Philosophy 101

Paul Simon's ex-wife once told me it was just a smile on a dog.???

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

*stumbles into a room lit up by a great massive, commanding fireplace*I must say, this is a nice warm fire. Would anyone mind if I sit in this comfy chair right now? No? *settles in**fidgets**fusses*Oh - wait, I'm sorry, but - would you happen to have a fine snifter of cognac handy? I should like to get my hands around one of those. Oh! Why, thank you! *settles in again*Oh, thank you, but - no - I gave up smoking 36 years ago. Well....tobacco, that is. Still those look very, very nice - from Cuba even! *examines the room again**nods approvingly**stands up briefly to walk around in the room**suddenly dodges what is apparently nothing at all*Oh - I so sorry, I didn't see the IPU there!! Forgive me. I guess I'm just another one of those clumsy, crude Americans. *resumes settling deep in the chair*Wow...I just had a thought - doesn't Ph.D. stand for Doctor of Philosophy?Or? Wait...was it "piling it higher and deeper? Never could remember. After all that Bull Shit and More Shit on my side of the pond. Ah, never mind. Say, this is a most wonderful brandy! *fidgeting again, suddenly reaches into the chair behind his back and pulls out a stuffed animal - a pink rabbit with a basket in his hand*Huh??? Who left this here?

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Some of the best sources of stuff pertaining to this are on bathroom walls. One of my favorites was:DesCartes: To be is to DO!
Sartre: To do is to BE!
Sinatra: Do be do be do....But when the going gets tough and the tough get going, I'll settle for John Tyerman Williams' Winnie-ther-Pooh. And of course we all know what ther means....Every philosopher before Pooh was mere part of the preface.
Every philosopher during Pooh was an acolyte.
Every philosopher after Pooh is a disciple.All bow down to the Bear of Very Little Brain!Piglet: "So - are we friends forever?"
Pooh: "Oh yes, and much longer than that."Edited by xongsmith, : correct text

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Well, there are a lot of references in those old blues tunes about how there's another mule been kickin' in my stall.....Perhaps we could ask them ol' blues guys?

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Straggs!!!How dare you insult him, of The Great Golden Mean, by referring to him as mere "Numbers"????Surely you know the next 2 digits of his name are 3 then 9.Did you know that his name has been proven to take the computer the longest to write out?

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

I hope you are not requiring a human being to be in that space ship. You don't need to go into space, and our ancestors knew that.The Earth had been pretty well confirmed to be close to a sphere way before Sputnik. How else would they have got the money to launch it?Think Magellan.Think even the Greeks from way back.Think when Longitude and Latitude were established as a means of coordinates for shipping around the globe.The first satellite data of the early space age refined the spherical shape known at the time into a sort of pear-shaped distortion of a perfect sphere with, of course, the already known surface deviations in the form on land masses. That made headlines. So even the latitude-longitude system has Problems. But we still use it because it still remains better than other systems.Frank Borman's reading from the YEC Bible, as his spacecraft came out from behind the moon and we could again view the blue & white marble floating in space, brought 0.0000000000000 new knowledge to the sciences. It did however shake a lot of people back on earth emotionally.

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Just saw this again: While true & no argument from me, I'm thinking that instead this might serve as a good description of the purpose of philosophy - to explain itself!

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

SEMANTIC ALERT!!! 2 DIFFERENT USAGES OF THE WORD "say"!!!!Taz is using the "say" that is also implying an active role in the process as if it could limit what nature does. Straggler is only using it in the observational sense.Compare two courtroom questions of a witness:"Did you have any say in the matter of his finances?"versus"What would you say about the matter of his finances?"

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- xongsmith, 5.7d

Perhaps you could explain this to me, instead of to Straggler? I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Straggler's examples all support his point. You have no such examples that I can see.Imagine I'm in grade school. Dumb it down to the bottom.Show me, Jon.What is the point you are trying to make? Is this still semantics?

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- xongsmith, 5.7d