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Gradually warming up to certain concepts in psychoanalysis

About two years ago, I was staunchly against the freud/jung mode of analyzing personality. It seemed too esoteric to me to say that the collective unconscious existed, and certain personality aspects (ego, id, superego) and archetypes (the hero, the old man, the seductress) existed. Even now, I wonder whether nominalism about these concepts is a better fit for these theories rather than them existing in a platonic realm.   However, the more I read about these concepts, the more I believe that they should be treated as universals. Take platonism about chairs, for example. The classical problem is how we can best define a chair. Is it a legged platform that one can sit on? No, because couches are chairs, and couches do not necessarily have legs. Is it simply a platform that one can sit on? No, because a ledge, like a cliffside, is not typically considered a chair. It is difficult to specify what constitutes the platonic form of a chair. But nonetheless, I think it exists: the pl...
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Revisiting Goodness

lukj: We ought to do good!    Felix: What is goodness? Is it just survival?  lukj: No, I don't think so. I don't think goodness is reducible to survival.    Felix: Then is goodness reducible to some other terms? Can we measure goodness as simply psychological pleasure? Or fitness? lukj: I don't think so. I think goodness is irreducible! We might ask, what is goodness, but we cannot put it into any other terms. There is no further fact of the matter.  Felix: Isn't that incoherent? Doesn't that make goodness transcendent? And because there are no observable transcendent things, it doesn't actually exist?  lukj: I think there are transcendent things, and we can observe them in everyday life! Take love, for example. If I were to tell my significant other that I love them because it fires chemicals in my brain, or because I am evolutionarily wired to love them, or any other non-transcendent meaning, then I devalue the concept of love.  Felix: Then why ...
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Empathy: Emotional Contagion or Perspective Taking?

 Discussion in the philosophy of animal minds over what constitutes empathy (and what kind of behavior defines it) typically defines it in one of two ways.  1) Emotional Contagion: Emotional mirroring/matching. Just a biologic impulse, no rationalization involved. You see, you associate with an emotion, and your body produces physiological markers of the same emotion.  2) Perspective taking: "Putting yourself in another person's shoes".  Does the second definition of empathy require emotions? I don't think so. Here's an argument that perspective taking can be achieved by pure practical reason:  P1. I have a perspective.  P2. I am made up of biological systems.  P3. The external world exists, and other biological systems exist.  P4. Other biological systems act as though they have an inner life (or subjective experience).  P5. Other people also have perspectives.  My intuitions tell me that empathy is an emotion rather than an exercise in...
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Modal Logic: Possibility, Necessity, and Incoherent Worlds

In the language of modal logic, a necessary fact is a fact that is true in every possible universe. For example, the fact is that 1+1=2 is true in every universe, or the fact that a and not a cannot be true at the same time, or that there are infinitely many prime numbers.  The skeptic might think that in another universe, we may define numbers differently, and thus come to the conclusion that 1+1=3. But what I am referring to is the deeper meaning behind what is expressed by variables. What the sentence refers to is a true statement, regardless of the semantics or referential language used.  I came across an argument that there necessary truths cannot possibly exist, because we do not have access to other universes. For example, in another possible universe, numbers may not exist at all! This skeptic believed that because we were cut off from the experience of another universe, that we do not know whether necessary facts could possibly exist across all possible worlds.  ...
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The Resilience of a Man

 Okay, forgive me for being parasocial. I'm watching jasontheween's prom night stream and the vibes are absolutely off. Before, Jason and his date Sakura got matching nail designs -- with Sakura having a "J" drawn on her nails. But later on in the night, Sakura half jokingly tells him that the "J" isn't for him but for his cameraman Jawhn. Jason asks her to take it back. She doesn't. The vibes immediately fall off. The car ride back is awkward as hell. It's obvious Jason wants to say something and Sakura's talking just to talk.  When they get back, Jason's friends are all telling him to keep shooting his shot and don't take the joke too seriously. But Jason's never had something like this happen to him so publicly. Yea, he's been "lil bro'd" before, but not to the extent of being in such a cuck position. It's absolutely infuriating to be put in that position. His friends are correct to say that he should take...
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In Defense of US military involvement overseas

The Department of Defense functions primarily as a defense agency -- for the protection of private property. This is why we oftentimes need to secure the property of our citizens overseas (i.e. escorting US-flagged vessels in the Middle East).  But if the highest good is the aim of this institution, then other aims might suffer.  I had a Pakistani classmate complain to me about how their government was headed by corrupt government officials that took bribes from the United States and always sought to increase funding for the military rather than for any social programs. He blamed the US for the root cause of the Pakistani government's current situation.  First, on moral responsibility. From a Pakistani perspective, agreeing to US terms is a bribe. When one accepts the bribe, one might ask whether the bribe-maker or the bribe-acceptor is morally complicit. Intuitively, both are. So therefore, both the Pakistani government and the US are complicit in keeping Pakistan corrup...
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Thoughts about cosmetic surgery, insecurity, and self hate

Suppose I got plastic surgery to fix my nose. WhenI have a child and see my own features reflected in them, do I begin to resent them? Part of me thinks so. Cosmetic surgery is more than just a procedure to make me feel beautiful. It is also a rejection of my true authentic biological self (which, one can argue, is not me, in the sense that I am an embodied mind). But it says something about me — and even if I can’t put a finger on it, I doubt it is something positive.  Unconsciously, one might begin to imprint these insecurities onto his or her children. I think it’s sad that children are brought up to hate themselves in the same way that their parents do.  Note that this doesn’t just apply to cosmetic surgery. Certain flavors of interracial marriages, self-hatred of one’s own height/beautiful features, extreme misandry/mysogyny, internalized racism/hatred of their own race, or even genetic disabilities may have one developing insecurity such that one begins to become increas...
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