Without evil there'd be no good ...

[LaMont Cranston]

RuleBritannia, If I had the goal of patronising you, I'd be much more obnoxious than you already think I am. I am hoping to engage you in a reasonable discussion. It could just be that the "being patronised" feeling you have is self-predicated.

[LaMont Cranston]

Re: Feck, I've been thinking some more about what you've been saying. It sounds like you're saying that we experience things in real life, but they don't have anything to do with real life. Excuse me, but what does have to do with real life?

[RuleBritannia]

[LaMont Cranston]

RuleBritannia, My, what an eloquent statement. A picture truly is worth at least a thousand words.

[Feck]

Re: Feck, I've been thinking some more about what you've been saying. It sounds like you're saying that we experience things in real life, but they don't have anything to do with real life. Excuse me, but what does have to do with real life?

No I'm saying that pissing into the wind about Philosophy still leaves your trousers wet ! You are the one saying that sadness is needed for happiness to exist etc and I think that is just word play of the highest Woo .

[Surendra Darathy]

Surendra, I was wondering when you would show up here. I haven't seen much of you on that other thread. Well, at least we agree about one thing...Muhammed Ali was (and still is) great. However, I wouldn't limit my description of his greatness to just one thing.

Yes, of course, LaMont. But what use do you make of the whole thing about floating and stinging? Remember, this thread is not about Muhammad Ali at all.

It's one of the reasons I often use that line of Muhammed Ali's, "I can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."

Well, the great thing about Muhammad Ali is that instead of just talking about it, he let crowds of people watch him actually float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. This involved his actually having an attention span.

Yeah? And what was that reason, again? Was there a reason, LaMont? Nostalgia, maybe? Or did the train of thought...



Is nostalgia a sad thing or a happy thing? Can we dichotomize some more, now?

[LaMont Cranston]

Feck, That's a perfect example of what I've been saying. If you piss into the wind, whether you're being philosophical or not, and wind up with wet pants, that's a real life experience. It's also an irrational thing to do. How many times do you have to have that experience before it dawns on you that if you turn around and piss in the other direction, you probably won't wind up with wet pants?

You're still not getting what I'm saying about such things as "need." I'm not saying anything is "needed." What I'm saying is that's a description of the way things are. We form subjective judgements based on our perceptions, experiences, etc., and those judgements have a great deal to do with the quality of our lives.

Are you happy? I hope so. If you're happy, do you know that sadness exists? We already know the answer to that question...you couldn't be asking about the concept of happy and sad unless you had that concept in your mind. That doesn't mean that you must live a life that's equal parts happy and sad. It's not like that. As a conscious being with a large brain, you have the capacity to make choices that will bring you greater happiness, and you do that all the time. So do I.

Getting back to the thread topic, if you have the concept of "good," you also have the concept of "bad" or "evil." If you weren't at least aware of that dichotomy, you couldn't be discussing it.

[LaMont Cranston]

Surendra, Thanks for bringing up nostalgia. Like many things in life, nostalgia, at least for most of us, can contain elements of both. Some people look back at the "good old days" and pine for their lost youth or wish things were now the way they were back then. The same people can also take joy from remembering the experiences they had, and they can know that those experiences got them to where they are now.

Whether nostalgia is happy or sad, the only time we can experience what happened in the past is from present time. Like many things in life, how we feel about the past, present or future is not necessarily an "either/or" kind of thing, although some narrow thinkers want to think it might be that way. It's the same way with many of the other judgements we make, including the dichotomy of good and evil.

[Surendra Darathy]

When you got no more assurance
Than a great big hunk o' lead
If you don't respond to romance
Jack, you're dead

When a chick is smilin' at you
Even though there's nothin' said
You stand there like a statue
Jack, you're dead

You been always kickin'
But you stubbed your toes
When you ups and kicks the bucket
Just like ole man Mose'

When you get no kicks from lovin'
And you blow your top instead
It's a fact that you ain't livin'
Jack, you're dead

When you just ain't got nobody
Since you gone and lost your head
Rigor mortis has set in, daddy
Jack, you're dead

What's the use of havin' muscles
If your life hangs by a thread
If you ain't got no red corpuscles
Jack, you're dead

You been always kickin'
But you stubbed your toes
When you ups and kicks the bucket
Just like ole man Mose'

When you get no kicks from lovin'
And the news begins to spread
All the cats will holler "murder"
Jack, you're dead

All the breath has leaked out of you
If your friends gather round the bed
And look at you and say "Mm mm, don't he look natural?"
When that happens to you, daddy Jack, you're dead

[RuleBritannia]

Getting back to the thread topic, if you have the concept of "good," you also have the concept of "bad" or "evil." If you weren't at least aware of that dichotomy, you couldn't be discussing it.

Except it's a false dichotomy.

[LaMont Cranston]

RuleBritannia, OK, then, what is a real dichotomy?

[Surendra Darathy]

RuleBritannia, OK, then, what is a real dichotomy?

Heads or tails.

[LaMont Cranston]

Surendra,

"Well now everybody cryin' bout the seventh son
But in the whole round world there is only one, and
I'm the one, yes, I'm the one
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son.

Well I can tell your future before it comes to pass
And I can do things for you that make your heart feel glad
Look at the skies and predict the rain
I can tell when a woman's got another man
I'm the one, yes, I'm the on
I'm the one, I'm the one,
I'm the one they call the seventh son.

Now I can hold you close and I can squeeze you tight
And I can make you cry for me both day and night
And I can heal the sick and even raise the dead
And make you little girls talk out of your head...

Now I can talk these words that sound so sweet
I can make your little heart even skip a beat
I can take you baby, hold you in my arms
And I make the flesh quiver on your lovely bones...

"The Seventh Son" Willie Dixon

[LaMont Cranston]

RuleBritannia, You are absolutely correct, head and tails is a real dichotomy. So, we know that you are aware that dichotomies exist in your world of perceptions. Now that we know that, perhaps you can recognize some of the many other dichotomies that exist...or would you rather play with trains?

"When the train gets rolling, everybody gonna want to climb aboard." Sugar Ray Robinson

[RuleBritannia]

RuleBritannia, You are absolutely correct, head and tails is a real dichotomy. So, we know that you are aware that dichotomies exist in your world of perceptions. Now that we know that, perhaps you can recognize some of the many other dichotomies that exist...or would you rather play with trains?

"When the train gets rolling, everybody gonna want to climb aboard." Sugar Ray Robinson

It wasn't me who said that heads or tails was a dichotomy, even though I agree. Whether or not dichotomies exist is irrelivent, the only thing we're talking about is good and evil, talking about other dichotomies is non-sequitur.