At present I have begun to read Being and Time just past the hammer you mention.

Richard, I'd really like to understand what you mean here, so I just need to know what you mean by plus and minus 0. Do you mean like " +/- 0 "?

Because I don't understand how zero can act as a value to change the potentiality of any resultant value being positive or negative? :perplexed:

Sincere condolences.

I would recommend Deleuze for any metaphysical affliction.

Derrida is like an old friend. Good stuff. I have a sample of Deleuze's work I picked up at the 50 cent bin, might take another look later. Just inventoried my library. Four shelves read if not comprehended, ten shelves to go. Little of this is in the original language, most is translated into a form of English. This book knowledge will come in handy some day said my neighbor Don Quixote, although Socrates would not approve.

. . . knowledge is primarily transfered though the Logos. And you would know that Derrida decried this tyranny of the written word. But this is the world we live in and re Deleuze I have read a lot and it has brought me to the conclusion that if one is serious about philosophy, then you will recognise that is a practical too, albeit a multi functioning one and not just some form of intellectualism. After all why do this? What is the motivation to know what Being is? Anyway I digress so back to Being then.

Define 'Being?' Can't. If we define it it isn't Being.

. . . For arguments sake 'Being is the that is of the human condition while existence is the What is of that Being.'

And if we define something that does not imply that it has no room for extension does it?

What about things that aren't human, such as, to pick one, a tree. Being or existence?
How about a painting of a tree, or a poem about a tree (Joyce Kilmer, been there, seen the placque and the window and the tree). Being or existence?
How about Being itself. What is the being of Being.
If we define something we have to define it with something and that something would have being, so being would have to come before definition.

What is "being"? Can one answer this question without a tautology? And if not, why?

I admit that your correct about one thing and that is to define one thing it has to be in relation to another.Hence Heiidegger defining being as being in relation the world, which is quite vast and also being in the now, sorry I dont subscribe to his idea of time mine is linked to Bergson and Deleuze in terms of duration.

But seeing as you have picked the creative arts painting, poetry these are creative activities conducted by individuals in reaction to either their own being or the events of the world in which they live think Picasso and Guernica as a work of art which had its genesis as a reaction to an act of barbarity.

And to move back to Being that is the topic under investigation and or speculation as to what constitutes it what its qualities are, how is it expressed isnt that the point that Being does not have closure it can't be one specific thing.

Are you talking about states and if so what type of state?

saiboimushi said:



Excellent question. Thank you for posting it, Saiboimushi.

I would define being this way:

The experience of being mentally present* in each moment of one's existence.

(* - "present" - Mentally existing in real time in each moment of one's reality without being dragged into mentally-triggering phases of emotional / intellectual memory and being able to process the events of one's reality in real time.]

I am with Plato on art and creativity.

So was Stalin for that matter.:eek:

Being is pure consciousness, which is all there is, the I AM of all creation. It is the only thing that is real, nothing real is ever created, the material world is all a reflection of being, and can only exist in the here and now, no past or future, eternity is now

:rolleyes:
Stalin was the world's greatest scientist and mimeograph operator, neither an artist nor a philosopher.

Sounds like Husserl.
Tends to be over in the psychology camp as much as the philosophy camp. Where would the consciousness be located?