Hi guys,

Just stumbled across this forum and thought it seemed like a good place to come throw out some thoughts and theorize a little bit.

I'm a University student in Canada completing a BA in PoliSci and my primary focus is on theory.

I enjoy studying anything from Hobbes to Mill to Nietzsche to Marx. Lately I've been really delving into to Nietzsche and Contemporary Nietzschean theory and I think I'm leaning towards making a home for myself in critical theory.

I am generally pretty politically oriented, so a lot of the questions I am curious about eventually come back to what is the best (or healthiest) way for humankind to operate as it exists. I'm interested in questions regarding life and the nature of life in the physical universe, the nature of humanity within the field of life, the advent of the self and the mnemotechnically augmented sentient human being, the evolution of values and societal trends. Also, I am interested in contemporary theory (liberal, Marxist, realist) and what it has to offer based on a more modern day perspective.

Anyhow, I'll be around reading what you folks have to say. Looking forward to learning,

VF

All you need to know is this, simple, with a bow on it: Everything is a form, because we can see what we recognize by way of form... Every form is a form of relationship... All human progress, which is individual progress requires a change of forms, which people do because theie forms no longer serve their relationship...And you in looking at politics, or philosophy, or any other field of study are looking at forms which structure relationships, and if you would understand the form, you must see the relationship, and if you would understand the relationship you must see the form, because each is a lens upon the other.. So think formally, and it is a common word, found in reference to the most common of our ideas, as in uniform, or in reform, and was used by our Jeffereson in the Declaration of Independence, and correctly, with the problem laid out. Until you become conscious of that word all knowledge will be incidental, in fact, accidental since the only proper method of organizing thought is through forms and ideas..

Hi guys,

Just stumbled across this forum and thought it seemed like a good place to come throw out some thoughts and theorize a little bit.

I'm a University student in Canada completing a BA in PoliSci and my primary focus is on theory.

I enjoy studying anything from Hobbes to Mill to Nietzsche to Marx. Lately I've been really delving into to Nietzsche and Contemporary Nietzschean theory and I think I'm leaning towards making a home for myself in critical theory.

I am generally pretty politically oriented, so a lot of the questions I am curious about eventually come back to what is the best (or healthiest) way for humankind to operate as it exists. I'm interested in questions regarding life and the nature of life in the physical universe, the nature of humanity within the field of life, the advent of the self and the :detective:mnemotechnically augmented sentient human being, the evolution of values and societal trends. Also, I am interested in contemporary theory (liberal, Marxist, realist) and what it has to offer based on a more modern day perspective.
VF

I definitely see the paradox of the fact that we operate in a world built upon forms. However I still see that forms to an extent are a result of our physical and psychological limits. Obviously we are able to push our psychological limits further through advances of learning and our understanding of the world. However at the end of the day it's always interesting to acknowledge the fact we can not fully perceive the richness of our reality; or truly understand it in every context. Its a limit we are faced with much like the fact we can't see over a horizon or through a well, except due to our psychical capabilities and the productivity we gain by operating through a linguistic network, we manage break through it all the time.

Either way, I hear what you are trying to say, and I agree that we are where we are (in a world of forms), but I just like to remember the existence of what we can't perceive while I learn because I feel thats how we break through our limitations.

If we cannot perceive it, it does not exist... But, then most of our trouble in life is conceived of as moral forms, which are meaning without being... And we cannot perceive them either...The thing is, that our existence is imperiled by the want of moral forms like justice or liberty so their being is our being..

If we cannot perceive it, it can definitely still exist. The universe is a big place and while we've learned a lot there was definitely a time we perceived the world as flat. Ground on the project of filling in the gaps is made every day. I mean we can no more perceive the finite detail and endless operations and processes that goes on in the room where we use our computer let alone the larger picture of our entire temporal existence.

I mean our ability to think in forms is definitely a more powerful tool when it comes to exerting change in the universe as well as making sense of it. However, that does not mean that we can say we know ourselves to be infinite in our perception. Very deep I have no doubt, but infinite I don't think so. Consider the amount of detail a hawk sees through its eyes when compared against a human? Consider a hawk's ability to reason versus a human. We have our physiological advantages no doubt, but I have yet to see any concrete evidence of the idea that we are without limits simply due to our combination of mental capabilities.

The idea of man as able to perceive all is pretty close to believing man is able to replace what god was once considered.

VF

Not true that a thing not perceived exists... Before the atom could be demonstrated, it did not exist...It was a moral form, and a sort of scientific fairy tale...The difference between physical and moral forms is that the physical can be sensed, and all scientific instraments are elaborations upon our senses, and the progress of science has depended upon these refinements of sense at every step of the way, sensing more, and so offering greater insight, and giving greater play to imagination and speculation until what had been only imagined could be measured... Our difference with the Greeks is not in mind, but in measure, and until a thing can be measured, as moral forms cannot, the do not exist, though they may still have a certain meaning...

Infinite in philosophy does not have the same meaning as infinite in Math... Anything we cannot hold as an object and define because we can see it is finite is an infinite, and all moral forms and the form of our being, our lives, are beyond definition... It may be a paraphrase of Kant, but knowledge is judgement, and judgement is only possible of finite reality, so there, physics is easy by comparison...

I hear what you're saying, but it depends if you consider existence to be simply a word or whether you think a word can entail something inconceivable. The concept of existence is still just a linguistic concept but at the same time it does not mean that in lack of concepts that there is not something. Reality is not simply a vacuum, and as for what fills it, both the inanimate and the living are infinity complex when considered in aggregate.

Liking the forum a lot so far,

VF