GD Philosophy

[Deffeh]

I've always quite wanted to write up my own Philosophy, my own code of values for living life by, my own sort of structure of soceity, how it has evolved, and how i would prefer it would have evolved.

Obviously however, like every other great idea ive had, i havent followed through on it. And on a more sensible note, i've accepted that most of the intelligent debate outside university, and my dad that i've encountered, has been on this forum.

So i thought, would it be possible for us all to combine together and create a decent essay / thesis / whatever you want to call it that would constitute a philosophy? After all, all the non objective debating type threads could be squeezed to meet these ends, could they not?

What do you reckon? Pointless, yes. Feasible?

[Knight Theamion]

Feasible: yes.


however, you need to put ****loads of time in it ...

the general issues that have to be addressed are:
'it's better to regret what you have done, then what you haven't done'
'accept things that you cannot change'
and, most importantly

it's only cheating if you get caught, and only stupid people get caught

[Phang]

Originally Posted by Knight Theamion

Feasible: yes.


however, you need to put ****loads of time in it ...

the general issues that have to be addressed are:
'it's better to regret what you have done, then what you haven't done'
'accept things that you cannot change'
and, most importantly

it's only cheating if you get caught, and only stupid people get caught

I'm glad we've got your insight around here.


Mingeface.

[Aryn]

i would agree with nantoz.. there's too many different people on here that all have different opinions on things. politics for example as he already stated. but religion, we've got lots of different religions here and views on it as seen by the many religious threads we've had. music.. we've all got different tastes in music

[djbass]

There is no blanket philosophy, you need to find one that is attuned to your own needs.

[Radical Edward]

GD Philosophy... hmm. I post therefore I am.

[Dante Hicks]

It depends what you mean by philosophy. Most of the issues raised already seem to centre around either politics or ethics. But what about logic, perception, the nature of matter, linguistics, etc? Even if you don't devote any direct thought to these things anything you think will be influenced by these issues.

Myself and T&F over the last decade have devoted lot of conversation to this sort of issue - we half-jokingly call it a grand theory of everything. My personal problem is where to start? With Cartesian-esque first principles? At the start of the Universe? With some sort of summary of where we are now? A study of human history? Some sort of literature review of every important piece of philosophy ever written?

****ed if I know.

My current approach is to write predictable and banal forum posts whereby I continuously go over the same ground in a tiresome fashion. My fond hope is that by the time I die, someone will be able to feed all of this drivel into some sort of computer script and then my beliefs will live on and I will have achieved immortality.

This plan will of course be scuppered when some **** deletes the database again.

[Cooling]

To start out you might want to ask what sort of philosophy you want to write.

Political philosophy is only one of a myriad of philosophical issues. Other topics might include Ethics, Metaphysics or Epistemology.

Do you like Existentialism? How do you feel about Post Modernism? There are so many different competing theories in so many niche' areas that you really are better off focusing on one specific topic in order to build on the work of previous authors.

It isnt impossible to come up with somthing new, just pick a specific area that interests you and build on that. That said, philosophy is often an intensely personal excercise and you are unlikely to reach consensus on an internet message board.

[djbass]

My own philosophy on all things in general is still evolving, it's not yet stable enough to risk squeezing it's meaning in entirity into a single phrase, though through the very nature of philosophy it may never stablise.

Do miss the days when various discussions on philosophy were the norm for GD, it's one of the things that despite being a twat, W was quite good at.

[Yahwe]

this thread belongs in the RP Forum

[MAdnRisKy]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

It depends what you mean by philosophy. Most of the issues raised already seem to centre around either politics or ethics. But what about logic, perception, the nature of matter, linguistics, etc? Even if you don't devote any direct thought to these things anything you think will be influenced by these issues.

Myself and T&F over the last decade have devoted lot of conversation to this sort of issue - we half-jokingly call it a grand theory of everything. My personal problem is where to start? With Cartesian-esque first principles? At the start of the Universe? With some sort of summary of where we are now? A study of human history? Some sort of literature review of every important piece of philosophy ever written?

****ed if I know.

My current approach is to write predictable and banal forum posts whereby I continuously go over the same ground in a tiresome fashion. My fond hope is that by the time I die, someone will be able to feed all of this drivel into some sort of computer script and then my beliefs will live on and I will have achieved immortality.

This plan will of course be scuppered when some **** deletes the database again.

living on through your memes

cunning

[MAdnRisKy]

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

Roll a 4 or less with D12 with a -2 modifier to see if you succesfully move the thread.

