[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Legally, I own property when I have exclusive rights over it.

"Legally", yes. That means, when the government, with its cops, and lawyers, and judges, decides to enforce those rights. But laws are just a social construct. Are cops keeper of something that's "right", or thugs in uniform?

To go back from the abstract to the practical, when is it right for the poor and downtrodden to rise up and take the land back from rich landowners living off the sweat of other people?

If I choose not to exercise the right, would it still be theft when someone takes the property from me?



Being dumb is not very useful either.

I didn't mean training your mind was useless. I meant your answer was. Too obvious, and to generic. It works for just about any subject of interest, whether it's the computation of pi's digits in base 16, or 19th century Flemish art.

I agree. What do you think when Socrates meant when he said the only thing he knows is that he knows nothing? "Knowing nothing" is knowing plenty.

No clue.

What makes you happy? Do you need a formula as complex as E=mc² to describe it?

What's happiness got to do with truth?

I like Western philosophy and I value scientific inquiry. Certainly the nature of reality is highly complex, and apparently full of hidden rules waiting to be discovered. But does understanding the movement of the stars give your life any personal meaning? Maybe it does for you. For me, it doesn't. It only tells me about the mechanics of gravity, which is interesting to know, but it does not particularly enrich my life in any appreciable way.

I was drawing a comparison, not saying the two were directly related. What I'm saying is that life is complex. To draw from its raw form a truth that is greater and simpler, that takes a touch of genius.

So it was for the movements of the stars. Newton's theory is simpler, and truer, than a lifetime of astronomical observations which only sum up to lots of numbers.

I don't mean that I, personally, am all that interested in astronomy.

Sometimes, I find that some people grow too proud of their own genius. In which case, it becomes a form of conceit. So, yeah, I'm suspicious of people who claim to be geniuses. I suspect you are too.

People can claim what they want. The proof of the cake is in its eating.

If someone can figure out the meaning of life, or the difference good and evil, great. Let him or her write a book. There's a demand for that sort of thing. Hopefully, this time it won't end up with people getting nailed to trees.

To me, life is simple when I realise that, in the end, not a lot of things are really that important. That's not the same as neglecting them. It's accepting that the knowledge of these things don't actually matter to my happiness. They're good to know, but not strictly necessary, I believe.

Is your happiness the meaning of life? Is it all that is good? 'cause that's what you were talking about defining.