What have you gained from philosophy?

Aristotle once said, "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

What do you think you have gained from philosophy, what have you lost?

Abstract wrote:

Aristotle once said, "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

What do you think you have gained from philosophy, ?

My Self...an ongoing process...

A much more expansive perspective (still working on it)

My doubts and skepticism about a deity - ignosticism (that's a good thing)

The possibility that there may be some First Cause which we can never ever solve the mystery of. And that that First Cause will probably remain completely foreign to our puny brains; even if in fact there is one to begin with. And why would we choose to solve that mystery?

The value that comes from examining and doubting your beliefs (an ongoing process)

A brighter mind (mind you, I said "brighter" not brightest )

A world of brilliant awesome thinkers...I would not have known otherwise...

The insight that I do not know how to love such as I previously thought...

The light that still shines and lingers from a tsunamic friendship...

A complicated look - a conundrum of sorts, into the ethics of "to do no harm" and how one's sense of that can be balanced - to do no harm to self, and at the same time, to another...how that can be accomplished - it is not an easy problem to solve, it's a never-ending process which seems to have no solution. Does that mean I'm on the right track or the wrong track.

Obviously, an even clearer sense and vision that Life is an ongoing process - and it is that process which makes life worthy of being lived.

Quote :

what have you lost

my [s]elf... (an onging process)

Tunnel vision (still working on that too)

a worn-out juvenile belief in a deity.

The luxury of living in the matrix (still working on it. lol)

Meaningless realizations (still working on it)

Actually, when thought about, none of the near above are losses...they are all gains...


and so forth...

It's not what I've gained, it's what I have lost, namely enough to be prepared to die. Philosophia est moriendi ars.

Abstract wrote:

Aristotle once said, "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

I never had need of philosophy to do that, in as far as it means crass criminal behavior. This points to how new the idea of existential gravity was to the Greeks that had it. They had it as a point, rather than as a field in which they could move. This accounts for that profound superficiality Nietzsche regarded as their most enviable virtue, what is behind the absolute and unmatchable perfection of their art. One hook in truth and no room for error. Life as the perfect circle drawn from a fixed point. Life as a circle produces the immortal.

Quote :

What do you think you have gained from philosophy,

Among other things, friendship.

Quote :

what have you lost?

Innocence.

Drinking in honor of Abstract today.


Gained from philosophy? Pride. Sanity. Clarity. A cold mountain-like distance above things. Also a deep familiarity with the Earth.

Lost? The ability to "be" in that Earth, to flow in the tectonics that are self-unknown and thus beautiful. Philosophy forever strives to reclaim that which it lost, sacrificed, in the name of its other god - truth. We can either "be" truth, or we can "know" it. To know it is to elevate the entirety of existence; to be it is to reap the benefits of all that former knowing, knowledge in which being itself cannot really partake. All philosophy is in a sense "anti-being".

Other things seem to even out. I've lost some happiness, gained other happiness. New sufferings afflict me as a consequence of philosophy, but then other sufferings have vanished as a consequence of it. New experience recede into impossibility, while others open themselves up before me like rose-buds, or whores.

Gained the bridge of discernment to my most fucked up self.

Lost the honor of my family.