You have failed.

A night goblin steals your gold.

i laughed out loud at this, this makes me sad and geeky doesn't it?

[Deepflow]

I think the only thing which even approaches a general philosophy (to use the word in its vaguest terms) on GD is acceptance of different philosophies. That and the fact that its ok to make paedo, jew, ****** jokes etc. Which you don't find on most boards (although fairly often irl).

[Ste]

straight out of my signature

Wise men write because they have something to write about; fools write because they have to write something

[SilverSmoke]

Originally Posted by MAdnRisKy

i laughed out loud at this, this makes me sad and geeky doesn't it?

Everytime when someone makes the typical D&D roleplaying reference joke there's always some tard going 'lol i spitted my drink out through my nose when reading that! I must be a geek'.

Yes you are, actually most of us are, we are posting on a forum that associates with a game that involves running planets in databaseform, get over it. This forum consist of area's that are dedicated to roleplaying, discussions about the mechanics of a really crap and dated game, discussions about factions that roleplay to be some galactic kind of empires, a section that is dedicated to nerds who have technical problems with their hardware and software, even a place where morons who believe they're so important in this part of the angry internet can say goodbye to their pa internet buddies, a place where the funniest threads gets stored (which only hold one, go figure) and last but not least the subforum where you can speak about general subjects GD, basicly the place of old planetarion players (the elite) who quitted ages ago or are playing secretly and act like they hate the game where they discuss all kind of bullshit pretending they're some omni-gods of the interweb, mostly based on the fact they're posting here for already 5 years.

No sir, you probably aren't.

[MrL_JaKiri]

Kids these days, with their heads full of that Cartesian Dualism.

[QazokRouge5]

Tell you guys what, I'll make a philosophy, make it look official and pretty, then present it to you all.

Then you will all accept it as law. And live by it religiously.

Such is the way of democracy.

[furball]

Originally Posted by QazokRouge5

Tell you guys what, I'll make a philosophy, make it look official and pretty, then present it to you all.

Then you will all accept it as law. And live by it religiously.

Such is the way of democracy.

Do you live in Utah by any chance?

[QazokRouge5]

Texas\Oklahoma

[MAdnRisKy]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

Everytime when someone makes the typical D&D roleplaying reference joke there's always some tard going 'lol i spitted my drink out through my nose when reading that! I must be a geek'.

Yes you are, actually most of us are, we are posting on a forum that associates with a game that involves running planets in databaseform, get over it. This forum consist of area's that are dedicated to roleplaying, discussions about the mechanics of a really crap and dated game, discussions about factions that roleplay to be some galactic kind of empires, a section that is dedicated to nerds who have technical problems with their hardware and software, even a place where morons who believe they're so important in this part of the angry internet can say goodbye to their pa internet buddies, a place where the funniest threads gets stored (which only hold one, go figure) and last but not least the subforum where you can speak about general subjects GD, basicly the place of old planetarion players (the elite) who quitted ages ago or are playing secretly and act like they hate the game where they discuss all kind of bullshit pretending they're some omni-gods of the interweb, mostly based on the fact they're posting here for already 5 years.

No sir, you probably aren't.

aww you called me a tard, that's sweet

it was the night goblins bit that got me, I dunno why it sounded so funny but i read it out loud and laughed. And yes I'm quite happy with being a geek, but then i would be, a geek is someone happy with being the status otherwise described as being a nerd

[furball]

QazokRouge5: Re-read your post, and then apply it to Utah. Hopefully you'll see what I'm getting at

[QazokRouge5]

Originally Posted by furball

QuazkRouge5: Re-read your post, and then apply it to Utah. Hopefully you'll see what I'm getting at

Forgive me for not being familiar with Utah laws... but wtf are you on about?

And is it really so hard to spell Qazok correctly?

[furball]

Originally Posted by QazokRouge5

Forgive me for not being familiar with Utah laws... but wtf are you on about?

And is it really so hard to spell Qazok correctly?

Sorry about the spelling, it's fixed.

As for Utah:

Originally Posted by QazokRouge5

Tell you guys what, I'll make a philosophy, make it look official and pretty, then present it to you all.

Then you will all accept it as law. And live by it religiously.

Such is the way of democracy.

Apply that to the Mormons, who run Utah (effectively). Joseph Smith Jr. was the person who created them (via being the 'translator' of the Book of Mormon from 'scripture'). Made it all 'official and pretty'. And now Utah is effectively under Mormon law, with a few exceptions.

