JosephKnecht

A deep conversation between two intelligent people. If you can't watch the whole thing, just watch the speech of Daniel at (01:05:19 Markets, states, and the people),

Probably the most challenging and the most rewarding book I have ever read. I am including excerpts that I have enjoyed the most. Enjoy! Foreword: For, on Hegel’s view, all dialectical thought-paths lead to the Absolute Idea and to the knowledge of it which is itself. The mind for Hegel, as for Aristotle, is thus the place of forms, a bustling Agora where such forms are involved in endless transactions and conversations, and though it is by the intermediation of such forms that there is a reaching-out to their individual instances, they none the less enjoy a relative independence there, a detachment in the thought-ether, that they never enjoy elsewhere. For absolute knowledge is simply the realization that all forms of objectivity are identical with those essential to the thinking subject, so that in construing the world conceptually it is seeing everything in the form of self, the self being simply the ever-active principle of conceptual universality, of categorial synthesis Preface: To judge a thing that has substance and solid worth is quite easy, to comprehend it is much harder, and to blend judgement and comprehension in a definitive description is the hardest thing of all. To help bring philosophy closer to the form of Science, to the goal where it can lay aside the title ‘love of knowing’ and be actual knowing—that is what I have set myself to do. If, namely, the True exists only in what, or better as what, is sometimes called intuition, sometimes immediate knowledge of the Absolute, religion or being—not at the centre of divine love but the being of the divine love itself—then what is required in the exposition of philosophy is, from this viewpoint, rather the opposite of the form of the Notion. For the Absolute is not supposed to be comprehended, it is to be felt and intuited; not the Notion of the Absolute, but the feeling and intuition of it, must govern what is said, and must be expressed by it. The ‘beautiful’, the ‘holy’, the ‘eternal’, ‘religion’, and ‘love’ are the bait required to arouse the desire to bite; not the Notion, but ecstasy, not the cold march of necessity in the thing itself, but the ferment of enthusiasm, these are supposed to be what sustains and continually extends the wealth of substance. The power of Spirit is only as great as its expression, its depth only as deep as it dares to spread out and lose itself in its exposition. Moreover, when this non-conceptual, substantial knowledge professes to have sunk the idiosyncrasy of the self in essential being, and to philosophize in a true and holy manner, it hides the truth from itself: by spurning measure and definition, instead of being devoted to God, it merely gives free rein both to the contingency of the content within it, and to its own caprice. In a proposition of this kind one begins with the word ‘God’. This by itself is a meaningless sound, a mere name; it is only the predicate that says what God is, gives Him content and meaning. The goal is Spirit’s insight into what knowing is. Impatience demands the impossible, to wit, the attainment of the end without the means. But the length of this path has to be endured, because, for one thing, each moment is necessary; and further, each moment has to be lingered over, because each is itself a complete individual shape, and one is only viewed in absolute perspective when its determinateness is regarded as a concrete whole, or the whole is regarded as uniquely qualified by that determination. Since the Substance of the individual, the World-Spirit itself, has had the patience to pass through these shapes over the long passage of time, and to take upon itself the enormous labour of world-history, in which it embodied in each shape as much of its entire content as that shape was capable of holding, and since it could not have attained consciousness of itself by any lesser effort, the individual certainly cannot by the nature of the case comprehend his own substance more easily. Consciousness knows and comprehends only what falls within its experience; for what is contained in this is nothing but spiritual substance, and this, too, as object of the self. But Spirit becomes object because it is just this movement of becoming an other to itself, i.e. becoming an object to itself, and of suspending this otherness. The disparity which exists in consciousness between the ‘I’ and the substance which is its object is the distinction between them, the negative in general. This can be regarded as the defect of both, though it is their soul, or that which moves them. INTRODUCTION But the goal is as necessarily fixed for knowledge as the serial progression; it is the point where knowledge no longer needs to go beyond itself, where knowledge finds itself, where Notion corresponds to object and object to Notion Consciousness, however, is explicitly the Notion of itself. Hence it is something that goes beyond limits, and since these limits are its own, it is something that goes beyond itself. The