Are you alive?

[Ray]

Are you alive?
Of course you are! You're alive!

Are you a thing?
Of course you're not! You're alive!

Are you a moron?
Of course you're not!

Are you hooked on oxycontin?
Let's hope you're not!

So,
Are you a living thing?
Or,
Are you an oxymoron?

Know thyself for thou art all that is good. Anything else is something else entirely!

Words are but words, for they ARE something else!

Eye love each and every one of you each and every day!

[Craig]

I am trying perhaps fruitlessly to get fit, so right now to ask myself am I alive? well I believe pain is an indicator so I can say yes, but brain gone off for a while.

[Darren Haynes]

I was anthiest until I dropped acid at the tender age of 18. Turned out my atheism was just anger and I was too "smart" to admit it to myself.

Yep, I became a believer over night. A dramatic change, but I feel more alive now. And feel more aware of what parts of me need waking up now. Keep on growing/glowing.

[sheme]

When I was a little child I recall getting all excited as I realised I was alive, Hey I'm alive I'm alive, I still do this from time to time as I get quite a buzz from this realisation even now.

[Shezbeth]

Posted by Ray (here)
Are you alive?
So I am told.
Are you a thing?
That's one way of looking at it, but that ignores two vital aspects of the equation IMO.
Are you a moron?
That depends on whom you ask, I would say 'maybe'.
Are you hooked on oxycontin?
Gawd no!

So, are you a living thing or, are you an oxymoron?
Can't it be both?

Know thyself for thou art all that is good. Anything else is something else entirely! [...] Eye love each and every one of you each and every day!

Thank you for this encouraging message. I question whether it is possible to truly know thyself given the limited 'equipment' we are all operating from (limited bodies). As far as 'all that is good', I prefer to think 'all that is' (beyond the body that is). The last phrase is interesting as it expresses unity and collectivity ([I] love...), while also encouraging the observer to consciously exalt those they observe and encounter by conscious intent (EYE love). Well done. ^_^

[Milneman]

Are you alive?
Of course you are! You're alive!

Are you a thing?
Of course you're not! You're alive!

I'm a philosophy major on summer break. It's killing me. I want to go back to class, I want to be with students and professors and books and stuff. When a post like this comes up I have to unpack it, it's my nature. Plus it's like training in the off season. You asked for it.

Are you alive? Of course you are! You're alive! But how do you know you're alive? More, how do you know the other people who have seemed to posted in this thread are alive?

Are you a moron?
Of course you're not!

How do you know that?

Are you hooked on oxycontin?
Let's hope you're not!

But...are you?

So,
Are you a living thing?
Or,
Are you an oxymoron?


Lots of living things are both living and things. Living could be considered a thing, from a certain point of view. Why do I keep seeing Emanuel Kant right now? It must by the oxycontin...

Know thyself for thou art all that is good. Anything else is something else entirely!

Could you please justify this statement? How, for example, would this apply to a pedophile who considers molesting children good, or someone who considers random acts of arson good?


Words are but words, for they ARE something else!

Shez, hold me back buddy. I'm gonna pop.

If I follow your logic here, and I understand your post, then once I get to this line? I understand you to mean that words are outside of ourselves, that words are basically illusions that we can't fully understand, and therefore I must conclude that you're descending into hyper skepticism balanced with the idea that the only real person we can know is ourselves, and outside of that, there is nothing else to know. Which is the idea that the only real thing can exist is ourselves, and we can't know anything outside of that.

In which case, if we can't know anything (according to what you're saying, if I have it right), why would anyone listen to anyone who claims they don't know anything??

I'm gonna recommend Thomas Reid to you as a philosopher to study. I've got a book of his on order that is due here any day now and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. He belongs to the Scottish Common-Sense School of philosophy. Which basically says, if I understand it correctly, that we can't know with certainty the outside world exists but we would be a moron to not believe it does!

O.o

I'm not convinced you know what you're talking about...but I've been wrong before, and I could be wrong again! Prove me wrong.


Eye love each and every one of you each and every day!

So says the sensitive new age guy. Back atcha big guy.

[Shezbeth]

Posted by Milneman (here)
I'm a philosophy major on summer break. [...] Shez, hold me back buddy. I'm gonna pop.

And I was just thinking that Avalon might benefit from a philosophy sub-forum. I don't know that I could/would/should hold you back, but if you're going to pop perhaps I should at least try?

In a very simplistic sense, I agree with the sentiment of the OP, and my reply was more of a jovial allusion do a different way of thinking. Still, what Milneman asserts is also agreeable, but from a far more introspective sense. Ray's expression seems a very 'living in the moment' manner of perceiving things, whereas Milne's is more of a 'analyzing what is apparent' line of thought.

Aside from the obvious lead-in to 'oxymoron' I am a little confused by the efficacy of the oxycontin reference. The implication (perhaps indeliberate) is that one is either a living being or hooked on oxy which is seems a very narrow and rigid way of perceiving things (though, having observed how individuals behave on such I can't deny that they certainly can appear less 'alive').

Still, I can't see what there is to discuss in relation to the OP (maybe that is the point?), which makes me wonder why it is in the "General Discussion" sub-forum. I mean, I could take exception to the lack of elaboration as to what is meant by use of 'alive', 'thing', and 'moron'; especially moron which despite its antiquated psychiatric usage has devolved into more of a colloquialism than anything.

Ray, would you care to elaborate/elucidate your meaning/intent so that participants might have a better understanding and more room to discuss?

[Milneman]

Agreed. Mods, philosophy sub-forum?