Monday Philosophy(Yeah i'm a day late but it's worth it you'll see)

Ok so the first section is more or less a warm up. It's not really a question or anything, but just a situation. Imagine you found a time machine that wasn't affected by all the laws of physics, quantum mechanics, or any form of logic. You could travel into any place at any time. Where would you go, what would you do, and why?

The actual Monday Philosophy main course question is a little more difficult (hence the warm up). I wanted to sort of plan out the flow of every Monday Philosophy section so that each question builds on the previous weeks topic and responses. So how do you start philosophy? What is the proper knowledge one needs to even be able to being to question anything philosophically? First thing that came to my mind was understanding. I did away with this idea since it would take a person with a higher lever of understanding to even want to read a Philosophical post, or a person with lower understanding would want to gain more understanding by going through the steps i'm trying to lay out. Then I thought about a lot of things as to what makes philosophy what it is. Since philosophy (the meaning of the word itself) simply means "friend of knowledge", I wondered if just being a friend to knowledge was enough to consider it philosophy. Epiphany time. I was too focused on the knowledge aspect of philosophy instead of the "being a friend" side to it. A large quantity of answers can come to mind since perspective is varied amongst individual human beings. Yet this large list of good friend characteristics can all be boiled down to understanding one another without any false pretenses. Then it all came together. The beginning of a path down Philosophy should start with the one thing that every person needs. Truth. From truth comes true understanding, and from true understanding comes true knowledge. So what is truth then? Since truth is completely relative to a situation, people involved in the situation, location, background, timeframe, and even the kind of day it is it becomes difficult to pin one thing down as (capital T) Truth. The point is that (little-t) truth is a
matter of definition relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that
(capital-T) Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a
grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered.
Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and
disordered(taken from The Principia Discordia). If Truth is something that can only exist as something outside the boundaries of being relative to variables, then it has to be some sort of higher, almost god-like, level. This may seem to be a problem because if Truth is on a level beyond human beings, then how can human beings do away with truth, and come to terms with Truth. The only way to do this is to throw everything away. Start a new game where you have no beliefs, and have to prove everything to yourself. Since you are rebuilding truth, there is no way to say something is true because of some theory or belief that existed before. You have to prove to yourself that you even exist before you can begin to see the capital T Truth. So as for the Monday Philosophy question I ask this; Where there is no truth, how do you build it from scratch? Since truth is built up by using building blocks made of other truths, each truth that exists becomes a cornerstone for a new truth to be born. With no building blocks to start with, how is anyone supposed to build an entirely new capital T form of Truth?

Well that's my rant for this week. Sorry I was late a day, but as you can see I really put a lot of thought into how to start this ritual off with some grandeur. I plan to do this as an open discussion as a whole, and as a discussion of specific ideas each person brings forth in particular. Each person who posts should address the question itself with their own ideas, and then go on to read other ideas posted by other users. After reading each post that was already up, address any idea that strikes you from each person's reply. This way it's a good way to pack as much conversation as possible into each post. Since the ideas will grow exponentially the more posters and posts we have, things will get extremely interesting. At least I hope so. Oh and don't hold back any ideas because you think it's not a good one. If anyone starts trash talking i'll just remove their post. Well I hope everyone can keep it friendly and scholarly, and I look forward to all the posts we'll have to go through.

Faith / Trust... I couldn't decide on which one I liked better. So instead I'll call it Faust... Intersting.

Good post, Kevin. I wasn't a fan of the little letters though. I'll think deeper into the question as the day progresses.

Well I took the quote out of another page, and when I kept typing I didn't notice the letter had gotten smaller. When I got to the end, I was going to fix them, but I didn't see the button for font size. I didn't want to delete all I wrote on accident so I didn't bother fixing it. Next time i'll do better Jewdger.

