List of Definitions (An Exercise)
Below is a list of words often invoked in philosophy. I would like to see how each member defines each one, on the spot. Doesnt have to be elaborate. Just what comes to mind. Take the attitude that theres a fairly perceptive young person asking you. How would you answer?
My guess is that this brief exercise will give a better overview of a persons perspective than merely adhering to, or assigning, a label or school (realist, materialist, dualist, utilitarian, etc).
Yes, I realize there are separate threads for almost every one of these concepts, and that Socrates asked similar questions 2,500 years ago. I dont care. Besides, how can we call ourselves thinkers or even students of philosophy if we cant at least give provisional answers when asked these basic questions spontaneously?
I open this to everyone. Take a stab at it I did so myself and its difficult, but fun. (I also consider there to be no wrong answers in this context.)
Im interested to read the answers, assuming anyone participates.
What is
[b]Being
Awareness
Consciousness
Thinking
Time
Sensation
Perception
Mind
Body
Good
Happiness
Justice
Truth[/b]
My guess is that this brief exercise will give a better overview of a persons perspective than merely adhering to, or assigning, a label or school (realist, materialist, dualist, utilitarian, etc).
Yes, I realize there are separate threads for almost every one of these concepts, and that Socrates asked similar questions 2,500 years ago. I dont care. Besides, how can we call ourselves thinkers or even students of philosophy if we cant at least give provisional answers when asked these basic questions spontaneously?
I open this to everyone. Take a stab at it I did so myself and its difficult, but fun. (I also consider there to be no wrong answers in this context.)
Im interested to read the answers, assuming anyone participates.
What is
[b]Being
Awareness
Consciousness
Thinking
Time
Sensation
Perception
Mind
Body
Good
Happiness
Justice
Truth[/b]
Comments (52)
Quoting Mikie
Good question.
I presume it's the same for most humans in this respect: the focus of our consciousness -- not in a collective sense, but rather I think most humans have an individual focus on their consciousness, whereas you can still feel a pain even if you're not focused on it.
The phenomenal "feeliness" of the world. The taste of pizza isn't just salty-spicy-sweet, but the particular combination of your bodily make-up and its bodily make-up in conjunction -- if you want a cognitive answer -- or what it tastes like, if you don't.
I'm not sure.
Not sure.
I think this one can't have an answer. The other topics are more general than "sensation".
Discrimination.
All uncertain for me.
Interlinked. Happiness is ataraxia, and ataraxia is only achievable by living in a just society.
...is embedded in language.
Being
Many would say the cardinal attribute of whatever can be said to exist, but as I have argued in many a thread, 'being' carries the connotation of sentient existence, i.e. existence as a being (e.g. 'human being'). Accordingly I hold that 'being' 'existence' and 'reality' are not strictly synonymous.
Awareness
The most basic form of consciousness, also the aspect of consciousness that is prior to apperception, integration and rationalisation.
Consciousness
Best thought of in the Eastern sense of 'citta', a Sansrit word that means both 'mind' and 'heart'; that which is aware or conscious; but never in itself an object, always as the subject
Thinking
Conscious deliberation and also the spontaneous activity of consciousness
Time
Awareness of the duration between events or occurences
Sensation
That which the nervous and cognitive systems transmit
Perception
Cognition and re-cognition of the contents of sensation
Mind
Consciousness
Body
Like a VR headset used to navigate terrestrial environments
Good
One half of a pair
Happiness
Absence of pain, absence of conflict, absence of fear, awareness of harmony.
Justice
Ideally, the resolution of conflict and the establishment of:
Truth
That which is; satya; veritas.
But further, any such string of words will be inadequate, failing to account for all uses.
I like this. A good synonym. It assumes a kind of interpreting. :up:
Interesting.
I realize you and me and Being have a long history haha so I wont go there.
Quoting Banno
Okay so how do you use them?
Quoting Banno
True. Still, Im sure you use these words like anyone else, and usually mean something by them. So thats what I was asking for. If a kid would ask for your own take on these terms, would the answer be it depends on use or would you have some (albeit provisional) answer?
I'd use the term, and encourage them to use it, so the child can see how it is used.
Quoting Mikie
Early and often.
But yep, unhelpful. I'll leave my comments there.
