Hazmatac Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 "Do you say it is the spirit that such men have renounced? Yes, of course. You cannot have one without the other. You are an indivisible entity of matter and consciousness. Renounce your consciousness and you become a brute. Renounce your body and you become a fake.Renounce the material world and you surrender it to evil." - Galt's Speech Basically, I was wondering if someone could elaborate on the parts in bold. What exactly is "renouncing your consciousness", or "renouncing your body"? Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nacirema Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 The first part (to me) is easy - if you renounce your consciousness (you're ability and/or will to think and to reason), then you became just a mindless mass of muscle, either waiting for someone to harness you or you simply go out and destroy anything that you don't understand. The second part, as I understand, comes from the fact that you can never denounce your body and continue to live. To renounce your body fully, you would need to stop eating, stop taking medicine, ignore sleeping, etc. In effect, you'd die in a matter of days. So, to try and renounce your body and achieve a greater life is a contradiction. To say you've renounced your body is to speak one. That's how I understand it, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tordmor Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I think it refers to how you conceive yourself. Do you think you are your consciousness and just happen to "inhabit" a body, i.e. conceive yourself to be distinct from your body, or do you conceive yourself as your body and think of consicousness as an illusion? Both views are common and both are wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazmatac Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 So basically it comes down to are you neglecting your body or taking care of it, and are you using your mind properly or wrong. True? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckleslord Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 No, it's refering to the skeptics and mystics mentioned in the speech. the skeptics renounce the conciousness and say we are nothing but our body and there is no such thing as a consciousness. The mystics renounce their bodies by saying that they are shooting for an after-life, therefore their bodies are irrelevant. that is what meant by renouncement, not abuse or disuse of them, but renouncing their use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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