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Merged My Philosophy of Life

Over the past few years, I have formulated my philosophy of life, a 14-page document that may be downloaded from this webpage:

http://philosofer123.wordpress.com

In the first half of the document, I present and defend a number of philosophical positions, beginning with atheism and culminating with negative hedonism.

The second half of the document is devoted primarily to methods for achieving and maintaining peace of mind. I have found these methods to be invaluable in practice.

I am sharing my philosophy here in order to solicit feedback so that it may be improved. I look forward to a constructive discussion.
 
I will not provide much to constrictive discussion as I am not much interested in your philosophy of life.

What I would be interested in, assuming you in fact live by it*, how it worked out for you says 10 or 20 years from now.


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*practical examples would be helpful.
 
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The thing is, everyone has 'philosophy of life' and why should I care about this one? But perhaps that is not the intent here:

I am sharing my philosophy here in order to solicit feedback so that it may be improved.
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That is kind of interesting, however, lets take 'random' example from page 7:

Elimination of judgments
 One should always keep in mind that events are interconnected through the
operation of physical cause and effect. Thus, apparently negative events can
precipitate positive events, and apparently positive events can precipitate negative
events. Moreover, the connections between events can be very indirect and
impossible to predict. Consequently, if one were able to go back in time and modify
or eliminate a particular event, one’s entire life might change as a result, and
whether it would change for the better or the worse would not be knowable.
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I am not quite sure what kind of feedback there can be to this.

IF it was accompanied with practical example, maybe it would become apparent why 'one should keep this in mind' and could be evaluated somehow. But without it, what to say? Yes, no, but .. basically anything.
 
tuco said:
The thing is, everyone has 'philosophy of life' and why should I care about this one?

That is kind of interesting, however, lets take 'random' example from page 7:

Elimination of judgments
 One should always keep in mind that events are interconnected through the
operation of physical cause and effect. Thus, apparently negative events can
precipitate positive events, and apparently positive events can precipitate negative
events. Moreover, the connections between events can be very indirect and
impossible to predict. Consequently, if one were able to go back in time and modify
or eliminate a particular event, one’s entire life might change as a result, and
whether it would change for the better or the worse would not be knowable.
Click to expand...

I am not quite sure what kind of feedback there can be to this.
Click to expand...

That's a good one. It's illustrative of the problem. On the one hand, it seems like an extended version of "stuff happens." But pragmatically, it doesn't help much, since a large part of our daily load of worry is bound up in trying to anticipate and modify the likely future. I do it better when considering the next five or ten minutes, a bit worse for tomorrow and the rest of this week, and worse still when it comes to the next several years.

What would be the result of not anticipating and attempting to direct my own affairs? Well, I might wander about and allow the world to happen to me as it may - a quick ticket to homelessness and institutionalization.

The tone of the paper reminds me of someone who recently discovered the stoics.
 
Your philosophy of life seems to reject free will. If that's the case, you didn't choose this particular philosophy of life (choice being impossible), so
A) Why do you think you ended up with these particular beliefs (atheism, negative hedonism, etc.)?
B) Why do you follow these philosophies?
C) If you can't choose what you believe, how do you know that what you believe is right?
 
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Philosofer123 said:
Over the past few years, I have formulated my philosophy of life, a 14-page document that may be downloaded from this webpage:

http://philosofer123.wordpress.com

In the first half of the document, I present and defend a number of philosophical positions, beginning with atheism and culminating with negative hedonism.

The second half of the document is devoted primarily to methods for achieving and maintaining peace of mind. I have found these methods to be invaluable in practice.

I am sharing my philosophy here in order to solicit feedback so that it may be improved. I look forward to a constructive discussion.
Click to expand...

In what material way is this opening post any different from the following one you posted here a year or so ago? Here it is again:

Philosofer123 said:
Over the past few years, I have formulated my philosophy of life, a 13-page Google Doc that may be found by Googling "Philo Sofer" and clicking on the first link ("My Philosophy by Philo Sofer").

