Do you care to share any philosophies?

I like the quote from Dostoevsky’s The Possessed: “On trouve toujours plus des moines que de raison.” (From French: One always finds more monks than reason.)

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Money, I want lots of it.

Generally speaking, I live with a philosophy of harming those around me and the environment I live in as little as humanly possible. This informs my animal rights activism, my environmentalist, my veganism. I have a further philosophy pertaining to sex/gender/sexuality in that no one should be harassed or discriminated against based on arbitrary norms set up by society. Finally, I have a parenting philosophy which revolves around taking responsibility for my childrens’ educational, nutritional, and developmental needs – this leads to enormous research, educating ourselves, seeking out varied activities and, in general, focusing on raising incredible individuals rather than just having them be there – yes, this means that I think a lot of parents don’t pay close enough attention to what they are cultivating in their children.

“I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don’t have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya… it feels phenomenal.”
I didnt make this one up, but its still pretty cool!

”You can’t make sense out of nonsense.”

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare: Act 1. Scene V

My Facebook tells me I’m a Jedi. It must be true.

@elenuial Never doubt the power of facebook never….

Do not cling to the past, no regrets only lessons. Do not obsess over the future, it is only a thought form and has no basis in reality.

Be content with who you are now, be present in the moment and never, ever, waste any time or energy on jealousy, envy, ill will towards others.

Do not ever compare anything about yourself or your life to others, a recipe for misery.

Develop a great sense of humor and realize that all things, good or bad are of a temporary nature. :-)

Do not attempt to change others, won’t happen. Do not waste time in mismatched relationships or with emotionally unhealthy others.

All life is precious, don’t step on a bug just because you can! lololol

Eat lots of ice cream and drink lots of champagne!

I’m not sure that sharing my philosophies would be enlightening… because we could only discuss the terms and not the substance – that is: if I say “It is important to value other life” we then have to define life, and this would inevitably become a debate about abortion or something along those lines. I agree a Fluther enlightenment would be great – but we’d first need to set out a set of rules or a philosophical method, and then we can speak on an even field.

@JeanPaulSartre So, have you any proposals for such rules or methods?

@jfos Socrates did it for us

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer Let him step to the music which he hears however measured or far away.”

- Henry David Thoreau

“It’s better to burn out, than to fade away.”

- Neil Young

My favorite… Life sucks, then you die.

Do right and risk the consequences.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Do elaborate.

I never thought I would have a philosophical conversation with both Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, hahaha.

The following is a quote from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. It speaks of my own parenting philosophy. Gibran had a lot of good points, if you take away the theism.

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

@jfos JP and Simone are married.

@Val123 I know they’re together, but so they are historically. It was a bad joke, I know.

@jfos Take a look at the Socratic Method This is a basic outline and kinda weak even for Wikipedia, actually… but it at least lays out the basis for Plato’s Socratic Dialogues. e.g. Phaedrus Anyway – rules definitely need to be laid – following the method here, can’t hurt – although I certainly see the advantage of adding more than two voices to a discussion, I think initially the dialogue is a better place to start… the rules would get more complicated with more people. Certain things would have to be placed off-limits, as well, which isn’t covered here, simply because we can’t make logical observations about them.

@JeanPaulSartre I read the basis of Socratic Method and perused Phaedrus. If such an enlightening discussion should take place, I would yield to you to determine the format and basic rules. You seem to be knowledgable, at the least, about the formalities of argument.

My work ethic:

Work to live, don’t live to work.

@jfos Sadly I think this kind of organized philosophical debate went out with the dark ages. sigh

@JeanPaulSartre Perhaps that is because dark age debate regulations regulate dark age debates. With due respect to the reputable Socratic method, maybe a new set of rules could facilitate a new debate. Or at least a new version of an old debate… But still possibly a new debate.

The Socratic method is traditionally only good if one oh-so-sagacious person is happy to ejaculate their wisdom all over a willing fool. It’s not good for teaching or discussion, only for making someone feel smart and someone else feel like an idiot. And setting up straw men.

Still, it’s not a worthless pursuit, given that people who wish to pursue “philosophical debates” tend to be looking more for the above anyways.

I agree that any discussion should have standards, but the best discussions happen when there is only conversation, and no pretenses towards “philosophy.”

@elenuial You have quite the subjective view on philosophical debates – many conversations are philosophical and there is no reason to turn your nose up at logic – a concept dear to philosophical debate. Many of my comments on fluther are informed by my philosophical leanings and what I’ve learned through studying philosophy, yet no one seems to feel slighted. I am sorry that you’ve previously experienced pretense but you shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – we can all learn to conduct our debates in a better fashion.

@elenuial I am not looking for your “above”. Also, the reason I mentioned philosophy at all was to steer any type of discussion or debate. Otherwise we might be talking about how cats have long tails and why Monday is before Tuesday.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir If you think I’m opposed to logic, you’re sorely mistaken. If you think I haven’t studied philosophy, you are again mistaken. This is why I get aggravated when people want to talk “philosophy” with me—especially when they claim we should engage in Socratic dialogue. They don’t want to discuss philosophy. They want to engage in the act of discussing philosophy, which is a subtle but important distinction.

Also, I generally find recourse to idiomatic expressions, such as ones that involve babies and bathwater, to be rather antithetical to good conversation. It’s communicative shorthand for the lazy. Is that how we should engage in Socratic dialogue?