1) hmm...i dont really think i would want to change anything in my life using a time machine. everything has lead up to now and right now isnt to bad. as for changing the world i dont kno...lessons are learned from bad experiences. i asked my grandma this question and she said she would want to go back to being 5 years old which goes with the same answer kevin gave me. reliving your childhood where even the simplest times gives a lifetime of memorys of times without worrys just having fun (even if we played those "bad graphic" games it was still fun) so thats 1 thing might use it for. id also like to go and talk with great thinkers of the past just for a good convo. other then those things right now im not to sure what i would use it on....haha maybe id check out the future for updated technology and stuff but maybe not just in case the earth gets blown up i dont want to end up floating in space. besides those 2 things maybe id use it to get some money this way i can finally visit Kevin and tim ^_^ (seriously though we need to meet up sometime and game/chill/ whatever)

2) the way you put it i believe that there is no "Truth" if anything the only Truth is that Truth doesnt exist. its like getting a chess board and putting the pieces on it. no moves are being made...nothings happening so the scenarios that can be played out to win the game cant be predicted because no one moved the first piece. After things start to happen or pieces start getting moved then thats where truth comes in. the truth can be your playing chess or maybe a game you made up in your head and each piece can move differently then how the booklet says they should move. its all perception from that point on.

Where there is no truth, how do you build it from scratch? once you remove everything then you can finally realize Truth. its like staring into a blank canvas and realizing that infinite potential lies within.

Well spoken. Truth is definitely found in infinite potential where all of your previous beliefs have been discarded. Once you have nothing to believe in, you can redesign everything you believe. Most of the time when people throw everything they believe away like that, they tend to see everything as equal. It may take time for it to happen, but little by little people will see that everything is equally important. There is no need for preference since trying to choose between this or that is really just a way to give up your freedom in exchange for some feeling of safety. Everything that is here, is here. Everything that isn't here, isn't here. That is a truth that people need to realize. Once you get rid of preference, persuasion, predetermined notions of bias, learned/embedded language, and even learned/embedded culture, you see that everything has a purpose. That way truth becomes that more general form. It isn't specific to any details, so it isn't relative to any variables. In that sense, truth becomes an all encompassing way of looking at life and the things in life, not a way to determine what is or isn't, and even right and wrong. Truth becomes a way of life and not an idealistic term. Seeing things for exactly what they are, nothing more and nothing less. When you view something with clouded eyes, you change what that thing really is. This makes that thing untruthful, since you have turned it into something it is not. Truth is not to be contemplated, discussed, experimented on, or even dissected in order to yield an answer to what truth is. Truth is all things around you existing perfectly as what they are.

Oh and good call on the not floating around in space idea.

thanks. so what would you do with a time machine?

Absolutely nothing. I dunno why but I have no inkling to go into any other time period but the one i'm in right now. I mean it would be cool and all going to see the Feudal Era in Japan or to see if evolution happened the way they say it did, but really the whole idea of existing somewhere where you probably shouldn't is a bad idea I think. Everything has its place and were all in our places so leaving our place and going to a place where we probably aren't meant to be makes me think that some crazy stuff would happen. Like alternate futures and stuff like that.

so you wouldnt go back to play more video games as a kid? =P

I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't want to go back to when I was younger and do more of what I remember to be my most amazing memories from when I was young. But to think that It might change who I would become later in life I don't really think the pros outweight the cons.

yah that makes sense id have to agree.

Then again if me going into the past didn't mess anything up at all then I might go. I mean if I didn't change the way history went or anything I'd probably go back to when the Earth was one big continent. Pangea would be pretty cool to see. I was thinking I might try and go to Atlantis too if it ever existed.

hopefully their customs arent to kill weird lookings trespassers

Yeah that's where it all falls down. I think that's why i'm a writer instead of a pure physicist. I wouldn't want to be involved in building a time machine that went to hell and have it be my fault.

It seems like karma is an attempt to define truth, since karma = ultimate justice and justice has to come from the facts aka truth. For instance, a girl is l2@p3d by a guy. The guy may establish his grid or tunnel reality along the lines of, she was asking for it by the way she dressed or perhaps we can use the vietnam soldier and his rational that i'm here fighting for this girls freedom, i'm away from my country and blah blah blah, he goes on detailing the ways that his act is legitamized/justified. (He would probably externalize the blame and put it on the US military since they are the ones that shipped him off and didnt give him anyway to fullfill his "needs" as a man. lawl.) And of course we already know the girls view of things, that doesnt require much of a description from me.
The next question is, who or what desides what karma comes from the act. The judger (haha).
But judger has his own grid system / tunnel vision????
Nope, because the real judger that knows the truth is the good old unbiased computer!
RawR! (Yes im refering to god as a computer, hah) Lifes a bunch of 0's and 1's

If God judges, then God is biased. God would have to be indifferent about the world to really be a God.