What's your philosophical view point?

I'm just wondering about what you believe in.

Equality before justice, and nobody is above the law i guess............

I suppose my main philosophy is "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". I'm in no way a strict communist by any means but the idea has huge resonance with me. I'm also big into Kantian ethics. Again not following what Kant says to the word and I realise the flaws in his ideas but I believe categorical imperatives provides a strong moral guide by which to follow.

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

What does this mean?

My answer, from the last time we did this thread, is here.

I'm a Christian humanist, or a humanist of the old school. Politically, I'm slightly Burkean, with a little Maistre and Leo XIII thrown in for good measure.

petrie 911: Basically that if there is a crossroad and justice is 1 way, and equality the other, I will go the road towards equality.
Not "equal" as in "monotone some society based on grey", but as in "if everyone was given oppertunity, they would achieve greatness".
A bit better example: Lets say the Evil Overlord has been brought down by my hand, if he indeed had reasonable reforms that brought more equality to the society, then we would indeed keep it, instead of throwing it away for symbolic value of throwing it away.
I guess I suck at explaining it, but I guess this rough outline holds.

I would say I'm a mix between Utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number of people) and the Locke Social Contract (follow the government's laws to earn your rights, lose rights when you break laws).

In terms of policy, I favor the US Democratic party, particularly in their views in favor of Gay Marriage and Abortion, along with supporting taxation of the rich and giving to the poor.

Any questions?

: Why can you live with the idea of supporting a broken system?

How so?

: You are voting for one of 2 evils, who both are more or less the flipside of the same fascist coin. That is my view as a outsider.
How can you life with yourself supporting such a silly way of doing poltics?

Your view as an outsider is dangerously close to tripping Godwin's Law. Just saying.

...Pointing out that a two-party system is broken has absolutely nothing to do with Hitler. It can be seen purely from analyzing how things actually behave under that voting system.

Also, I believe in logic. Happiness should be maximized at all times. ("Kill everyone!" is not a valid proposition unless you can prove that the theoretical maximum happiness is zero, which is probably not true.)

edited 10th Apr '11 12:53:44 PM by Yej

Most of my ethical principles are based on reciprocity. I do unto others as I would want them to do to me, until they dont, and then I play Tit for Tat, with gradual escalation.

''You are voting for one of 2 evils, who both are more or less the flipside of the same fascist coin. That is my view as a outsider. How can you life with yourself supporting such a silly way of doing poltics? ''

You're still gonna have to be more specific on this, because I'm not coming to the same conclusion that you're thinking of. If you're talking about the bipartisan system, I didn't state that I was flat out only supporting the Democrats, but that I favor them with regards to certain policies - I'm still willing to compromise with Republicans on issues, but I think that the trickle-down theory of economics is flawed, as is the stance that several of them take against Gay rights and abortion.

Still, it's quite an underlying assumption to label them as part of a fascist coin. If anything, when taken to an extreme, Republicans become fascists while Democrats support communism. But I don't take to that extreme.

Correct. Calling the system fascist, however, does.

To try and be happy and make other people happy? I suppose I think that experience itself is something that has inherent joy in it. I can feel quite happy in misery, and a lot of me wonders why that seems so strange, but I'm also aware that it is strange... I dunno. bleh.

It's currently impossible to determine the existence of God, an afterlife, anything outside our sensory experiences - it doesn't mean that people shouldn't try, and I think a bit of discussion over it is healthy, but the wars and stuff that get fought over it are ridiculous. I suppose I'm an agnostic in this sense. I quite like the idea of pantheism, but I'm also aware that I just quite like it and want it to be true rather than actually being convinced of it, so I just continue to say agnostic on that front. I honestly don't know if there is anything 'supernatural' out there; though you can believe what you like if evidence for one side or the other convinces you. Just don't hurt other people with it.

I try to make other people happy as much as I can. I find I am happy when others are happy too, and I'm not so happy when others are unhappy, so it makes as much sense from a selfish point of view as from an altruistic one (for me, at least; I'm well aware not everyone is this way).

Politically, things are awkward. I find it hard to look past the flaws in a lot of the systems that are in place. What I'd quite like to see is a political system which is based on the psychological theory that we can only truly care for and know 150 people at a time, wherein the population is sort of organised into representatives for each 150 people, because I think a view of people merely as statistics is a big problem with a lot of politics... then again, things might be based a lot more on emotions, and that might not be healthy either. I suppose I'd just be interested in seeing how it'd work - not that I can really think up a good-sounding system based on that anyway. I'm really undecided on that front then, really, despite having a few quite political friends. Someone want to try to convince me to their view? :P

Philosophy except for the ethics is boring, oh and I'm an ethical egotist.

"Live fast and hard, die relatively young, and leave a damn good looking corpse for the necrophiliac chicks."

That's my philosophy. As to politics, don't much care. My vote doesn't mean shit, so I ain't wasting any time forming any political views.

Ugh I hear that one all the time from my civics teacher, minus the nercrophilia joke.

Honestly I'm probably too young/conflicted to know exactly where I stand philsophically. I'm super centralist when it comes to politcla spectrum, yet I can always make a stand on a topic.

What would it be called if you thought that there is no "point" of life and we should just have fun because of the random coincidence of protiens deciding to live?

The random coincidence of proteins grouping together into an organism capable of sending that message.

Unrestrained hedonism!

I share Tongpu's philosophical outlook (minus the antinatalism), whilst retaining a "sense of justice" and quite a bit of empathy.

Addition: Now that I think about it there may be some Epicurean influences/parallels in my outlook, too.

From the other Wiki:

Addition the Second: Actually, add Nietzschean perspectivism and philosophical anarchism to the mix.

edited 10th Apr '11 7:03:45 PM by MRDA1981

Right.