u/AlivePassenger3859

internal constraints (brain chemistry) is infinitely more coercive than external constraints (guy with gun)

I got what it was trying to do, but I felt like reading the wikipedia summary was as good as, and much quicker than, reading the book itself. Seems like a slog fest.

exactly. People have historically believed a lot of nonsense, so appealing to historicity as a mark of legitimacy is fallacious.

Why was she afraid? Please don’t tell her the earth goes around the sun and not vice versa. She’ll have a stroke.

Creatures of Darkness and Light

The Lord of Light

both by R Zelazny

Oh, you mean they’re confusing hair splitting with semantic shenanigans? Got it.

that had nothing to do with the post. going back to ancient sources, we believed the sun and moon were spirit gods.

Many were, but good artists aren’t. Look at Dali, Escher, etc etc etc. Endlessly creative.

But Ad Reinhardt is the uber example of this schtick. Oh, he spent ten years painting completely black canvases. How profound.

He would.

The first time I saw one I burst into yawns. 😂

Have seen his work in person. Have “sat with it”. I don’t hate it. That’s the thing, if it evoked hatred, it could be, in a sense, good art. Its just boring and overrated imho.

Hot take incoming. Just hit that downvote button now.

One trick pony.

People will say critics just don’t “get” him. They will wax poetic about the subtle gradiants and interplay of colors that come alive and absorb you after you’ve stared at the painting for three plus hours.

I’ve experienced his stuff in person, really sat with it, etc etc etc. To me these are just what we now call “color ways”. Its a big snooze.

I suppose I can appreciate on an intellectual level that he’s doing a minimimalist distillation thing. But for god’s sake do something with it. I don’t think there’s much to just carving out one aspect of art and presenting it alone as art.

I know he has his fans and art is subjective blah blah blah, but for me he’s just another naked emperor.

Pee Wee Herman.

wow- she’s the real deal. respect

keep redefining. if unicorns are “an event” maybe we can say they are real.

Not underrated when it was on, but MASH. Nothing even comes close.

read more

all the Iain M Banks Culture books.

This is like asking what’s the first thing the cleanup crew did after the bomb exploded at Hiroshima.

Semantics. Metaphysical free will, agent causality, is what we are talking about. Not running, not whether a guy had a gun to your head, not whether your actions reflected your values.

These are all semantic shell games people use to try to have their metaphysical cake and eat it too.

Its disingenuous and patronizing. Like telling another adult not to be sad because their pet “went to dog heaven”.

They do implicitly believe in agent causation.

Why so negative? I like to think of it as “yay-I”.

Update: shout out to cl3ft- chaching!

https://preview.redd.it/tfknyow3o0xh1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db0905e7552ea48759c04081311d0546005af9ce

That’s the thing- I dug out behind every wall that had a rock by it. Has always been no problem. This time 39 gold…

OP, I know you say you are a libertarian. Do you believe in even a tiny sliver of agent causality?