How would you use those terms if you do not know their definition? I think it is not possible to encourage them if you do not understand it, and to understand those terms you need previously a basic definition of each.
For example: let's say I have to write an essay on art. But how, if I do not know the definitions of "perception" or "aesthetics" (for example) previously?
Maybe I am understanding you wrongly. But it seems that you see the words just as random elements and avoiding their syntax functionality.
Definitions are a post hoc invention.
You can find "stampede" and "elephant" in a dictionary, which, in turn, uses more words.
Yet, there are no stampeding elephants in the dictionary.
Dictionaries (and their definitions) have circularities.
Board games on the other hand... :)
Yeah, well ... :smirk:
Quoting Mikie
I prefer I use the term ...
to denote (i) a possible object, (ii) a possible version of the world or (iii) actuality (i.e. every possible version of the world).
to denote attention to circumstances.
to denote being aware of awareness (i.e. attending to a state of attention and/or an act of attending); also, synonymous with mind (i.e. what sufficiently complex nervous systems do minding).
to denote reflecting on examining, questioning conventions or norms, givens, assumptions, biases, desires, habits, gaps in experience or knowledge or understanding, unknown unknowns, ... and prerequisites of thinking.
to denote the metric of asymmetric, sequential changes (i.e. events); also, experiential disappearing.
to denote bodily stimulation constitutive of perception.
to denote environmental stimulation constitutive of consciousness.
(See consciousness above.)
to denote a dynamic kinetic system causally-related to other dynamic kinetic systems that rarely is also a 'conscious being' (i.e. embodied mind).
to denote a zero-degree, or maximum reduction, of harm and dysfunction.
to denote a zero-degree, or maximum reduction, of needs and/or fear.
to denote a zero-degree, or maximum reduction, of civil/social unfairness, harm and dysfunction.
to denote a zero-degree, or maximum reduction, of undecidability, error and nonsense.
Definitive list of definitions.
Of course, there is no such thing.
To write a definitive list of words used in philosophy. Funny. But nevertheless a seductive aspiration.
I agree with:
Quoting Banno
Nevertheless, I started to answer (with whatever came to mind, as requested) and got as far as this...
Off the cuff nonsense. I caught myself and I re-read the OP:
Quoting Mikie
If this life student is asking questions about such things, then they already have a degree of knowledge.
Quoting Mikie
He asked questions of students. He made them think things through for themselves.
Starting with how much did they know or think they know...
Of course. The title is tongue-in-cheek.
Quoting Amity
Your answers didnt seem nonsensical to me.
Quoting Amity
Sure. So what?
Quoting Amity
Yes, and usually triggered by the meaning of x. Whether justice or piety or virtue or whatever.
Quoting 180 Proof
Fair enough.
Interesting list!
:up:
Quoting Banno
All kind of sounds like a cop out to me.
Whats the aorta Dad?
Let me use the word so you can see how its used.
Explaining what we mean, or think a word means, doesnt require universal application or ultimate truth.
If the current fashionable state of philosophy is to answer with a slogan like its how its used, I think were in real trouble.
The first response:
Why do you want to know?
Thats what your response would be?
Okay: Curiosity.
It's the basis or grounding of more questions in a dialogue. Why do you ask? What do you think it is?
Quoting Mikie
It's an idea of 'justice' related to action or behaviour and consequences.
Depending on context or circumstance.
In the case of a questioning child, then it would probably be framed as 'fairness'.
Desire to know or discover.
Ideas have meaning. The dialogues pretty quickly transition into what is meant.
Quoting Amity
Sure but I was responding to your question of why do you want to know. If the kid said curiosity, then wed either say we have no idea what an aorta is, or what it means as a word, or try our best to describe or define it in some way.
I dont think using a kind of Rogerian technique in these circumstances is appropriate, however well-meaning the intention.
Quoting 180 Proof
Quoting Wayfarer
Wasnt expecting too much agreement.
On the one hand, the OP is saying: "give me the primary use for this word," but then everybody can specify their own. There's a little bit of a contradiction there.
Being
Yes. Being is what is. Being is, and nothing happens.
Awareness
...is the relation of responsibility. X is aware of y, iff x is able to respond to y.
Consciousness
... is the relation of responsibility to awareness.
Thinking
... is the digital processing function of mind.
