Honest question, honest answers.
From the content of some of my posts you will quickly see i survive on bravado alot of the time, perhaps i should be more self-effacing?

No, no no no no no no, I dont want you l to leave, you might but i dont want you to.

If you read my posts you will probably notice a level of inadequacy. I dont care about things that are of no use, and when i do i get in trouble,
if I'm only making myself look stupid, who cares right?
And perhaps in some small way i make some one else look brighter.

You speak of education, i dont even have a basic high school diploma, went to business school and apart from the math class i dropped out.
I am terrible at finishing things but here on this forum there is no ending so am just about equal.
And yet i am here i am present and occasionally triumphant,
the occasional triumph is worth much.
Who am i winning against but my self.
I am completely self taught, (i know, where did it all go wrong?) some might say self deluded but i have not airs even if i always try to be gracious.
My point is you dont need a college degree to be here, to be present, you just need to bring yourself and your thirst.

Most of the time i just make it up.
Completely off the top of my block.
Uneducated but educating i would like to think.
And no less worth investigation, interpretation and induction into the hallowed halls of that which we call philosophy.

You dont need certificates to be alive and live.

I was shocked by your responce but then tickled.
Self taught, self guiding missile.
You will only be as guided as you are motivated.
It may be just me but this place will not so much guide you as motivate you to find self guidance.
Now your own goals ought be (for me at the least) your own motivation and inspiration.
You wont get much (for me at the least) if you think your place is in the back of the class, just taking notes or taking a nap (both of which i still do), and you will find much that will put you to sleep here also but you will find things that will leave you with out energy after the exhaustion of a present will and intention experience, but this exercise will keep your frame and mind healthy for the next excursion, so take part in the class share else you are not living or experiencing or extoling the virtues of truth and self reliance. You are not showing me you.
Self reliance philosophy will give you much.
Take a seat up front of the class, an eager pupil is better than a genius.

You are only as inadequate as you are not present, you are only as foolish as your silence.

Leader or follower, even Jesus needs his disciples.

You can be an excellent follower just as bad leader.
A good follower is a better example of truth sought than someone who thinks they know all.
To be a good leader is to be a good follower.
To be a good follower is to be a good leader.
We are all only our own best example, and what i lack in leadership i make up for in being a better fuled pupil.
Of course one day i would like to think i could be followed but i am not here for that, i think i am more like you in the fact i want to be led.
You can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.
This place will teach you only as much as you are willing and able to learn.
This place may be to small for me some day and i hope it is not cheating on this my homestead my home away from minds lonliness but this is just a starting block for me, this is my first platform, some times to high sometimes not high enough, i love roller coasters.
I came here first to improve my writting and people skills and have found (on occasion) i am a good philosopher.
But has my writting appreciated by my written words or by reading others?
Both.
I see some of my posts on later inspection to be poor but this is the self guidance i touched briefly upon before.
You are not as bad as your last post, you are as good as the ones yet to be written.

You must just simply humbly accept you are the most fascinating and fascinated person here.

You need to be interested to be intersting, engaged to be engaging, arrested to be arresting even arrant.

Is philosophy anything to do with personality?
I dont think you make a good philosopher unless you are sure of your personage, unasurity is the place of poets which is why i find i am both a philospher and poet, all art all beauty all truth, i like everyone else have my bad days and my good days. Bad art and good art.
Teacher pupil.
Your place is at the front of the class, dont let anyone take your seat from you, they wont use it as you will, and most definately dont leave your seat unocupied.

Philosophy has little do with being clever.
It has everything to do with being creative.
There are many clever creativities and many creative clevernesses.

The greatest teachers still learn.
The greatest pupils still teach.

You will guide me just as i will guide you.

Personality again, must we love our guides teachers philosophers in order to be triumphant? against whom are you trying to win? what is loss? in order to be a lovable guide teacher philosopher means triumph?
You dont need to love people you need to love knowledge, you need to love yourself.
Loving people is just what makes the self priceless.
It is our minds and spirits that are our most valuable possessions.

Love life, love philosophy, love creativity, love thy self just dont expect the world to love you back.
Do it for the work but also for your earned days off.

Be courageous.
Unless you think intelect is a means to being feared?
Dont let your ego win, to be egotistical is more often self exclusion, self affacement, self denial,
be brave, bravado is nothing to ashamed of if it keeps you present and vital.

I am better off with you here, than the worst if you weren't.

It is better to be in the company of fools than no company at all.

Have fun, a relaxed mind is a receptive and conductive one.

Your fellow fool sometime sun.

(Listened to the Cure writting this)

I just wanted to remind some juniors the intentions of this forum.
:lol:Kind Regards

I joined this forum because I was and Am interested in the interaction of formal thinkers, theories, and disciplines with the general ideology of society. I first became interested in this by tracing the historical lead up to post-modernism and its subsequent permiation of other disciplines and onto the general societal adoption of many of those ideals. So you could say that philosophical theory for theory's sake does not interest me, but theory related to cultural-linguistic functions and systems fascinated the pants right off me.

I think it has become a habit.

Can a habit ever be healthy?

Can anything ever be healthy?

You have the grump on today don't you?

Shake it off platorepublic, take a nap and start it all again.

You have the grump on life don't you?

No I don't have a grump on today, or any day.

I don't feel grumpy, I am no Victor Meldrew I can assure you.
I may find it hard to locate a sense of humour most of the time, but relatively speaking I would say I am one of the most positive people you are ever likely to have to endure a ready and waiting smile and nod of appreciation from.

And if not grumpy what then does 'Can anything ever be healthy?' mean?
Because you must know there are many things that increase health.

Of course. Eating well can become a habit. Getting enough sleep. Even learning to think.

I agree. There are definitely positive habits, even if 'doing things from habit' or 'being a creature of habit' signifies someone who acts from instinct and without due reflection. But that well-known book Seven Habits is a testimony to constructive habituation.

Yes I watch my diet a little to stringently.
I get far to much sleep, I love my bed.
Yes the last one I find most connection with.
Just being here has drastically changed my thought patterns and increased my endurances and increased my productivity.
I know I spend far to much time here, I am skipping weight time.
But I would still feel confident this place has done so much more good than harm.
I still get a thrill.
Turns out I love thinking, I cant get enough.
I'm hooked.
And all apart from my cigarettes I am vaguely healthy.
But above all grateful of what I have that allows me to THINK and LEARN.

Well there are certain things that will certainly increase health like:

- not chopping my head off
- not jumping off a tall building

But asserting that vitamin E benefits on health would be much more difficult. Which reminds me:

Did anyone see the TED talk on Angiogenesis and diet?

Without habits we would not have time to do anything that required due reflection. Having (useful) habits is vital to human life just as having useful instincts is vital to animal life. William James in his Principles of Psychology explains this very well. We are all of us, "creatures of habit". We must be in order to survive.

Sigh...this is bringing up the "Problem and Justification of Induction" part of philosophy.

Can it still be pleasurable and still be constructive?
Must the habit be without anything in particular for it to be deemed as constructive?
Must the habit curb the enthusiasm or create it?
Must the habit ultimately harbour or habituate for it to be constructive?

Hi All,

Why am I here? that's quite simple to answer for me. I exist amongst a populace that doesn't know what philosophy even is, let alone be able to discuss the avenues thereof. I know two people only that see the world with open eyes, the rest are caught up in the social-blur.

You lot may well be oddities to the norm, but you're my kind of oddities.
That's all I'm saying.

Have a great day, all

Mark...