A Challenge to Prince James

Oh, and just a note...
y'all are taking eastern philosophy in the wrong way.
It's not about finding a logical proof, or showing that something is necessarily true. Rather, it's about getting into a mindset that leads you to revelation.

Think of it this way - aesthetic beauty is achieved through experiencing something. I can listen to a beautiful Ravel, and it's not the notes themselves that derive deep pleasure, it is the physical effect it has on me. It's about the force the music creates, the type of energy it stirs in you.

Kind of like this with eastern phil, it's artistic in a way. It's suppose to put you in a mindset that allows you to make revelations. NOT truths (though certainly many try and use it that way), but instead revelations.

Many, I would probably say all, of the great intellectual steps made in human history were creative steps. Even in math, it was largely someone inspired to go a certain direction by instinct. Eastern phil is designed to try and get you in that mindset.

Don't try and argue it rationally. In fact, don't try and conceive of it rationally. Just do it. Experience it.
 
Tyler:

Whilst no offense was taken, what about my writing in particular provides clues to a young age?
 
tyler,

i just need to say that the ancients really had the answer to everything, and one day, we will also......... btw, i think it sounsd like prince james is between 15 and 60 years old.
 
'The ancients' did have a phenomenal amount of answers. I personally can't believe the massive leaps of intellectual ability some of those men made, specifically in math. The Elements??? How the hell did a man come up with that much geometry?? I know he took a lot from older sources, but it's still a bunch of massive leaps. One thing I know is that if all the ancients had been like me, we'd still be living in caves without one piece of technology or one intellectual advancement made!

Prince:
It's hard to describe. After four years or so of reading message boards (and occasionally posting) you start to get a sense of individuals. Sometimes you're completely 100% off, but for the most part I end up pretty close to right.

For one it's just plainly the way you write. The use of 'big' or technical terms where it's completely unnecessary. A lot of younger people (and I'm only 19 so keep in mind I know I stll do a lot of this shit myself) tend to throw in technical words where it doesn't really help a point. Although, that's also just an element of arrogance. Though I don't agree with genep that it's 'idiot savante' I do know tons of people who try and seem knowledgable by showing off their linguistic chops. It goes right down to using phrases like "a posteriori" in the middle of a completely non-technical statement.

The odd thing is, I've learned that this really just serves to do the opposite. If you can explain an extremely complicated notion using as little technical language as possible - that's intelligence. True sign of understanding is to be able to communicate the confusing and difficult in simple and plain language.

Besides that, there's the simple fact that you think you have the answers. As I said, most older people I've spoken to, most people in an actual position in their life where they've got some time under their belt; they tend to acknowledge they simply don't know all that much. And I don't mean this in the Socratic sense of "My wisdom is...". Everyone will think they've figured out a couple questons, or at least are on the right track. But to think in 20, 40, 60 years you've got the answer to 2000+ years of questions is simply ridiculous. The sooner anyone comes to realize this, the better.

Also, you avoided my question of what university you're at yet said you're in the process of attaining a doctorate in philosophy. That led me to thinking you're either embarassed to say what school you're at, aren't at university yet, or are past university age and want to go back. The first option seems ridiculous - few people would have that mentality and you don't seem like that kind of person. The third option is entirely possible, but like I said the trend seems to be indicating a younger than 25 person. Also, there's the fact that most people who post a ton on sciforums tend to be younger (just a generalization, of course there are a bunch of exceptions).

Not to mention I seem to remember essentially asking for your age (I think I did it in a roundabout way), and you managed to escape the question. My experience is that that usually comes from younger people not wanting to say they're young because of a fear it will get them less respect from their peers. Which is not an entirely unfounded fear; certainly some older individuals will instantly have a different view of you if they know you're young. What I learned is that it's much more fun to admitt you're youth.

You know what, in writing this I've also realized part of it is me projecting myself onto you. At a younger age I tried to show off my chops, thought I had a unifying theory, challenged the people around me, and didn't like admitting my age. What that all came down to was that I wanted to be right. I wanted to think I was right, and I wanted other people to think I was right. That's now pretty much the opposite. I still feel extremely strongly on a few areas (interestingly, the ones I previously thought less important; a few political things, a couple notions on aesthetics, a general understanding of morality...), but for the most part I don't know and I don't want to think I know.

Now I want challenge. Now I want to be the underdog. I want everyone to think I'm wrong, I want everyone to think I don't know shit, I want everyone to think I'm young and incapable. If you go in with every odd stacked against you, you have to fight even harder to get every step of the way up. And the harder you have to fight, the more you'll learn in the process. The more you're challenged, the more you'll learn. It's not through arguing your point and staying on it for ever and ever that you learn. Argument exists so that you and the other can find out where you're wrong and patch holes; not so that you can prove you're right. Odds are you're wrong anyway.

You don't have this yet. Or it doesn't feel like you do (again - I may be completely wrong). Then again, I know many 30 year olds who never obtained this drive. So I guess that's not a fair indication of age. It's jsut me projecting; I know that I was more like I think you are when I was 15 and change has come recently.

I think that's most of what went into my guess.

So - how wrong am I??
 
