Eldeven Valoskenos

 The Types of Nihilism We are in a meaning crisis. The spectre of Nihilism looms, casting a shadow over us all.  Nihilism has arisen because of the faults in our collective philosophy. True Nihilism neither prescribes nor proscribes any action or non-action either way. If one were truly a Nihilist, and we were to say that true Nihilism suggests that there is no reason to act on any value, even one's impulse to scratch an itch or eat food, it would still require some kind of motivation to hold fast in being a consistent Nihilist; it would require some motivation - which would exist for some reason - to resist these impulses. And thus a true Nihilist is completely indistinguishable from anybody else. But in practice, almost nobody recognises this; least of all the Nihilists themselves. Were this our criterion for Nihilism, nobody would be a Nihilist. Instead, Nihilism is therefore somebody who is simply in the position of not affirming (either by omission, or by outright negati...

  Metaphysics Sensation, Motivation, Ideation, Intention Sensation = Sights, sounds, smells, etc. Motivation = Pleasure & Pain Ideation = Concepts, ideas Intention = Desires, aversions

  Axiology Pleasure & Pain constitute the faculty of motivation.  The faculty of motivation is the base principle of change or motion in the psyche, leading to all action people undertake; moving muscles, shifting attention, thinking, and so on.  The Nature of Pleasure & Pain Pleasure & Pain are like sensations in that they are an example of qualia , however unlike sensations they possess the quality of valence. Pleasure & Pain are like sensations in that they form the basis of values , just as sensations form the basis of beliefs.   Pleasure  is the psychological force that drives toward its presence. It is the essence of goodness. Pain  is the psychological force that drives toward its absence. It is the essence of badness. The above explanation gives some indication for why we might call pleasure positive , or more clearly, why we might call pain negative . Pain drives toward its negation . An important implication: One can, in principle,...

  Fragments This post is basically just for writing down half baked thoughts for later elaboration. Affect & Emotion There is a useful distinction between affects  and emotions. The two are related, but distinct. Affects  are more like the raw functional components of the psyche. They are the raw qualia that make up our motivations. Examples include the feelings of sadness, anger, fear  on the negative side, and contentment, excitement, joy  on the positive side. Emotions  on the other hand depend  on the existence of affects, and are defined by being an organisation of affects . What does this mean? It is best demonstrated by example - we will take love  for this purpose. The concept of love describes a pattern of affect , not an affect - we can feel sadness, anger, fear, contentment, excitement, and joy as part  of being in love, but such things are not identical to nor unique to love. As a result, emotions in this definition cannot sim...

 The 4 Ways of Knowing Episteme Episteme (ep-IST-em-ay) is what we currently conceive to be the point and activity of the psyche. It is the retention of propositions, of facts, and of memories . This kind of knowing is knowing that something is the case. This knowledge is directly bound with language and the capacity to explain , and this has a lot to with why it has come to have a total monopoly over our account of knowledge. English term: Belief, knowledge Vervaekean: Propositional Knowledge Adjective: Epistemic Faculty: Memory Techne Techne (TEK-nay) is the knowing of methods; ways of doing things . But not in the way of writing a set of instructions; this would be episteme. Techne is the demonstrable capacity to execute actions . It matters not how well one can explain (episteme) how to play tennis, and all the moves involved, one does not have techne unless one can actually execute the act. The English term I use for this is skill . It should come easily to say that on...

  The Somatics of Symbolism I have long taken quite an interest in symbolism, ever since Jordan Peterson made it make sense. Since then, I've also enjoyed Jonathon Pageau's work especially. What I've noticed is missing from a lot of talk of Symbolism, however, is an explanation of why  certain things represent what they do. In addition, Struan  has identified contradictory patterns in the symbolic matrixes of various religions, and Peterson/Pageau's explanations - I seek to explain why  they might be considered to be contradictory. Up and Down The primary notions expressed through symbolism are those of the specific and general , concrete and abstract , as well as part and whole . The defining aspect of all of these is that categories that are more specific, concrete, or parts of something all refer to something that 'covers less area' . Likewise, general, abstract, and wholes of something all refer to something that 'covers more area'.  The example here...