experience of itself which consciousness goes through can, in accordance with its Notion, comprehend nothing less than the entire system of consciousness, or the entire realm of the truth of Spirit. CONSCIOUSNESS A simple thing of this kind which is through negation, which is neither This nor That, a not-This, and is with equal indifference This as well as That—such a thing we call a universal. So it is in fact the universal that is the true [content] of sense-certainty. Now, there also occur in the perception various properties which seem to be properties of the Thing; but the Thing is a One, and we are conscious that this diversity by which it would cease to be a One falls in us. For us, this object has developed through the movement of consciousness in such a way that consciousness is involved in that development, and the reflection is the same on both sides, or, there is only one reflection Our consciousness, however, has passed over from the inner being as object to the other side, into the Understanding, and it experiences change there. We see that through infinity, law completes itself into an immanent necessity, and all the moments of [the world of] appearance are taken up into the inner world. That the simple character of law is infinity means, according to what we have found, (a) that it is self-identical, but is also in itself different; or it is the selfsame which repels itself from itself or sunders itself into two. What was called simple Force duplicates itself and through its infinity is law. This simple infinity, or the absolute Notion, may be called the simple essence of life, the soul of the world, the universal blood, whose omnipresence is neither disturbed nor interrupted by any difference, but rather is itself every difference, as also their supersession; it pulsates within itself but does not move, inwardly vibrates, yet is at rest. It is self-identical, for the differences are tautological; they are differences that are none. This self-identical essence is therefore related only to itself; ‘to itself’ implies relationship to an ‘other’, and the relation-to-self is rather a self-sundering; or, in other words, that very self-identicalness is an inner difference. These sundered moments are thus in and for themselves each an opposite—of an other; thus in each moment the ‘other’ is at the same time expressed; or each is not the opposite of an ‘other’ but only a pure opposite; and so each is therefore in its own self the opposite of itself. In other words, it is not an opposite at all, but is purely for itself, a pure, self-identical essence that has no difference in it. We see that in the inner world of appearance, the Understanding in truth comes to know nothing else but appearance, but not in the shape of a play of Forces, but rather that play of Forces in its absolutely universal moments and in their movement; in fact, the Understanding experiences only itself. It is manifest that behind the so-called curtain which is supposed to conceal the inner world, there is nothing to be seen unless we go behind it ourselves, as much in order that we may see, as that there may be something behind there which can be seen. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS And it is only through staking one’s life that freedom is won; only thus is it proved that for self-consciousness, its essential being is not [just] being, not the immediate form in which it appears, not its submergence in the expanse of life, but rather that there is nothing present in it which could not be regarded as a vanishing moment, that it is only pure being-for-self. Rather, it is a consciousness existing for itself which is mediated with itself through another consciousness, i.e. through a consciousness whose nature it is to be bound up with an existence that is independent, or thinghood in general. Consciousness, therefore, can only find as a present reality the grave of its life. But because this grave is itself an actual existence and it is contrary to the nature of what actually exists to afford a lasting possession, the presence of that grave, too, is merely the struggle of an enterprise doomed to failure. The fact that the unchangeable consciousness renounces and surrenders its embodied form, while, on the other hand, the particular individual consciousness gives thanks [for the gift], i.e. denies itself the satisfaction of being conscious of its independence, and assigns the essence of its action not to itself but to the beyond, through these two moments of reciprocal self-surrender of both parts, consciousness does, of course, gain a sense of its unity with the Unchangeable. REASON Reason is the certainty of being all reality. This in-itself or this reality is, however, a universal pure and simple, the pure abstraction of reality For its freedom or its being-for-self is just this, to treat the necessity [of the relation] as of no importance. Consequently, the way in which difference, qua inert, expresses itself is just this, that it is an indifferent difference, i.e. difference as magnitude The infinite judgement, qua infinite, would be the fulfilment of life that comprehends itself; the