What philosophy do you follow in your life?

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2fish

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Sep 10, 2008
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1. How has your philosophy changed how you see the world?
2. Does your philosophy have and downsides?
3. Where did your philosophy come from?

I personally am a mix of three philosophers work.

1. Machiavelli: I mostly follow the Prince; however I also use parts of the Discourses on Livy and the Art of War. I find his realism refreshing and useful as I can find myself subconsciously looking for who holds the power and how to either gain that power or if I have it use it to gain my objective. I prefer to avoid fights and negotiate with people, but I do change or alter rules to help myself gain an advantage. I see the world as people all with goals of power, objectives, and alliances. This makes me seem rather anti-social as people can easily assume I only see people as a tool for my goals.

2. Sun Tzu: I use his work for when a conflict cannot be avoided. I tend to lean on his deception and planning sections harder than the other parts of his book. Strike where you are unexpected, if you are strong act weak, and so on. This can make people think of me as distant or simply surprise them when I carry on an intellectual conversation. This is because in a group of new friends I prefer to watch and learn people's way before I show myself. So I just make small talk if I talk at all.

3. John Stuart Mill: from his book On Liberty I take my outlook on human rights. You have the liberty to do what you want until you interfere with someone else?s right to do what they want. I have not encountered any real downside with this unless you count the contradictions that can come up between this and my other two philosophies for life.

In the end my philosophy on life is mostly based on conflict with the idea that if your wishes have no effect on me then I have no problem with them.
 

The DSM

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Apr 18, 2009
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Do what ever you want, live with consequences, not sure who said that, but someone probably has.
 
Jun 13, 2009
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My philosophy on life can be summed up as: I hate everything[footnote]Disclaimer: May not actually be everything.[/footnote]. I am a cynic suffering from major anger repression. Fuck yeah. It's immature and not very well balanced, but I stopped caring a while ago about that kind of business.

My greatest influence would probably be Schadenfreude.

1. I see the world as a bleak and terrible place, filled with people who's only interest is themselves. Some people are okay, but it's like filtering through shit to find a penny. The Escapist has one of the best ratios of pennies compared to the dross that I've found online. And that's why I live here.

2. Of course it has downsides. If you act so negatively about everything, people get fed up with you. Also, if you go into a conversation with someone expecting them to be dicks, you end up coming over as hostile, and miss out on some intelligent, and genuinely nice, friends.

3. It came from a decade of physical and mental bullying, being the social outcast, and then moving house the moment I had begun to adjust to my environment. The bullying then started again, and continued. Eventually I was conditioned to believe everyone had it in for me, and so I started to have it in for the world in return. And ta-da, here we are today. A cynical misanthropist who quite possibly has a borderline personality.
 

the Dept of Science

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Nov 9, 2009
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I've yet to put in the time to seek out a political philosophy that I embrace.

I'm a scientist and a sceptic. So on the one hand, the logic of people like Ayer and Russell I find very compelling. I think if you take this sortof view, its difficult to not fall into the philosophy of someone like Camus, who I think is very down to Earth in a good way. And not as depressing as he is often made out to be.
 

Aerodynamic

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Feb 23, 2009
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Uhh...I think this is it.

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile."
 

Sebenko

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Dec 23, 2008
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HSIAMetalKing said:
Fuck bitches; get money.
Disregard wenches, Acquire currency.

OT: My philosophy for life? Well, I suppose it's along the lines of "White guilt? Well, If my genes make me a complete bastard, why stop now?"
So yeah, I'm selfish, insensitive, un-PC and have issues with YOU. Yes, you, personally, reader of this post. I REGRET NOTHING.

Also, conformity is cool.


Except for chubby on the left
 

reg42

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Mar 18, 2009
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I don't have a philosophy; I live pretty much as I want to. Which isn't to say I place myself above others or anything, I just don't have any set rules that I set for myself.
 

Me55enger

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Dec 16, 2008
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Someday you will die somehow and somethings gonna steal your carbon.

Even the mighty will die.
 

iLikeHippos

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Jan 19, 2010
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Mine is that you only live in one era at a time. Use what you have and do what you want with your life.

It's truly a blessing in the first place that you
1) Became a(n intelligent) human, of all things, and
2) You were the winner over millions of others... (If you're thinking hard on that one, you're not thinking dirty enough)

I will use my lifetime to do what ever I feel must be done. I won't let it go to waste on crying.
I don't know if I'll ever live again - I can't know. But I do know I get to live now, and it's only for a moment of time, like a game.

It's basically just a game to me, is what I say.
 

GLo Jones

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Feb 13, 2010
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Existential and Moral Nihilism, along with Stoicism.

Humanity and life in general is the consequence of a series of inevitable coincidences, therefore, we have no point, and nothing we ever achieve will be anything of value.

There is also no such thing as a true 'right' or 'wrong'. Because they're subjective human concepts, they are meaningless outside of our own cultural rules. Ultimately, there is no good or bad.

This philosophy has helped me on countless occasions to be a very unbiased judge on issues surrounding those I care about. It also helps to give a clear head when it's necessary, and, if you realize that fear is merely a pointless natural response, and that even death is not actually a bad thing, you can overcome any kind of fear, or negative emotion.

I use this emotion control to try and become a as true a (stoic) sage as possible.
 

Naheal

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Sep 6, 2009
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I follow more of the subtle manipulation side of Sun Tzu. I'd prefer people see things my way rather than fight. That said, I prefer to live by the motto "Expect nothing, plan for everything. Make sure that all potential outcomes are favorable."
 

rosemystica

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Jan 24, 2010
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I don't follow any particular philosophers. Except maybe Bill Hicks. XD

My general philosophy on life: This isn't the best of all worlds, but at the same time, it's far from the worst--sure, shit happens, sometimes in abundance, but that's not ALL that happens, ALL the time. A lot of good things happen, too--it's just that sometimes, you have to make them happen, through hard work, and it's usually all the better for it. Find some happy place to do the things that make you happy, surrounded by people you love, try to find the bright side, and live your life in peace with your neighbors. I suppose it could be summed up as "Don't worry, be happy--do your best and leave the rest up to God." (Although I'm not particularly religious, it does apply pretty well.)

I like to think the best of people--they can be completely amazing if you let them. Sure, a lot of people do crappy things to each other, but again, that's not the entirety of the human experience. People can do mindblowingly awesome things, too. That's why there's science, that's why there's art, that's why there's exploration, that's why the news keeps showing stories about ordinary people running into burning buildings to save children and grannies foiling bank robberies.

Maybe it's a childish and naive philosophy, but I like it. It takes a lot of needless stress out of my life.

I don't know where I got this all from, really. It's a patchwork philosophy. XD Bits and pieces from the Religious Society of Friends, Bob Marley songs, Bill Hicks' standup, and the TVTropes SugarWiki. XD Hahaha. I'm weird, I guess.