Time
the dimension in which the nothing happens.
Sensation
... is that aspect of y of which x is aware.
Perception
... is a reification of a process, that is a reification of the happening of nothing.
Mind
... is the nothing.
Body
is some particular being considered as if separate.
Good
... is mind and world in the relation of alignment or mutual reflection.
Happiness
... is the responsive mind as distinct from the thinking mind.
Justice
... is social happiness.
Truth
... is the expression of the proper functioning of thought.
What is interesting me about this exercise is to arrive at definitions that are both faithful to (at least some of) the ways in which they are used in philosophy, and also relate to each other in ways that are somewhat significant of the individual's philosophy. That is, I hope the above tells the careful reader something about myself, or at least about the way I think that I think.
The child/teenager might have turned it around and asked, "Why do you want to know?"
The parent could answer with: It would help me better answer your question if I knew what prompted it.
Quoting Mikie
What's a 'Rogerian technique'?
Quoting Mikie
Yes. And any meaning can be hidden from view or understanding.
Quoting Mikie
Sure - but some dialogues stem from an experience, belief or understanding of moral issues.
As in the child/teenager scenario. What experience has made them curious about an aorta?
In Plato's Dialogues, is Socrates searching for a definitive definition of a concept?
Or the reality behind the word?
Yes, I think that is the idea behind the OP:
Quoting Mikie
I don't assign myself a label but others might. 'Rogerian'?
Quoting unenlightened
Really? One-line responses? Hmmm....
Yup. Stupid, keeping it simple! :yikes: And look, it works!
I think it does. Still digesting some of those
Quoting Amity
Neither.
In any case, I think my title has led some to believe Im really asking that this list be definitive. I think Ill remove that from the title, as its misleading.
My fault. Its my psychology background Carl Rogers was a therapist, and the technique I was referring to was one in which the therapist provides no answers, but creates a conducive atmosphere where the patient discovers the answers for himself/herself.
Simple and stupid? Now I know...thanks. I always wondered.
Quoting Mikie
So, what is it that Plato is attempting to do?
Quoting Mikie
So, you thought that I was attempting to situate the questioning as a kind of psychological therapy?
Does having a psychology background hinder or help you in forum interactions? Both/Neither/Other.
Are you always trying to figure people out, and affix labels, according to some little test or word exercise?
Quoting Mikie
No, but the aim (provide no answers but assist others in discovering their own) seemed similar.
Quoting Amity
Both.
Quoting Amity
:lol: I suppose so. But more like getting to know them better. And I dont consider this a test, really although I can see how it would be viewed that way. Im in no position to grade anyones work.
...
A being is aware of X if the following hold: X is causally related to the being, X constrains the being's possible states and the being has a process of representing X's causal and informational relationship to itself. A process of that being is a means of being aware if that process' normal functioning establishes that the being is aware of some X - it can have more than one role. A being's awareness is the sum total of its means of being aware.
A being which can represent its own awareness is conscious.
A time is process whose events index another process's, treated solely as the derived index.
The internal state of an aware being is the aggregate of the conditions which minimally determine its awareness at a given time point. The internal state is modular, in the sense that it arises from the inter-relation of different modalities (sense organs eg) and processes (inference, head tilting, chewing). The internal state is hierarchical, in the sense that those inter-relations, modalities and processes have different activation conditions and reaction rates. Sensations, perceptions and thoughts are parts of an internal state which involve a means of being aware.
A sensation is a component of the internal state which is relatively low in the hierarchy - a minor abstraction from the data of a sense organ. It stipulates little about the aware being's environment and state.
A perception is a component of the internal state which is middling high in the hierarchy - a moderate abstraction from, and correlation between, sense organs and exploratory behaviours to manipulate those sense organs' states. It stipulates quite a lot about the aware being's environment and state. Perceptions react slower relative to sensations, and thus are a fabricator of times.
A thought is a component of the internal state which is very high in the hierarchy. It's a great abstraction from sense organs, exploratory behaviours and correlations between them. It correlates perceptions and causal interventions. It stipulates a lot about the aware being's environment, and state, and past environments. Thoughts react slower relative to perceptions, and thus are a conjuror of histories.
In that respect, sensations are the least conceptualised components of awareness, thoughts are the most.
The ongoing updates of an aware being's internal state.
