/lit/ - Literature

A mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, and optimistic nihilism.

It doesn't work like that, sorry

> “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”

- Albus Dumbledore

>>3388308
Thanks, I like that combination

>>3388311
Why not?

>>3388301
Sufism

>>3388301
neoplatonism

Bushido

Golden Rule, surprisingly simple and versatile

Define "good" OP. What helps you? What makes for a better world? What? Only then can you question be answered.

It doesn't work like that. Forget frameworks, learn to live outside of "frames".

If you focus that the only truth to it all is change, you'll learn how to adapt yourself to the new better. Until it won't work anymore. And you'll have to change. You see?

It sounds paradoxical, but it's also fundamental to Buddhism and other ideas of the world. Don't take things as true or false, but as constructions that will perish and maybe come back later. Don't cling to them. It doesn't matter how good a guide appears to be on how to live a good life, one day it will fail you and you'll ask yourself on what did you do wrong, perhaps you misunderstood something? Perhaps you should have tried harder? And then you'll be clinging to that idea.

Reality is as reality is and whatever you say about it is only said after it happened. Don't think in frameworks, think in mutations and learn to observe damn happening, change with them, etc.

tl;dr read a bunch of those aphorisms by Bruce Lee and Krishnamurti

>>3388361
Link to the golden rules?

>>3388353
I read Miyamoto Musashi "book of five rings" and "Dokko" which means the way to walk along, it's interesting as fuck.

>>3388378
By good, I want to live where I can have sex every day with beautiful women, drive expensive cars and vacation. Oh, and never working.

>>3386277

Determinism. 'You've already made your choice. Now you must understand it'.

>>3388391
>Link to the golden rules?
lol. It's just 'Do unto others what you would have done unto you'.

>>3388391

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule

The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim,[1] ethical code, or morality[2] that essentially states either of the following:

(Positive form of Golden Rule): One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.[1]
(Negative form of Golden Rule): One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.

>>3388416
What if I'm a masochist? Should I go around whipping people?

what i got from your post:

>how can i delude myself in the most pleasing way
>i want to be told how to live my life, i want someone to tell me how to think

i recommend to you a solid mixture of christ and fascism

>>3388430
what does whipping do for you? give you pleasure?

so you should give pleasure to others, however it is that they get it. understanding?

>>3388301
Epicureanism has brought me closer to happiness than I've been in years.

guys
guys
guys, harry potter is really good right?

>>3388391
>By good, I want to live where I can have sex every day with beautiful women, drive expensive cars and vacation. Oh, and never working.
Hedonism I guess? You don't really need a philosophy to live like that. Just study hard and get a high paying in-demand job.

>>3388453
>Epicureanism

Thank you, reading his work now.

>>3388462
hi /b/ friend, when are you guys going to get going? hiding these threads is getting old

>You want to live 'according to nature'? O you noble stoics, what fraudulent words!

>>3388420

>An ethical code based on egoism rather than compassion

Do you even categorical imperative?

>>3388499
>categorical imperative

>>3388499
>>3388516
it scares me that people honestly try to follow the categorical imperative in real life.

>>3388499
There is no categorical imperative. Why did you post schopenhauer with that anyway?

>>3388569
Can somebody explain categorical imperative to me? I'm just starting to read philosophy, but I've already seen it referenced a few times. I think it's a Kantian idea?

>>3388558
This.

I feel like I would either really hate everything or everyone would hate me.

>>3388499
kant's ethics are straight bullshit
my jimmies are actually rustled right now

>>3388558

Categorical imperative is great for hitting people over the head with though.

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."

I threw that at a girl who that her body was hers alone to do whatever she wanted with. I asked her to consider what would become of us if all women thought as she did and neglected the demands of health that are vital to pregnancy and early human life.

Cold stop

>>3388558

Categorical imperative is great for hitting people over the head with though.

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law."

I threw that at a girl who held that her body was hers alone to do whatever she wanted with. I asked her to consider what would become of us if all women thought as she did and neglected the demands of health that are vital to pregnancy and early human life.

Cold stop

>>3388593

>Muh university education

>>3388603
>implying it's practically relevant to universalize every action or intention
it's nicely ironic that a doctrine intended to supercede 'hypothetical imperatives' relies so heavily on a massive hypothetical

>>3388499
>Do you even categorical imperative?
>OM NOM NOM I LOVE SHIT IT'S SOO TASTY.

absurdism

>>3388408

Existentialism is objectively superior to systematic philosophies.

