Name a depressing philospher thead.

[brainshrub]

Kierkegaard.

[achtung_circus]

1. Nietzsche. nt

[sundog]

10. nietzsche makes me all sentimental & squishy inside

:P

[SCDem]

2. Aristotle

I don't know how the view and place of women got so warped between Plato who came before and Aristotle. Aristotle does not bode well for the theory of as time goes by we progress in thought - I'd take Plato any day to Aristotle.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. Ayn Rand depresses me

[brainshrub]

4. Ayn Rand never understood the nature of Democracy.

Rand equated Democracy with Communism. (Not surprising for a woman who was born in Russia.) She felt that Democratic societies would only subvert individual will & interest in the long run. She never understood that individuality does not live in a vacuum; we are only as free as the social context in which we live.

People who are able to transcend the constraints of society are usually insane or wealthy enough to afford the luxury of swimming upstream of convention.

The youth temporarily have the energy to fight social pressures to conform, but unless they find a way to make enough money, they quickly find themselves run-down.

In a Democracy, we help each other enjoy the freedoms that we were naturally endowed with by creating an infrastructure that would be to expensive to create by any one individual. Social programs such as public schools, universal health-care, and social security relieve some of the pressure so that the common citizens can enjoy some of the individuality that used to be experienced by the privileged.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

5. Shortest Thread in the World:

Name a "chipper" philospher.

[Misunderestimator]

6. Confucius

:)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. Nope. Not chipper enough

I'm talking Kathy-Lee-Gifford-Chipper.

[XemaSab]

7. Buddha

"All life is suffering."

[Heidi]

12. Buddhism also says

that we are responsible for a portion of our suffering, and that we can alleviate a good portion of our suffering. How's that depressing? I think it's empowering. :shrug:

[XemaSab]

15. Outside a life of mental discipline,

things are invariably grim, and it's human longing that makes them grim.

That's some grim thinking.

[Heidi]

16. "Invariably grim" is a matter of perspective.

"Consider the following. We humans are social beings. We come into the world as the result of others' actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities. For this reason it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.

Nor is it so remarkable that our greatest joy should come when we are motivated by concern for others. But that is not all. We find that not only do altruistic actions bring about happiness but they also lessen our experience of suffering. Here I am not suggesting that the individual whose actions are motivated by the wish to bring others' happiness necessarily meets with less misfortune than the one who does not. Sickness, old age, mishaps of one sort or another are the same for us all. But the sufferings which undermine our internal peace -- anxiety, doubt, disappointment -- these things are definitely less. In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves an experience of our own suffering is less intense.

What does this tell us? Firstly, because our every action has a universal dimension, a potential impact on others' happiness, ethics are necessary as a means to ensure that we do not harm others. Secondly, it tells us that genuine happiness consists in those spiritual qualities of love, compassion, patience, tolerance and forgiveness and so on. For it is these which provide both for our happiness and others' happiness.”

From Ethics for a New Millennium, by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

[XemaSab]

17. That ain't Buddha

n/t

[Heidi]

18. One Buddha only?

"I teach about suffering and the way to end it."
Shakyamuni Buddha

P.S. It is taught there there is more than one Buddha, and that the 14th Dalai Lama is recognized among many Tibetans as the embodiment of the compassion of all the Buddhas.

[Swede]

8. Ecclesiastes

There is nothing new under the sun.

[Richardo]

9. Aren't they all?

:shrug:

[Bunny]

13. An occupational hazard, I'd say!

[Taverner]

14. Is Carol Bayer Sager a philosopher?

She has an "s" in her name!

[SOteric]

19. Schopenhauer.