Eudaimonia

Long story short, found a paper. Abstract:

It is often thought that, for the Stoics, assent and the suspension of assent to kataleptic impressions is voluntary in the sense that one can deliberate about assenting or suspending assent. Against this view, I examine the relevant sources closely and argue that they point in a different direction: assent and suspension of assent to kataleptic impressions is not a matter of deliberation. Instead, kataleptic impressions force our assent in the absence of obstacles that make it difficult to discern kataleptic from non-kataleptic impressions. Surprisingly, neither is the act of withholding assent to kataleptic impressions a matter of deliberation; instead, the presence of obstacles that make it difficult to discern kataleptic from non-kataleptic impressions triggers the activation of a disposition to withhold assent. However, we can acquire this disposition through training in dialectic. This means that deliberation can be involved in the acquisition of this disposition. However, the act of assenting and the act of withholding assent to kataleptic impressions is not guided by deliberation.

I think you'll find your way to libgen yourself, it's chapter 13 in the book, haven't read anything else from it yet though some stuff looks interesting.

Overall this characterisation of katalepsis strengthens me in my assumption that what the Stoics are trying to get at is the exact same thing that Zen folks call "direct knowledge".

The best subjective (hey, this is phenomenology) experiment to demonstrate the clear distinction between this stuff and ordinary thoughts I know of, as in, "doesn't involve faith or decades of staring at the wall" comes from a technique the lucid dreaming community came up with to trigger lucid dreams: Ask yourself whether you're awake. If you're awake, the response to that question will be right-out unassailable, you just know, kinda feels silly to even ask. When you ask yourself that question regularly throughout the day, after maybe a week or two, the mind gets used to regularly posing that question and will also do it when you're sleeping, and if you get it right in that context, your dreams will become lucid (You'll be dreaming and simultaneously know that you're dreaming, allowing you to consciously steer them to at least some degree). If you get it wrong, which shouldn't be hard to do, the qualia, the spot that the wrong answer comes from will be quite different, which can be remembered when you're awake, again. "Qualia" and "spot" both kinda bad terms it's not a thing that can really be put into words, just suspend disbelief will you. The wrong answer comes from, as the paper puts it, an obstacle to assent, obscuring the view of the kataleptic impression: Your mind could tell your consciousness the truth but it has other plans for tonight, you knowing that you're asleep-yet-conscious would only get into the way of that.

Furthermore I think the first rule of this sub should be "Never assent to non-kataleptic impressions". Yes I'm going to Cato this.

(art by taracod, there will also be some homework assigned for further reading at the end :), i suggest you check that out)

Hello, long time no significant post, i have a heavy hitter this time. It's time to get comfy for this one, I've been locked in since the last few months, and i have a prognosis to make. This one is going to be a bit briefer than the last few, for good reason.

First things first, post truth society. We are definitionally living in a form of society where truth is unimportant, i know it, you know, I've done it, you've done it, we've all done it, truth holds almost no value to our collective society at the moment. There's no nice way to put this, and there's no easy solution here. Frankly, this is a topic for another time, but it has an important tangential relevance so i don't want to leave it completely behind here.

Secondly, what i like to refer to as "cabin in the woods syndrome" is that feeling you get where you simply want to leave society, move to a cabin in the woods, and pursue a more nomadic lifestyle. Strict definitions have not been created at this point, perhaps someone else has some better ideas here, but it gets the rough idea across.

I believe, these two things are intrinsically linked in a way that can't be understated at this very moment. Both of these things are enabled by the other. Post-truthism enables cabin in the woods, and vice versa. However, the important distinction here is that one of these things (post-truthism) is a very important problem to be dealing with right now, and the other (cabin in the woods) is a vibes based thing.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to directly tackle post-truthism, as it's a very difficult problem to tackle, and for good reason. Thankfully, i think there are several ways of combating this without directly focusing on it. The argument that i came here to make is that you can channel your cabin in the woods vibes into subconsciously working towards a more post truth society.

