Kevin's Watch

danlo wrote:In other words we are our own self-fulling prophesies? hmmm....

Absolutely!.. and there are at least two very good reasons to believe that:

Firstly: we will subconcsiously act in a way that will fulfill our beliefs.

Secondly: Quantum physics has proven that expectation of results has a very real effect on scientific experiments.

I know that observation affects results (of scientific experiments into quantum phenomena), but I don't know of anything about expectation.

Edge,

But I still uphold the basic principle of 'expectations influence outcome'.

There we go. Now I agree.

Be kind, happy and responsible.

Brinn wrote:Be kind, happy and responsible.

Amen.

Mhoram, I agree somewhat with what Edge was saying. Accidents and bad things happen to great people, and good things happen to bad people...

But I have noticed in life that when people act kindly and expect little in return, they are usually treated very well by most people in most places.

People who treat others like crap tend to get crapped on.

The most demanding people usually are the least happy, no matter how much they get.

So in ways like that, our behavior and expectations do shape our lives and the world around us.

Good post Duchess.

While I do agree that our expectations (and hence our actions) influence the outcomes to a certain extent, (and maybe more than people realise), I don't believe that everything happens for a reason.

Mainly because that implies a plan, which implies a planner.

I do however, believe in us. And therefore agree with Danlo's comment about the self-fulfilling prophecies. (Like Stalin's paranoia and Bucky Fullers optimism, hey Danlo? )

--A

The purpose of life is to experience joy.

That's about it.

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:I suppose it counters Foul's philosophy, too: Never expect the best, because nothing is perfect. Nothing is special. You are not special. Get over it.

Just to clarify: my perfection philosophy was simply me trying to define my grasp of perfection. The philosophy itself is independent of/objective toward any hopeful message. By now you're wondering: "well then, why did you say it was all about 'everything being special'?" Well, I was just being confusing; I meant, by and large, that the philosophy was relatively optimistic, compared with most of my personal dogmas. So, in a nutshell: the reason for my "perfect" philosophy was just to lay down my treatise on the nature of perfection, if such a subjective ideal exists, rather than express some broad Pollyanna statement. Geez, what a dense paragraph, just to clarify my incoherency!

In reality, I don't think most anything is special, except those factors which I consider valuable and important to my very existence, which is currently myself and my family. Without those factors, I wouldn't be much of anything, in any sense of the term. And since I'm a bit of a solipsist, my view of the world is a mixture of "big me little them", with a bent to misanthropy (observe my post in the "five things I hate the most" thread, to witness my pent disdain).

I'm pretty much a mixed bag of confusion. I tend to put myself in the wishy-washy "agnostic" category toward religion, and it fits just about everything else about me. But there are many days when I question my own existence, so take of that what you will. Probably the closest I can think of that fits my philosophy of life, the universe and everything, is a statement from the character Slartibartfast from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is thusly: "Hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied."

It's not a great philosophy, but it's all I got.

I agree with what Edge was saying. If you go around being glum, you can't even see good things when they happen to you. If you expect the worst, anything good puts you in the wrong, and most of us would do a lot, even subconsciously, to avoid being wrong often. If you live pessimistically, people who prefer happiness will learn to steer clear of you.

True optimism, on the other hand, attracts happy people. (Not talking about the kind of optimism that says, "Maybe if I think happy thoughts I won't fall through the thin ice all around me.")

Dragonlily wrote:True optimism, on the other hand, attracts happy people.

Totally agree. A large proportion of our interactions are affected by our attitude, actions and reactions.

--A

LF: Yes, I knew you had something more substantial in mind. I took the perfection and ran with it, as opposed to the uniqueness. Still, I think my philosophy is a counter to yours: Ultimately, a chair is a chair, and if you burn a thousand superficially identical chairs, who will notice that you burned their chair? And even if those chairs are all obviously unique, what difference will it make, in the grand scheme of things, if you burn a thousand of these hand-carved thrones? In the end, all is energy and matter, infinitely interchangeable and therefore not the least bit unique.

Then again, in the present moment, everything is unique. The smallest atom is unique, in that its particles will never align exactly as they do at a single moment in time, in the exact same relation to everything else. Every moment of every day is unique, in scientific terms.

