wondering about things...
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 5:01 pm
in thinking about matters, one has to wonder....
for example, how does the thread, ''puberty blockers'' have ANYTHING to do
with philosophy in any, way, shape or form? and I see this type of confusion
all the time around philosophy sites....and in the general public and its
various media sources....
in looking at our modern world/state/society, one see's whole lot of
motion, of activity, but no sense of a direction being taken.....
I see action, but no goal being achieved... what is the point of our
actions? our cluttered activities don't seem to have a goal or purpose....
what are we trying to do?
make a list of the most pressing issues that we face in the modern world,
is ''puberty blockers'' really going to be on your top 100 pressing matters
facing us in the modern world? is it even in the top 1 million most
pressing issues we face in the modern age? exactly, how many people
are engaged in this issue? several hundred, a couple of thousand?
hundreds of millions? the fact of the matter is that the number of
people affected by this issue couldn't fill a small football stadium....
so, why are even talking about it?
and this issue brings out a much larger point....
that of perspective... if there is a modern issue we do
need to talk about, it is perspective.... we have lost the ability
to see people, places, things, ideas in perspective.....
to be able to properly place things into some sort of perspective.....
that maybe the curse of our modern times..... to see what is important,
to see what is not important and be able to tell the difference, between
the two.....so the question becomes, how do we learn to gain perspective
on ideas, people, places and things?
the trick here is to learn to put things into context..... in context,
what is important? one of the ways we create context, is by knowing
what, when, where, how and why of a topic.... knowing the history
of a topic.... give me the context of a topic... for example,
puberty blockers... what context does that have? what is the
history or the meaning of them? and why are puberty blockers
an issue today, but wasn't an issue in the 1980's for example?
give me some historical context as to the importance of them?
but I am not really talking about puberty blockers at all...
I am referring to any issue that we refer to on this website or
even in real life.....why is this issue important enough to talk about?
to think about..... what makes this issue worth referring to?
the problem I have with a lot of posters is one of perspective.....
what makes this issue worth talking about? worth engaging with?
a common issue I bring up, rather routinely, is this question of,
what does it mean to be human? what is the context that makes
us human? one of the problems I see with this question is the fact
that most people live ahistorical.... in other words, without any
context to history......
one might say, man is a rational being......
as a philosophical argument.... ok, that question however lacks
some sort of historical or philosophical context... rational is what?
being means what? man means what? and this is not a language problem
as much as it is a philosophical problem.....
we can give this question some context if, if we follow Nietzsche
and say that man is a path from animal to becoming fully human.....
being is suddenly in flux, we have no set being if we are in the process
of going from animal to becoming fully human......now, we have some
sort of context for our puberty blocker problem.... to prevent us from
going from somewhere to somewhere.... and what is the overall context
of this journey? and why take these actions if they prevent us from
becoming something?
(as I am 65, this entire question of puberty blockers means nothing to me,
it has no context in my life, thus has no meaning... like this entire
question of sexual orientation ...this entire LBGTQI question means nothing
to me.... like pansexual.. hell if I know what that means... or intersex...
no idea...and frankly, I don't care... it's not my problem... and thus I have
no interest in it.... if you want to androgynous or whatever, that is your
problem, not my problem... I have no reason to stop you from being
whatever you are..... this is my basis for believing that sexual orientation
is a private question, not a public policy question.. I have only two criteria
for sexual matters.... one, is it consensual, two are the two parties over 18....
if it is, not my problem.... nor my concern)
context is the entire question we are facing.... ask a question and
that question must have some context....
the question, ''Gays are destroying the fabric of society'' that sentence
means nothing because it lacks any context... it lacks any history or basis in
reality.... because one has to give that statement some context...
for example, ''destroying'' what exactly is being destroyed in this society?
what does the ''fabric'' of society mean? Society, give me some context as
to which part of society is being destroyed and in what fashion?
to make this statement ''gays are destroying the fabric of society'''
is to me, an empty statement... with no meaning to it.....
because it lacks any context......
the thing we need to learn is to put perspective, context into
our answers and questions about life.....