It's not easy, but it is very simple. All you have to do is to create your own hypothetical cabin in the woods, since this is a vibes based thing rather than a general want of any given person, this should be fairly easy to work towards once you figure it out. Granted it depends from person to person, but for me it's generally going to be working towards combating this type of negative social behavior, in whatever positive way i can. For example, post-truthism has a very negative person to person interaction, it's infectious by design and spreads much like a virus does. The best thing i can do to counteract it that's within my willpower is to engage in antithetical behaviors. Things that are inherently designed to dissuade this sort of post-truthism. A really apparent example of this is going to be local support groups, and this is going to mirror one or two of my previous posts here, and for good reason.

The more you can get people to stop thinking about post truth behaviors the less they can engage with them, and the positive way to do this is going to be encouraging them to be a positive local support group influence. How you go about doing this doesn't really matter what matters is that you manage to mobilize a focus against post truth behaviors. It can be friends, family, neighbors, community around you, communities surrounding things you are interested in, it doesn't really matter. However it will be highly beneficial to be a physical real group of people interacting in person, as this will greatly improve this sort of positive interaction. Human psychology is based on this kind of behavior, it's inherently rewarding and makes people happier, it's not impossible to do it online, but you are going to be significantly more set back, as i am in this case, writing to you through a screen. With vague silly statements that sound rather amusing. Or maybe they're very biting statements and entirely encapsulate what you feel is wrong with the world in this very moment, and describes what you could not before. Regardless, none of this matters if nobody does anything about it. That's the inherent problem I'm facing, that we're all facing, people need to do something about it.

in the same way that post-truthism hacks the human psychology to effectively spread mis/disinformation in similar ways to how pathogens spread. We need to manipulate the psychology of other people to do good things for society, for the purpose of doing good things. And the best way to do that is by directly improving the lives of the people most integral to you. You need to be able to bat for them, and they need to be able to bat for you. If neither one of you can do this you aren't a functional community, you are merely a group of people with shared interests.

anyway, that's pretty much all i have to say in regards to this right now, i may have more to say later, but not for now. Start looking for the cabin in the woods to cure your post-truthism, preferably before the post-truthism catches you.

great talk by the infamous deviant ollam that pretty closely aligns with this topic: https://youtu.be/6ihrGNGesfI

if you wish to read any of my previous posts here, you can, it's the only thing i post on this website, aside from lots of really silly comments that you probably shouldn't read, trust me.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3132208

it's important to understand how shame and guilt actually work before you try to use it for good.

Not that anybody asked, but I think it's important to understand how shame and guilt actually work before you try to use it for good.

It's a necessary emotion. There are reasons we have it. It makes everything so. much. worse. when you use it wrong.

Shame and guilt are DE-motivators. They are meant to stop behavior, not promote it. You cannot, ever, in any meaningful way, guilt someone into doing good. You can only shame them into not doing bad.

Let's say you're a parent and your kid is having issues.

Swearing in class? Shame could work. You want them to stop it. Keep it in proportion, and it might help. (KEEP IT IN PROPORTION!!!)

Not doing their homework? NO! STOP! NO NOT DO THAT! EVER! EVER! EVER! You want them to start to do their homework. Shaming them will have to opposite effect! You have demotivated them! They will double down on NOT doing it. Not because they are being oppositional, but because that's what shame does!

You can't guilt people into building better habits, being more successful, or getting more involved. That requires encouragement. You need to motivate for that stuff!

If you want it in a simple phrase:

You can shame someone out of being a bad person, but you can't shame them into being a good person.

It was nice to see this put so clearly. This election cycle has left me exhausted and demotivated, and this hits it square on the head.

stolen from https://grungekitty-77.tumblr.com/post/754482938951892992/fun-fact-that-was-literally-what-inspired-me-to

I wrote this a long time ago. It might be insightful to some of you.

A classic from Cracked. I even blogged about it back in the day

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15004731

Found here, where the image also has the text as an ALT image description. https://chaos.social/@saxnot/112349120606446433