h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi GB. Had a quick dekko at your peice on omniscience, which I'll consider at my leisure. I've got a peice on Kant's confusion in my notes somewhere, which I want to edit into my journal when I get a chance. Are you familiar with Kant's writing at all? (Not in the original necessarily - I've never been that brave myself, even if he is my fave philosopher.)
You did say you were doing 'A' Levels, didn't you? Funny thing, the internet, isn't it? Where else would you hold this sort of serious discussion with a total stranger young enough to be your son, (or old enough to be your dad if you look at it from the other direction.)
Onion sends his regards. Catch you later.
Sage

Thank'e!
I am aware of Kant, though not the original version! We only study Kant with regards to the Categorical Imperative, and Kantian ethics, and his moral argument.
It is a bit weird, but I suppose that's an advantage of the Internet: it allows me to be taken seriously by people who wouldn't normally!
GB

Hi GB!
Well, I guess THAT works both ways!

I've written a guide entry on kant, but I haven't worked out guide ML yet so you'll have ta access it via my personal space. There's also an edited guide entry( not mine ) on Determinism and Free Will in peer review which you might like to sneak a look at.
Enjoy
Sage

Thank'e: will have a look, should help me with revision: ta!
GB

I've just had a ramble round: I thought it was OK, but I thought that it could do with being more user friendly: because phil. has a bit of tendency to be intellectually-restricted, when in reality it should be open to everyone.

Mmmm... fair comment; my writing style probably is a bit dry and academic. Not that Kant is the most user-friendly of philosophers in the first place (hence the stuff about not reading him in the original). I quite agree that philosophy should, as far as humanly possible, be accessible to all, but as you grapple with the popular and perennial problems you should discern some common threads to the way you go about tackling them, and eventually a slightly more abstract framework is needed to fit them into.
Hope the exams went OK; is it your actual 'A' levels you're sitting? Any plans for uni? You should have, you're articulate enough.
Keep in touch.
Sage

I didn't mean yours!! I meant the determinism one!

YOurs from what I've read is very good, though I would recommend doing some basic Guide ML, because it does make things clearer to read.

I agree with what you've said, just because you try to make it accessible to all doesn't mean everyone will take you up on it!

Thank you for your good wishes: I've got one more exam left: religious ethics, but am having a ten minute skive I'm sitting the second half of my A-Levels, what is now called the A2 section, so I finish school this summer [hopefully!] On the uni side of things, I'm hoping to do human geography at Leeds university. I was thinking of doing philosophy, but I started enjoying geography [one of my other subjects], and to be quite honest I went round looking at philosophy, and they'd be saying things like 'my speciality is the philosophy of time travel', and silly as it sounds, I decided I'd rather be involved in something that is practical rather than theoretical.
Also, if I have a hobby of philosophy, it means that when I'm beaten in a battle of wits, I can say, 'well it is only a hobby!'

Aahh thanks..
Human geography sounds like it should be pretty interesting, too, and probably just as controversial. Philosophy is pretty much a hobby for me too (leastways I don't make a living out of it). I'm actually a shopkeeper. No, really!
Catch you later
Sage

Cool! I bet you can have loads of interesting conversations with your customers!

The other thing that put me off was that I joined a philosophy forum for a while, and it all seemed to come down to semantics, which really racked me off! I also chose not to say my age, because some did and they were SO patronising, so I decided that I'd prefer to not do it for a living [I mean what could you do except to teach it?]

Human geo. (see my guide entry!) is all about people and can be quite controversial

WHere are you a shopkeeper?

