felephant

For those who don't know, this is another wordy response to some wordy responses to a fairly unwordy comment by me on Miniature American Flags, that Objectivist blog I frequent. Again, it being a response, it probably won't make a lot of sense unless you're aware of the comments it replies to, so feel free to ignore.

( But to those who wish to continue this debate, here it is.Collapse )

Love,
James

This is a response to this post, written by a man by the name of Derick Halley. It's posted here because it seems like it might be neater for us to argue on this site. As this is a direct reply to him, not a general argument, a lot of it won't make sense, as it is without the original context, and stuff. You're welcome to join, of course, on whatever site the debate takes place. But just so you know, you probably won't want to. Might save you a few minutes of your life in reading my response.

( Reply to Tour de Force in Defence of VolitionCollapse )

-James

This Robert Newman bloke is rather interesting. He's basically the opposite of Ayn Rand in every way. We live in a society of propoganda far worse than anything Stalin or Goebbels had, he says. He even has an epic novel to counter Atlas Shrugged! It's called The Fountain at the Centre of the World, which is undoubtedly a reference to Ayn Rand's other fiction book, The Fountainhead. Kate, you'd love him. I like him too, but am skeptical of extremists - and he is extreme.

'S a pity I'll never see him and Rand fight it out, though. It'd be a really fun fight.

It's half three. I should be much more tired than I am. (!!! I meant to write "I'm much less tired than I should be, but I think I'll leave it unchanged, as it probably means I'm more tired than I think I am, which is less than I think I should be, or something.)

Anyway, I've spent the last three hours looking for anti-Rand arguments, with sparodic success. So I made a post in the community "philosophy", so hopefully they'll all be put together for me soon. For me, and for anyone else in a similar situation. It's really annoying; no-one really takes Objectivism seriously (except the Objectivists themselves, who see no need to write anything), so no-one writes anything, let alone anything hefty and comprehensive which I can pick up and read cover-to-cover. Just bits and pieces here and there.

Bdjkfsuid.
Goodnight.

Philosophical Light Bulb Jokes

Q: How many philosophers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Depends on how you define 'change'.

Q: How many Analytic Philosophers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None - it's a pseudo-problem ... light bulbs give off light (hence the name) ... if the bulb was broken and wasn't giving off light, it wouldn't be a 'light bulb' now would it? (oh, where has rigor gone?!)

Q: How many deconstructionists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: On the contrary, the NILE is the longest river in Africa.

Q: How many Process philosophers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one really fast one--to stand in front of the bulb and block it from prehending the attribute of 'brokenness' in the next 1/32nd of a second!

Q: How many speech act theorists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Do you really want to know or are you simply asking me to change it?

Various philosophers' proofs of p (this is my favourite (that is, they're all in-jokes, and i get this one))

Plato:
SOCRATES: Is it not true that p?
GLAUCON: I agree.
CEPHALUS: It would seem so.
POLEMARCHUS: Necessarily.
THRASYMACHUS: Yes, Socrates.
ALCIBIADES: Certainly, Socrates.
PAUSANIAS: Quite so, if we are to be consistent.
ARISTOPHANES: Assuredly.
ERYXIMACHUS: The argument certainly points that way.
PHAEDO: By all means.
PHAEDRUS: What you say is true, Socrates.

Etc.

http://home.sprynet.com/~owl1/phil.htm

Leastways, that's the link. It's actually started acting up a wee bit.

Oh, and this:

http://consc.net/phil-humor.html

The internet is fun, 'specially at 1am, when you're dividing your time between looking for solid philosophical objections to Objectivism (no-one bothers, they don't take it seriously enough any more, but someone must've worked it out before they despaired of it, and I want to find that essay. Or series of essays. Whatever) and looking up philosophy jokes (I actually got linked to the jokes from some bloke's site, which I had learned from a passing mention refuted Objectivism. No such luck).

http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth--1251-Free_Will_and_Determinism.aspx

Please?

No... I don't buy it. I wish I could. But... no.

-James

As I haven't posted in donkey's years - so much so that it feels strange to even be writing a post again, then it seems that telling you all that there will be a post coming soon, and that you're all to be excited and impatient, seems fair. If it comes, it'll be really really big, and quite intimidating. However, I will be nice - I will do it in draft a few times so it has some coherence.

Incidentally, I'm finally reading Atlas Shrugged. It is *huge*. And I haven't been online in God only knows how long, either. I don't appear to have missed much though. Marvellous.

-James

I just grew up. This is extremely good. Read it, and grow up. Though it's not really the news article it claims to be, it is nonetheless an extremely good philosophical and rational truth.

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5643