I Am You

I read Daniel Kolak's I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics. I love the basic idea (we are all the same person). Most of it was incomprehensible to me though. Kind of weird that there are download links for it on Wikipedia... Though being the same person is a good excuse for piracy.

"The central thesis of I Am You - that we are all the same person - is apt to strike many readers as obviously false or even absurd. How could you be me and Hitler and Gandhi and Jesus and Buddha and Greta Garbo and everybody else in the past, present and future? In this book I explain how this is possible. Moreover, I show that this is the best explanation of who we are for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it provides the metaphysical foundations for global ethics."

That makes me feel incredulous but also good.

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:18:14 PM by LoveHappiness

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

In that case I hate me.

Charlie Tunoku is a lover and a fighter.

Half Logic Time: If everyone is the same person, it's a win/win situation for narcissistics, for they can love everyone.

Troper Page

This is absurd. Don't tell me most of you are pro-life or anti-gay marriage. Since you're not, there is no way you could be me. And that's only the beginning.

I guess I technically hate everyone now. Huh.

^ lol wut.

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:42:47 PM by snailbait

"Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!" ~ Mido from Ocarina of Time

This would be neat if this were true...SO I COULD REALLY BE EVERYONE LIKE I DREAM. FUCK YEAH I AM HITLER AND BUDDHA AND MY MOM AND A RANDOM SERIAL KILLER.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

I'm describing the central argument of the work to be patently absurd on its face.

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:46:02 PM by Cojuanco

Weren't you supposed to be in a group or something?

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

The author seems to realize that. I am slightly curious as to how they defend their idea in the face of that. Not curious enough to actually read it though.

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:46:45 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Well, of course I am. Everyone is a member of certain groups. Your point being?

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:47:05 PM by Cojuanco

"Weren't you supposed to be in a group or something?"

That's a month from now, I think. And who's talking to who about what? I'm confused...

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:48:56 PM by LoveHappiness

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

@Coj: That's not the point of this thread or this theory. What you're saying has nothing to do with anything. At all.

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:48:13 PM by snailbait

"Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!" ~ Mido from Ocarina of Time

Considering the snippet of introduction there, I think it's safe to assume that such Gotcha! arguments are anticipated and countered.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

My dad had an idea for a moral philosophy which went: "Ask yourself, 'What if everyone in the world did that?' If you wouldn't like the consequences, you might want to reconsider."

I have no idea if this has anything to with that or not.

It sounds like hippie New Age spirituality stuff. Am I correct?

edited 2nd Mar '11 6:54:05 PM by Grain

Anime geemu wo shinasai!

"Ask yourself, 'What if everyone in the world did that?' If you wouldn't like the consequences, you might want to reconsider."

Your dad either knew his Kant, or independently reinvented his moral philosofy

Or just Pop-Cultural Osmosis.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. And I am the Walrus.

's called the Categorical Imperative.

Kill all math nerds

So, you're not a witch.

You're nothing we've heard.

Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours For graphs of passion and charts of stars...

@OP: maybe what they're getting at is that we're all potentially capable of anything, from the worst brutality on up. I'd certainly buy that; people always have this list of things they'd "never" do, and that's the first thing to be tossed aside when necessity beckons.

Other than that, no, it sounds like a lot of New Age thinking.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Dr Javier Hervada would disagree with this....

Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.

I'm sorry to admit, but this philosophy sounds way too disturbing for me to like it. Not to mention is sounds horribly pretentious like it was made by some guy who is trying to say "HAH HAH HAH I AM SO DEEEEEEEEEEEP MAAAAANNNNN".

/Rationalist Nihilist

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Thanks!

Considering his educational background, I'm not surprised. I was pretty young when he told me that.

Well, in an infinite reality over an infinite amount of time, everything happens. This includes everything in existence becoming/being/will become everything else...

Which means we will all experience every possibility, like super-torture and super-awesomeness.

Shit, I don't know whether to be scared out of my ass or be delighted beyond belief.

Probably both.

edited 4th Mar '11 12:56:38 PM by Ekuran

I think the question is, does it matter? I don't think I'm treating anyone any differently if they're my reincarnation or whatever.