CB>Hi...
CB>Is there a strict defenition of the above term?
CB>or is it general and including things like ethics,
That has traditionally been a philisophical topic.
CB> religion,
That topic is discouraged here simply because religion is often
driven by deep unchangeable beliefs learned at an early age,
and it often provokes flame wars.
CB> quantum physics
Science as a method has been so successful because it posits
that what we want to believe must give way to what actually is.
But science is based on the philosophical assumption that there
is a reality external to ourselves, and that it can be known
in at least a relative way.  This conclusion seems to be well-
supported.
CB>and other weird stuff...
CB>Or must the topic stay off thus and such...
I suppose I shouldn't say this, but at the moment we don't
have a moderator.  
CB>Reason is, I want to discuss the meaning of life for a while and, well, 
prett
CB>much all of the above things would enter into the convo.
The meaning of life (if it has one) is traditionally a very basic
part of philosophy.
CB>I'm doin' TAFE studying computers and i'm blundering me way through this
CB>existance (sometimes alone and sometimes feeling its all pretty pointless 
as
CB>we all have on occasion),
As a character in one of my unpublished short stories once said,
if life is meaningless, then there's no point getting all worked
up about it.    This seems to be the Buddhist view -- life just is.
and, even though Hitchhikers Guide *did* actually
CB>shed light on one aspect (The fact that humour is enjoyable and that you 
have
CB>to be alive ( as far as I know) to enjoy it),
You have typed truer than you know.  Humor IMHO is central to the
mystery of human existence.  And I don't mean ha-ha humor; I mean
ex stasis.  At a lower level, I think ha-ha humor is severely
underrated as philosophy.  Why is humor funny?  Why do we laugh when
that 'Hitchhiker' computer discovers that The Answer to the Question
of the Universe is 42?  I think Douglas Adams, Richard Pryor, and
George Carlin are among the important philosophers of our time.
What is great comedy but wisdom?
i recall once reading about an American who wandered to India
and ended up being the film projectionist to a bunch of Tibetan
refugee monks.  (This was before VHS.)  The monks loved to watch
movies, but they had no interest in dramas; rather, what they
liked was Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers, and the sillier
the better.  There's a lesson in there somewhere.
it still doesnt cover the wider
CB>aspects, such as why 42 and not 64, a much nicer number i think...
Agreed.  64 is divisible by many more numbers, and therefore
logically must be more important.  
CB>Because, as far as I can see, *No one* will ever be able to know *for 
ure*
CB>until they die as to wether there's an afterlife or anything...
   STUDENT: What happens after we die?
ZEN MASTER: I don't know.
   STUDENT: But, but, you're a Zen master!
ZEN MASTER: But I'm not a _dead_ Zen master.
I suspect that if we want to know about the afterlife, it will
have to be based not on rigid belief systems but on actual
experience while we're here.
CB>But then maybe I'm straying from topic here...
If you were truly the sort of person who is known in cyberspace
as a Twit, it never would have occurred to you to worry about that.
Twits are perfectly certain.
CB>I guess what I really *want* to know is, do you think its possible to ever
CB>Know for Sure Anything?
Um, well, I don't know!  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
CB>I mean, internally, we all know we exist, right, cuz we're each sittin 
there
CB>lookin out our own eyes seein out own stuff, but also deep down I suspect 
alo
CB>of people secretly wonder whether or not they are actually the only ones 
who
CB>actually exist, and everyone is merely a figment of their imagination...
If you push certain lines of reasoning far enough (Descartes), you are
obliged to ask that question.  But there are some unfortunate people
whose brains aren't producing the right chemicals, and who really
see things that way at a gut level.  What exactly is the difference?
(For a good consideration of this problem, be sure to read Kurt
Vonnegut's classic novel, "Breakfast of Champions").
CB>Thats a paranoia, sorta, but when you mesh quantum mechanics and the tiny
CB>*fact* that we're all made up of tiny balls of electricity interacting in 
ver
CB>precise and Strange ways then you can imagine actual (ACTUAL) reality to 
e
CB>nothing more than some huge *sun* type thing full of nothing more than
CB>seething electrical energy in a multitude of wavelengths, interacting on 
an u
CB>imaginable scale and we (humans on earth) only percieve what we percieve
CB>because thats the only way we can...
CB>One day ( as far as the scientists say and I know math (a little) and I am
CB>inclined to believe them over creationism(and I'm not mentioning that 
again,
CB>dont want to start a war here)),
Thank you.
CB>                                 one day, long ago,we were all packed into 
a
CB>ball much much smaller than the size of a pin, not just us but the entire
CB>universe...We all, every single molicule was then ONE entity...so we all 
have
CB>been influenced by the same forces and we are all still basically the same
CB>matter\energy (at aparently different levels of ecxitement or something), 
so
CB>maybe, there is no *space*...
CB>Events a long way off in space may merely be what our perception is of an
CB>energy wave that only effects our perception in a small way, such as the 
ray
CB>of light from a star...
CB>Or on occasion, the seething mass of energy swirls chaotically in a way to
CB>cause a stronger or different type of wave to give us the view of a
CB>supernova...Again distance (space) being only an indication of its effect 
on
CB>us...
Your science is awfully jumbled.  If you want to be current in your time,
you must at least know what science is learning and why it arrives
at its conclusions.  Science is replacing philosophy in many areas,
for example by studying what the brain actually does.  But science
will never explain what a man or woman should do in a certain
situation, or why civil rights are worth fighting for.
Perhaps the meaning of your life will be to redefine philosophy
in an era where science is dominant.  Who knows?
CB>In a nutshell..."Why"?
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