Hello from New Zealand
- Big Boss
- New Trial Member
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- Joined: November 13th, 2016, 2:48 am
Hello from New Zealand
I made an account a while ago but for whatever reason, I made about two posts and stopped. I am going to try and keep up posting here as a means to be able to communicate and practice writing about philosophy outside an academic setting.
I am 29 and currently in the last year of a BA majoring in philosophy with a minor in psychology. For me, philosophy was something I never learnt about growing up so it took until I decided to go to university in my 20s, still unsure of my passions and overall goal in life, that I actually had a first encounter with the subject, taking an elective in epistemology. Long story short: I am now majoring in philosophy and have relegated that pesky psychology to a minor.
My plans are to complete my degree and then move into an honours or masters program.
At this stage in life, I am highly critical of myself in terms of my output and understanding in philosophy and would really appreciate anyone who is in or has been in a similar situation to myself to help out with ways in which to better my talent.
My areas of interest are Meta-Ethics, where I am developing a belief that morality is man made/not actually real, and Metaphysics where I am also developing a rejection of the truth of Metaphysics, but I enjoy arguments on free will and personal identity a lot.
- mathman
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Re: Hello from New Zealand
You have to understand that by each axiomatic law, the law itself is to be questioned. If you say that you do not believe in metaphysics altogether, what is the "real" then? Is it just the experienced and observable? But then how do we relate to the observable? That is what metaphysics would be. How man relates to its environment. You cannot deny there is a relation and an experience of such a relation a priori to the event of your existence; so you cannot deny there is something "about" your reality that made you come into existence.
- Big Boss
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- Joined: November 13th, 2016, 2:48 am
Re: Hello from New Zealand
For morality, sure you can say that morality is defined by the society you live in and influenced by evolution, I am fine with that definition. What I meant by morality being not actually real is that I am coming to believe that there is no objective moral law. There is no moral dimension to morality, ala G.E. Moore, nor is there a God to command morality (on this second point I actually have further to say).
For metaphysics, yeah, not really my strong point. What I am leaning towards is a rejection of any sort of abstract concept being real in a sense. This mostly comes from my study of both free will and personal identity where I consider the whole problem of free will as a definitional problem. I see the issue of persisting that there is a 'self' as problematic too. I am toying with the idea that there is nothing but atoms and void and trying to posit some sort of abstract substance on top of this is where a lot of the problems in philosophy arise.
I am studying Wittgenstein this semester for university, and like the nerd I am I have read well ahead on the guy, and find his idea that philosophy should be the "clarifying of concepts" an interesting idea. I can see, prompted by old Wittgenstein as I'm not that smart, that this may have been the case with a lot of classical conceptions in philosophy. The two I mentioned before of personal identity and free will would be my examples here. I just don't think I can bring myself to agree that cutting morality out of philosophy, or only talking about what it is not, is the correct way to go.
I look forward to chatting more with you on this in the forums. Glad to see there are other kiwis on here.
- mathman
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- Joined: March 2nd, 2018, 10:58 pm
Re: Hello from New Zealand
2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
2023 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023