In the first half of the document, I present and defend the following positions: atheism, afterlife skepticism, free will impossibilism, moral skepticism, existential skepticism and negative hedonism. The second half of the document is devoted to ways to achieve and maintain peace of mind.

I have found the entire exercise to be very beneficial personally, and I hope that you will benefit from reading the document.

The purpose of this thread is to solicit feedback so that my philosophy may be improved. I welcome any constructive criticism that you may have.

Enjoy!
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Which seems to be the issue here, feedback on what?

If the OP figured something out, and I would say s/he indicated that, then it could indeed be interesting. But how can we tell? If s/he really figured something or if its collection of ideas and postulates. What bearing on reality does it have? Why do I need bearing on reality? Well ..
 
Philosofer123 said:
Over the past few years, I have formulated my philosophy of life, a 14-page document that may be downloaded from this webpage:

http://philosofer123.wordpress.com

In the first half of the document, I present and defend a number of philosophical positions, beginning with atheism and culminating with negative hedonism.

The second half of the document is devoted primarily to methods for achieving and maintaining peace of mind. I have found these methods to be invaluable in practice.

I am sharing my philosophy here in order to solicit feedback so that it may be improved. I look forward to a constructive discussion.
Click to expand...


From your philosophy of life discard the notion that complete strangers care enough to wade through a single page let alone fourteen of them. IOW…summarize. Some may have a passing interest but benevolence typically is in short supply outside of your local monastery. Alternatively you could examine whatever assumption it is that led you to this naïve conclusion in the first place. This might generate some new insight which could then be incorporated…somewhere.


In relation to your manifesto…the word ‘doubt’ seems rather prominent (‘…not certain of any of my positions…’). One might ask: “Is uncertainty / doubt a condition that dominates the activities of other life forms?”

…by ‘other life forms’ we could take a look at everything from a dung beetle to a hippopotamus (or any one of the infinite range of creatures in between).

Simple answer: No (it is a rare thing to encounter a creature other than a human being experiencing any manner of identity crisis).

Is it therefore reasonable to conclude that ‘uncertainty’ may be a questionable feature of human existence (that it so dominates your POV is worrisome!)? Why don’t we refer to that scrap of nonsense known as the bible for some guidance: “Know thyself” it says (notice it does not say: ‘maybe know thyself’…or…’know thyself but wonder if thou dost’…). A sentiment which seems to be repeated in just about every philosophy, religion, and cultural tradition that has any real currency (‘atheism’, sadly, does not seem too clear on the issue…perhaps you should seek guidance elsewhere).

So…perhaps ‘doubt’ is something that requires expungment. How? No idea. Bungee jumping perhaps! I recall interviewing Alexander the Great a few years back and ‘doubt’ just did not figure in his weltanschauung. And he was ‘Great’ (with a capital ‘G’). So maybe you gotta go and conquer the world, or some corner of it.

Burn the manifesto. Acquire a set of dice, roll them, and choose a direction. I am hardly one to so advise…but from what I’ve heard, life is what happens when you stop thinking about it. If it doesn’t work I’m sure you’ll find a way to re-write the thing.
 
Fudbucker said:
If that's the case, you didn't choose this particular philosophy of life (choice being impossible)
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False. The impossibility of ultimate responsibility for one's actions (my position) does not preclude the ability to make choices. Indeed, the argument I present supporting my position explicitly allows for choice.
 
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Philosofer123 said:
False. The impossibility of ultimate responsibility for one's actions (my position) does not preclude the ability to make choices. Indeed, the argument I present supporting my position explicitly allows for choice.
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So you do believe in free will. OK, can you explain why you think we have free will, and why, if free will exists, "ultimate responsibility for your actions" is impossible?
 
Fudbucker said:
So you do believe in free will. OK, can you explain why you think we have free will, and why, if free will exists, "ultimate responsibility for your actions" is impossible?
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Fudbucker, now that is a good question.

Philosofer123, come back in a year with an answer and I'll read your PDF. In the meantime, it is a Good Question. :cool:
 
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