Introduce yourselves please

Hello--anybody home? I can use some philosophy in my life! Lay it on me.

Hi. I'm no philosopher, at least not by any credentials, but perhaps in spirit. I'm looking forward to participating here at whatever level I am able. Let me start with a quote from Alfred North Whitehead. In the preface to _Modes of Thought_ he stated something like: > Philosophical truth is to be sought in the presuppositions of language, > not in its express statements. I'll look it up tonight to check the exact wording.

Good to be here. I will check in everyday -- unless I am totally swapped by non-philosophical matters. There was a period of almost ten years in my life where I did _Philosophers Forums_ in San Francisco Bay Area coffee houses. I facilitated discussion in what my teacher (Jacob Needleman) called "The Great Ideas" -- you know, those ideas. Things like wisdom, life, death, freedom and determinism, can we know anything?, etc., etc. I was never too interested in what other people thought as much as working OURSELVES here and now with these great ideas. So I felt that Socrates was the best model for this kind of activity. Non-academic, right here, on the street, kind of philosphy. All that is required is that we be lovers of wisdom. (But I am putting too many words here in the Intro topic. I will post "Americ's Philosophy" into a separate topic, to free you from reading this.)

I don't need MORE philosophy in my life but I'd love a forum with which to discuss the frequently jumbled mass of ideas already floating around in there! Today the most phiosophical statement I can think of is one by Franz Kafka stating, "The true way goes over a rope which is not stretched at any great height but just above the ground. It seems more designed to make people stumble than to be walked upon."

Welcome, Stacey. I agree with you, I don't think I need MORE philosophy, but , perhaps, the kind of process to allows me to have LESS chatter in my head.

Hello, all, I like all the voices in my head. It's when I let them out that things go all chaotic.

As we well know... *grin*

sometimes, I sit here....waiting....waiting for the quiet sound of silance to come and it never does except for a second or two. :)

be happy that you get it for a second or two because some people never get any their lives are a real jumble of mazes

Hello, I am Yeshe Azevedo. Philosophy is quite intriguing, and the thoughts of a person can and will always change. Untill we find total contentment with ourselves and others. No need to preach about it. When we are in the total state of enlightment words are not needed.......

just watching and learning people is unique in it's own right and maybe words someday will not be needed but thank the lord that for now they are because i for one like talking to others and studying their words and actions

Welcome, and welcome!

Glad you all are joining us!

Talking with others is a good way to learn about yourself.. what you still judge and do not judge in life.

I think of talking as a way in which we sing to one another. When birds talk to each we call it singing. I am sure that if some other species heard us talking, it would sound like singing to them.

Talking is a great way to express one self. A question to ponder. Do we need that form of communication when we are in the bright? Is that communication which then when in the bright needed for are own benefit or for others own benefit?

Why does it have to only benefit one? Why not both, especially when in the bright benefitting another would be benefitting ourself?

A new topic is made "Talk or not to talk", check it out! And we can continue this very interesting discussion.

Will do.

thought I'd wander on in

wander at will

Just a wanderin'

welcome

hello

Where's the therapy conference? I needs a couch to lie down on...

make a new topic?

A couch, eh? *grin*

Yup, I'm feeling Much Better Now... besides, I can't get you to lie down on the massage table...

Hi friend Americ suggested I check this out. Interested in self healing and learning what is not love.

welcome Glenn, lemme warn you, probably won't find the answers you seek, but you'll have lots of fun looking!

Welcome Glenn!

Yes, welcome!

Great to have you here! Glenn. Glenn and I, by the way, created the first "Philosophers Forum" at the Coffee Mill in Oakland about 18 years ago. So this is kind of a reunion in cyberspace.

Well hello peoples. Just thought I may be able to find some wisdom on matters of life that matter. Though by no means a philosopher as yet, but trying. Must say excellent idea and I hope I may be able to contribute in a healthy fashion.

Welcome! Contributing in any fashion is most welcome...

Welcome aboard Sinfear!

Hmm, after looking around I seem to think I may be a bit out my league, but proberly my simple ideas may have some insight. A question though how long has this been running now? And thank you for your warm felt greetings.

Welcome Sinfear!

thanks, you all seem to be quite the lively bunch

something like that...

This philosophy conference is by no means an academic philosphy conference. It is a place to develop and explore your own philosophy. Sometimes it is fun to refer to some of the well known writers, but really YOU are the best person to get in touch with wisdom. Wisdom is only yours if you work on it yourself.

amen! Over the holidays I feel like I lost my grip on some of the wisdom I'd acquired. So... here I go again!

Do tell...