>>3388836

>Existentialism is objectively superior to -

Go be 15 somewhere else.

I would suggest Buddhism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Confucianism, Epicureanism. I would say Confucianism is about morality, the rest are quite helpful on how to deal with aspects of the human condition and purpose.

>inb4 anon is a pleb.

what's with the pic?

>>3388301
Marxism-Leninism.

Also, i think you didn't understand the meaning of philosophy.

>>3389039
>Thinks that Marxism-Leninism is philosophy
>Tells people they don't understand what philosophy is.

Anyway OP, Stoicism is godtier, but very hard to really follow, and so is Epicureanism. But please don't talk about " a " philosophy.

If a Society was ruled only using the Golden Rule, what would it be like?

>>3388836
>objectively superior
>laughing_girls.jpg

Christianity. Accept jesus as your lord and saviour

>>3388301
catholicism

>>3388301
islam

>>3389163
But he died.

And you know what? Even if he were alive today, I ain't so down with people claiming lordship. I don't care how cool he was.

Christian Satanist

>>3389178
He didn't die because he is God

let ye be touch by his noodly apendage

>>3389191
No, he was just some dude, from around 100 or 200 BC. Stories build up and the next thing you get is some shitty fan-fic proclaiming him the son of god, so therefore a god himself, nullifying the whole concept of monotheism, but that's all good, since he wasn't a god. If he were a god don't you think he'd have stuck around for a while, traveled a bit, proved to everyone this claim?

>>3389240
He's a god because the bible says so.

>>3389246
>Fan-fic
>The year of our load 2013

>>3389256
You are the cancer of this board.

Go be an attention-whore somewhere else.

imb4 attempt at witty retort. Just fucking leave.

>>3389195
I know it's poor form to complain about Reddit on 4chan, but please go back to Reddit. Flying spaghetti monster atheist bullshit is played out.

>>3389267
That's not poor form at all. What gave you that crazy idea?

>>3389263
inb4*


>>3388301
What a stupid idea for a thread.

>please think for me

>>3388301
freemasonry

>>3388437

simplicity cracks me up.

but simplicity doesn't work in a world that is anything but simple.

>>3389263
>Looking for my attention
Attention-whore.

>Attempting witty retort
How could I possibly be witty with such a drowsy lump as yourself, SURELY CURING THE CANCER OF THIS BOARD?

>>3389293

>Looking for my attention

>implying your attention seeking needs to be looked for when you shit up every thread with your nonsense.

>How could I possibly be witty with such a drowsy lump as yourself, SURELY CURING THE CANCER OF THIS BOARD?

>dat unintelligible, autistic buttrage

I want the tripfuck who contributes nothing to leave.

>not converting to the philosophy of Anonymity

>>3389302
>implying your attention seeking needs to be looked for whe...
There you go again. Please stop making a scene dear, people are starting to stare.

Discordianism

>>3389315
It's true. Though I could filter you, your shitposting poisons others on this board with who I interact and so would be pointless.

I suggest removing your little name and posting as the rest of us do.

Please take this into consideration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism

BOOM.

Have fun.

The Marcus Aurelius take on stoicism should all that is needed to live a life of contentment and be a good person in general.

I read his book Meditations (a book addressed to himself, which he wished to be burned after his death). Luckily, due to some noble aide de camp or librarian, we were able to keep his literary remains.

Reading 'Meditations' really helped me to become a man and get things done. It's not possible to live exactly as Marcus did, but to extrapolate his fundamental principles from his text and apply them to every day living is a very virtuous and noble thing to do.

>>3389079
What do you find so hard about Epicureanism? I always viewed it as the most managable of Hellenistic philosophies for our current time.

>>3388301
The philosophy, not the religion, of Taoism and Buddhism, supplemented by healthy skepticism.

1. Commit yourself to nonviolence, become vegetarian.
2. Do not be a moral relativist, but also do not be a Manichean dualist. There are evil actions, institutions, and ideologies. But there are no evil people.
3. Be courageous wherever possible.
4. Be present in the world, do not live in your head too much. Meditate.
5. Study Rousseau's Social Contract and learn the value of civic religion. You are part of a community, not an island.
6. Study tragedy to learn compassion.
7. Western philosophy is materialistic but eastern philosophy hates life. Learn moderation.
8. Just the bare necessities of life. Nothing in excess.
9. Appreciate the beauty of nature.