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Tyler said:
'The ancients' did have a phenomenal amount of answers. I personally can't believe the massive leaps of intellectual ability some of those men made, specifically in math. The Elements??? How the hell did a man come up with that much geometry?? I know he took a lot from older sources, but it's still a bunch of massive leaps. One thing I know is that if all the ancients had been like me, we'd still be living in caves without one piece of technology or one intellectual advancement made!
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error. yr not talking about my ancients. to my ancients who lived over 10000 years ago easily, nothing was unknown. the elements, the zodiac and the yin and yang are just variations of the same thing. da magnetism.

yr talking about small ancients who were but consequences of the real ancients, like the heat from the sun. my ancients didn't have technology because they didn't want it. we create technology because we inherited their wisdom. technology only makes the world and our minds polluted. the universe can only be understood with the mind and ye shall live in harmony with nature like the ancients!!!

the only reason YOUR ancients were smart is because MY ancients gave everything to them, yet they could only grasp a small fraction of it, and they (we) became dumber and dumber until we're where we're now.

listen cat!!!!!!!!! the ancients didn't reproduce among themselves anymore, so we inherited their legacy and they dissapeared from the earth.

but you know that it doesn't matter how wise ye are, you can never learn someone stupid. so how did we inherit their wisdom then. with blood tyler, blood!! and that's why the "king" is still chosen from the same family, because they used to have "royal blood" in them. wisdom!.

in ancient times, the rulers were wise, not like today with GW bush-- he's an ordinary man. the rulers were wise because they inherited their wisdom from the ancients. we're all descendants of the ancients, but all did not always inherit the powers the from their side. the cave ape men....

u should have wondered why kings always have a staff. it symbolizes power, but why? because when the ancients still lived, THEIR staff was Powerful, not just a symbol. Ra. how could you ever forget the staff of life u cat!!! http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/emec/img/01300.jpg and the high hats, because they had large brains, the ancients were both mentally and physically giants, they are not fables.
 
Tyler:

Thank you for your answers! I am always interested in people's views and insights into me, right or wrong.
 
in ancient times, the rulers were wise, not like today with GW bush-- he's an ordinary man. the rulers were wise because they inherited their wisdom from the ancients.
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I'm not sure why you think this is true. We have no reason to think the ancient leaders were any 'wiser' than leaders today. As far back as we can trace there were stupid leaders. Yes, they were always called the 'wise men' of the state. But simply saying 'I'm a leader, I'm the wise man' doesn't make it so.
 
Tyler:

Since you did take the time to answer me, I shall offer you something, even though I prefer to remain separate from my real life in terms of specific details, save for a few times where I have mentioned where I live, in generalized terms. Of course, since I am not St. Nick we shan't be having a merry Christmas here, but perhaps a happy Kwanzaa?

I am neither 15 nor 16. I am older.
 
Tyler said:
We have no reason to think the ancient leaders were any 'wiser' than leaders today.
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I have reasons, because I know about the ancients. You don't go far enough back in time. But the descendants who inherited the knowledge of the ancients were still born 4000 years ago. Ptah-hotep for example was a great leader. Moses was a wise leader also, even though he lived only 3400 years ago. Even 2000 years ago, some people still inherited parts of the wisdom of the ancients (those people were called prophets) BUT, at that time, the stupid people had already taken over, and leaders were "ordinary" humans.

NOW, things have balanced, but you didn't understand what I said. There was a union between two races far back in time, between a highly developed race and a primitive race, and that's why wise people were born in the past (our human race was born from this cross-breeding)

As far back as we can trace there were stupid leaders. Yes, they were always called the 'wise men' of the state. But simply saying 'I'm a leader, I'm the wise man' doesn't make it so.
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You KNOW, they were called wise men BECAUSE leaders WERE once wise. THEN there came those stupidos who said 'I'm a leader, I'm the wise man', and since people were stupid they believed he was the wise man, since the leaders had always BEEN wise!
 
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Prince_James said:
Tyler:

Since you did take the time to answer me, I shall offer you something, even though I prefer to remain separate from my real life in terms of specific details, save for a few times where I have mentioned where I live, in generalized terms. Of course, since I am not St. Nick we shan't be having a merry Christmas here, but perhaps a happy Kwanzaa?

I am neither 15 nor 16. I am older.
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it is called arrested development.

Tell me Prince – do your parents still have to help you dress and undress?
Do your parents let you out in the traffic by yourself OR DO THEY still use a leash?

Are you potty trained yet?
If so, then you are ready to learn the simple arithmetic of 1-1=0 that right now has to fly above your head because you are too busy fighting a crusade that turns savants into idiots and idiots into savants but only because, for you, 1-1 can never add up to ZERO.

I know just how you think and feel but only because I AM even a bigger idiot than you will ever imagine.
.
 
Genep:

I was going to keep silent and let the humour speak for itself, but for someone who believes in "nothing", I have clearly got you ever so upset. So if you equate "contentness" with truth, or reality, or whatever you're trying to postulate, I suppose I hold far more!
 
Prince_James said:
Genep:

I was going to keep silent and let the humour speak for itself, but for someone who believes in "nothing", I have clearly got you ever so upset. So if you equate "contentness" with truth, or reality, or whatever you're trying to postulate, I suppose I hold far more!
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"I know just how you think and feel but only because I AM even a bigger idiot than you will ever imagine. "

Dearest Prince -- when you start fathoming your stupidity, ONLY THEN will you laugh at how much more stupid I AM than you will ever imagine.

Until then, keep chasing all the ignorance you need to feel smart.
 
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