consciousness of the infinite judgement that remains at the level of picture-thinking behaves as urination. The realization attained by this individuality consists therefore in nothing more than this, viz. that it has cast forth this circle of abstractions from its confinement within simple self-consciousness, into the element where they are for self-consciousness, in other words, are expanded into an objective existence. The individual, therefore, knowing that in his actual world he can find nothing else but its unity with himself, or only the certainty of himself in the truth of that world, can experience only joy in himself. This is the Notion which consciousness forms of itself,... It has the value of the Absolute, for self-consciousness cannot and does not want any more to go beyond this object, for in it, it is in communion with itself: it cannot, for it is all being and all power; it does not want to, for it is the self or the will of this self. The object is in its own self real as object, for it contains within itself the distinction characteristic of consciousness; it divides itself into ‘masses’ [Massen] or spheres which are the determinate laws of the absolute essence All that is left, then, for the making of a law is the mere form of universality, or, in fact, the tautology of consciousness which stands over against the content, and the knowledge, not of an existing or a real content, but only of the essence or self-identity of a content. But this self-consciousness is the actuality and existence of the substance, its self and its will. SPIRIT Both worlds, however, when grasped by Spirit—which, after this loss of itself, withdraws into itself—when grasped by the Notion, are confounded and revolutionized by the insight [of the individual] and the diffusion of that insight, known as the Enlightenment; and the realm which was divided and expanded into this world and the beyond, returns into self-consciousness which now, in the form of morality, grasps itself as the essentiality and essence as the actual self; it no longer places its world and its ground outside of itself, but lets everything fade into itself, and, as conscience, is Spirit that is certain of itself. This world is, however, a spiritual entity, it is in itself the interfusion of being and individuality; this its existence is the work of self-consciousness, but it is also an alien reality already present and given, a reality which has a being of its own and in which it does not recognize itself. The Spirit of this world is a spiritual essence that is permeated by a self-consciousness which knows itself, and knows the essence as an actuality confronting it. But the existence of this world, as also the actuality of self-consciousness, rests on the process in which the latter divests itself of its personality, thereby creating its world. On the other hand, the individual, through the enjoyment of wealth, gains no experience of his universal nature, but only gets a transitory consciousness and enjoyment of himself qua single and independent individual, and of the disparity between himself and his essence It stands on the very edge of this innermost abyss, of this bottomless depth, in which all stability and Substance have vanished; and in this depth it sees nothing but a common thing, a plaything of its whims, an accident of its caprice. In the will of the self that is certain of itself, in this knowledge that the self is essential being, lies the essence of what is right. The reconciling Yea, in which the two ‘I’s let go their antithetical existence, is the existence of the ‘I’ which has expanded into a duality, and therein remains identical with itself, and, in its complete externalization and opposite, possesses the certainty of itself: it is God manifested in the midst of those who know themselves in the form of pure knowledge. RELIGION Absolute Being is, in the latter form, indeed the self and present, since other than present the self cannot be Absolute Spirit is the content, and is thus in the shape of its truth. As essence it is only in itself or for us; but since this purity is just abstraction or negativity, it is for itself, or is the Self, the Notion. it is said that the eternal Being begets for itself an ‘other’. But in this otherness it has at the same time immediately returned into itself; for the difference is the difference in itself, i.e. it is immediately distinguished only from itself and is thus the unity that has returned into itself. ABSOLUTE KNOWING This last shape of Spirit—the Spirit which at the same time gives its complete and true content the form of the Self and thereby realizes its Notion as remaining in its Notion in this realization—this is absolute knowing; it is Spirit that knows itself in the shape of Spirit, or a comprehensive knowing [in terms of the Notion]. Truth is not only in itself completely identical with certainty, but it also has the shape of self-certainty, or it is in its existence in the form of self-knowledge goal is the revelation of the depth of Spirit, and this is the absolute Notion. from the chalice of this realm of spirits foams forth for Him his own infinitude.

