tommyedison

I went through this phase while reading Atlas Shrugged. It lasted a few days. Then I realized that I was engaging in nothing but senseless sentences. That day I gave up God. IMO, the fear of leaving God lies in the fact that you have been taught to believe that a Big Daddy is caring for you in the sky. That he will always take care of you no matter whatever happens and after death, your consciousness will not die but pass on to heaven. It seems to be a very attractive proposal at first sight - eternal life. However it is not based in reality but only in one's imagination. Never heard her say it. Could you provide a quote and a reference? That is the question that scientists are working on. It might be possible that only a special arrangement of matter can produce your consciousness and no other(Nobody knows). If it does though and if there is some way to find it, I would be very happy indeed. Then life on this Earth after death will seem like a possibility to me. One tip: Don't think about when you'll die. Think about the present and into the future of your LIFE, not DEATH.

Thank you for the compliments. I look forward too to this discussion. I think the key issue here is what do fast and slow tempos convey to us. IMO, A fast tempo does convey that the piece is lively as you have pointed out - a sense of increased action as the notes and phrases (actions) are in a quicker succession. For e.g. I don't think Beethoven's Ode to Joy would have been as effective in conveying its meaning if it had had a slower tempo particularly in the 11th - 15th minutes. It wouldn't have been as forceful and it would have given the impression of a man totally content with his life calmly retrospecting. I haven't to the Adante Festivo so I can't comment on that. However based on your description it is festive i.e. joyous. However I don't see how lively equates to festive. At any rate I haven't listened to it so whatever I say about it wouldn't hold much water anyway.

I was searching Google for "Selfishness". I was expecting to see links to altruistic diatribes. What comes up first? Amazon.com link to VOS. I think it bears testimony to the pervasiveness of Ayn Rand

How can you take Differential Equations in your senior year and BC next year. Dif. EQ are a part of Calculus. Thanks

I am in a private school in India. My school doesn't give classes in BC, I just prepared on my own and took the exam. Now I doing the math classes at my school, things which I have already done biding my time waiting for college. P.S. I took the BC last year.

You're welcome. Thanks for the great math problem. I'm a sophomore too.

OK, the two circles are overlapping externally and their centers are on each other(since both centers are 1 apart and have radius 1. Let the two centers be O and O'. Let the two circles intersect at A(lower point) and B(upper point). Now to find area of both circles together find area of two circles and subtract the area of the two secants in between. To find the area of the two secants, join AB, AO, BO, AO', BO' and OO' (meeting AB at D). Triangles AOB and AO'B are congruent(same radii and AB=AB). Therefore triangles OBD and O'BD are also congruent(SAS congruence) OD=O'D=1/2*OO'=.5 In AOD, OD is .5 and OA is 1. Applying trig, angle AOD is 60 and angle AOB is 120. Find area of sector with angle 120 and subtract the area of triangle AOB. Multiply the area by two and subtract it from the area of the two circles(2*pi) taken separately. You get the area. Hope this helps Edited to fix typos

Thank you for the detailed reply I think we should take this bit by bit. If I am understanding you correctly, you mean to say that the melody should be such that a self-contained complete story can be written on it - on its theme. But here is where one runs into trouble. How does one objectively define a self-contained melody? What are its essential components? You have mentioned quite a few qualities like the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the melody. But they can all be present and still the melody can be a bad one it they are not properly arranged. How does one define a "healthy" variety of vertical and horizontal dimensions. On what are these qualities based? From what I am understanding, you are saying that a typical music has the "question" phrase ending on the dominant and the "answer" phrase on the tonic. Are there any other ways of doing such phrases? Considering Objectivism Since pain-pleasure mechanism is fundamental to philosophy of Objectivism, what type of phrases or notes can we associate with pain (i.e. something which is demoting your life) and pleasure (something promoting your life). Should we associate low pitch notes/phrases solely with pain or can low pitch notes/phrases also express happiness? P.S. I am not a musician so please excuse my lack of ignorance on this subject

Wasn't Kira in We The Living essentially a prostitute?