Make some vague sense now?

[QazokRouge5]

Originally Posted by furball

Sorry about the spelling, it's fixed.

As for Utah:

Apply that to the Mormons, who run Utah (effectively). Joseph Smith Jr. was the person who created them (via being the 'translator' of the Book of Mormon from 'scripture'). Made it all 'official and pretty'. And now Utah is effectively under Mormon law, with a few exceptions.

Make some vague sense now?

Yep. Thanks for the edit.

Wanna be Mormon with me?

[furball]

Only if those bouncing boobies on your avatar are actually attached to you

[Deepflow]

Won't you look up at the skyline
at the mortar block and glass
and check out the reflections
in my eyes
you see they always
used to be there
even when this all was grass
and I sang and danced
about a high-rise

you were laughing at
my helmet hat
laughing at my torch

CHORUS
Go ahead you can
laugh all you want
I got my philosophy
keeps my feet on the ground
and I trust it like the ground
and that's why my philosophy(my phil-)
it keeps me walking when I'm falling down(o-so-phy)

I see that there is evil
and I know that there is good
and the inbetweens
I never understood
won't you look at me
I'm crazy
but I get the job done
yeah I'm crazy
but I get the job done

CHORUS

I pushed you 'cause
I loved you guys
I didn't realize
you weren't having fun
I dragged you up the stairs
and I told you to fly
you were flapping your arms
you started to cry
you were too high
too high

You may take this all for granted
take the mortar, block and glass
and you forget the speech
that moved the stone
but it's really not that you can't see
the forest for the trees
you've never been out
in the woods alone

So you can laugh
all you want to
but I got my philosophy
keeps my feet on the ground
and I love you
you're my friend
but you got no philosophy
now it's time for this song to end

[acropolis]

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

In terms of consensus I think the pluralism of GD is why I come here, I don't need hundreds of people to agree with me.

the mere thought of you going somewhere and getting nothing but complete agreement with your political views from hundreds of people to the point where it gets boring...

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by acropolis

the mere thought of you going somewhere and getting nothing but complete agreement with your political views from hundreds of people to the point where it gets boring...

In soviet russia Toccata and Fugue agrees with you!

[s|k]

I love philosophy, I love trying to understand deep intricate and complicated ideas about life, the universe, and etc...but when it comes down to it I'm much like Candide at the end of that story by Voltaire when he tells Pangloss to stfu and work in the garden:

It's all about waking up everyday and doing what you have to create the experience you want when you can. That's it. :/

[dda]

Talking about individual philosophies could be interesting. However, I think what you would get is what people have taken from other philosophers. A bunch of references to people who never heard of GD. Personal philosophies on various points is interesting. What a person's reading list is, is not.

[acropolis]

Back in the day we used to have a lot of moral relativism around here. "Raping and enslaving are certainly 'bad' in some perspectives, but in other perspectives the same acts are actually 'good'. It's all relative." But I don't see that much anymore. I would argue that this forum actually tends toward a very similar philosophy despite huge differences in politics. I would propose the following as a rough outline of what I'm thinking people here generally hold in common; I would prefer criticism came in the form of making these better suited toward everyone instead of "it's useless because it does say that beer is good," but if you really feel that this is antithetical to what you believe (as opposed to "that's not how I would sum it up" or "those aren't the points I'd emphasize"), then say so. And I would love better ways of phrasing things.


1. We believe that we exist, and by this i mean i beleive that i exist, and you believe that you exist, but not necessarily do you believe that i exist. that comes soon. Pretty much for the Cartesian reason.

2. We believe that there are truths that may be unprovable but not necessarily that we know which they are. The point is that it may not be worthwhile trying to prove things to be true if it means giving up.

3. We believe that others exist, an interesting Turing perspective you get from living on an internet forum. But this is significant.

4. We believe that there is a significance to sentient beings, not to the human DNA or the anatomy or physiology, or even to the human shape, even if it has nice tits.

5. We believe that sentient beings can create, not just reshape and what they can create are abstract concepts. "Philosophy" has meaning. We gave it that meaning, we give it meaning. The United States exists only in the minds of people, but it does exist.

6. We believe that there is good and evil, and that, as a general rule of thumb, flaying children to hear their delicious screams usually falls into the latter category.

