Of course not. Your beliefs are predetermined by your experiences. You have very, very little control over what you experience as an adult. You had absolutely no control over what you experienced as an infant and child. There are very few people who are not slaves in this world. You'll read this and think you're different. "Oh, maybe other people... But not me. I have control over my thoughts and beliefs. I have free will." It's an expected introspection bias... Everything you have, you were given. You took your beliefs, but you only took what was given to you. Like a baby grasping for her mother's nipple, you never got to choose what kind of milk you got. You got what you were given... Yet in the most ignorant state, some exclaim that by the mere action of grasping for nourishment, you chose what kind of food you got. How ridiculous! I am a slave, but I am thankful for all I am given. To give thanks is the least I could do, I wish I could give more back!
You can't read into my words further than the words themselves. I write in stream of consciousness, so if it isn't in the words, it hasn't crossed my mind. I never provided a description of all humans. Maybe the details still 'count' to you, but to my argument, they make no difference. Wait, what? I am NOT saying everything we do is choices. I think this is where you are so confused. It's like you never got the basis of what I'm saying in the first place and now you're arguing against everything I say just because it's fun to argue. lol We aren't going to get anywhere if I keep having to explain my initial assertion again and again. I feel like you're taking choice for granted a little bit.
you would be surprised how much i can read into the simplest of things..... your still missing that one dont worry ...happens to the best and worst of us no ....i get what you were saying all along....you just happened to help me work thru a few things i was thinking over..... never know? you may be correct?
Determinism is something I've been giving a lot of thought about lately (assuming that's the premise of this thread). I don't really have a well thought out opinion on it, but it's definitely an interesting topic.
Erm, fallacy... You cannot fully convey ideas through words... they help, but most of the time, you won't get your full understanding across anyway i think life is mostly a balance between choice and whats handed to you... Balance is key to just about everything... I guess, upon further meditation, your beliefs themselves are a combination of choice and experience You could choose to blindly (stubbornly) ignore everything that doesn't mesh well with what you believe, or you could choose to open your mind to possibilities and further sharpen your beliefs
True, that's not what I was saying though. What I said isn't a fallacy and I'm not the only one who uses this literary mode to most effectively convey myself. Sure I can't convey to him exactly what each word represents to be, but he's getting the full thought. The idea that originated the thought is something entirely different and discussion. You might try looking up what stream of consciousness is because it isn't something I just made up. lol
i know what stream of consciousness is ;p my point was, even if you type your full thought, it doesn't necessarily accurately convey what YOU (not the words) mean. if you catch my drift.... If not, that's cool too, because I don't really know the words to show you what I mean anyways that was kind of offtopic haha apologies
I'm educated enough to be pretty effective at conveying my ideas. The only issues I have are when people infer beyond my words, because unless I've said it, I'm not saying it. lol I'm all for educated inferences, but when you continue to press your incorrect inferences after being corrected by the author, then I take issue. There's no way of extracting an idea, though, and putting it in someone else's head exactly as it occurred in yours. I can only give you the next best thing and that's my ideas translated into words. If that isn't good enough for you, then you're just going to have to deal with it like everyone else. lol
lol you still don't get what i'm saying stream of consciousness only deals with what you're thinking at the current time But the light in which you perceive things is not conveyed through the words, and thus, what you say may be muddled and sound completely different to someone else Your ideas, personal definitions, beliefs, (details as you call them) all go into what your current thoughts are, but your stream of consciousness does not accurately represent what you mean, based on your cumulative experience, which cannot be transferred (unless you wrote a really loooooooong ass autobiography... even then it's iffy ;p) The details do, indeed, matter, because generalizations (such as "I know how humans work", if i quoted that right) do not account for the vast differences in human character This is kind of along the same lines as what I meant in the OP... The details make you who you are, and what you say may not exactly line up with what another person hears... Because of their details ;p (EDIT: Also, I may be completely offbase because honestly, i just skimmed through the debate that was going on... I try not to use up too much mental stamina on these forums anymore hah)
I understand exactly what you're saying and am pointing out where it doesn't apply to me or this situation and why. I'm only trying to convey my current thoughts, not "the light in which I perceive" as you put it. I'm an educated person. I've been told I have a great sense of audience. I write with intention and am very aware of how my audience my perceive what I say. I'm always game for clarifying my thoughts for you. Also, I have to 'personal definitions'. Language is a tool of communication. Definitions are predetermined so you can express your ideas to others. If you change the definitions yourself, then you'll never be able to correctly express yourself through language because other people aren't going to know what you're saying at all. You have to go by what the words mean, not by what you think they mean. I'm a huge fan of etymology and have used it to clarify my meaning before. I very much so rely on definitions and the meaning of words rather than my limited perception of them. My beliefs are just a category of thoughts for me. I find it easy to express a lot of my beliefs because I think about them a lot. I don't normally refer to beliefs as details, though, so don't take my words out of context. Stream of consciousness absolutely represents what I mean. I use it as a tool to express what I mean. No one's trying to pack their entire life's experiences worth of meaning an a few sentences on an internet forum. It's absolutely ridiculous for you to think or expect this, IMHO. The details, in reference to my argument matter in different situations, yes. Of course human character and the differences are important in real life, but when it comes to what I was saying, it doesn't matter what those differences are because my argument applies either way. What you're saying is like me saying "Hey, all this ketchup is red." and you turning around and saying "But you aren't including the facts that mustard is yellow and we're in a kitchen and all physics concepts in your argument." They just don't hold any real relevance to what I'm saying.