I believe in the Principle of Evolution, the Maker of heaven and earth and the evolving man. I believe the World Teachers built us roads to tread, and withdrew to help from other planes. I believe they beckon us to scale the heights, mental and supramental, and meet them on the Mount of Transfiguration. I believe we shall all evolve and be New Beings who need no Death to take off on wings of Joy to worlds without end. M. P. John

nice thoughts....

gratifying, soothing, thank you...

You're welcome. What's up, my friend?

Ahh.... 6pm, sitting solitary in my gloriously quiet classroom. The last few days have been rather difficult. The children spent 2 weeks at "home" in unsavory and unstructured environments. We've had issues. Today was smooth. And we all enjoyed the benefits of a low stress day. I'm still at work, for a meeting at 7pm tonight, but I'm really not minding the long day. I've been incommunicato simply because, as you surely have guessed, when the classroom is in turmoil... no one rests. I've got my VERY hot mug of Echinecea (sp?) tea and now, my keyboard.

And as much good karma as I can send... I need to keep a little for my mom's operation, though. *HUGS*

is that tomorrow? Is your mom in Austin?

maybe, long story... and, no, but close...

a sudden operation I assume. Heart attack?

Nope, they tried fixing it with medicine and it wouldn't take, so they wanted to do the bypass over Christmas, but Mom said no... Anyway, I heard from her tonight, and it's scheduled for tomorrow morn from 8 till noon, so I'll put up an update tomorrow night and since you won't be on till Monday, can call and let you know what's up if'n you'd like (will call if something goes wrong, hope you don't mind) PEACE ALL AROUND FOR EVERYBODY!!!

and good luck to you!

It worked. Thanks, everyone!

everything went well?!?!

exceptionally!!!

i need a new girlfriend

I thank you

thank you whereyou come form?

I think this one's for you, stacey...

Gee, thanks, Autumn...

Awww, you gettin' jealous, wer?

Um, do I have to answer that? (or did I just?)

Hi hwxc2-what can we call you for short? You have certainly come to the right place to vent!! Wer, you're too easy to read *grin*

lookit me! Typing from home! Finally got the PC working again! HWX... why do you need a NEW girlfriend? Did the old one go away or are you just weary of her? And... since we're being 'philosophical' -- why d'ya need a girlfriend at all? Physical reasons? Emotional? Intellectual? Asthetic? just curious. And Autumn, I'm glad someones around to give WER a hard time when I'm out o' pocket! *smile*

Yeah, I'm trying to get one of those love triangle things going between you three, but hwx isn't biting.

Bizarre Love Triangle would be in the music conference... (and I'll do the biting, if he'll just join in...)

LOL!! You've really scared him away now!

Maybe, but you are still here...

I can take it--I have pretty thick skin!

LOL!!

Hello, again. I am back.

Good to "see" you again, Americ!

We thought we drove you away with all our sidetracked babble!

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Faridah Othman. I'm currently taking the CIS 394K class. I'm not a philosopher. See you again

eRR...scuse me Faridah,but whats CIS?and where are u from?

Hai Azman, I'm from Malaysia. Where are you now. CIS is computer information system. Tell me about yourself. I'm now at GGU.

I am from CIS too. And I am studying with Americ. I like GGU and San Francisco.

Hi, My major in CIS. I come from Taipei. This is my first CIS semester in GGU. I don't have any background in this field. I hope I can learn more and more. I like this class very much. It gives me a lot of fun in class. My name is Yani. I forgot to tell you. Happy Chinese New Year.

Hi,everyone: This is Fu-Yu Tseng. My friends always call me Felix which is the name I use here. I am a student of Golden Gate University. I hope I can make a lot of friends here. Talk to you later.

Hi ya'll and welcome!

It's great to see so many new users. Feel free to fan out to the other conferences that interest you.

Wow, what a rush! So many new folks. Welcome everyone!

Hello everyone! Welcome new friends!

Hello to all the lovely new students. Some great reading in these conferences, hope you all enjoy it. And we look forward to new viewpoints from all of you, coming from so many different backgrounds. Welcome!

Greetings, all!

Forgive me for being so blunt.I am Azman Ismail,new to philosophy conference but frequently in apps conference.Ex marine engineer,now shift engineer in power plant in Sabah.Studied in North east of England.Still new with microsoft and new era applications,new for me anyway.Was orientated with bbc basic,cobol ,pascal and stuffs back in 1988.When first introduced to windows,was dumbfounded..used to type about dozens pages of commands to get things done.Now much easier.Thank You bill gates and the rest.

