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All responses Most smiled responses
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I realize now from my response located here... http://www.scottfreethinking.com/2011/09/response-to-reader-what-is-freedom/ ...that I may have been a little misleading about what my actual 'argument' really is. No, I do not think that "potential" has a whole lot to do with freedom. Though I suppose considering such an argument might be an interesting idea. But supposing such a thing introduces a problem of certain threshold. That is, how do we know where to draw the line? Would every lifeform then have potential and therefore be free? It seems a little shaky to make such an argument.
Again, we could always make comparisons about our intelligence. We could philosophically propose a hypothetical thought experiment where aliens suddenly show up and demonstrate their massively more intelligent selves over what we believe "intelligent" to be. Their technology would likely look like magic to us since we would be so incapable of understanding it. Yeah, this is possible. At the least, I'd say there's a high probability that another species that is at least fairly equivalent to our level of intelligence probably exists somewhere in the universe.
There is still a lot of strangeness to consider. Certainly, we could probably say that knowledge is somehow connected to freedom but as I've already said: assuming this link exists then we are free, to a degree. But only to a degree. I also included in my response some of the implications of making an assumption that because we may not be free or may only be partially free that certain other things should exist under that conclusion.
While I'm not sure I fully understand your entire question, I might do the best I can to answer it or to go into more detail about what philosophical arguments could be made for freedom later on. But to answer part of what you're asking: animals are free (in one sense) but obviously limited in another just as we are free (to some degree) but could comparatively be vastly more restrained than some other hypothetical higher intelligence. While I'm tinkering with the idea that freedom should be at least somewhat connected to intelligence, I think I'm also sort of rejecting the idea that restraints or physical laws should necessarily interject the concept of freedom or freedom's existence. -
Question continued in a part 3...
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Question continued in a part 2...
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I decided I would address this on my website! You can see the response here:
http://www.scottfreethinking.com/2011/09/response-to-reader-what-is-freedom/ -
In order to answer this I would require a lot more information to give a helpful response. However, what I can say is that I am of the opinion that a lot of people expect too much out of their partners these days. My general personal philosophy on relationships is that our partners are there to love us and, if we both agree to the terms, to provide us with certain psychological needs. However, they are not usually there to provide us with adventure, to reinvent sexuality, or to take us traveling/buy us shiny things.
Still, I think that sometimes the basis for a relationship means that you were seeking certain things with the relationship when you sought that person out and if they're not providing those things (or are unable) then it may be time to discuss the possibility of seeing other people or coming to a new agreement with each other entirely. When it comes to me, I personally like relationships where I am simply free to be myself and the girl I'm with is free to be her - no pressure, no demands.
My favorite thing to do as a couple is probably to kick back, watch a movie, have sex, sleep, and then follow all that up with an amazing breakfast in the morning. It may not be adventurous, and sometimes the sex even gets skipped, but it has a therapeutic quality many people in modern life tend to miss out on.
Hope this helps and do ask additional questions and provide additional details if you feel I didn't answer what you were looking for! -
asked by kicesie
Marriage in and of itself is not very appealing because there is such a wide variety of connotations that society attaches to marriage. On the one hand, there exists the legalistic perspective behind marriage which combines financial and material assets and alters tax recognition. On the other hand, there is the spiritualistic aspect of marriage in which people might be married for the basis of religion or flat out 'high' emotions for one another.
Myself, I see marriage only as a means to express greater long term commitment in a variety of ways. Commitment is nice but I do not think I need the state or the church to recognize my commitments, as this only restricts things to a large degree and potentially marginalizes those who are not married or cannot be married (like homosexuals).
To say all of the problems I have with marriage would also be to probably express a lot of larger problems with the whole of society, even if just American society. All in all - marriage isn't that appealing to me. ;) -
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I do not give roses.
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Again, speaking on my character or the nature of my character really doesn't say much about whether I'm right or wrong, opinion regardless. I'm open to talk any time you're ready - perhaps asking me questions anonymously over Formspring is not the absolute best way to do it, however.
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I was not offended. Aside from saying that, I really have no other response for this...
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I personally think you sound a little crazy to claim I have an "evil smile" when I talk to people. If you're going into my field, I'd recommend you not make judgments based off of facial expressions - my own counselor tried to do that a lot and failed. My father also forced me into therapy for 6 months when I was a teenager and instead of trying to understand what I was actually saying, this lady tried to read my body language.
In fact, it is people's quickness to judge which makes me so ready to manipulate my body language. The reality is - people cannot know if I am "egotistical" based purely off how I look at them. I have said this before but I will say it again: the real problem in discussions is when people are addressing my character instead of the words and ideas I am putting in front of them.
If you actually listen to what I am saying instead of concerning yourself with whether or not I think I'm better than you, you might actually learn something. -
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You totally got cut off here... It would be better to e-mail me: scott@scottfreethinking.com.
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Technically I don't celebrate Christmas. Of course, I still celebrate the consumer aspect. But when it comes down to it, it's really just a fancy way for the economy to be stimulated and the flow of money to surge to max out that last quarter of the year.
I really don't care about Christians celebrating Christmas itself, or Easter, or any other religious holiday. Just don't ask me to do it with you. I don't want to be included in the reindeer games. :) -
I'm always seeking to improve my communication and social skills but on the other hand sometimes I only have so much tolerance for working on such a thing. I feel it's highly important I do that with everything that I think about. I have a lot of complex ideas that I have to express a lot of the time and that means the necessity of being an excellent communicator.
I also think I could afford to learn some real survival skills for surviving with very little modern resources in the wild or even an apocalyptic style urban environment. I'd like to also learn more self-defense skills and better techniques for building muscle in a healthy way.
And even though I've been pretty terrible at it, except maybe during my elementary school years, I would like to eventually get back to conquering mathematics. I constantly seek to improve my cooking skills and always want to produce something healthy that tastes great.
I'm pretty sure the list goes on on things I wish I could improve upon and the various skills I wish I could learn or learn to expand on. -
Well if I were to spend my life on a dessert island I'd have to bring eating utensils! I HOPE THERE'S CAKE! =D Who would go with me? Hell, I don't know, who doesn't love cake?! Do YOU want to go with?!
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Security, money in the bank, friendships, love, and creativity -- probably in that particular order.
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Scott’s Bio
For information about me, check out
http://www.scottfreethinking.com/about/