7. We believe that sentient beings have a value, both to themselves and to others, and because of this it's not ok to kill that hermit on the hill to put a road there even if no one else cares for him a bit; but it's also not always perfectly OK to kill yourself even if you hold no value to yourself. Unborn babies may have no worth to themselves, but it's not ok to force an abortion on a pregnant mother because the child could have value to her mother.

8. We believe in a sort of personal responsibility, and not in the republican sense which basically means "I have no personal responsibility." If you have a kid, then you have responsibility

9. We believe that freedom is a good thing, a freedom that does not impinge. From 7 and 8, we can build up what is 'impinging'; but clearly while often we no longer have the freedom to swing our fist, sometimes we don't have the freedom to not swing our fist (per 8). A blowjob never hurt nobody.

10. We believe that fatties are rightly frowned upon

Plenty of quibbling can be had. "But what is meant by freedom/responsibility/good/sentience/believing/truths? What does it mean for "philosophy" to have meaning or for the US to exist? What is meant by "value?" How fat must one be before qualifying as a 'fatty'? Good questions.

[JonnyBGood]

People come first and the state second, or preferably dead last behind the international association for the increase in teletubby appreciation. So what we really mean is that...

...the most important thing in life is being able to make your own decisions without coercion. So we're really big into....

...personal responsibility. Which means that if you **** up it's your fault. Society may be to blame for the conditions of poverty surrounding you but you still had a choice. However even in this fairly straightforward line we can see...

...the principle of reasonable doubt. We're never too sure about our principles and we're always amenable to change if someone argues well enough for it.

I don't think there's that much more in common between all of us. Oh and I think most of us accept tarski's theory of truth even if we haven't heard of it.

[Appocomaster]

believing in personal responsibility may be very well, but if you took two people who'd stolen a loaf of bread, one to feed his starving family who were close to dying, and one because he felt like it, people would be more sympathetic towards the former person and he may even get a lighter sentence (assuming people prosecute people for stealing a loaf of bread).
Although there was a woman that got arrested and taken to jail for 5 hours for "stealing" a box of smarties she was given by someone for her kids 3 minutes walk away.

1. We believe that we exist, and by this i mean i beleive that i exist, and you believe that you exist, but not necessarily do you believe that i exist. that comes soon. Pretty much for the Cartesian reason.

you mean Kant's improved version, right?

6. We believe that there is good and evil, and that, as a general rule of thumb, flaying children to hear their delicious screams usually falls into the latter category.

Obviously you don't mean there's a physical property about an object, event or set of events that can be read as good or evil, but that people differentiate between actions (and often share similar basic beliefs). I hope?
I don't see how establishing good and evil gets you anywhere. You can't move from that to right or wrong logically, and good and evil are just words floating in the world with general concepts attached to them, however much we act like good = right and evil = wrong.

9. We believe that freedom is a good thing, a freedom that does not impinge. From 7 and 8, we can build up what is 'impinging'; but clearly while often we no longer have the freedom to swing our fist, sometimes we don't have the freedom to not swing our fist (per 8). A blowjob never hurt nobody.

I assume you mean "a freedom that does not impinge upon other's freedom?"

[Kurashima]

You realise that this thread may be Deffeh's final gift to GD. The final philosophy of a tortured individual whos life is ruled by Catholic Guilt , Overwhelming Angst, Alcohol, and a lack of sex.

Its quite the most interesting thing I think he ever posted.

[Yahwe]

to damn with faint praise

[s|k]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

You realise that this thread may be Deffeh's final gift to GD. The final philosophy of a tortured individual whos life is ruled by Catholic Guilt , Overwhelming Angst, Alcohol, and a lack of sex.

Its quite the most interesting thing I think he ever posted.

Why can't he use GD anymore? Did he move into a cave?

[Kurashima]

Originally Posted by s|k

Why can't he use GD anymore? Did he move into a cave?

You missed his "Goodbye GD" thread then?

[Phang]

Originally Posted by s|k

Why can't he use GD anymore? Did he move into a cave?

worse.

University.

[s|k]

Originally Posted by Kurashima

You missed his "Goodbye GD" thread then?

No, I just don't understand why he wouldn't be able to access the internet.

[Phang]

Originally Posted by s|k

No, I just don't understand why he wouldn't be able to access the internet.

he's in a flat in stirling with three people he doesn't really actually know. the internet is not top of his priority list.

[s|k]

Originally Posted by Phang

he's in a flat in stirling with three people he doesn't really actually know. the internet is not top of his priority list.

ahh