Not Music Related

[yourdeadgroom]

Originally posted by EvilGenius
That comment on communism being a good idea if we weren't humans: that's interesting, I've never thought about it that way. I suppose your right. MAybe if we were ants.... but then again we're not

I just mean, it's a great concept, everyone sharing everything equally and all that, but humans will be humans, there will always be a group that takes more than their share, and oppresses others, so it can't ever work.

 

[EvilGenius]

Originally posted by yourdeadgroom
I just mean, it's a great concept, everyone sharing everything equally and all that, but humans will be humans, there will always be a group that takes more than their share, and oppresses others, so it can't ever work.

Yeah, but for me, the idea of being forced to be considered equal among people who are less than me (it's a fact that we are not equal) and being forced to share not just my property, but my life is EXTREMELY oppressive as I see it. I take what is my due, and if that's a larger share than someone elses, who am I to feel guilty about being a more deserving individual?

I love the idea of capitalism for many reasons, but in the context of this discussion, I love it because inequality is a logical deduction, i.e. survival of the fittest. In other words, for me, capitalism is in concordance with the natural order of things, i.e. is in sync with evolution. Evolving does not deductively conclude that we all lower ourselves to the lowest common denomenator, which is the logical consequence of acting as equals.

 

[ether]

1)I was quite good at maths at school, but I don't like it particulary...
2)I love philosophy! I have tons of philosophy books at home since my brother has studied philosophy and my mother likes to buy books. My fave philosopher is Kierkegaard, I really enjoyed Enter- Eller! I also like Kant (even if it takes me ages to understand a single sentence of what he has written...), Schopenhauer, stoicism (Seneca in particular) and many others...
3)I've been playing the piano since the age of 11 and I'm most into classical stuff. I also have an electric guitar and a classical one, I've been playing for several years, but I've never taken it seriously.I also started to play in a band but at them moment nothing is going on...
4)I don't care about politics, I think that most of the times power means corruption. I really dislike politicians.
5)I have too many fave books! At the moment I 've just finished to read Claes Holmström "Tredje Stenen Från Solen"(nice book!)and I´ve just begun Dostoevskij "The Idiot" and Neil Gaiman "Neverwhere". Other fave writers are: J. Joyce, V. Woolf, D. Buzzati, E. Canetti, F. Kafka, Goethe, H. Böll, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Flaubert, Balzac, Hugo, Salinger, Poe, Pirandello...well lots of classics. I also enjoy funny books such as the ones by J. O´Connor and Sue Townsend. I´m into poetry as well, but the list will be too long to mention!

 

[EvilGenius]

Originally posted by ether
1)I was quite good at maths at school, but I don't like it particulary...
2)I love philosophy! I have tons of philosophy books at home since my brother has studied philosophy and my mother likes to buy books. My fave philosopher is Kierkegaard, I really enjoyed Enter- Eller! I also like Kant (even if it takes me ages to understand a single sentence of what he has written...), Schopenhauer, stoicism (Seneca in particular) and many others...
3)I've been playing the piano since the age of 11 and I'm most into classical stuff. I also have an electric guitar and a classical one, I've been playing for several years, but I've never taken it seriously.I also started to play in a band but at them moment nothing is going on...
4)I don't care about politics, I think that most of the times power means corruption. I really dislike politicians.
5)I have too many fave books! At the moment I 've just finished to read Claes Holmström "Tredje Stenen Från Solen"(nice book!)and I´ve just begun Dostoevskij "The Idiot" and Neil Gaiman "Neverwhere". Other fave writers are: J. Joyce, V. Woolf, D. Buzzati, E. Canetti, F. Kafka, Goethe, H. Böll, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Flaubert, Balzac, Hugo, Salinger, Poe, Pirandello...well lots of classics. I also enjoy funny books such as the ones by J. O´Connor and Sue Townsend. I´m into poetry as well, but the list will be too long to mention!

1. Good for you! I forget to mention in my other post my reason for asking this question. I admire mathematicians more than any other profession. Reading about their lives inspires me more so than any other to create and produce great work. I like numbers, symbols and putting them together to form proofs and equations and all that. Don't know why, but it just seems "sexy" for me. Nothing gets me more excited than seeing an entire page of equations, proofs, lemmas, etc and I even have to admit, this is extremely pathetic!

2. I never really studied Kierkegaard in depth myself, all I really know about him is that he is a Christian Existensionalist, and was the originator of the phrase "leap of faith", but due to my ignorance of him, I cannot either praise nor critisize him. I know eventually I'll check him out. Re: Kant... yes, he is extremely difficult to read, almost impossible it seems at times, but despite what the philosophical group I fall into primarily (objectivism) and their immense criticisms of his works, I still believe what he has done is not only important to philosophy, but to science as well, and I respect past genius with whole heart.

3. If I had a choice to be given an instant gift at playing a certain instrument, it would be piano. I am quite ignorant in the area, but I would absolutely kill to be able to play things like Beethoven's "moonlight" sonata and "Für elise"... they move me more than most music.

4. In response to most of the posts, I too hate politics. I depsise politics and I avoid the papers because I refuse to voluntarily depress myself. The world is decaying because of politicians, but this does not mean you should not have a political ideal. I have chosen capitalism as mine, because thus far, there have been no others that can overshadow it in its moral philosophy and its progressiveness.

5. A lot of posts mention Franz Kafka as their favorites and this is funny, because he is one of the authors that I read while I took time off of school that motivated me to choose philosophy as a major. The darkness of his works can be interpreted in so many ways that it is necessary for only an active mind to read him and appreciate his stuff at so many different levels.

Pardon me if this is a long post... I'm pissed outta my mind.

 

[Don Corleone]

1. i really loved math in high school and i was in the math team and so on, but i cant stand any math at all at university. math for engineers is really tough.

2. i've read pretty much philosophy, but nonoe of the stuff has satisfied me at all. marx, nietzsche and all have some points here and there...but you could say im very close to the anatolian philosophies including, rumi.

3. bass and classical guitar

4. im an active, devoted kemalist (mustafa kemal ataturk). he's neither on the left, nor the right wing. just the perfect ideology for my country.

5. ernest hemingway - "the old man and the sea"
ernest hemingway - "for whom the bell tolls
dosteyevski - "crime and punishment"
and anything by kafka
and last but not least: my favorite novel of all time (as you can see from my user nama) "the godfather" by mario puzo

 

[EvilGenius]

@DonCorleone: I just finished reading "the Godfather" yesterday and although I wouldn't say it was my favorite, I can see why anyone might think so. It always kept me interested. I'm actually on a streak right now: I'm just about finished Stephen King's "The DeadZone" and it keeps the interest going throughout!

Also, in reference to Kafka, and I'm not sure anyone has specifically mentioned it, but "The Trial" is a really good read. Nice and dark and just plain absurd (to steal Camus's favorite word).