Aphorisms

Man has become a tool to make his own tools.

God didn't exist, then he died and left us with the realm he could never fully conquer.

Belief would appear to be the most quintessential means to our own survival; what a pity that it is grounded in much that eventually, and thankfully so,  becomes simply dust in the winds of our minds and of time.

AD

Are We the Music Before it takes hold and gives rise to ecstacy or do We Become the Music through its beautiful, thrilling and transformative powers into ecstacy?

The Human in Three Movements: We get inspired and chase some dragon of our making, some subconscious gesture reminds us of our animality which makes us recoil in horror, our dragon-chasing pride looks at the animal and says: yes, you will do!

The Worm in the Apple of Friendship: Deception!  How many bites must be taken before it is revealed and rears its slimy head?  
One bite? Two bites?  Take care - it waits quietly and longingly - to feed upon its host!

The Warrior and the Dragon ~~ Counterparts of Blood Thirst! When the One has become sacrificed to the Face-Off, the Other drinks of its fill and Roars, thus honoring the One. Thereby, through a fiery alchemical intermingling of life and death, the Other takes on the burden of transformation, forever carrying with him he who shall never be defeated.

It's not the environment that is creepy, the platform, it's having no control over it. It isn't about what you have at stake in it in the sense that if you perceive it, it is already at stake.

Amor Fati:  Let us not cry over spilled milk!  Let us revel in the patterns of its mess! Let us dance, rapturously, around them ~~ our only cry being: Locutus Vitae ~~ Hæc Esto.

The right practice of eating may lend itself to the right practice of thinking. If we chew our food well, carefully and with mindfulness, we may learn to chew our ideas and thoughts in the same way - before digesting them.

Man has always been a tool. Just as the tools man first created were simple and could only accomplish so much, now man and his tools are more complex and can accomplish more. Destruction and construction.

I think it was Bergson who described man as the maker of tools to make tools to make tools, etc.

I do think that men are often almost sufficiently defined as tools to produce tools. But a tool is ultimately and ontologically speaking not an entity, as it exists only at the pleasure of another entity. Ultimately, there must be the one who wields the tool - and he does not necessarily have to be a tool - he can also be a true character, a self-valuing, an actual entity.

Strictly speaking, the concepts "tool" and "entity" can not apply to the same object in the same context. A tool is always a function of an entity, as it is a function of a purpose, and a purpose does not exist outside of a particular entity holding it.

Fixed Cross wrote:

I think it was Bergson who described man as the maker of tools to make tools to make tools, etc.

I do think that men are often almost sufficiently defined as tools to produce tools. But a tool is ultimately and ontologically speaking not an entity, as it exists only at the pleasure of another entity. Ultimately, there must be the one who wields the tool - and he does not necessarily have to be a tool - he can also be a true character, a self-valuing, an actual entity.

Strictly speaking, the concepts "tool" and "entity" can not apply to the same object in the same context. A tool is always a function of an entity, as it is a function of a purpose, and a purpose does not exist outside of a particular entity holding it.

Hm, I see what you mean, though I would suggest man is his own tool. You use yourself like a tool, an instrument. Consciousness existed in simpler creatures, the only way the consciousness could get more and achieve more and be more was through its physicality. The experiencer is intimately related, is intimately them self and body, the there seems to be such a chasm of difference between the subtle realm of mind and the physical bodies relation with the environment, that it is as if our minds, me, I the one that is controlling my fingers right now, uses these fingers as a tool to accomplish my wants. That is only the sense I meant it as. The body is a machine, quite the bizarre and impressive mechanical marvelory.

The body can be seen as a machine built to attain its own values. But it can also be used to attain another body's values. That is the difference between being a tool and being an entity.

A wage-slave is not functioning as a proper entity, he is a semi/quasi-entity. So is the religiously brainwashed puppet.

That said, most people are incomplete in this sense. Language really makes it difficult for people to discern their true values, language virtually consists of pre-set values. That is why I altered language, shaped it around the only concept that matters. VO is among other things technique to distinguish your ow source code from the code you were born into.

There are relatively few humans that are perfect self-valuings, that are perfectly aware of their values and perfectly capable of attaining them on a consistent basis. Humans are easily enslaved, convinced to work for objectives that seem as if they would sustain the self-valuing but in the end end up only utilizing this self-valuings excess energy wihthout feeding it, thereby eroding it and leaving it incomplete by the roadside.

