Lesson 2 - Philosophy and Ethics: Says Who?

[indiebandit1]

Please people stop with the useless religous rhetoric. If you need a dogma to have purpose, go ahead, but please do not push it as a universal truth. To me you come across as arrogant. Meaning comes from thought and reaction, and therefore truth is a perception. Words such as "God" or "souls" are completely subject to interpretation, and have no logical value in the context in which they are presented.

[Hufflewaffle]

oh oh oh.. what is real? how do I know I exist? What purpose is there? oh help.. I'm so lost.

Yes yes! break them down. Make them question everything then when you have broken them - when you have scooped out any idea about who, what or where they are, start planting your own 'philosophy' in their feeble worn out minds.

Classic mind control technique. Do not fall for it.

[claudelebel55]

@Hufflewaffle this is what all peoples of the earth do with young minds. How do you think talibans coou me into existence, or right-wing evangelists. Everyone is programmed to the hilt from childhood. We are already full of implants and we now question the validity of these implants which we so vehemently defend as we have been taught to do. How much of what you believe is actually true ? Unfortunately for believers, truth and belief have very little in common.

[claudelebel55]

@Hufflewaffle correction: How do you think talibans come into existence, or right-wing evangelists. They get programmed and then they take their programs to be the ultimate truth and they are so well trained that they don't even know they are running a program or more rightly, that the program is running them.

[DreamsofMajesty]

scribd (dot) com/nb812

[polopowers1]

The Virtue of Christ is not ethics or philosophy Again the trap of morality which is the old law and not the leading of the Spirit.

[PjotrvonB]

Watched the trailer. He is posing the wrong questions. example: first: Is there a meaning of life? then If there is a meaning of life, what is it?

[tbond1969]

@PjotrvonB The meaning of life, is to live in truth, TRUTH is REALITY is GOD's TRUTH. Knowing the truth is what the meaning is. OUR meaning of life is to know God. Living in God "truth" is living in knowledge of what is to come, Love, Peace, Patients, Hope. Without God "truth" we are living in lies, death, and destruction and no real purpose.

[06clared]

Now im gonna drive myself mad thinkin that i don't exist lol, nah good video its very thought provoking :)

[jackson6806]

Hello. Going through your site, I noticed that there are a series of teasers and trailers. Where can I view the full video lessons. And by the way, thankx for posting...

[Lenoxus]

I'm curious what, if anything, the bible has to say about thought, or the question of existence itself. I'm not really sure its writers felt the need to deal with epistemology — not that I blame them! It's just that, something like "Do I really exist?" is assumed by most people to be so obvious that the Bible never bothers to settle the question officially (as far as I know). That there is a reality is just sort of implicit in the book's descriptions of reality.

[dbzgtcrazy]

The only thing that comes to mind immediately is the name of God the Father. In most modern translations, it is simply "I AM" or something...but originally it would have had the equivalent Hebrew consonants of YHWH...often pronounced "Yahweh" or "Yahveh." This word has a very comprehensive connotation of real existence: "the existing One" "the Eternal" and "the One Who was, is and is to come."

That's from what I've been taught, anyway.

[NeoConvert]

Lenoxus,

The Bible speaks of man as originally existing in a certain epistemological position, which now, due to the Fall, he no longer exists in. Or at least, he is deceived into propounding that he no longer exists in.

(see next, #2)

[NeoConvert]

#2

Lenoxus, this is a continuation from my initial reply to your question.

Post-Fall man begins his inquiry with the fundamental (assumed) principle that he is 'autonomous' in his thinking. He thus begins with himself, his mind, his consciousness, and from there attempts to reason his way to a sensible/coherent conception of the reality wherein he exists.

(see next, #3)

[NeoConvert]

#3

Thus, the history of philosophy, from Thales to Rorty presents us with - despite the multifarious schools - one singular assumption/pesupposition concurrent throughout.

This presupposition of man's cognitive (or you might say 'epistemic') autonomy is manifest in his very assumption that the sort of knowledge that he is capable of is knowledge of "essence."

(see next, #4)

[NeoConvert]

#4

To see a vivid example of this presumption at work, consider the position of Socrates in Plato's diaglogue "Euthyphro." What do we see there?

Socrates wants to know the nature (read: essence) of "the Good" regardless of what is said about it by gods or men. He wants exhaustive, comprehensive, essential knowledge. We might say the same by saying that what he will NOT accept is any appeal to "authority."

Now, what does this have to do with your epistemology question?

(see next, #5)

[NeoConvert]

Lenoxus,

I've just tried to post an answer to your question (which was a very pertinent one), but it doesn't appear that the thread is presently taking comments. I'm trying again with this one as a sort of 'test,' and if it goes through I'll then repost my reply to your question.

I sure hope they havn't disabled comments for some reason. Thinks don't appear too out of hand yet. Give it a few days. =)

Cheers.

[wordkeeper]

The Bible tells you the answers.