I asked exactly the same question quite a while ago. Perhaps this could help. Link

Perhaps this link could be helpful. Read particularly Mr Speicher's replies. They are very informative. Link Also note that it is in a criminal's self-interest that a lawful society exist. If he violates the rights of others, others have the right to violate his rights.

When? (possible leaving out Britain during the Industrial Revolution) As far as I remember, the "ideals" of slavery and serfdom and anti-Americanism have always existed in Europe.

Actually the scenarios which Mr Inspector has mentioned are immoral. Once you have chosen to live, morality by definition consists of promoting your life. Any action which demotes your life is immoral whether it is an initiation of force against others or not.

If you want a serious discussion of environmentalism go to physicsforums.com. People atleast have some sense there about science. As for culture and philosophy, I doubt you'll find any.

I don't have the Romantic Manifesto currently. From your post I interpret that Miss Rand did not develop such an objective criteria. What differentiates a symphony with a heroic theme from a cheap peace of music written by a Satanist? The reason I am so interested in this is that if you know the type of music a person listens to, it can essentially render the character of a man naked before you. One thing I have noticed about the pieces which have passion in them is the above normal use of high pitch notes. In Beethoven's especially during his "torture and struggle" phase of music, I have noticed rapid crescendos and diminuendos. Are these valid criteria to find these themes in a piece of music? What could be the other criteria by which to judge music?

When I listen to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 2nd Movement, it makes me think about titanic struggles and the victory of a heroic man over them. However this meaning I primarly get from my feeling or emotional response to the music. But the emotional response to a particular piece of music depends on the sense of life of the piece and the listener. My question is, how can we objectively identify the sense of life of a musical piece? On what basis?

I have a question regarding this topic. Can Objectivism be expressed in mathematical form due to its highly logical structure?

General: It's fun to shoot some people Quite a relief from the leftist tripe these days.

Two words: Atom Bomb before '49 atleast. Anyway, none of this would have been necessary if Patton had been allowed to have his way. He would have finished the Soviets then and there.

Via littlegreenfootballs.com Rest of article here: Armageddon Conspiracy Also, North Korea threatens attack on US Military Bases in event of war. North Korean Threat The article also states that in event of war, 690000 US troops and 2000 warplanes will be deployed in South Korea. From where is US going to get so many troops? If these two reports are true, then the situation is way past serious. It requires immediate military (preferably nuclear) action which will not happen.

I took the AP BC calculus exam last year (got a 5). AB is easier than BC although none of them is difficult. Why don't you go to collegeboard.com to get more information. They even have sample questions.

[Mod's note: Merged with previous thread on similar topic.] Under an Objectivist government, who would qualify as a citizen? Should any person simply living in the country qualify as a citizen or should there be a minimum amount of years a person has to live in the country in question before being granted citizenship. Please state your reasons for your statement.

So you are saying that as collecting DNA will enable a government to uphold individual rights, DNA collection is proper. Any initiation of force against an innocent person is wrong. Forcing a person to give his DNA would be an initiation of force. DNA collection might help in solving murder cases but it will be at the expense of individual rights.

I asked you can the animals and birds choose to live or die? Because if they can't, the law of non-contradiction demands that we abandon the claim that they have volition. And I have never seen or read about an animal commiting suicide. In that context yes. Let's take the dog's example. How do we train it not to shit on the carpet? By making the dog feel that not shitting on the carpets will promote his life by for example giving them food if they do what we want them to do, etc. Tried a google search. It yielded nothing. Anyway in a cage a parrot wouldn't have any means of commiting suicide.

Here is what I mean by volition: The ability to consciously and deliberately choose between the available courses of action. Let us take the example of the choice of life. Can you say that animals can choose between life and death? They cannot because they are programmed by nature to do all that is necessary for their survival. Therefore the claim that animals have volition is not true. Humans on the other hand have no automatic code of survival. Humans have the ability to consciously make a choice on all decisions even on life and death. That is why human beings have volition. See above Of course we have some innate abilities. The point is that when we become aware of our surroundings, we have the ability to choose whether or not to exercise the abilities (leaving out the reflex actions like startling). For example, an adult can choose to not hold his breath under water. Human beings are not born with volition. An infant cannot choose between life and death. He will always choose life. However they have the ability to acquire it through association with other human beings.