FwT

Mmmm sometimes (not often); being a "thinking introvert" is only a fine line away from "total looney" in most people's books.
Semantics, like philosophy as a whole, is a tool; it should help you do other things more effectively.
Patronising people are a pain, ain't they? I reckon most of them do it to hide the fact they've got nothing original to say. And even if they have they shouldn't forget there was a time when they were the ones who didn't know much.
The difference between globalisation and internationalism is worth a thread of its own somewhere, maybe speakeres corner or somesuch frequented by plenty of researchers. I'll have to think about that one.
And last but not least, Welsh Wales; Llanelli to be precise. (you know you're pronouncing it right if the people in front of you start reaching for their umbrellas).
Sage

I work at a supermarket: I was on Produce for a year, but recently transferred onto Checkouts: it's good fun! [there's the looney for you!]

It's a tool too well worn by some people: i find it to be abused if you're having a discussion, and other people catch you out on what you said: it's foolish because with the forum format [tongue twister] you don't usually think about how, rather than what, you are saying [if that makes any sense]. It's also so frustrating to be caught out on something minor, usually because the thing you're actually talking about has less arguments.
That's a good idea!!
I've not visited Wales very much, only a couple of times, but I can say the place with the long name the one that starts llanfair...

FwT

Which is more than I can do! But then, I'm not actually Welsh, just an immigrant, escaping from the big city. And being a village shopkeeper is a bit different from working in a supermarket methinks.
Semantics....mmm, well, there's semantics, and then there's semantics... quibbles over le mot juste are one thing, but sometimes different word usage rides on a different worldview, and it's when that happens that issues of semantics become important. WE don't disagree on the free will/determinism question because of a disagreement on whether we're using the best words, but on something more fundamental, namely the intelligibility of the CONCEPTS employed. That is, it IS about WHAT we are saying, not how.
Regards
Sage

I know its different, but the same things are dealt with: food!

I think I'm going to have to be forced to concede that semantics are a useful tool [but I don't like it mind! ] Having said this, I think that it's a tool that can be abused.

Any other hobbies besides philosophy?

Being self-employed I don't get much time for hobbies, but I take the term philosophy pretty widely; I used to be into music quite a bit, but one of the penalties of age (at least in my case) is incipient deafness, which rather spoils things (I have to listen in mono); I quite enjoy the footie, but round here everyone plays rugby, most of my memories of which are from underneath a pile of bodies. There are some quite nice walks round here, too (when it stops raining, which isn't often.)
Regards
Sage

"The big secret is, there is no big secret."
from 'Foucault's Pendulum' by Umbert Eco

"The universe is a self-consistent set of rules. Everything else is just footnotes."

I like those quotes: do you know where the second one is from? Will quote both as by this, with a link to your p.s.

As long as you enjoy your work, I'm enjoying mine at the minute, I like serving customers, and going [you'll have to excuse me: I just had a great shift!]

I like to listen to music too, an eclectic mix: I used to play a flute when i was younger but gave up: twas a bit boring. I'm not really into football, but know a bit about it because my little brother is mad on it! Rugby's worse!

I like walking, and walk everywhere if I can. East Midlands is also quite good for walking, with it's parks and where I live is quite a green town in parts.

I also quite like the TV, when I get chance to watch it, and playing computer games. The one I'm playing at the mo happens to be quite philosophical: it's called 'Black and White'. You play an omnipotent God, who has the power to do anything you want, you can throw all your followers in the sea [though your power then decreases] or you can be nice and save all the little children. You have a number of tasks to do, which you can do how you want... you also have a creature who is your manifestation on the planet. However you have to teach it to be evil or good. OK realised it's a bit of an advert [sorry!] but it is quite good!
Thanking ye,
FwT

The second quote is mine, but it's from a family derived from an original whose authorship I'm unsure of.
"Philosophy is Plato; everything else is just footnotes."
There's an economics one, too.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch; everything else is just footnotes."
Well, you get the idea.
I quite enjoy computer games too, but I'm getting a little slow for the ones that require reflexes. My nephew always thrashes me.
Regards
Sage

black and white doesn't require reflexes, and neither does startopia, another favourite of mine: you have to manage a space station but it's very funny!

Will put your quotes in tomorrow...
FwT