Post: #51

Love the Immanuel Kant quote. Probably the first thing he wrote that I properly understood! :-)

Post: #52

(05-10-2014 12:40 AM)cardguy Wrote:  I can understand trying to gain a new perspective on things.

But a lot of the shit people do when they travel has zero interest to me. Which is why I can't get exciting by the hiking, swimming with dolphins, motorbiking across continents (etc) which people seem to aim for when traveling.

It is like those people that decide to run a marathon to try and push themselves. To me it is pretty lame.

This is precisely the reason why travelers would think that you are boring. It goes both ways. If you don't enjoy things like Hiking, dolphins, and motorbiking across continents, then I don't know what to tell you... these are fun activities, and the purpose of doing them is for the activities themselves.

All you can really do is be concerned with yourself and stop thinking about other people so much. It won't get you very far in life.

Post: #53

(05-10-2014 02:23 AM)Bill Wrote:  Immanuell Kant did not travel but his mind travelled quite a lot. It´s all about the chicks. He said "When I was young I needed women I had not enough money for that, now I am old I have lots of money but don´t need women."

Would you mind telling me where Kant said this? A letter? Book? I'm a Kantian (he's my profile pic) and I would love to know.

I googled the sentence but could not find anything. I'll give you a rep if you prove Kant said this

Post: #54

Never knew that was Kant in your profile! Cool shit. He is my favourite philosopher - although for some reason Transcendental Idealism is not really taught in the UK in the philosophy departments.

Kant published his work 120 years before the work of Einstein.

And I have always being interested in how the findings of Einstein affects our understanding of the work of Kant?

Since Kant seems to suggest that time and space is something that the human mind imposes on the world in order to experience it.

Fine.

But does not the independent reality of time and space (as per Einstein) have any bearing on what Kant taught?

Just a question that often nags at me. But then again - maybe I am misunderstanding something along the way.

Post: #55

(05-11-2014 04:41 PM)cardguy Wrote:  And I have always being interested in how the findings of Einstein affects our understanding of the work of Kant?

Since Kant seems to suggest that time and space is something that the human mind imposes on the world in order to experience it.

If you are interested in how Einstein's discoveries influenced the reception of Kant, you may want to research Bauch, Natorp, Schlick and Reichenbach. This was one of the big topics (and rightly so) in German philosophy from the mid 00's through the mid 30's and what these four guys had to say about it is basically still valid.

Post: #56

wow - big dose of knowledge right there. Really appreciate it!

Post: #57

(05-11-2014 05:00 PM)cardguy Wrote:  wow - big dose of knowledge right there. Really appreciate it!

You're welcome. I can give you a more detailed reading list if you want, but probably best not to pollute this thread with it.

What languages do you read?

Post: #58

I only speak English.

I remember stumbling across some of these guys a long time ago (when I was reading around the subject of Philosophy of Science) - and the work seemed to be very expensive and largely in German.

Would appreciate any tips (via PM?). But bear in mind I don't have any high level Maths skills - but I am still happy to check out a book if it has enough non-Maths material to make it of interest. I will be doing my own research as well - but your advice would be of big use since I am guessing you have read a lot of these books.

Thanks once again! This shit is not common knowledge here in the UK.

Post: #59

(05-11-2014 05:07 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I only speak English.

I remember stumbling across some of these guys a long time ago (when I was reading around the subject of Philosophy of Science) - and the work seemed to be very expensive and largely in German.

Would appreciate any tips (via PM?).

Sure thing.

To really go deep, you need to understand tensor analysis and German, but if you're just curious and have some general philosophy background, there is some decent stuff in English that will scratch the itch. Will send you a PM...

Post: #60

I can't imagine wrestling with Tensor Analysis as a way of trying to deepen your understanding of Kant.

Is that a real thing?

Post: #61

(05-11-2014 05:15 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I can't imagine wrestling with Tensor Analysis as a way of trying to deepen your understanding of Kant.

Is that a real thing?

Well one of the new twists that Einstein introduced was the non-Euclidean structure of space-time. This is the bit that you need higher math like tensor analysis to properly understand.

Kant had believed Euclidean space to be a necessary condition to experience and with Einstein, that understanding was now superseded. But Kant was right about needing a priori concepts to constitute experience. The transcendental deduction was where he took the wrong turn. By demonstrating Kant to be wrong about space, Einstein made Kantians realize that you can't give an apodictic proof for synthetic a priori concepts. This was considered to be a pretty big philosophical breakthrough at the time and it still is, IMO.

Post: #62

Fascinating stuff.

Do you know a good place to see more of this discussion?

Of the two books you recommended to me - I am guessing the Schlick book would be the most likely candidate for further discussion?

Or is this an area which is mainly discussed in the stuff which has yet to be translated into English?

Sorry for all the questions! It is just that you are the secret source I have been looking for! :-)

Post: #63

(05-11-2014 05:54 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Of the two books you recommended to me - I am guessing the Schlick book would be the most likely candidate for further discussion?

Or is this an area which is mainly discussed in the stuff which has yet to be translated into English?

Maybe narrow it down to Part III of the Schlick book. If I remember correctly, somebody started to translate the journal Erkenntnis into English - it has a whole bunch of really good articles by Schlick and others.

But whoever is doing that translation, I rather doubt any pussy is coming his way for it...

Post: #64

lol

Post: #65

(05-07-2014 10:54 PM)SpecialEd Wrote:  I ask you again, if you don't like to travel or bang broads, then why are you here?

This board is one of the few open access male spaces left in our culture. Here, men can talk straight- without self-censoring for female approval or having to fear reprisals for voicing thoughtcrime opinions. That alone makes it reason for any man to want to be here.

