<p>Check out my SWIM TEAM thread!</p>
<p>Whaa? Haha, I wasn't correcting you (didn't even notice), just agreeing.</p>
<p>Maybe if we bring up some more questions?? </p>
<p>First... the famous one - the problem of pain/evil. Why do you think there's evil in the world? Why do we have physical bodies if our essences are our souls/minds?</p>
<p>Also... hmm... why do we desire to know? (what's the point of pure mathematics? what's the point of continual technological progression and is it significant in the end?) What's the point of fine arts? Can we learn anything from literature/art/music? Do you believe in miracles? Is God a personal being or removed (as in a philosophical necessity/first cause)? Do you believe in eternal torment for our sins? What's the point of prayer? What are good/evil?</p>
<p>I don't know, anything. Let's keep this going.</p>
<p>eh....heres a question .....how do we seperate whats real from whats not...like,maybe nothing has a physical existence, it is an illusion made in your brain (the only way our mind makes sense of the world)....To stimulate senses, your mind creates people, objects, ex: your mind creates a cool drink on a hot day so you experience thirst, hunger, suprises, etc.. SO basically what im saying, i can give you an example.....you use a pencil to draw...what if the pencil is not physically there but our mind perceives it to be there and as a result of pressing it against paper there is a drawing.....what im saying is...CAN THIS BE TRUE? Question ispired by THE MATRIX</p>
<p>You can always doubt the senses. But I doubt you're going to stop drinking/eating because your body and food are both illusions. What's interesting is that this couldn't be caused by the brain - although it could be caused by the mind (which is not physical). If you've decided that the brain exists, you've decided that there actually is a physical world, and the brain still responds to outside stimuli. To go from something non-extended like the mind, which imagines, wills, conceives, etc. to the existence of the physical world is another thing entirely. We read Descartes' Meditations in class a few weeks ago, which deals with what we can doubt or know, and before we'd gotten to the end we'd decided it was a pretty pointless question after a while. You can't ever know for sure that you're not a brain in a vat or dreaming, but everything you experience leads you to believe that you aren't. </p>
<p>The funny thing about the Matrix is that they actually could never know what was real. Once they were outside the Matrix, how did they know <em>that</em> was the real world?</p>
<p>Well..."i think therefore i am"----thats really the only explanation
Descartes is the mad (are you in a philosophy course at school limon)?? we dont have anything near a philosophy course but i think it should be offered in HS</p>
<p>Hehe and of course the friendly nihilist will say "Prove to me that you think"</p>
<p>Descartes es el puto amo (the ***<em>ing master), as we say at my school. Have you read his Meditations? That's all I thought he decided too, but after he destroys everything you know, he also brings back God for sure, and primary characteristics (extension, time, etc... physics), and ends up saying that there's no real reason to doubt the general truth of what we perceive.
No, Theory of Knowledge (the IB requirement one). I just lucked out and got a teacher I'm told is very unconventional in that we read philosophy and don't just mess around. Apparently some IB examiner gave some lectures at my school and got into a fight with my teacher because she (examiner) didn't think high school students could handle philosophy, and never to mention someone like Aristotle (or *gasp</em> Plato), etc... What a joke. I wish more schools (including mine) had philosophy, that'd be great.</p>
<p>Hah. The one thing I can't doubt is that I exist. How do I know? Because I'm the one doing the doubting. And if doubt is a form of thought, well, there ya go.</p>
<p>any more comments???</p>
<p>Life is a test of how much one can accomplish withing a finite time frame.</p>
<p>^Concurred.</p>
<p>It also is a test of how great of a mark one will (or will not) make on the world, no matter how small it be. (hopefully the mark will be good)</p>
<p>wait...this threads back alive........</p>
<p>I guess its also a test on how well you can transform what you are born with into better than what you start with...because some people are born into celebrity status and will automatically have a mark on the world while others a born into poverty..so its also a "test" of how you can take what youre given at birth and make it worthwhile</p>
<p>the meaning of life is to try to find out the meaning of life. it goes around in circles. hahaha, it's more about trying to find out who you are and how you want to be in relation to the rest of the world. and sorting out your internal conflicts. but meanwhile it's nice to have the opportunity to be conscious and to be able to feel and do and experience. <em>sappiness explosion</em></p>
<p>"It is the mind that maketh good of ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor"
Edmund Spenser</p>
<p>i believe there is no meaning to life.
that is the fun in it.</p>
<p>I know this one!</p>
<p>42</p>
<p>the meaning of life is to work had and play hard</p>
<p>it is the quality of life, not the quantity of life</p>
<p>I heard people at our school saying 42. What does 42 mean in particular?</p>
<p>42 is the meaning of life according to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. I know the movie just came out, but definitely definitely definitely read the books. They are amazing.</p>
<p>LIMON: Maybe if we bring up some more questions??</p>
<p>First... the famous one - the problem of pain/evil. Why do you think there's evil in the world? Why do we have physical bodies if our essences are our souls/minds?</p>
<p>ME:</p>
<p>I think the reason why there's evil is because the universe is completely good. Now...this may seem contradictory. However, I believe perfection comes from the reconciliation of opposites. Thus, in order for the universe to be total good, and thus the manifestation of God, it must reconcile the opposite of both evil and good.
In our age right now, for some reason, the complete balance has been disrupted. Thus, the evil is starting to function. However, human kind has found many forms of religion that gets close to the "good" function of the universe, which is fighting off the "evil" functions and trying to maintain balance again.</p>
<p>Why do we have physical bodies if our essence are our souls and minds?....HMmmmm....this is basically asking why does the universe exist, instead of maintaining itself as an essence....Okay, here's my theory: I seriously believe IT used to be just an essence/soul, but the disruption of the reconciliation of opposites, has made it not an essence, but a physical form. </p>
<p>K...BTW, I'm SOOOOOO glad this thread is alive again. THANKS EVERYONE!</p>