Wasim

Wasim is in the house

What is the purpose of life?

Ask the tree.

I don't understand.

Neither do I.

No matter what you people say - put forward any premise, and someone will always come up with a counter argument.

The search for absolute knowledge relating to the purpose of thatr which is not of the self is trivial and unbenificialas the 'knowledge' accrued from such a finding is only relative to your already reinforced prconceptions.

Does God exist?

Does God not exist?

'Who cares?' - replied the Buddha

Wasim has bought the house right down

Ierrellus

Wassim,

I asked a tree. It replied:

"We are here for relationship and the hope of finding complementation. You breathe oxygen. I
breathe carbon dioxide. We are purposeful as each other's breath. Kill off my kind and yours will also die."

Who would want an "absolute" knowledge?
E.O. Wilson seems to think that if we had such a thing we would soon be enslaved by it.

Solypsism is a lonely way to see.


Ierrellus

Gurdur

Brian Kelso of 9 Riverside Drive, Paddinngton, Melbourne, Australia, does, but unfortunately he's out at the moment.

Come back another time when he's available.

phaedrus

Wasim

No matter what you people say - put forward any premise, and someone will always come up with a counter argument.

For practical purposes, our race at any point in time has a framework by which to judge which premises/theories are correct. We are not exactly living in a utter chaos where for every standpoint there can be valid counter arguement. Earlier it might have been religion, today it might be science, tomorrow it might be something else. The point for be able to live as a group we will always have a framework which will act as a reference to "judge" which arguement makes more sense at a particular point in time. One might say when we dont have "absolute" knowledge, why are we trying to justify certain premises using provisional knowledge? Well thats how we have lived and continue to live.

The search for absolute knowledge relating to the purpose of thatr which is not of the self is trivial and unbenificialas the 'knowledge' accrued from such a finding is only relative to your already reinforced prconceptions

Solipsistic approach is great, but if you want to live and "do good" in the society you are living in, you have to play by the rules or be able to convince the majority to change the rules. If you cant do both, one can always hit the road or head for the moutains for meditation No point in living a materialistic life and saying everything is maya (illusion)

And btw, are you just repeating what the ancients have been saying or you think you have cracked the puzzle?

JP

David Bowden

Thesis. Antithesis. Yes. But don't forget Synthesis...

Old Man: "...what the hell good does our study do?"

Griffin: "I don't have an answer for that. Except that I'd still like to know. Just for its own sake."

Old Man: "Knowing is better than ignorance."

Griffin: "That's true. But is it enough?"

Old Man: "To justify your life?... I can't speak for anybody else. But for me personally, life doesn't need justification. It just is. And as long as I'm here, I want to know... simply to know. Yes, I honestly believe that's enough."

(-adapted from Michael Swanwick, Bones of the Earth)

Automaton

You exist. Counterpoint THAT.