Other Why do we have so many of these threads?

How about your own ideas on the subject?
I've never really thought about it, to be honest.

The brain works based off a billion little electrical impulses interacting with eachother, or something, and when that electricity goes out it means we're dead. So... I guess that could be considered a soul...
 
I've never really thought about it, to be honest.

The brain works based off a billion little electrical impulses interacting with eachother, or something, and when that electricity goes out it means we're dead. So... I guess that could be considered a soul...
So do you believe we're solely a chemical engine then, that has its time but eventually wears out?
 
A combination of my own moral code and a desire I can prove that I'm able to be good without an all powerful entity telling me to be.

Also, you know, I don't want to go to jail which I guess kind of cancels out that second one.
Why do you have a moral code? Surely it'd be easier to live life without one?

Why do you feel the desire to be good?
 
Good Feels Good.

Also, again, I like not being in jail.
Don't link to TV tropes, I want to know your opinions on the matter.

So you presumably like being out of jail because you like your freedom, correct? Why, when there is surely only the illusion of freedom? You said it yourself, you will be detained if you do certain things. You will be socially outcast if you do others. So is there really much difference between the metaphorical cage society places us in or the literal jail cell?
 
That is my opinion. I just linked to TV Tropes out of habit.
I don't want to read someone else's take on the matter, I want to read yours. So explain it in your own words.

To expand on the point I made above, if we are just chemical engines and that life is merely a set of chemical reactions, why shouldn't we live in complete sin? There's no greater power to answer to, all emotions are just chemical reactions anyways so it in theory it should just be about hitting that right reaction as much as possible until we burn out?
 
I don't want to read someone else's take on the matter, I want to read yours. So explain it in your own words.
Those are my own words.

My answer is three words: good feels good.
There's no greater power to answer to, all emotions are just chemical reactions anyways so it in theory it should just be about hitting that right reaction as much as possible until we burn out?
Cause life's an adventure and repetition is boring. You can only repeat something so many times before you get tired of it.
 
Taoism is cool - the Tao Te Ching is considered by some to be the earliest known anarchist text.
 
Taoism is cool - the Tao Te Ching is considered by some to be the earliest known anarchist text.
While my exploration of taosim has been unfortunately limited, I can't say I was drawn to it because of anarchism, quite the opposite actually.
 
In its historical context, it developed in conflict with the more hierachical Confucianism, and it's in the nature of cuiltivating de (virtue, effectively) to reject rigid constraints which prevent spontaneous and organic expression of the tao through human interaction.
Of course, some aspects were co-opted by Confucianism, in particular to resist the way Zen Buddhism embraced taoism in a more nihilistic way.
 
In its historical context, it developed in conflict with the more hierachical Confucianism, and it's in the nature of cuiltivating de (virtue, effectively) to reject rigid constraints which prevent spontaneos and organic expression of the tao through human interaction.
Of course, some aspects were co-opted by Confucianism, in particular to resist the way Zen Buddhism embraced taoism in a more nihilistic way.
True, but I was still never drawn to it with the idea that there shouldn't be any social order, more due to it's ideas surrounding the idea of balance. Still, as I said I know pitifully little about the subject despite my interest.
 
The thing about taoism is that it's a holistic philosophy, less concerned with balance as we tend to think of it than with a kind of authentic and natural being. It is not a dogma or a list of tenets, but rather a mode of understanding. In truth, to even name the tao is incorrect, because the tao is transcendent of naming and of reality quite as we understand it. It is, and we are if we allow ourselves to be, and in so doing we do not need to name it.
It's been a few years since I really got into it, but taoism was a big interest of mine way back when and coincidentally formed part of my philosophy curriculum until the faculty decided to go all-in on Hellenic thinkers.
 
i know this is completely random, but we went from talking about tea, to taoism... absolutely beautiful, lads! keep it up! also stay safe, or a killer rabbit will appear in your minecraft world with infinite health and a sharp 5000 diamond sword and burn your items.
 

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