Post: #66

(05-07-2014 03:58 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Yeah - I know going round Europe is not really traveling.

But it is still surprising how similar everywhere is.

As an Englishman - it is like being in England but with better weather.

Yes, European integration is slowly destroying national culture, especially in the cities. The Slavic countries in the EU + Lithuania and Latvia are pretty much indistinguishable these days.

Post: #67

True story this.

I imagine Gozo is one of the most remote places in Europe.

Well - I was at a bowling alley there. And when entering my name into the computer - I entered 'The Jesus' - as I always do when I go bowling in homage to the funniest film ever.

I then turned to the lane next to me - and saw one of the Maltese teenagers there had already made the exact same joke on his screen.

Weird. And a bit depressing.

Maybe I need new material.

Post: #68

(05-11-2014 07:20 PM)cardguy Wrote:  True story this.

I imagine Gozo is one of the most remote places in Europe.

Well - I was at a bowling alley there. And when entering my name into the computer - I entered 'The Jesus' - as I always do when I go bowling in homage to the funniest film ever.

I then turned to the lane next to me - and saw one of the Maltese teenagers there had already made the exact same joke on his screen.

Weird. And a bit depressing.

Maybe I need new material.

Anglo-American culture is everywhere...

Except Russia, which is usually very resistant to foreign culture. Kind of why I hate that Philochko guy for trying to spread it.

Post: #69

(05-07-2014 04:39 PM)TopPanda Wrote:  I spent most of last year living in Asia. It was a wonderful experience, even if I didn't achieve my prime objective of finding a long term female.

Panda, what would you say were the most important factors that prevented you from achieving that goal?

Post: #70

(05-11-2014 04:41 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Never knew that was Kant in your profile! Cool shit. He is my favourite philosopher - although for some reason Transcendental Idealism is not really taught in the UK in the philosophy departments.

Kant published his work 120 years before the work of Einstein.

And I have always being interested in how the findings of Einstein affects our understanding of the work of Kant?

Since Kant seems to suggest that time and space is something that the human mind imposes on the world in order to experience it.

Fine.

But does not the independent reality of time and space (as per Einstein) have any bearing on what Kant taught?

Just a question that often nags at me. But then again - maybe I am misunderstanding something along the way.

Oh, just look up Kant's antinomies of reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant's_antinomies

Kant was the first to establish the skepticism of not knowing if the universe was infinite or not, if the soul existed or not, if god existed or not, or if we have free will or not.

He constructed proofs of each antinomy showing that since all could be proved, reason alone is insufficient to establish any of them.

So, Einstein read Kant when he was in his teens - 14 or 15 I believe - and in response to the first antinomy of space, Einstein postulated that the universe was finite but unbounded.

Also

Quote:Well one of the new twists that Einstein introduced was the non-Euclidean structure of space-time.

It wasn't Einstein who first did that. That was done by Henri Poincare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9

Einstein actually stole ideas from Poincare and did not reference them in his works on relativity, but,

Quote:Einstein acknowledged Poincaré posthumously in the text of a lecture in 1921 called Geometrie und Erfahrung in connection with non-Euclidean geometry, but not in connection with special relativity. A few years before his death, Einstein commented on Poincaré as being one of the pioneers of relativity, saying "Lorentz had already recognised that the transformation named after him is essential for the analysis of Maxwell's equations, and Poincaré deepened this insight still further ...."[35]

Post: #71

If you love Kant - what do you think of Schopenhauer?

Just curious.

Post: #72

Sometimes I feel more frustrated when I come back home after traveling. Not sure why this is. Maybe living abroad is better indeed, not traveling.

Post: #73

Cardguy The fact you something like this:

"It is like those people that decide to run a marathon to try and push themselves. To me it is pretty lame."

Is a crying shame. I am not trying to offend but to me the above indicates you do not look for self improvement, you do not embrace change and you do not like taking risks.

A human brain is a stubborn thing, and does not want new challenges but how would you ever know your potential if you never push your limits?

Post: #74

(05-11-2014 04:39 PM)Samseau Wrote:  

(05-10-2014 02:23 AM)Bill Wrote:  Immanuell Kant did not travel but his mind travelled quite a lot. It´s all about the chicks. He said "When I was young I needed women I had not enough money for that, now I am old I have lots of money but don´t need women."

Would you mind telling me where Kant said this? A letter? Book? I'm a Kantian (he's my profile pic) and I would love to know.

I googled the sentence but could not find anything. I'll give you a rep if you prove Kant said this

Actually I tried to find it on google both in german and english before posting it but I didn´t find something. I am kind of remembering that I found it on google some time ago. I was 99% shure that it was from Kant but now that you specifically ask about it I am no more shure but still believe it´s to 70% from him.

I did some research and am still not able to find the quote itself. I can´t believe it. If it´s not from Kant and if the quote even does not exist then maybe I have created it. That would be cool as I like that quote.

If it would not have existed somebody should have created it.

Looks like I will not get the rep point. On the other hand I don´t want to be invested in my rep. I want to stay low key. That´s how we Epikurean are.

Cool, that it´s Kant on your Avatar. Maybe I am going to read more of him. When I was young his stuff was annoyingly difficult to read for me. Maybe now I can read some stuff of him again.

Post: #75

@Bill - cool quote - I will start quoting you as the source!

I happen to be reading a book on Kant - and he came close to marrying a couple of chicks. But either waited too long or was never really interested. Of course - the dating scene back then was very different to now. I imagine you would just hang with a chick, hold hands and have regular dinners together. Before getting married - as such it doesn't suggest the same level of passion as would happen today if you are going out and fucking a chick hundreds f times before wedding her.

@Samseau - just curious what your thoughts on Schopenhauer were?