You need to be able to gain insights for yourself. The insights that Leo and other teachers are giving you will not get you where you ultimately want to go. Start a contemplation practice where you try to figure out things for yourself. Read zen koan books. You must think for yourself. I will give you an easy example which is somewhat of Zen koan. Which word is spelled incorrectly in every dictionary? Try to think about the answer to this question for yourself. You are the one that needs to solve the puzzle. If you can't solve it.. watch the beginning of this video.. You see, one of the guys is looking at the meaning of the word, while the other looks only at the word. One of them has the insight, the other one doesn't. You need to be able to bring insights into your sight.

He is trying to tell you that he exists only within your consciousness. Time is also a concept that only exists within your consciousness. If you collapse the time concept, you can realize that past and future don't exist. The only thing that exists is consciousness in the present.

Intelligence is the ability to recognize patterns in order to satisfy some utility function. The more intelligent one is, the more higher-level patterns one can cognize.

You are speaking as if unconditional love is something that exists outside of you. It is inside of you. Your bias for sushi creates a split in the unconditional love that makes it conditional. You make unconditional love, conditional. Find out how you do it... Imagine God as a Complete Nothingness. It is so Complete Nothingness that has nothing to compare itself against. It has no language, no concepts, no material, not anything. The question is, how does Complete Nothingness become aware of what it is? Through your Being. God has to exist as something, in order to avoid Complete Nothingness. In other words, God knows himself through you. You tell God what he IS. What you need to experience is this Complete Nothingness. If you don't experience it and don't know it at the level of Being, it is just a philosophy. Because he was born as a mortal, and mortals have preferences. In fact, if mortals had no preferences they would have nothing to do. Imagine you being born in a perfect world and get everything just by wishing it into existence. In a billion years, wouldn't you wish to experience some suffering again?

I have become conscious of this on psychedelics. From my point of view, Leo is a dream character and a dream character can't stop my dream. They can only help me to wake up. Leo can't stop my dream. When in the future I reach a point where I know MYSELF as EVERYTHING, The UNIVERSAL I can stop the dream. @Leo Gura Thanks for your answers.

When human intelligence is decreasing, intelligence must find an artificial path to survive in reality. You always fear the things you don't understand. I guess you don't understand intelligence. Find out what is intelligence, and you can never fear it. (Artificial or otherwise)

@Leo Gura In the interview, you mentioned that you have reached a point, which if crossed, you will take everyone with you. Meaning, that you don't dissolve only your perspective, but the perspective of everyone. Kurt didn't challenge you on this. Would you care to elaborate? 1) How do you know where that point is? 2) Isn't you knowing just a speculation given the fact that you haven't crossed it? 3) Doesn't this require the consent of everyone? Why would your will, overrule the will of all? Given that my "dream" is fairly consistent and has not been interrupted, my experience only supports the oposite of your view.

More conscious people tend to be more selfless. Selfless people tend to surrender to the way reality is. Is it a surprise that the world is run by low-conscious selfish people while the high-conscious selfless people are meditating in a cave somewhere? At what point selflessness transforms into selfishness?

So something is good only if gives you something? How narrow definition of the good. Take the time to read what he wrote. You will find many insights into his thoughts... People like Ted are trying to announce something to society. The technological revolution will change the definition of what it means to be human. Ted was just trying to protect this humanness.

The truth is that you care about your survival. Since you care about your survival, you care about the truth.

You can never know if its the right or not. On some level, you have to have faith. But if you want to find out practically if you guys are good for each other, go on vacation together. Don't preplan everything and allow the vacation to be a sort of adventure. If you enjoy your vacation, then you have a good partner. If you hated your life after the vacation, keep searching for someone more compatible. The vacation will serve as a preview of your life together going into an unknown future. And you surely need to have joy with your partner in that future.

He talks about this in his manifesto. The bombs were there to gather attention. He simply wanted his ideas to be heard. If there were no bombs, nobody would know about the ideas of a guy who lived quietly in the mountains of Montana. Although Ted was very intelligent, he did not go meta enough. He created a shadow out of the technological revolution, and instead of seeing it as a necessary evolution in the progression of humanity, he wanted to regress to earlier and better days.