Hi ! Everybody. My name is Chatchai. I am studying at Golden Gate University. Just check in. Hope to have something to share with you later. I don't know much about philosophy. Do you think there are any difference in philosophy for each country? By the way, please forgive my grammar and spelling if sometimes it goes wrong.

I think there is great differences between countries philosophies as there are great differences in the philosophies of one country when viewed through many perspectives.

Welcome Asman and Chatchai!

And just as philosophy varies from country to country, doesn't it also vary from person to person?

guess that was what I was trying to say... thanks for making it coherent! Good morning wolf! Good to see you!

you, too. did you notice that we hyperspaced again? don't we look good?

Always!

Thanks for comment

Hi everyone, I am Emma Hsu. This is my first time beening in philosophy conference. I don't know much about philosophy, but I think everyone have their own philosophy, no matter you are male or female. Philosophy just like your personality. What kind of philosophy you believe, what kind of person you are. I'll talk to u later

gonna like this place try some smile-it won't broke your face religion is a static philosophy gaia is angry walk through life doing as little harm and as much good as possible the sun only rises because i am there to see it most of my personal beliefs work for me but many are written in water

Hello, and, Hello!

Welcome eshu and sandh. I'm glad you're connecting up with us. I hope you all elaborate here on your philosophical insights.

Is americ still around? I rarely see him posting anywhere, although that's probably because I'm looking in the wrong places :)

He pops in and out, much like the rest of us...

where'd Americ and friends go????

he's right in front of me now. I'm sitting in his class. This morning in the class that I teach, an 87 year old student handed me a philosophical poem that she channeled years ago...i wonder if we are open to receiving, if we wouldn't get lots of stories like hers.

Wish Americ would come around again!

Where's he been, Terry?

Dunno. it'd be cool if he'd reappear!

Maybe if we emailed him and apologized for our behavior...

and if we promise to keep our hands (and mouths) to ourselves in his topic???

Ratthing has been installed as cohost of philosophy. Now, he may introduce himself if he likes.

thanks, terry. i live in san ano whoops, i mean san antonio and have had an active interest in philosphy for about 20 years now. my specific areas of interest are philosophy of science, ethics, philosophy of mind, lots of other stuff too. i look forward to conferencing with all of you here!

then maybe you haven't read all of our posts in this confere yet...anyway, Welcome Aboard!

no joke! welcome, uh, ratthing, ray, whatever you wanna be called *smile*

thanks folks. i've read what has been posted here and i like it. hopefully we can see some more posting of folks discussing their own personal experiences with philosophy, life, etc.....

You read all of The Couch? And asked to be host anyway? Cool...

ratthing recognizes raw talent when he sees it!

good one wer! my thoughts exactly *giggle*

You are one brave and intrepid conference host, ratthing...you have to dig thru a lot of innuendo to arrive at one nugget around here...

kinda like extended foreplay before sex...

Do you see what you're going to be dealing with here?????

LOL!!

well, hey, philosophy is mental masturbation, right? if this place is extended foreplay, then it's perfect, especially since you won't be doing it alone. ;)

oooooo, i like that *grin*

Now, let me get this straight, is it going to be mutual or shared? *giggle* Just so you know, I happen to know the difference! (thanks to wer)

we be one horny bunch o' philosophers!

Where's Freud when you need him?

hi wer (and nighty-night!)

philosophy as mental masturbation... had I known that, my college transcript would've looked MUCH different!

lol

got a Quotations topic going, so when you feel one coming on... anyway, it allows us the keep them in their place, while keeping them in the conversations... peace! (or at least nurturing chaos!!!)

'ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your virtual community' (or something like that.

Riette's computer is down for this here stuff until, like, the beginning of June...she's going through Spring withdrawal, and can't wait to get back...

It's fixed!!! She should be back on sometime today!!!

Really? Who told you that? . . .

Has anyone other than me noticed we've run another host off in this conference?

I sure have. Not only him, but Nick is gone too. And Mike. Was it something we didn't say?

you mean me? no, i am still here, just very busy with Life Itself!

Hey Ray, good to see you again.

*sigh o' relief* glad to see you again, Ray!

what in the real world is keeping you too busy to drop by?

lookit us...stace, terry, ray, and me all on at the same time!!! wolf should be back on soon, and maybe nick, also...

it'd be a virtual party!

pahr-tay, pahr-tay, pahr-tay....

working WER?

nope, day off actually...

i started a new job with EDS as a consultant, and i am also doing a lot of volunteer work, as well as helping my fiancee plan our wedding!

you're actually helping?!?!? My god! What a man! congrats on the new job!

well, helping = being a sounding board most of the time. it's my second marriage, so i have some vague ideas about what i want, not like the first time.

hopefully on your lift of wants... a marriage that lasts. scary prospect. (sounding boards are extremely necessary!)