>>3389579
Pls define these bare nescessities you live with

>>3389555
>most manageable
>not the cyrenaic school

>>3389593
Cyrenaicism leada to enormous suffering for me. And for most, I would think.

>>3389579
Reasonable. I don't think you should preach vegetarianism, though.

I like what you said about moderation, compassion, nature, and not living in ones head too much.

I'm going to add be reasonable, rational, critical in regards to thought, and above all, you should strive to be honest. A white lie here and there is okay, esp. in certain situations.

Earth is not good or bad, but only a place for good and bad.

>>3389601
>And for most, I would think

what would you know about "most"?

>>3388301
Maybe one that make you stop the need to live ruled by some higher doctrine? That rids you of the need to be told what to do or act "in the name of"?

>>3389602
I agree that one can be excessively honest. Like the man in Notes from Underground who is going to a prostitute because perhaps in his mind, all relationships reduce to that anyway?

>>3389579
there's like literally no good advice in this post

>2004+1+10-2
>anything but consequentialism
>shig

>>3389635
take you funneh memes back to /mu/

>>3389602
>I don't think you should preach vegetarianism, though.
Why not? Inb4 you go on a rant how we evolved to eat meat and cannot function without the complex of B vitamins.

>>3389639
do we not do casual humour here?

Okay thanks for clearing that up

>>3389655
because someone might find meat delicious thus providing pleasure and enjoyment thus offering them a better life

>>3389606
Most people have ultimately unhealthy desires that can ruin their lives if not corrected with a bit of rational thought. To quote a post on this I made earlier:

I would argue that it [Cyrenaicism] is the least delicious, since it leads to the greatest total suffering for a person. According to Cyrenaic principle, one should focus only on current pleasures, especially those of the flesh, without any regard for anything else. Cyrenaics would argue that you should fuck a girl unprotected if you feel attracted to her, even if she has aids. Cyrenaics would argue that the best course of action for a heroin addict is to never stop using, since stopping would lead to painful withdrawals in the present. Future benefits don't come into it. Basically, Cyrenaicism only results in pleasure the first or the first few days adhering to it, the rest being spent in hungover and diseased misery. Unless of course you have strangely healthy desires and lots of money. In order to be a Cyrenaic without setting yourself up for tremendous suffering, you should basically be a billionaire that wants nothing more than live healthily and do innocent things. But I don't think there has ever been a person who didn't need to appeal to ratio and foresight to live a pleasant life. And appealing to ration and foresight to acchieve greater pleasure in the long run is precisely Epicurean.

>>3389682
>I would argue that it [Cyrenaicism] is the least delicious, since it leads to the greatest total suffering for a person. According to Cyrenaic principle, one should focus only on current pleasures, especially those of the flesh, without any regard for anything else. Cyrenaics would argue that you should fuck a girl unprotected if you feel attracted to her, even if she has aids. Cyrenaics would argue that the best course of action for a heroin addict is to never stop using, since stopping would lead to painful withdrawals in the present. Future benefits don't come into it. Basically, Cyrenaicism only results in pleasure the first or the first few days adhering to it, the rest being spent in hungover and diseased misery. Unless of course you have strangely healthy desires and lots of money. In order to be a Cyrenaic without setting yourself up for tremendous suffering, you should basically be a billionaire that wants nothing more than live healthily and do innocent things. But I don't think there has ever been a person who didn't need to appeal to ratio and foresight to live a pleasant life. And appealing to ration and foresight to acchieve greater pleasure in the long run is precisely Epicurean.

wow you guys really like spamming blocks of nothing

>>3389691
>>>/b/

>>3389701
you needed a block of nothing to say that bad choices have side effects in the long run

really clever anon you should write your book

>>3389682
>According to Cyrenaic principle, one should focus only on current pleasures, especially those of the flesh, without any regard for anything else

oh, so you know shit-all about the cyrenaic school, why didn't you say so earlier?

>>3389714
No, I explained why "good choices" according to Cyrenaicism are undesirable to most people's sensibilities and provided examples. The way and degree in which people indulge is the most important difference between these schools of hedonism and there is a lot to be said for and about both sides beyond two lines of lower case shitposting.

