Grames

"Someone with no regard for philosophy" vs. "someone who follows philosophy without understanding the reason for it" These are the same thing. They are descriptions of the same person from different perspectives. Rand's answer to the question "Philosophy: Who Needs It?" was: everyone. Before her some wit remarked upon how everyone is the slave of some dead philosopher without even knowing it. However, it seems that no one can be a slave of Rand without knowing it and needing to exert effort to know how.

Consciousness is indeed an axiomatic concept. However all axioms and axiomatic concepts belong to epistemology, because they provide certain guidance about how to think and know. "Consciousness exists", which affirms that it is real and of this world. Rand claims that consciousness is "the faculty of perceiving that which exists", so it is not only thinking humans that have consciousness but anything alive possessing a faculty for perceiving what exists. It is the year 2023. "Purely physical" now includes information theory: bits, bandwidth, coding and compression theory and all the rest of it. It is not a problem to assert consciousness is purely physical.

Managing expectations. Shifting the goalposts. Redefining success.

I wonder if the forum will embed tweets? Anyway, I deny being an Iranian propagandist of a useful tool of Iranian propagandists. All Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) need to be put down forever. https://x.com/samparkersenate/status/1724434234264183240?

Muslims contributed to algebra but did not invent it entirely. A contributing factor was the increasing use of a more compact notation for numbers instead of the Roman numerals, what is now called the Arabic numerals. But the Arabic numerals were not Arabic, they first occurred in India. This gives the clue that Arab culture flourished when they could be peaceful trading empires. Unfortunately for those peoples who were not part of the Arab culture, such periods of peace only occur after victorious jihads that leave behind no handy additional targets for conquest.

This is quite correct, and even worse than a theocracy. Jewishness is based on blood. Israel is an ethno-state. Jews not observing the religion are still counted as jews (all over the world, not just the practice in Israel). The very notion of jewishness is intrinsically racist in that poisonous supremacist fashion that marked Hitler's racism. Ironically it is jews leading the way in crusading against racism and encouraging mass immigration and ethnicity mixing everywhere except in Israel. Actually, if you think about it is not ironic at all. Muslims are more prone to theocracy and less to racism.

No, this guy is what passes for establishment today. From https://cis.org/Steinlight

It used to be the case that America was run by a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. It isn't anymore. Those who are the elite consider themselves a people apart. This link still works https://archive.is/5yeSC

It occurs to me that the end of Israel would be the end of AIPAC, the political action committee responsible to funding the entirety of the existing corrupt political establishment of the American government. And so I think about this and about what I should desire to see happen..

Interesting reading: American Pravda: Oddities of the Jewish Religion

Numbers only, no lurid stories here https://www.dci-palestine.org/child_fatalities_by_age_group

Yes. Israeli settlers have done similar things. Religious wars are like that. I reject both of the religions involved. You should too.

Posting to subscribe to the thread. I really don't care about this conflict because I am neither jewish nor muslim. I would just like to remind everyone of the big picture: modern Isreal exists because of the ideology of Zionism and jewish supremacism embedded within it. If Zionism is invalid then anything which is a consequence of Zionism is invalid.

Probably correct. The situation will progress until the Ukrainian government is no longer required to think, merely comply.

Ukraine will never get another dime from the American congress now that the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is so adamantly against it. Ukraine cannot continue without American funding. Ukraine will require time to accept the inevitable, and Russia will now press its advantage and no longer feels pressure to negotiate. Therefore much territory will change hands on the ground over the next few months as Ukraine runs out of ammunition, men and money for salaries and Swiss bank accounts.