Nonsense, it isn't scary at all!!! Marriage is great fun!!! Many, many, many congratulations, Ray - have a blast!

a marriage that lasts and babies are on my list of wants and hers too!

Well, that's great, because they are two rather important things to have in common. When's the big day?

as soon as complete the annulment of my first marriage. my fiancee and i want to marry in the catholic church, and the annulment is a necessary pain in the tuckus.

Rather! But if that's important to you both, it'll be worth the waiting, I'm sure. Oh, I never never want to go through another wedding day again!

welcome to our new conf. host - ratthing! i really like the header, btw :) (although it might be nice to have your name as host in there, too :))

i was just playing around with some of the conf header stuff for both the web and Unix versions. i'll see if i can get a little more time to add some more stuff.

I would like to invite all visitors of this conference to the International Conflicts conference here on the Spring: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/InternationalConflicts/all This new conference is dedicated to the disputes between groups all over the world, be that social, cultural, political or ethnical differences.

Hello. I'm an armchair philosopher who spends his life uncovering the meaning of concepts like Orenda, and Urim and Thummim, which our culture seems to have overlooked.

welcome Barry!

think we can bolt another arm onto the couch for him?

I took an online course in postmodernist philosophy and now I'm hooked. But I live in Waco, Texas,and look what happened to our last original thinker! So I drive to Dallas to the Philospher's Forum twice a month--from Gadamer, Heiddegger to Ken Wilber and Jimmy Lathrop. I was surprised that there is nothing like this in Austin, except for U.T. students. I'm glad to find out about this website, though.

Welcome! It is always good to have fresh insight. We are a multi-interest group here and there are all sorts of conferences around to satisfy almost any curiosity. Feel free to browse and post!

Really, glad to have someone from Waco on here. Feel free to start topics (in this conference and others) that interest you! What aspects of philosophy are you focused on?

Hey Segue! Nice to have you here! Does your name mean something significant?

Is it pronoucned seg 'way?

....or perhaps, seeeg...?

How the hell should I know? It's exactly like the other words I read on the listservs of philosophy departments; nobody actually uses words like this in Waco. My adventures online as Captain of the Transcendental Millenial Falcon vs the Ravenscraft of SouthPaws as well as Ken Wilber's PureLandingGyre have left me wounded, but undaunted, in my neverending Quest to Tai up their Chi. I was in Tokyo last week and this dogon seated next to me in the Ginza leaned over and said, "I know who you are--Holy Ratdog of God! How did you escape from the Compound when They did away with your first husband?" It was one of them. Another claims to live on Cesar Chavez, so I am as ever, en garde. Nevertheless, everyone on this list had better get the complete library, even Heidegger for Idiots, because I am being studied for the Internet addiction as well as others which are hohum merely genetic.

Ah, perhaps you should check into the Paranormal Conf with all the others who are being studied... What does your alien surveillance device look like?

"Off to my left I see five mounted cowboys. Off to my right, quite a dozen or more. I caught a good one it looked like it could run."

Ride 'em cowgirl.

Hoh! Way ta go!

Guess she went that-a-way... Have not seen her since. Musta been some cowboy!

Rode off into the sunset?

I reckon...

Ya reckon?

It figgers...!

philosophy, philosophy i barely knew ye

What's up these days, Nick?

just haunting all of austin's poetry joints (we're at the hideout right now, putting together a peace anthology, that no one will ever read)... what's up with you? (whomever you may be, conf admin)

Almost made it to the poetry slam at Ego's but I'll have to catch it on reruns, a friend videotaped it.

Nick, I thought you lived in Washington state. Am I on crack or has it just been too long??? Hey Paul, we're headed to Texas... 4/27-5/14. Most of the time it'll just be me and the kids and we'll be hanging out in SA but we are headed to Austin for a friend's wedding 5/10. I hate to make plans and break promises but I'll let you know when we head your way!

that's great, we'll have to meet up!

we moved back to austin about a year ago... the west coast didn't agree with me (and yes, it's been too long)... egos is a good venue, but it's slam (defjam) poetry, a very mixed bag... some good performers (like the mc, mike henry, who's an old chicago house guy)... a lot of drivel, though, and the idea of scoring the work is a lttle repulsive... you should try the hideout sometime, as well...

Where's the Hideout, refresh my memory ok?

near the SE corner of s. congress and seventh st. (next door to wendys, one block south of the paramount)