>>3389718
Even reading a mere encyclopaedia article will show this to be true.

>>3389732
here you go again

stop tricking others into wasting their time reading your long useless posts

>>3389742
>mfw I train my ataraxia against your stupidity

>>3389735
so you get your information from wikipedia, is what you're trying to say? don't these faggots write comprehensive summaries? everyone knows that the cyrenaic school has injunctions against whatever type of animal hedonism you're describing.

>The wise person should be in control of pleasures rather than be enslaved to them, otherwise pain will result, and this requires judgement to evaluate the different pleasures of life.[13] Regard should be paid to law and custom, because even though these things have no intrinsic value on their own, violating them will lead to unpleasant penalties being imposed by others.[8] Likewise, friendship and justice are useful because of the pleasure they provide.[8] Thus the Cyrenaics believed in the hedonistic value of social obligation and altruistic behaviour

what the fuck did you do? read the top paragraph and pretend to know what you were saying? fucking hell

>>3389749
>quotiking wikipedia

Alright:

>Cyrenaicism deduces a single, universal aim for all people which is pleasure. Furthermore, all feeling is momentary and homogeneous. It follows that past and future pleasure have no real existence for us, and that among present pleasures there is no distinction of kind.[12] Socrates had spoken of the higher pleasures of the intellect; the Cyrenaics denied the validity of this distinction and said that bodily pleasures, being more simple and more intense, were preferable.[8] Momentary pleasure, preferably of a physical kind, is the only good for humans.

Be a nihilist and kill yo sellf nigguh

>>3389757
You don't have to kill yoruself just becasue you're a nihilist

>>3389755
and you think your paragraph overrides all other ones because...?

>>3389779
It just shows the Cyrenaics were at least partly inconsistent, have an unworkable system of philosophy, and died out within a hundred years for good reasons, to be replaced by Epicureanism as the popular form of hedonism which flourished for centuries to be stopped only by violent systematic repression from the authorities and even then resurfacing to inspire modernity.

>>3388301
Op is that a male to female surgery? Or cosmetic surgery for an ugly asian..... is that what normal asians look like in "Before" i heard ALL asians get cosmetic surgery...

Situationist Anarchist.

>>3389836
'tso edgey

>>3389858
wtf did you just say :)

>>3389858

>>3389867
>michael cera

my sides.

Terence McKenna said it best: Culture and Ideology are not your friends.

An ideology or framework just prevents you from actually thinking about stuff.

If you insist on a framework, make it a bunch of them so you at least have multiple perspectives.

http://www.matrixmasters.net/podcasts/TRANSCRIPTS/TMcK-CultureIdeologyNotFriends.html

>>3389959
>Terence McKenna said it best: Culture and Ideology are not your friends.

You'll love Guenon and Evola.

>>3389959
>An ideology or framework just prevents you from actually thinking about stuff.
>Mon visage

>>3389745
I see a little silhouetted elvish boy seated in that picture.

>Ataraxia
Still my favourite new word.

>>3389962
Not really.

Much more a Feyerabend and Foucault kind of guy.

>>3389959
Culture and ideologies are like songs
Tune into the ones you like

>>3389267
THIS!

>>3389998
>I see a little silhouetted elvish boy seated in that picture.

*I see a little silhouette of a man! Scaramoosh, Scaramoosh, will you do the fandango?

>>3390013

>>3390011
How about we use Cthulhu? Or Zog? Or Santa? The argument is as valid as ever. Prove there is no Spaghetti monster. Spoiler, you can't.
Please stop jumping on board with such stupid posts

>>3390022
The spaghetti monster, the Celestial Teapot, or any of the other new parody religions will never hold a torch to Eris Discordia.

>>3388301

Curiousity.

>>3390061
tnx oprah

>>3390022

How about you stop namefagging us and take your worn out new atheism elsewhere.

>>3390123
>shewantsthecock.jpg

This. Don't be stuck up, read and take interest in everything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3hVc2hWYxg

>>3390323
more like she wants the shit beat out of her

Read the collective works of the following individuals: Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, GI Gurdjieff, PD Ouspensky, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Carl Jung, Ram Dass and Aldous Huxley.

Thoroughly reject all forms of relativism and postmodernism. And always remember to laugh.

“Laughter brings you to reality as it is. The world is a play of God, a cosmic joke. And unless you understand it as a cosmic joke you will never be able to understand the ultimate mystery.”