A closed collection of means of interacting with an environment.
Optimal action. One can be good at something unjust.
A judgement which applies to a life spent in pleasant internal states.
Optimal action without unjustified prejudice.
Optimally justified assertability.
I'll use the words differently obv, but we all know that how words are used is not how things are! So I wanted to write down how I thought things are.
But that wasn't my aim. An answer might have been provided by the parent once the context and circumstances were known. If the answer was not known, then they could both find out together. Google.
Quoting Mikie
Yes, it kinda works like that but not always.
Quoting Mikie
I know. But it does test the mind and memory box!!
It's a great thread and the replies are fascinating. I'll grade you as Excellent!
And I am in a position to know. Being an authentic Goddess. True that.
Fair enough!
Quoting Amity
:grin: Cant argue with that.
Appreciate the response.
Awareness: perception, thinking, and consciousness
Consciousness: awareness, perception, thinking.
Thinking: conscious awareness of perceptions and being.
Sensation: perception
Perception: sensation
Mind: place where consciousness, perception, sensation, and awareness happen.
:cool: EZPZ
Quite easily. We use terms for which we don't have ready definitions all the time. That's why we need dictionaries, and why good ones are so difficult to write.
I agree. If people present their understandings of the meanings of the terms then they are presenting their own usages, That's what definitions are: descriptions of usages, or we could even say that they are usages. I didn't take the OP to be implying that there could be only one meaning of the terms it asks people to define; on the contrary I took the purpose to be the very opposite: to draw out some different usages. When I hear the simplistic slogan: "meaning is use" I always think "yeah, whose use?". Giving a definition of a term is one kind of use.
So:
Being: as a noun, 'what is', As verb": the act, state or process of existing.
Awareness: autonomously responding to some stimulus.
Consciousness: At a minimum, awareness, at a maximum, self-reflective awareness.
Thinking: imagining, remembering, conceiving, comparing, judging, believing.
Sensation bodily feeling arising from internal or external stimuli.
Perception: sensing as, sensation mediated by association, recognition, conception or judgement.
Mind: A fictive "location" where awareness, consciousness, perception and thinking go on or are "contained".
Being: An agent. A complex existent integrated enough to have acquired a concept of identity, self, and other. An entity capable of complex behavior in relation to its environment. The essence of being alive without necessarily being organic.
Awareness: The function of relating information to the sense of self, selective in nature according to internal motivations primed by prior experiences.
Consciousness: The working together in an integrated way of various regions of a brain and nervous system (or neural network) to bring about a coherent informational representation or internal dynamic simulation of both internal body states and external world states in the "global workspace", evolutionarily tuned for survival. (Integrated Information Theory, and Global Workspace Theory)
Thinking: The different neural patterns or modalities that can arise in the brain that are adapted for specific types of information processing (conscious and unconscious).
Time: The most fundamental aspect of the universe. The "thing" that allows or permits change to happen in the universe. It is not just the measurement of change or duration. Time and energy are one and the same. Without time no event could ever have happened, or would ever happen.
Sensation: The specific type of low level information representation derived from different sensory apparatus presented to the "global workspace" where consciousness resides. They take the form of various qualia in the context of a conscious mind.
Perception: The filtering and selective result of raw sensation deemed salient by the conscious and unconscious parts of the brain.
Mind: All the emergent properties of sufficiently complex neural networks or brains that exists in a latent space above and in between the information processing of the network nodes. The part that is more than the sum of its parts.
Body: From the perspective of the mind, the body is its supporting structure and infrastructure; the hardware to its software.
Good: That which confers advantage to an agent.
Happiness: The result of what is good and advantageous, a reduction in the tension and stress of the mind and body especially in relation to frustration. "Don't worry be happy."
Justice: A cultural adaptation aimed at mitigating acts of revenge in a sufficiently complex society. The attempt to resolve feelings of unfairness and injustice in the population in order to foster sufficient trust in the society so that cooperation is possible and/or more efficient/effective.
Truth: Anything that is possible or permitted by the laws of physics or the universe, either in actuality or as potentiality.
