Are the cynics the cause of social division or just the result of the human condition: of what we are?

They’re the ones whose presence reveals that society is divided. They are more reactive than causative.

But what if they react to the truth of the human condition? Which of these people are more intelligent: Those who preach why don't we all get along, we are all one, everybody loves everybody, and so on, or the cynic who says it cannot happen and seeks to discover why it is so?

Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:04 pm

commonsense wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:09 pm

Nick_A wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:57 am commonsense



Are the cynics the cause of social division or just the result of the human condition: of what we are?

They’re the ones whose presence reveals that society is divided. They are more reactive than causative.

But what if they react to the truth of the human condition? Which of these people are more intelligent: Those who preach why don't we all get along, we are all one, everybody loves everybody, and so on, or the cynic who says it cannot happen and seeks to discover why it is so?

In any case, some people want to be lied to, want to live oblivious to the real world, believing the unfounded theories, while others want to react to factual evidence.