FM> That's the best I can do.  You appear to challenge the authors I have
 FM> mentioned without reading their core messages and dealing with THOSE
 FM> IDEAS, substituting, instead, some definitions that favor your own
 FM> inclinations
 DM> Yes! .....but I don't think gathering up a gang, hand picked, to aid in
 DM> making your points to be any more of serious. illumination.
   Believe me, David, I DIDN'T gather them up for myself, much less decide on
something I LIKED and then go out to look for something to bolster MY
conclusions.  I don't even claim illumination.  Others, however, to whom I'm
more than grateful DID guide me in rejecting the notion of looking among the
"systems" for some "piece of information" that would reveal a body of truth
lying around for somebody to stumble upon it.  Even though I still don't
"possess a truth" and certainly not the truth of reality I'm pretty certain
that no one else has either.  The truth of existence does not lie in the
direction of ANYBODY'S fully developed system as a guarantee of finality and
certainty.  That is why so many disagree with my understanding of the meaning
of "faith."
 DM> P.S. For most of my years, philosophy was just a package of "ways you
 DM> lived your life by" (one's philosophy of life) ......the idea that
 DM> philosophy is "a love to search for wisdom" is new to me and as I read
 DM> the classical philosophers, and books about philosophy, I still have NOT
 DM> been able to develop such a noble working definition of it as
 DM> you..............!
   I could say the same thing at one time and perhaps it may still be true of
me to some extent even after having the difference delivered so clearly.  
   Once a subject has been examined from all sides, "definitions" become
superfluous and may even be misleading.  They never have been anything else
(certainly not philosophical anchors) than valid attempts to examine
terminologies so that discussants might try to utilize terms agreed upon.
Such an effort is HARDEST in the area of philosophical discussion itself.
That is why the DISCUSSION is more important BY FAR than DEFINITIONS.
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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