Pyrrhonism

>>3388489
>that full quote
damn

>>3388466
>Oh, and never working

>GET A JOB

The philosophy under which the term "good" operates as you used it in the sentence you opened this thread with

#kripkenstein

>>3391304
>GET A JOB
Euggh. I actually shuddered.

Simple

I have the mental capacity for evaluating my position in real life and developing strategies for improving my (relative) power. I evaluated status quo and developed strategies for adaptation and exploitation of it for my own purposes. I have no irrational angsty need to rebel and rebuild everything in my image; I can work with what I found when I got where I am. I see no evidence for your revolutionary bullshit to benefit me in any way above what I extract from status quo. You are not a prophet here, you think I never though of the alternatives before?

I don't see what is more un-solipsistic, down-to-earth, empirical than calling a person actually being in power as being powerful - what would be more telling property in your book? Abstract "Yntelligence"? Your gut feelings or moralistic sensibilities?

>>3391179
>mfw a brother in ataraxia

>>3391422
>smugly thinks his half assed social darwinism is a substitute for philosophy

> Buddhism
> Philosophy
no. stop that you new age faggots

>>3391455

>all these hipsters with their wikipedian quietism

I want to type up more insulting greentext but I think it's sufficient to say that 99% of modern "stoics" have no conception of stoic metaphysics, which should be damning enough. Just like Western Buddhists are all poseurs fetishizing an insulting caricature of oriental mysticism, and keeping tiny Asian men as pets away from their homeland.

>>3391449
What's wrong, boy, speak your mind

>>3389140
A glorious mutualism state.

>>3391455

>I'm a kid with a superiority complex who only takes a philosophical outlook seriously if it affirms his general angst and malaise

Save it for the Camus threads.

Socratic Irony for maximum lulz

>>3388301
Cynicism
Get on my level
"I arrived in Athens, father, and heard that an associate of Socrates was teaching on the subject of happiness. SO I sought him out.Just then he was saying that there were two, and only two, rroads that lead to happiness. One was a shortcut, the other a long way around.... One was short and steep, the other long, smooth and easy"
They are Cynicism and Stoicism

You should just do whatever you feel is the most rational and ethical way to live your life. You feel that Buddism fits you? No problem. You feel that Stoicism is the way to go? Buy yourself some sandals and have at it.

You should just figure out if whatever works for you is consistent with reality and whether it allows you to live happily with other people. That's all

>>3394737
Describe your level of asceticism, parrhessia and shamelessness please.

>>3394737
lel you're not a cynic, sorry

>>3394772
Cynics aren't in ascetisim are they? As for my parrhessia? I think you are being pretentious ;)
>>3394930
Ofcourse I am not one

>>3388301
Realism...

>>3397204
>Cynics aren't in asceticism are they?
It's their main thing.

>all those Stoics
Didn't know /lit/ was so religious

>needing to tag yourself in order to have a "simple" life
>needing to act int the name of some recognized "tradition", "philosophy" etc

I bet you people think all the "isms" we play with were actually claimed, in their time, by the people in question.

laughingscholars.gif

>>3397303
They were. The Greeks actually had philosophical schools and taught, learned and lived within them. They would proudly represent their -ism, and defend it in debate against those of other schools with their posses and audiences present.

I believe it was Nietzsche who said that they appeared so much to be wise, happy and content to prove that their philosophical school was the best that they sort of accidentally gotten into the habit of being happy.

>>3391475
You seem mad. What are you expecting anyway? That's the life the modern west offers their citizens; and yes, you attitude is included in that catalog. Even if what you say is true (it actually is pretty evident for everyone. fire burns!), you seem to talk in the name of some authentic approach to ancient metaphysics or even that oriental "other". Ain't that just another "caricature". Check your sources nigga, cause your blind trust seems pretty similar to the trust these "hipsters" have in wikipedia.

>>3397313
So what? You are missing my point. The fact that they claimed it proves nothing about the "rightness" of our claiming it.

Can you read an argument in a sentence? Or does the bible has to be literal history, otherwise it is useless?

>>3389959
Is Terrence McKenna a good author?

>>3397332
You:
>I bet you people think all the "isms" we play with were actually claimed, in their time, by the people in question.

Me:
>They did.

You:
>so what faggot do you even read

I'm missing your point because you aren't very good at making one.

>>3388301
Thelema.