Aardvark the Sage

Friday, August 27, 2004

If you are struggling to be happy, please read this.

Is happiness possible? Some people have described my father as a "pathological optimist," so I guess its no surprise that my answer to the happiness question is "yes!" I’ve had some sad hours in my life, but for the most part I’ve been happy. I have work I enjoy and people I love. I look to the... Sign in to see full entry.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Is there any practical reason to study philosophy?

If you and I disagree about whether it’s raining outside, we can simply go outside and check. If we disagree about the existence of God, however, we have an entirely different problem. There is no easy way to go look. In regards to the “big questions” of life, are philosophers just spinning their... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by aardvark at 10:08 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, August 23, 2004

Are you bound by eternal moral principles or do you make it up as you go?

Is There an Eternal Moral Ethic? Are there eternal ethical principles that we can discover and live by, or is morality purely man-made? The moral objectivist approaches ethics as a physicist approaches the physical universe. He figures that the eternal laws of good behavior are analogous to the laws... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by aardvark at 4:06 PM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Are you living in "The Matrix"? How do you get out?

Are we capable of really knowing anything? Some philosophers doubt we know anything. What we perceive as reality is nothing more than an elaborate illusion they say. Think about “The Matrix” taken to the nth degree. Your mind is nothing but a tangle of illusions that separates you from what’s... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by aardvark at 8:34 AM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Are you a sentient, biological machine or a living, spiritual soul?

Do you view every thing as physical? Do you perceive a world devoid of spirit or soul, only raw physical materials put together in such a way as to enable self-awareness? Do you explain the human mind as the byproduct of a complex, but purely physical neural network? If you answered yes to these... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by aardvark at 4:11 PM | add or view comments (1) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry