What is your personal "world outlook"?

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Squire wrote:

I would disagree life plainly does not always work out.

But it does in the vast majority of cases.

I highly recommend retrospective optimism. As long as you're not dead, you can always view matters as having worked out better than they otherwise might, and therefore as having been for the best.

905 wrote:

...The ancients didn't believe in any greater order than the petulant whims of their gods.

I don't think that is necessarily accurate. I have just finished reading a bit about Plotinus (neo-platonism). He is all into the order. Many of the previous sects and philosophers also had different takes on the order that makes up the world. Even Heraclitus's analysis that all the worls is in flux expresses a type of overall order. Generally the ancient philosophers are dedicated to figuring out the nature of the world and they find order and beauty in many aspects of it. While the ancient Gods are not directly disrespected they are generally nit central to these theories and are only accommodated after the fact (I think).

[I don't speak with any real authority on this subject . I have been casually dipping into Russell's History of Western Philosophy (for pleasure only) for some time now but I have forgotten a lot of what I have read.]

ibis wrote:

As long as you're not dead, you can always view matters as having worked out better than they otherwise might, and therefore as having been for the best.

Ahh the at least I am alive form of optimism, well that I can relate to in a general sense. However I can think of circumstances where the alternative may be preferred.

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

905 wrote:

...The ancients didn't believe in any greater order than the petulant whims of their gods.

I don't think that is necessarily accurate. I have just finished reading a bit about Plotinus (neo-platonism). He is all into the order. Many of the previous sects and philosophers also had different takes on the order that makes up the world. Even Heraclitus's analysis that all the worls is in flux expresses a type of overall order. Generally the ancient philosophers are dedicated to figuring out the nature of the world and they find order and beauty in many aspects of it. While the ancient Gods are not directly disrespected they are generally nit central to these theories and are only accommodated after the fact (I think).

[I don't speak with any real authority on this subject . I have been casually dipping into Russell's History of Western Philosophy (for pleasure only) for some time now but I have forgotten a lot of what I have read.]

Go away with your Greeks, I was thinking of the Babylonians. TYhe Egyptians had quite an ordered view of the universe, thanks to thisr own very stable society and environment. The Mesoptomanians had a much rougher time of it, and that affected thier viewpoint. Or rather they didn't assume that life should be ordered to begin with. I daresay the ancient Greeks had similar problems, whatever about the classical philosophy-munching Greeks.

ibis wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Squire wrote:

I would disagree life plainly does not always work out.

But it does in the vast majority of cases.

I highly recommend retrospective optimism. As long as you're not dead, you can always view matters as having worked out better than they otherwise might, and therefore as having been for the best.

And what's more, we've had the fortune to be born in one of the richest countries in the world. We don't have to go ten miles for our daily water, all we have to do is twist a knob a few centimetres. That fact alone should make us very happy with our lot.

But we have to go to the tap. And then we have to build wells and pay plumbers who, from what I can gather, aren't worried about the economy at all.

905 wrote:

But we have to go to the tap. And then we have to build wells and pay plumbers who, from what I can gather, aren't worried about the economy at all.

We enjoy water which isn't riddled with river blindness disease, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. I'll take a few intransigent plumbers to enjoy that peace of mind.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

905 wrote:

But we have to go to the tap. And then we have to build wells and pay plumbers who, from what I can gather, aren't worried about the economy at all.

We enjoy water which isn't riddled with river blindness disease, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. I'll take a few intransigent plumbers to enjoy that peace of mind.

Then there's the situation in Galway, and the fact that Dublin will soon have to pipe its water in from the Wesht. I remember on P.ie Hanley S was always berating country folk for having third world drinking water. And yet it the townies that have to buy bottled water and boil it to make it safe.

905 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

905 wrote:

But we have to go to the tap. And then we have to build wells and pay plumbers who, from what I can gather, aren't worried about the economy at all.

We enjoy water which isn't riddled with river blindness disease, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. I'll take a few intransigent plumbers to enjoy that peace of mind.

Then there's the situation in Galway, and the fact that Dublin will soon have to pipe its water in from the Wesht. I remember on P.ie Hanley S was always berating country folk for having third world drinking water. And yet it the townies that have to buy bottled water and boil it to make it safe.

Isn't the Shannon always flooding East Galway? I thought the provincials would be happy we in the capital would be siphoning off water from that frequent flooder.

Well, normally they'd be delighted. But since it's Dublin (and since they're ordering and not asking) they've become terrible begrudgers all of a sudden.

905 wrote:

Well, normally they'd be delighted. But since it's Dublin (and since they're ordering and not asking) they've become terrible begrudgers all of a sudden.

I see. What if we did a 2 litres of water for 1 pint of Guinness swap, would that make the deal work?

905 wrote:

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

905 wrote:

...The ancients didn't believe in any greater order than the petulant whims of their gods.

I don't think that is necessarily accurate. I have just finished reading a bit about Plotinus (neo-platonism). He is all into the order. Many of the previous sects and philosophers also had different takes on the order that makes up the world. Even Heraclitus's analysis that all the worls is in flux expresses a type of overall order. Generally the ancient philosophers are dedicated to figuring out the nature of the world and they find order and beauty in many aspects of it. While the ancient Gods are not directly disrespected they are generally nit central to these theories and are only accommodated after the fact (I think).

[I don't speak with any real authority on this subject . I have been casually dipping into Russell's History of Western Philosophy (for pleasure only) for some time now but I have forgotten a lot of what I have read.]

Go away with your Greeks, I was thinking of the Babylonians. TYhe Egyptians had quite an ordered view of the universe, thanks to thisr own very stable society and environment. The Mesoptomanians had a much rougher time of it, and that affected thier viewpoint. Or rather they didn't assume that life should be ordered to begin with. I daresay the ancient Greeks had similar problems, whatever about the classical philosophy-munching Greeks.

Leisure is a rerequisite for philosophising. Would the Greeks have been a slave society? How come the Greeks got so much so right. We had to get up to Hegal before we started to get a handle of flux again.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

905 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

905 wrote:

But we have to go to the tap. And then we have to build wells and pay plumbers who, from what I can gather, aren't worried about the economy at all.

We enjoy water which isn't riddled with river blindness disease, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. I'll take a few intransigent plumbers to enjoy that peace of mind.

Then there's the situation in Galway, and the fact that Dublin will soon have to pipe its water in from the Wesht. I remember on P.ie Hanley S was always berating country folk for having third world drinking water. And yet it the townies that have to buy bottled water and boil it to make it safe.

Isn't the Shannon always flooding East Galway? I thought the provincials would be happy we in the capital would be siphoning off water from that frequent flooder.

I kind of like the idea of us trying to co-ordinate our drinking habits with the rainfall.

cactus flower wrote:

905 wrote:

Zhou_Enlai wrote:

905 wrote:

...The ancients didn't believe in any greater order than the petulant whims of their gods.

I don't think that is necessarily accurate. I have just finished reading a bit about Plotinus (neo-platonism). He is all into the order. Many of the previous sects and philosophers also had different takes on the order that makes up the world. Even Heraclitus's analysis that all the worls is in flux expresses a type of overall order. Generally the ancient philosophers are dedicated to figuring out the nature of the world and they find order and beauty in many aspects of it. While the ancient Gods are not directly disrespected they are generally nit central to these theories and are only accommodated after the fact (I think).

[I don't speak with any real authority on this subject . I have been casually dipping into Russell's History of Western Philosophy (for pleasure only) for some time now but I have forgotten a lot of what I have read.]

Go away with your Greeks, I was thinking of the Babylonians. TYhe Egyptians had quite an ordered view of the universe, thanks to thisr own very stable society and environment. The Mesoptomanians had a much rougher time of it, and that affected thier viewpoint. Or rather they didn't assume that life should be ordered to begin with. I daresay the ancient Greeks had similar problems, whatever about the classical philosophy-munching Greeks.

Leisure is a rerequisite for philosophising. Would the Greeks have been a slave society? How come the Greeks got so much so right. We had to get up to Hegal before we started to get a handle of flux again.

Mesopotamians, Babylonians and Egyptians? I don't remember either of them winning a European Championship or creating the founding democratic principles. I hang with Russell and Kelly when it comes to philosophy and legal theory - keepin it real, keepin it west-side.

The Greeks did indeed live on the backs of slaves. They got so much right because they spent so much of their waking hours pondering these matters. They liked science to but were careful not to get their hands dirty by applying it too much. They correctly surmised that would fcuk everything up altogether!

Hmm, yeah the cradle of civilisation has nothing on the Championship.

I read Gilgamesh. Found that cool. A world outlook that could be valid today.

My world outlook crashed and and lost all my appointments!