Dragonlily: I would rather be eternally wrong and happy to be proven so, than to repeatedly have my hopes shot down. I'm used to being wrong, but I can't stand disappointment. Also, it's very tiring to always be an optimist. I don't know how you people do it! That is the kind of emotional energy I just don't have.

To illustrate the utter depth of my pessimism: Will the universe stop spinning if our planet explodes? Our solar system? Our galaxy? At the most we can hope to end as a footnote in some alien astronomy graduate student's thesis on gravity or Doppler shift. To each other we are special. To the universe, we are nothing.

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:Dragonlily: I would rather be eternally wrong and happy to be proven so, than to repeatedly have my hopes shot down. I'm used to being wrong, but I can't stand disappointment. Also, it's very tiring to always be an optimist. I don't know how you people do it! That is the kind of emotional energy I just don't have.

It's easier if you don't expect a particular type of happiness, just trust happiness of some kind to come along. The more specific your hopes, the more likely reality won't match them, but give it some leeway and notice that things that make you happy, find you.

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:LF: Yes, I knew you had something more substantial in mind. I took the perfection and ran with it, as opposed to the uniqueness. Still, I think my philosophy is a counter to yours: Ultimately, a chair is a chair, and if you burn a thousand superficially identical chairs, who will notice that you burned their chair? And even if those chairs are all obviously unique, what difference will it make, in the grand scheme of things, if you burn a thousand of these hand-carved thrones? In the end, all is energy and matter, infinitely interchangeable and therefore not the least bit unique.

I never said a chair being perfect in its absolute uniqueness would give it something "above" other chairs of the same make and model. I try not to venture into "value judgment" territory.

And as for special: very big value judgment, yeah, and I'm very wishy-washy on what the nature of "special" is to me. Personally, I find it extraordinary that we exist at all, knowing the astronomically insane odds against life forming on planets. As far as we know, organisms on earth might just be the only sentient beings. I'm not sure if that's "special", but I think it's certainly something.

maybe we're all just a bunch of bacteria with REALLY REALLY good imaginations

As an addition: and yeah, I suppose it's not unique when you look at the protons and blah, but I was focusing on a macro level, rather than micro. I mean, when you pull back and see the wild variations that this simple energy creates, it's quite remarkable. For me, anyway. I guess I was saying that, once you get that tangible object, there is literally nothing else in existence that is absolutely like it. There will be some variation, no matter how minute. That, to me, is perfection, in that nothing can match that (maybe a science person could rebuff me there, as I'm sure some objects in the universe might be totally alike).

Syl,

I still don't buy that theory. Okay, we can conceive computers complex enough to simulate the universe. But by whom are they being built? And as the scientists who dismiss this theory say, our universe may be "too complex" to be a simulation.

To quote the immortal Hiemlich from A Bug's Life: I am a beeeyoutiful butterfly!

p.s. LM read the Neverness books for intense discourse on just that!

Hmmmmm.....my philosophies of life.....

This IS a good thread. I loved reading everyone's contributions.

I have several quotes and thoughts that make up my philosophy of life--I think the #1 and most true (for me) is this:

<i>The realization of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom. </i>

The more I learn, the more I realize how VERY LITTLE I know. Heh.

The "Golden Rule" is right up there too, for me.

<i>Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.</i>

I think empathy and compassion are the only real hope for peace in the world....if everyone would embrace them...well, things would be better. Hand in hand with this one is one of my favorite bits of wisdom from Jesus--"...when you have done it (good things) unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." Smart guy, that Jesus.

Then, there's this quote from Friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene 3):

<i>O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities:
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good but, strain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified. </i>

To put it into plain (modern) English, there's a little goodness in the worst of things and a little badness in the best of things. There is nothing (and no one) that exists that cannot be used to promote goodness, and nothing that exists that cannot be abused to promote evilness.

<i>Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.</i>

When I like people, they are, without exception, beautiful to me. When they are mean jerks, they are ugly to me, even if they look like Adonis. Heh.

Finally, "Goodness is better than badness because it is nicer."

(I've used that one with my nephews and nieces many times. They always "get it.")

Heh heh

Sorry, I think a lot, maybe too much. When I start thinking it is hard to shut up.

You guys ROCK. I feel all warm and fuzzy about all of you right now.