The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Philosophy Thread

[WolfMan]

Not sure if this thread will interest many people. Apologies if there are any other threads on the same theme.
I just find the whole question of what it's all about inescapable and endlessly fascinating.

 

[Tredman]

Nowt.

 

[WolfMan]

Are we living in a computer simulation? I don’t know. Probably.

Why this computer scientist thinks reality might be a video game.

www.vox.com

 

[Tredman]

I was being flippant above, obvs, but I find the idea that there must be a meaning to life quite arrogant. Why must there be? We are just biological machines.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I was being flippant above, obvs, but I find the idea that there must be a meaning to life quite arrogant. Why must there be? We are just biological machines.

Agreed. Close the thread!

 

[machin05]

We wrote a song called The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Eternal Return) which our singer stole from the film of the same name.

https://soundcloud.com/zeligmusic%2F3-the-unbearable-lightness-of

 

[WolfMan]

I was being flippant above, obvs, but I find the idea that there must be a meaning to life quite arrogant. Why must there be? We are just biological machines.

Oh no I agree - it wasn't meant to be a thread on religion. More just a place to discuss the more mind bending aspects of the universe and reality we live in.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

To me life is inherently pointless, we're just here out of chance.

So it's up to individuals to make of it whatever they choose. For me that means not endlessly heaping pressure onto myself in search of any self determined goal. Just enjoy myself as best I can without causing too much bother to others.

Just put yourself in a position where you're at least content more often than not and can look back on it all at the end without too much regret.

 

[WolfMan]

The big challenge of life for me is being aware that life is meaningless and not becoming a bit nihilistic about everything.

I don't have a religious bone in my body, but I really envy people that do - there must be an inner peace associated with having faith that everything has a deeper meaning. I used to really look down on religious people as stupid, I read the God Delusion when I was young and it influenced me quite a bit. Looking back I was quite arrogant really. I do believe alot of the craziness we see in the world today is a result of the collapse of religion and the subconscious anxiety that has created.

I really like the way Brian Cox views the idea of meaning from the perspective of a scientist.

We Asked Professor Brian Cox About Life, the Universe, and Everything

"There almost certainly is no purpose" to the universe. Thanks, professor! So what do we do with our lives?

www.vice.com

The idea of internal inflation is mind blowing to me.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

The big challenge of life for me is being aware that life is meaningless and not becoming a bit nihilistic about everything.

I don't have a religious bone in my body, but I really envy people that do - there must be an inner peace associated with having faith that everything has a deeper meaning. I used to really look down on religious people as stupid, I read the God Delusion when I was young and it influenced me quite a bit. Looking back I was quite arrogant really. I do believe alot of the craziness we see in the world today is a result of the collapse of religion and the subconscious anxiety that has created.

I really like the way Brian Cox views the idea of meaning from the perspective of a scientist.

We Asked Professor Brian Cox About Life, the Universe, and Everything

"There almost certainly is no purpose" to the universe. Thanks, professor! So what do we do with our lives?

www.vice.com

The idea of internal inflation is mind blowing to me.

I've gone the opposite way.

Rather than looking for meaning in everything, which just seems like a coping mechanism for when things don't go your way, just accept everything is ultimately meaninglessness so it doesn't matter if things don't go to plan.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

We wrote a song called The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Eternal Return) which our singer stole from the film of the same name.

https://soundcloud.com/zeligmusic%2F3-the-unbearable-lightness-of

The film!! It was Milan Kundra who wrote the book the unbearable lightness of being, the title being a quote about from the character who thought the traditional existentialism idea of being weighed down with the burden of choice we were free to live in a lightness with our choice. Its a brilliant book (or was at the time I read it) hes well worth exploring as an author.

I did an A level in Philosophy out of an 'interest' its mind bending stuff, but it does in theory help you understand discussion and debate

 

[The Bear]

I've gone the opposite way.

Rather than looking for meaning in everything, which just seems like a coping mechanism for when things don't go your way, just accept everything is ultimately meaninglessness so it doesn't matter if things don't go to plan.

Quite.

In a hundred years you won't be remembered any way, unless you are involved in a small scandal and feature on the future Who Do You Think You Are?.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

I was being flippant above, obvs, but I find the idea that there must be a meaning to life quite arrogant. Why must there be? We are just biological machines.

So you subscribe to the theory that there is no freedom of choice, only an illusion as we are just automatons acting out the biological machineries interactions with the universe, which is determinable and again void of any choice.

 

[The Bear]

Biological machines doesn't equate to pre-programmed automatons.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Biological machines doesn't equate to pre-programmed automatons.

So where does free will come from? If we are just a mass of electrical signals and biological cells then we are just a series of chemical reactions to external stimuli and any choice is merely an illusion, little better than crops in a field

Its never really been answered, at least not in a method that satisfies everyone, they just pretty much gave up and moved onto existentialism which is based on personal belief.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I don't have a religious bone in my body, but I really envy people that do - there must be an inner peace associated with having faith that everything has a deeper meaning.

I couldn't disagree more, being beholden to a religion isn't something to be envious of, it limits choice.

 

[The Bear]

So where does free will come from? If we are just a mass of electrical signals and biological cells then we are just a series of chemical reactions to external stimuli and any choice is merely an illusion, little better than crops in a field

Its never really been answered, at least not in a method that satisfies everyone, they just pretty much gave up and moved onto existentialism which is based on personal belief.

Free will comes from logical thought and reasoning. We observe and assess things second by second and choose a course of action no matter how small. These decisions can be influenced but not entirely directed IMO.

 

[machin05]

The film!! It was Milan Kundra who wrote the book the unbearable lightness of being, the title being a quote about from the character who thought the traditional existentialism idea of being weighed down with the burden of choice we were free to live in a lightness with our choice. Its a brilliant book (or was at the time I read it) hes well worth exploring as an author.

I did an A level in Philosophy out of an 'interest' its mind bending stuff, but it does in theory help you understand discussion and debate

Yes, my mistake. It was the book that inspired him. The film was also a big factor.

 

[Johnny75]

So where does free will come from? If we are just a mass of electrical signals and biological cells then we are just a series of chemical reactions to external stimuli and any choice is merely an illusion, little better than crops in a field

Its never really been answered, at least not in a method that satisfies everyone, they just pretty much gave up and moved onto existentialism which is based on personal belief.

The difference being that crops don't have the combination of physicality and conscious thought whereas we as humans (and other animals) do.

I thought science has substantiated that all animals are capable of free will and that we are the dominant species because of our abilities. Darwin's evolutionary theory at work.

It is our own social constructs that reduces free will isn't it?

If your question is asking about why humans have a consciousness that others don't then good luck finding those answers.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

If a doctor was to hit your knee with a hammer, then you would have an involuntary spasm. This is a reaction to an external stimuli that you have no control over. The question is what is the fundamental difference between this and having a thought or an action that we believe to be undertaken by 'us' albeit happening in a different part of your body and more complicated in its nature.

The idea of free will is often associated with the idea of the self and what that is. If we are practicable and believe our essence to be the culmination of a collection of cells and their interaction with each other then how can we exist in free choice, we are just reacting to stimuli just as our leg would to the doctors hammer.

If we believe that we are something distinct from the cells that form us, how can a metaphysical entity control a physical body.

I don't know the answer and nobody, as far as I know has ever answered it satisfactorily. The issue of free will was pretty much glossed over and the idea of faith and belief replaced it, although not completely.