People who do work they dislike doing for money are to a certain extent slaves, literally selling themselves at the cost of themselves. People who work because they value doing this work (enjoy the activity) they do and what comes from it (think of it as valuable) are free.

Fixed Cross wrote:

The body can be seen as a machine built to attain its own values. But it can also be used to attain another body's values. That is the difference between being a tool and being an entity.

A wage-slave is not functioning as a proper entity, he is a semi/quasi-entity. So is the religiously brainwashed puppet.

That said, most people are incomplete in this sense. Language really makes it difficult for people to discern their true values, language virtually consists of pre-set values. That is why I altered language, shaped it around the only concept that matters. VO is among other things technique to distinguish your ow source code from the code you were born into.

There are relatively few humans that are perfect self-valuings, that are perfectly aware of their values and perfectly capable of attaining them on a consistent basis. Humans are easily enslaved, convinced to work for objectives that seem as if they would sustain the self-valuing but in the end end up only utilizing this self-valuings excess energy wihthout feeding it, thereby eroding it and leaving it incomplete by the roadside.

People who do work they dislike doing for money are to a certain extent slaves, literally selling themselves at the cost of themselves. People who work because they value doing this work (enjoy the activity) they do and what comes from it (think of it as valuable) are free.

Im sure it can be argued many a wage slave may value their existence of believe themselves to have a greater quality of life, then that of a none enslaved free homeless man. The wage slave may accept his dull duties in exchange for a comfortable quality of life and that may be worthy and of value to them, just as a cat may see a value in being a slave to the home, or a work horse not minded doing work because it knows it will get food and shelter and cleaned. Everyone cant be an artist, the jobs wage slaves do are necessary to the functioning of society...at least until they are automated.

The burden of proof is on you here, I think. If you can get a couple of wage slaves to testify that they would not prefer to get more money for their time, we can consider it. But it seems very unlikely.

A wage slave is someone whose efforts are valued at the minimal cost. His efforts are what he is. He might be quite happy if he thinks what he is doing is useful. He would be happier if he is appreciated for it, and even more if he is rewarded for it.

As soon as reward takes precedence over work, man has sacrificed part of his entity for another part of it. Outsourcing oneself to random purposes is drawing back from existence, allowing the body to become separate of the mind. Health is conditioned by the directness/indirectness of the relation between effort and values.

Fixed Cross wrote:

The burden of proof is on you here, I think. If you can get a couple of wage slaves to testify that they would not prefer to get more money for their time, we can consider it. But it seems very unlikely.

A wage slave is someone whose efforts are valued at the minimal cost. His efforts are what he is. He might be quite happy if he thinks what he is doing is useful. He would be happier if he is appreciated for it, and even more if he is rewarded for it.

As soon as reward takes precedence over work, man has sacrificed part of his entity for another part of it. Outsourcing oneself to random purposes is drawing back from existence, allowing the body to become separate of the mind. Health is conditioned by the directness/indirectness of the relation between effort and values.

Who wouldnt want to get more money for their time? Everything is done for reward in someway or another. Life is the reward for living.

In the spirit of this thread on aphorisms, here is one of mine:


'The common root of all sorrow may perhaps be traced to this: that while life is spent in the service of death, death is spent in the service of nothing.'

When one is down in the dumps, one must look around to see what may be salvaged ~ perhaps a set of wings. Claim them as your own, then take flight ~ upward and onward!

AD

Of what use is a church steeple, if not to remind us to transcend ourselves. Mira!

AD

The quickest road back into life is through throwing ourselves into the jowls of self-death itself. Like going through a terrible wormhole and coming out into the qualia of a meaningful existence.

Philosophy needs to learn how to walk. Greatness has yet to value health over history...

A lesson for those braver than their own good in an age where good is limiting:

If you want to liberate yourself, betray yourself.

The mandate to Know Ourselves becomes more clear and "real" with every false move we make. Mistakes then may be seen as beacons shining bright before us.

Philosophy LIVED may be seen as a bright beacon guiding our way through the darkest thickets of night. All we need do is search in wonder, without hesitation, for the truths which open and reveal the hidden passageways into the LIGHT of reason and sheer delight. The darker the night, the brighter the beacon reveals itself.