Ah yes, the usual nonsense on here. Buddha sez "the markes are doing well" but alas he doesn't figure inflation into it. Breakfast at the Hilton hovers around $25 when it used to be $10. The Dow would need to be 42000 to recover the spending power it was at 32000. But alas, postmodernism isn't very good with making meaningful definitions.
I learned something interesting recently. A friend of mine and I have had a recent debate about the meaning of the word "Faith." He sez faith only should apply to religious matters, and since he is an athest he doesn't have a "faith." He quoted Hebrews 11.1 in which Paul said: " Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. He believes "faith is arbitrarily believing something for which you have no proof."
What's interesting here, is that the Greek word Paul used which is translated as "Faith" in english, was "pistis" .. the meaning in Greek is integrated whith the concept of knowledge itself. "Episteme" is a systematic use of knowledge, whether used in science or philosophy or theory. ( theory of law, theory of medicine, etc.) which involves the intangible component of human "thought" and reasoning from a set of presuppositions ( which may be true or false, but nonetheless "believed. Epistemology is the study of how humans (and us sea creatures) come to know things.
Socrates got in trouble with Meletus, arguing about the nature of Reality. He claimed the Greek gods weren't real, just human inventions of imagination. Meletus claimed Greek belief in the gods was necessary, whether real or not. Socrates developed a method of asking leading questions, which like playing chess, cornered his opponents. They got pissed and made him drink poison, ending the debate once and for all.
Plato, (350 BC) Socrates student, took up a formal approach to the question of how we come to know anything. His analysis ( theory of forms) is useful today.
Plato broke knowledge into five categories: 1. Thought, 2. Name, 3 definition, 4 incidence, and 5 reality. He maintained "reality" was not knowable directly, words and thought could never come to a knowledge of "the thing in itself."
Aristotle, Plato's student, used his theory of forms to study the natural world. "Taxology," the classification of plants animals, sea creatures, etc relied on the central three 2. Name, 3, definition, and 4. Incidence. Of course Aristotle couldn't classify the entire universe, only what he could see, but his approach became the foundation of what we call the "scientific method" today. Observe, hypothesize, test, falsify-- leading to an inferential "conclusion" ( in greek: "Hypostasis") which is the best science can ever claim as "proof"-- but as Plato observed no one can go from 1. thought directly to a complete knowledge of the "thing in itself" (5. "reality")
So about 2000 years later ( 1600's AD ) French philosopher Rene Descartes came up with a novel approach to epistemology-- it's called "Cartesianism" and his later followers were called "Foundationalists." Descartes claimed the most real thing that couldn't be denied was ( 1 thought) itself, as he is frequently quoted: ( Latin) 'cogito ergo sum' ( "I think, therefore I am.") In effect, Descartes negated the central aspects of Plato's theory of forms ( 2. Name, 3. Definition, and 4. Instance) further obscuring (5.reality )
This was the philosophic birth of our modern "useful idiots" -- "feelings" following a full postmodern expression of Cartesianism could be equated with "fact", and words and definitions didn't matter since they were all individually subjective -and "reality" could be argued to be whatever someone "thought " it was.
Which brings us back to Paul's use of the word Faith" ( pistis) as the necessary root of the Greek understanding of "conviction, or belief" (hypostasis). Today our Libs can't have a meaningful conviction about anything, and they prefer to play with words, even when they use words that refute scientifically and empirical facts. ( the taxology of Aristotle)
2. Name: "Woman" 2 Definition: A human being with a vagina and a uterus who is capable of being impregnated and able to givie birth to a human offspring" 4. incidence: 4.2 billion examples of such creatures living on planet earth today.
Question to a Lib Supreme Court nominee: "what is the definition of a woman" ( she refuses to answer)
Question to Bill Clinton: What is the definition of "sex?" ( Clinton: it depends on the definition of what 'is' is!)
Question to Crerpy Uncle Joe: what is a 'Black' woman? (CUJ sez:" If you don't vote for me you ain't black. And I prefer "women" to be pre-pubescent!!"
Question to the average American citizen:
2. Name: "What is a Lib?"
3. Definition(s)
A Cartesian foundationalist;
an epistemological retard.
a self-referent propagandist
a baseless polemicist,
One who holds presuppositions that are foundationally incoherent,
A credulous person
One who is self-deceived,
in other words a--
"useful idiot!"
Good luck making sense of this place
2. Name:"Netfriction"'
3. Definition: A lib echo chamber.
4. incidence: Buddha and Crowbot!
--Shooting Shark,
Professor emeritus,
Chair of Human Political Philosophy and Religious Studies,
Aquatic Undersea Institute, Atlantis.
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