The Great Questions.

Do you ever wonder what there was before vacuums? What is the nature of not-ness?

You're having a very philosophical weekend. Have you been at the 'Mellow Yellow'?

Regards
Steve M

Perhaps I may be of some assistance.

1. Who am I?
Deane F. (Write it on the palm of one hand, I know I do)

2. Why am I here?
Because you are not elsewhere. (see Q 4.)

3. What am I going to do with my life?
Live it as best you can. That is your fate and the glory of diversity.

4. Why is there something and not nothing?
Strangely – there is/not both. One to chew on.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:
Perhaps I may be of some assistance.

1. Who am I?
Deane F. (Write it on the palm of one hand, I know I do)

Adam, why do you have "Deane F." written on your hand?

"Tricky," he said finally.
The answer.

quote:

Originally posted by John Sheridan:
1. Who am I?
Deane F. (Write it on the palm of one hand, I know I do)

Adam, why do you have "Deane F." written on your hand?

It seemed as good a name as any other.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

Originally posted by John Sheridan:
1. Who am I?
Deane F. (Write it on the palm of one hand, I know I do)

Adam, why do you have "Deane F." written on your hand?

It seemed as good a name as any other.

Like "Rose" for instance?

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
[...].

1. Who am I?

2. Why am I here?

3. What am I going to do with my life?

4. Why is there something and not nothing?

[...].

Pisses me off no end.

Dear Deane,

Seriously, madness lies this way, and I don't mean the eccentric, mildly irrational madness (only very rarely interspersed with true idiocy) that posesses me.

Number one, you are ceratinly an individual called Deane, who has a gentle and kind heart with s striking lack of malice. Methinks anyhow... Build on that; it is good.

Two, Ours is not necessarily to know, but the real answer is to be genuine, honest, kind and fair. I'd say you are making a good start on that. You may never realise why you ever were here! That is of no consequence, IMO.

Three, And here the answer lies in your own hands. For, with a bit of luck, and your health, if adopt what I said in Number Two, you cannot go wrong.

As for this last, I think Bertrand Russell, the mathmatician and phylosopher said the only sensible thing I have read on this. "A Priory knowledge is all very well, but accept the Universe as a Brute Fact. There is no explanation..."

Don't worry too much. Another one I like is, "Life is a bitch and then you die." Put like that, unless you want to die, then the work should start with making life less of a bitch! Chin up, old man!

Fredrik

PS: There is always Bach for solace, when everything looks completely impossible. That is my littel bolt hole anyhow, and surely you have found one of your own.

1. Who am I?
Me.

2. Why am I here?
Should there be a reason? I don't really care anyway.

3. What am I going to do with my life?
Turn food, water and oxygen into shit, piss and carbon dioxide, like all other mammals.

4. Why is there something and not nothing?
It's the strong anthropic principle: It's here and so are we and there it is.

quote:

Originally posted by Earwicker:

3. What am I going to do with my life?
Turn food, water and oxygen into shit, piss and carbon dioxide, like all other mammals.

Kind of a "Sticky Filth" philosophy there EW.

1. Who am I? I am me.

2. Why am I here ? I can find no better place to be at the moment. I am with my wife and my children.

3. What am I going to do with my life? Die. Death is a sexually transmitted disease.

4. Why is there something and not nothing? You cannot define nothing in the real world as everything there is an integer and nothing is not an integer. Everything in the real world must be something. Nothing only exists in the minds of mathematicians or nihilists - and I am neither.

Nulla est homini causa philosophandi nisi ut beatus sit

Man has no reason to philosophise except with a view to happiness.

--St Augustine


Don't worry Fredrik. I attach a little more importance to philosophy than I do to a game of chess - but not much more.

My deeds are more important than my thoughts.

Thoughts pass through my mind like a wind (or flatulence...) and the important stuff is well tied down.

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
[...].

... and the important stuff is well tied down.

Thank Heavens for that! I think that words are only worth the backing they are given by actions, and so it becomes a product of the integrity of the person uttering them, whether they are of value. One's own thoughts are only of consequence given how one then acts on them. I know I can analyes the situation till it become hopeless. Note my new Thread here! Personally I cannot alter things, and I have to hope things don't go as wrong as I think they could at their worst. Anyhow the thing has to considered more locally. One friends, collegues, and for some, their familly mean things have to be done now, and no amount of theorising alters that...

All the best, Fredrik

required reading. Martin Buber's I and Thou, small book, big thoughts. If you get thru that you can try such things as writings of Thomas Merton (Catholic but universal thoughts) and Alan Watts (Budhist, Zen). Not to mention a whole host of other deep thinkers. I'd have never made a good philosophy major as these books usually provided me a good nap on Sunday afternoon. Tho I did have a stretch of reading Merton and Watts years ago.

Thanks for the recommendations Wolf.

quote:

1. Who am I?

2. Why am I here?

3. What am I going to do with my life?

4. Why is there something and not nothing?

I have continually developing hypotheses to address the first three questions.

Deane, good questions, (especially number four, which I perceive as fundamental.)

Number three is the hard one, because you (more or less) have control and only you can decide what to do, (although there will be plenty of people around to bugger up your plans)

The other three are easy...we don't know, (and I suspect we never will)

Some of us believe in an "almighty" (but God only knows what that means), others in an insignificant and chaotic accident.

Base your choice on whatever helps you sleep easy at night.

For me, I keep asking :-

a. has there ALWAYS been something (and will there always be something)
b. if there was ever nothing, how did something emerge

The questions are not confined to our universe. We are very limited in our ability to imagine beyond present reality. If we could, the answers might be painfully obvious.

Cheers

Don