Also, I note with amusement that this very conversation is NOT Socratic dialogue, or else one of us would be asking for more mental browbeatings by the Master.

@jfos Certainly. It helps for a conversation to have a topic. I was most specifically trashing on the Socratic method, and doing a slight bit of generalization. I have no clue whether it applies to you or not.

@elenuial Why don’t we introduce a topic, then? Is there anything you’d like to submit to the hungry brains on this question?

One advantage to sleeping on the floor is,you can’t fall out of bed.

My life philosophy is based on R. W. Emerson. “The only true gift is a portion of oneself.”

@ucme You may, however, get such a worse night’s sleep that the comfort of sleeping in the comfortable bed might outweigh the risk of falling out.

@Seek_Kolinahr That is truly lovely

I’m pretty sure that in time is where the mind and body meet

@elenuial Do not accuse me of things I haven’t said to you – I never said you didn’t study philosophy, whatsoever. I looked over your profile – you and I share many interests, I would love to debate/converse with you. This question asked for personal philosophies and then @jfos @JeanPaulSartre and I took it into another direction but the point of that direction was not to discuss philosophy, it was to preface that discussion so although I agree with your distinction, we were not discussing philosophy. And in general, I don’t appreciate your tone because you don’t know any of us whatsoever and are making redundant superficial conclusions. We were not yet (obviously) in any Socratic Dialog and neither are we at it right now. Frankly, I don’t feel like engaging you in any dialog because you are so defensive and seem to have some sort of a personal issue especially if you feel the need to ‘trash’ something that is a concept, not one you need to welcome or love or hate. I fail to understand why this is something that would ‘aggravate’ you. Oh and p.s.: I do think it’s useful to discuss how to approach a philosophical conversation because otherwise you end up doing what you did which is talk about it and how you hate it, something you accuse us of doing – yet I see nowhere in our threads above where we spewed stuff out about how we just hate regular conversation, as if.

Marriage is like a deck of cards,

You need a heart to love her,
A diamond to marry her,
A club to bash her head in..
And a spade to bury the bitch!….

I love women really!! Just wouldn’t marry another one is all ;-)

Hahahaha…I’m with you Scooby…uh..I mean I love men but wouldn’t marry another one either! lol

I do have quite the ‘harem’ of helpers…I’m liking this harem building!

A man for everything! lololol

Never complain; never explain.

Question Authority.

Always store beer in a dark place.

Look before you leap
and
He who hesitates is lost.

“Following the rules” is no excuse for not getting the job done.
and
“Getting the job done” is no excuse for not following the rules.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s entire Self Reliance essay (worth the time it takes to read)

@CyanoticWasp You forgot, “Don’t forget about the beer you put in the freezer.”

@elenuial I wasn’t saying the dialogues themselves are the set of rules… but I like the rules that guide them. They were designed to make the alternative to the opinions of Socrates Plato look foolish, that is clear. I love the concept of dialogue with rules. I think you misread my intent. The method eluded to is to have a conversation – question that lead to an end result, as opposed to torquing off at each other as most internet “discussions” go. Questions, answers, maybe a trap or two. That’s good dialogue.

@CyanoticWasp um…why store beer in dark place?

@lynneblundell Light makes it taste skunky.

@lynneblundell I don’t know. I don’t drink beer. But that was what the book said: Always store beer in a dark place.

@CyanoticWasp and @lynneblundell light can make a beer turn “skunky”. I know this from a Samuel Adams commercial. I don’t drink beer.
Philosophy: If you want sugar coating, go buy a doughnut.

@Coloma

Lol ;-)
Thanks Much Coloma, I’m in the harem building trade myself too, thing is though, a woman for everything ?? Not likely Lol… Love the Cat btw, not bad ya self ;-)
do you hang wall paper? HEHEHEHE…… I bet you know a man that does… ;-)

@Scooby Lol back at’cha !

No, don’t hand wallpaper, just create beautiful living arrangements.
Oh happy day today, my #1 all around Jack of all trades is coming to do yardwork…all I have to provide other than a check is a couple of beers! haha

I treat my harem well.

My joke these days, no man can compete with the turbo jets in the spa! lolol
Alas, they do not speak philosophy very well but they also don’t comlain when I put down pretty rugs in my garage! hahahaha

@Coloma

Them are sure lucky guys, beer & all ;-)
I just had me turbo de cocked, Did it all by myself Lol…Rugs in the garage??? Say no more! I put em down in mine just to soak up the mess, Lol….. Alas I’m no philosopher, I know a few rugby songs though! ;-) Lol…
have to get me one of them spa’s…… :-)

Life is one long misty bridge to find yourself. But what you can find along the way depends on what your wanting to need.

Then again, needing to want isn’t a bad choice either. Yep,

Yes I have just a few:

Grammar is totally a stuffy subject, especially when you create and maintain a Q& A website with an absolute unruly rule that conflicts with the main interest: The questions and answers themselves.

Humor is not for textbook intellectuals. Only self-made ones need apply.

“Eye for an eye” can be beneficial to those that have no eye for three-dimensional observation…as opposed to a bland standards type of observation.

Moral Relativism. There is no universal code of right and wrong. Morality is subject to both the individual and the society (the two are not always in agreement). The closest we will ever come to an agreement on what is right and what is wrong are the taboos established by evolution. Find one thing that you view differently from the majority, then look at the arguments against it. Now analyze those arguments; what is actually being said and why…