Being
a being often refers to a (possibly supposed) sentient lifeform
being in general can more or less be synonymous with existence, whatever is, real or imaginary/fictional alike, known or unknown alike, has no complement
Awareness
self-awareness is included in awareness, meta-cognition, awareness of something
usage overlaps with consciousness
Consciousness
self-conscious and self-aware differ in usage, the former is about how one thinks others perceive oneself
part of some minds, sometimes (I think it might be a necessary part, in some uses anyway)
Thinking
mulling things over, contemplating, reasoning, peripherally or concentrating, recalling something
part of some minds, sometimes (rarely in certain cases :grin:)
Time
Time and such (Nov 11, 2017), might need an update
Mind
Body
? known cases, exemplifiable
Perception
"if anything significant differentiates dreams hallucinations etc, and perception, then it's the perceived"
the self part of interaction with the perceived
part of some minds, sometimes
also related to phenomenology
(...)
So what happened? A few folk provided their own lists of synonyms, then the thread petered out.
Providing a definition is not doing philosophy, anymore than shuffling a deck of cards is playing Rummy. If there is a cop out here, it is in thinking that by providing a definition, one is doing philosophy. Philosophy is not a list of facts, so much as an ongoing conversation.
Yeah, as I expected. I said at the beginning there were no wrong answers, so there was no follow up from me despite the fact that disagreement and desire for further clarification was present. I was interested in how one would respond on the spot, if asked. The answers I did get were interesting.
Quoting Banno
Except I have never once made that claim, and in fact have often argued against the idea for the last four years.
Quoting Banno
Funny that youd end your post with a definition of philosophy as an ongoing conversation.
I disagree. Banno's comment is an explanation of doing philosophy, not its definition.
Philosophy is not x, but more y.
An explanation of what something is or isnt thats dealing with meaning, and is a kind of definition.
@Banno
An ongoing conversation always conducted elsewhere.
Not for me. I often think in terms of opposing viewpoints, or a triangle, or a square.
If you think of your own ideas about Being, notice that they make sense relative to the opposing view. What is that opposing view? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Are there other views that lie at an angle to this opposition, so they partake in some ways from each pole of the original opposition?
If you can't do this, it's probably because your intellect is being controlled by emotions on this one issue. If you let emotions go (or put them on a shelf), your mind will be able to move freely, recognizing that the question is beyond the limits of language anyway.
It's often a different conversation about something more useful.
You're not convinced with your own assertion. "Kind of"?
I want to use the example of surgery. If you find someone cutting though the flesh and rearranging the organs of another human being, is he performing surgery? After all, these are what surgeons do when they operate. But what if that someone is not a doctor? -- certainly he's not performing surgery because the definition of surgery is limited to the "practice of medicine" which could only be applied to doctors.
Philosophy involves ongoing conversation -- whether written or verbal. But not all ongoing conversations are doing philosophy.
No one said they were.
Philosophy involves many things. To privilege or emphasize ongoing conversation is a definition, or at least part of one. Its distinguishing one phenomenon from another philosophy is not x (a set of facts), but y (an ongoing conversation). The meaning of philosophy is the subject.
To argue its an explanation is just playing games. Trees arent so much clouds as they are entities with trunks and leaves Im not defining a tree, Im just explaining the features of a tree. Come on.
Quoting Mikie
Quoting Mikie
All good and important points. :up:
Quoting Leontiskos
Quoting Leontiskos
...
To be conscious or cognizant of.
Intellectual awareness.
The ordering of ideas.
The viscosity of succession.
The perceptible acting of a physical object on a subject.
The awareness of sensation. Also used metaphorically with respect to cognitive objects.
The seat of that which thinks in a discursive manner.
That part of the human being which has extension.
That which is in some way desirable.
What all men seek.
The rendering of that which is due.
The adequation (or correspondence) between thought and thing.
:up: :up:
I think it is a couple things.
1) Subjective experience
Having a point of view, which means one experiences things. As opposed to things simply happening to an object. Rocks don't have a pov. Neither do robots with parts that detect light, and parts that perform actions when the light-detectors send signals to them.
2) Awareness
-Awareness of a subjective experience is possibly redundant? If you weren't aware of it, it wouldn't be a subjective experience.
-Self-Awareness is more. I doubt a bat is self-aware.
-Awareness of awareness seems more still. Are there animals that are aware of themselves as individuals, but not aware that they are aware of themselves?
I presume the higher levels of awareness require more intelligence than the lower levels.