• I like sushi
    4.3k
    Note: This may be better suited to the Lounge by the rules of this forum. There is no direct question here as it is meant to spark a discussion rather than present a specific area for debate.

    Sushi is a large western misconception. Too many people believe sushi means ‘fish’, but in reality the term refers to a specific type of rice. Sashimi is sliced fish, sliced fish is not sushi. The thing is, given that various terms are constantly plucked from other languages, for better or worse, sushi now means ‘fish’ in colloquial circles. This is something of a mistranslation, a wrong assumption; like Bangkok being coined the capital of Thailand when Bangkok is in actuality a district within the capital city of Krung Thep (which means “City of Angels”), or like Killer Whale being a misconception due to how words are ordered in English compared to Scandinavian tongues (the correct translation should be “Killer of Whales”).

    Today in ‘philosophy’ there is no life left. We only see a sullen regard for the words of the dead hanging upon quaint and cloying aphorisms of ‘on the shoulders of giants’ and such blind grandiose drivel. The obscurantists have crowned themselves as ‘wise’ and the scholars now claim the title of ‘philosopher’ - simply for reading the words of opinions of others whose opinions are of the opinions of those professing a ‘better’ opinion. Finding a voice among the rabble that is free from the bindings of some select interpretation is a rarity; and when found they’re mocked for not sharing the same rigid views passed down from before - like the spread of a deadly disease set out to destroy individual thought and any chance of singular expression.

    They call it “sushi” like they have authority over what that means because someone said somewhere to them what it meant? Really? Is that all that remains of discourse?

    The sophists have stormed the castle and then declared the meaning of ‘castle’ to mean nothing. The double-edged sword of the previous monarch slits their own throat by assuming they held some pure form of ‘knowing’ where the laughing sophists (pure of heart) berated their arrogance - now we find ourselves under the rule of mad kings, the sophists have defected and claimed ‘knowing’ as the new ‘unknowing’. Such limbless fools are they that they’ve cut the legs from their predecessors bodies and called their armless and legless flailing ‘reaching for’ and ‘walking toward’ ... they are now the blind recipients of their own mockery!

    There are those that tell us the ‘should’ and make use of what they deem ‘just’ as a ‘should’. As terms and ideas morph into a diverse set of forms - sometimes abandoning the original conception - people will cling longingly on to what has gone believing the ghost to possess more substance than the next generation ... such is the folly of conservatism and craving for some imagined golden age in the recesses of time. It is almost like some are unwilling to appreciate that sometimes good ideas die and sometimes bad ideas consume them. All in all if we have faith in humanity we believe the better ideas outweigh the worse, or life would be a moralistic exercise in masturbation: a nonsense unworthy of living!

    What is lost is unknown, yet this doesn’t make what is lost impossible to rediscover only to be known as a ‘rediscovery’. All that is discovered is discovered for the first time - rediscovery is the realisation of a previously discovered item of human knowledge. The individual’s ‘discovery’ should never be mistaken for the community of human ‘discovery’.

    Sushi means sushi!
  • Grre
    196
    Philosophy has been replaced by scientism. And the free market, which values knowledge only as per it can be commodified and used to make cold hard cash. Ignorance has always been the problem of the masses; now it is mass communicated via social media. The tools that could save us; namely save the environment, are not utilized. Not since WW2, has the world is more divided, extremist, and ideological-even established human rights and principles are being attacked. The Elites have full dominance and have the masses even defending their right to oppress...no taxes for the rich...substandard services for the rest-or privatization, which makes the rich, well, more rich!

    Remember this is fake news.
  • Pantagruel
    3.2k
    Indeed. My latest rant is that capitalism is working, because it is making the rich richer. What capitalism is NOT doing however is solving our problems.
  • Grre
    196
    Its not meant to solve problems, just grow and grow and grow and absorb everything in its wake; it makes the rich richer and circumvents the rest; barring whatever limitations or regulations or social service policies we attempt to put on it...those too are being circumvented by the cultural mindset that capitalism enjoys, entails, and perpetuates...consume consume consume

    Will go and check out your thread promptly.
  • Pantagruel
    3.2k
    Sorry, that was an FB rant, I try not to tirade in here
    since you are interested though
    "Capitalism is the philosophy of the rich. And it is working: the rich are definitely, undeniably getting richer.

    So if capitalism is working, then why hasn't it solved the world's problems? Because obviously, money is not the answer.....

    Just because having enough money is good does not mean that having even more is better. Wealth is an addiction, just like crack cocaine or heroin.

    I am not anti-capitalist, I am pro lets eliminate poverty and pollution."
  • Grre
    196

    Its ok, I tirade less in here than I do on my Instagram, as far as I'm concerned the people on here should be educated/critical enough to already understand much of these issues...as for the masses, well..I try and I usually don't succeed much beyond getting lots of hate hate hate
  • I like sushi
    4.3k
    Some curious responses to an essay that is essentially questioning the current state of philosophy in general. I guess honing in on one particular idea helps build from what I wrote - it was about the economic use of words, but not about what people generally think of when they hear ‘economics’. I was also wondering about the pedagogy of philosophy in general - any thoughts there?

    The essay was skirting around the issue of people taking liberties with the epistemic quality of more universal terms (not necessarily on the political scene). Philosophy has a long history founded on logical distinctions, the gist of my essay was meant to bring into question two extreme approaches to ‘philosophy’: the first being the inclination to hold to, and parrot, the words of particular philosophers in an isolated manner, and the second being the contradictory inclination to dismiss all that has come before and act like logic itself is merely a relative function of human thought created rather than discovered - the realm of the deconstructionists whom see everything in isolation that perpetuates their own opinion (whatever it may be and however they choose to alter it from one moment to the next).

    When it comes to people being ‘educated/critical’ enough it is usually due to an inability to accept the inevitable flaws in their discussed position. Too many people seem too quick to take offense against their own position rather than help the ‘other’ construct a solid argument. Basically, if you’re utterly unable to see a counter argument to your own position (to have doubts) then you’ve either blind-sighted yourself, or not gone deep enough into the subject matter at hand.

    Thank you both :)
  • A Seagull
    615
    Today in ‘philosophy’ there is no life left. We only see a sullen regard for the words of the dead hanging upon quaint and cloying aphorisms of ‘on the shoulders of giants’ and such blind grandiose drivel. The obscurantists have crowned themselves as ‘wise’ and the scholars now claim the title of ‘philosopher’ - simply for reading the words of opinions of others whose opinions are of the opinions of those professing a ‘better’ opinion.I like sushi

    Well, yes I agree. The edifice of philosophy has become like the fictional Gormenghast castle, where people carry out the proscribed rituals but no one knows why. People play with words like a philatelist plays with stamps, they think they are achieving something but really it is no more than a pretty arrangement of words/stamps.

    So what is to be done? Burn down the whole edifice and start from scratch? Better to simply ignore it and start from scratch.
  • tim wood
    8.7k
    Not a reply. A little florid in a place or two, but otherwise nice!
  • Brett
    3k


    Love it. Interesting and timely.
  • Brett
    3k


    So what is to be done? Burn down the whole edifice and start from scratch? Better to simply ignore it and start from scratch.A Seagull

    What’s to be done? Persevere with plain speaking, be humble and curious.
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