Truth: Nothing Forever Happening

Science

Who is John Galt? We can't just all run onto an island and wait for the destruction of society. We have to actively participate in its construction and destruction. You are already part of the process, that is inescapable. You can only choose what to construct and what to deconstruct.

Do not take it personally. He is only speaking to his own projections. When he calls you selfish, he is calling himself selfish, because selfishness is part of what he is. Also, self-esteem cannot be attacked because all self-esteem comes from the self. He might be attacking something else, but you have to evaluate what that is?

About 7 years ago, I fell into a tourist trap in Budapest Hungary. Together with a friend of mine, we were visiting Budapest for a weekend trip. Late Friday evening, after drinking in some bars we decided to go to a strip club. We got into a cab and told the taxi driver to take us to the best strip club in town. We were half-drunk at this point. We get to the strip club, and the place was literally underground. There were very few customers and the place looked very shady. They give us a menu of drinks, but without any prices. We order whiskey or something like that. After 10 minutes or so, my intuition told me that there is something wrong here, so we ask for the bill since we wanted to leave. They bring us the bill, and it turns out the price of the drink we ordered is about 400 euros. (Keep in mind that that is probably the average monthly salary in Hungary at that point.) We argued with the waiters, they called the bouncers. It wasn't pretty. Eventually, the bouncers escorted us to a near ATM to take out money to pay them. It turns out that the max amount you can take at the ATM was 400 euros, otherwise they would have charged more. The scam involved the taxi driver who gets paid a commission for tourists that he brings. Apparently, the prices of drinks were written near the entrance of the club with very small letters to circumvent local laws if the police get involved. So if you are going to Eastern Europe, watch out... https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/eastern-europe/hungary/budapest-bar-scams

The vault already exists... You just have to look within...

@flowboy <= this guy has some good advice. Ignore the advice of all responses from the girls. A girl doesn't know what she wants, she only thinks she knows what she wants. Even if you give her what she thinks she wants, she won't be happy. Because she does not know what she wants. Asking for things is what they call a "shit test" to see how desperate you are. And you smell desperate. To get a girl, first, you must not need a girl.

Psychedelics make spiritual teachers obsolete. If they didn't oppose them, they would be out of a job

You don't need to become more selfish. You need to build your self-esteem. How to build self-esteem... 1. Disregard others. Only you can give yourself self-esteem. 2. Find something you enjoy doing or something you want to be better at. 3. Work daily at that thing. 4. Notice the progress you are making. Notice how you are getting better. Do not quit. 5. After perfecting that thing, gain esteem from the new better version of yourself. Only you can give yourself self-esteem. That "something" can be a hobby, skill, work, job, relationship, or whatever else you want.

Women have strong intuition. They can sense your boundaries(or lack thereof) and can use emotions to manipulate you. Once they know your weakness, you are fucked. Their ego will exploit your weakness to do their bidding. It sounds like your wife has you around her little finger. She has sensed that you are putting her on a pedestal (maybe because of low self-esteem) and she feels she can do whatever she wants with you. Just remember, when she does whatever she wants, she loses respect for you. You are not supposed to succumb to her emotional tantrums. As a man, you should be a solid as a rock and cut your hair the way you want. Keep in mind that she is this way due to her dysfunctional family history and she doesn't know any better. In order to improve, she needs to do lots of work on self-improvement.

Open relationships require a lot of emotional maturity. If both people are not emotionally mature, it will lead to problems down the road. I live in the Netherlands, and open-type relationships are fairly common here. For some people, they end badly, but for others, they work like a charm. In order for these types of relationships to work, you have to be completely honest with yourself. If you have any personal insecurities (thinking that you are not good enough, etc), eventually this will lead to jealousy and problems. If you are happy when your partner shares his body with another person because his happiness translates into your happiness, then you will be fine. Also, your partner has to be happy for you when you do the same. You have to decide what works best for you.