Kropotkin
for example, how does the thread, ''puberty blockers'' have ANYTHING to do
with philosophy in any, way, shape or form? and I see this type of confusion
all the time around philosophy sites....and in the general public and its
various media sources....
in looking at our modern world/state/society, one see's whole lot of
motion, of activity, but no sense of a direction being taken.....
I see action, but no goal being achieved... what is the point of our
actions? our cluttered activities don't seem to have a goal or purpose....
what are we trying to do?
make a list of the most pressing issues that we face in the modern world,
is ''puberty blockers'' really going to be on your top 100 pressing matters
facing us in the modern world? is it even in the top 1 million most
pressing issues we face in the modern age? exactly, how many people
are engaged in this issue? several hundred, a couple of thousand?
hundreds of millions? the fact of the matter is that the number of
people affected by this issue couldn't fill a small football stadium....
so, why are even talking about it?
and this issue brings out a much larger point....
that of perspective... if there is a modern issue we do
need to talk about, it is perspective.... we have lost the ability
to see people, places, things, ideas in perspective.....
to be able to properly place things into some sort of perspective.....
that maybe the curse of our modern times..... to see what is important,
to see what is not important and be able to tell the difference, between
the two.....so the question becomes, how do we learn to gain perspective
on ideas, people, places and things?
the trick here is to learn to put things into context..... in context,
what is important? one of the ways we create context, is by knowing
what, when, where, how and why of a topic.... knowing the history
of a topic.... give me the context of a topic... for example,
puberty blockers... what context does that have? what is the
history or the meaning of them? and why are puberty blockers
an issue today, but wasn't an issue in the 1980's for example?
give me some historical context as to the importance of them?
but I am not really talking about puberty blockers at all...
I am referring to any issue that we refer to on this website or
even in real life.....why is this issue important enough to talk about?
to think about..... what makes this issue worth referring to?
the problem I have with a lot of posters is one of perspective.....
what makes this issue worth talking about? worth engaging with?
a common issue I bring up, rather routinely, is this question of,
what does it mean to be human? what is the context that makes
us human? one of the problems I see with this question is the fact
that most people live ahistorical.... in other words, without any
context to history......
one might say, man is a rational being......
as a philosophical argument.... ok, that question however lacks
some sort of historical or philosophical context... rational is what?
being means what? man means what? and this is not a language problem
as much as it is a philosophical problem.....
we can give this question some context if, if we follow Nietzsche
and say that man is a path from animal to becoming fully human.....
being is suddenly in flux, we have no set being if we are in the process
of going from animal to becoming fully human......now, we have some
sort of context for our puberty blocker problem.... to prevent us from
going from somewhere to somewhere.... and what is the overall context
of this journey? and why take these actions if they prevent us from
becoming something?
(as I am 65, this entire question of puberty blockers means nothing to me,
it has no context in my life, thus has no meaning... like this entire
question of sexual orientation ...this entire LBGTQI question means nothing
to me.... like pansexual.. hell if I know what that means... or intersex...
no idea...and frankly, I don't care... it's not my problem... and thus I have
no interest in it.... if you want to androgynous or whatever, that is your
problem, not my problem... I have no reason to stop you from being
whatever you are..... this is my basis for believing that sexual orientation
is a private question, not a public policy question.. I have only two criteria
for sexual matters.... one, is it consensual, two are the two parties over 18....
if it is, not my problem.... nor my concern)
context is the entire question we are facing.... ask a question and
that question must have some context....
the question, ''Gays are destroying the fabric of society'' that sentence
means nothing because it lacks any context... it lacks any history or basis in
reality.... because one has to give that statement some context...
for example, ''destroying'' what exactly is being destroyed in this society?
what does the ''fabric'' of society mean? Society, give me some context as
to which part of society is being destroyed and in what fashion?
to make this statement ''gays are destroying the fabric of society'''
is to me, an empty statement... with no meaning to it.....
because it lacks any context......
the thing we need to learn is to put perspective, context into
our answers and questions about life.....
Kropotkin