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Here's an interesting "What would you do" question.

What if...?

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Let's say one day you stumble upon the most beautiful amazing thing. Doesn't really matter what it is. Just whether it can be shared. It IS a shareable thing.

EVERYBODY would love to share it.

There's plenty for everybody to have for free.

You invested nothing in it.

What would you do?

Run to share it with the world?

Share it with a select few?

Keep it all to yourself?

Try to figure out how to sell it even though it costs you nothing?

Or...?
 
I already have everything I could possibly want so I would share it widely but my friends might get a bigger portion.
 
Share it with everyone. Wouldn't even be a question.

Unless I burned it down for the Hell of it so that nobody gets any.
 
Let's say one day you stumble upon the most beautiful amazing thing. Doesn't really matter what it is. Just whether it can be shared. It IS a shareable thing.

EVERYBODY would love to share it.

There's plenty for everybody to have for free.

You invested nothing in it.

What would you do?

Run to share it with the world?

Share it with a select few?

Keep it all to yourself?

Try to figure out how to sell it even though it costs you nothing?

Or...?

Jesus loves you.
 
Jesus loves you.

Like you have his cell phone number and everybody can call him so he can twll them himself?

Has to be something that doesn't require faith.

Proof of a positive afterlife.

Proof that life exists elsewhere.

Something good and certain.
 
Let's say ...

The sad thing about all this is that the term "philosophy" has been degraded to the lowest level of emotional trash like "what would you do if ... (insert an inane self-absorbed situation here) ... ".

Philosophy is the study of existence. Not the speculation about human ego-gratification behavioral garbage.
 
The sad thing about all this is that the term "philosophy" has been degraded to the lowest level of emotional trash like "what would you do if ... (insert an inane self-absorbed situation here) ... ".

Philosophy is the study of existence. Not the speculation about human ego-gratification behavioral garbage.

I may not have presented it properly, but it IS an interesting quesrion based on how people react to it.

VERY few will even answer it, unless it is the sharing response as we see here.

It's common for people to be selfish, it's not common to admit one is.

Doesn't really translate here I guess, as we're not face to face for the question to reveal what it does.

Who we are and why we do things is at the heart of philosophy. Cosmology has everything to do with how people answer this question. The nature of ones beliefs, their "god" is reflected in their answer.
 
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Who we are and why we do things is at the heart of philosophy.

No.

Human beings are irrelevant to the universe.

We can glimpse to universal reality but we can impose ourselves to it.

Get with the program.
 
Let's say one day you stumble upon the most beautiful amazing thing. Doesn't really matter what it is. Just whether it can be shared. It IS a shareable thing.

EVERYBODY would love to share it.

There's plenty for everybody to have for free.

You invested nothing in it.

What would you do?

Run to share it with the world?

Share it with a select few?

Keep it all to yourself?

Try to figure out how to sell it even though it costs you nothing?

Or...?

I'll actually answer the OP by saying I would run to share it with the world. There is no meaning to life if we constantly covet things that everyone should share. I'd rather die knowing someone enjoyed something I shared instead of dying alone with everything I wanted to keep for myself.
 
No.

Human beings are irrelevant to the universe.

We can glimpse to universal reality but we can impose ourselves to it.

Get with the program.

I'm not entirely convinced the universe exists without consciousness to observe it.
 
There's enough for everybody? Like an unlimited supply? No effort to collect it?

Essentially worthless. Pass it around.
 
Let's say one day you stumble upon the most beautiful amazing thing. Doesn't really matter what it is. Just whether it can be shared. It IS a shareable thing.

EVERYBODY would love to share it.

There's plenty for everybody to have for free.

You invested nothing in it.

What would you do? I've already stumbled upon it.... And "it" is not about doing anything.

Run to share it with the world? It also has nothing to do with the world, so that question is irrelevant...

Share it with a select few? It can't be shared (read: given) to anyone. It is a gift one gives themselves....

Keep it all to yourself? It's not mine to keep, as I don't really own it.

Try to figure out how to sell it even though it costs you nothing? Intangibles like the one I've found can't be bought or sold.

Or...?

Basically I just enjoy it and have fun - frankly, I could care what anyone else has...

Now that I've answered your question(s), what would you do in my situation?
 
I'm not entirely convinced the universe exists....

Of course it does.

Of course it did.

Several billions of years the universe existed without the need of the human intelligence need for existence. That much is true.
 
The sad thing about all this is that the term "philosophy" has been degraded to the lowest level of emotional trash like "what would you do if ... (insert an inane self-absorbed situation here) ... ".

Philosophy is the study of existence. Not the speculation about human ego-gratification behavioral garbage.

Isn't philosophy more than simply the "study of existence"? One definition says it is: "the investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods."

and yet another says: "the pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline."

If you go to ten different sources, you will likely get ten different variations of the definition of philosophy.

the common denominator seems to be that humans (and human understanding) are indeed relevant to the study of philosophy.......in fact, philosophy can not be mutually exclusive from human cognition. I think you may be confusing the empiricism of scientific philosophy with the actual "hard science" of cosmology. The two may be logically integrated but both depend almost entirely on human epistemology (the study of knowledge).

You stated in an earlier post that humans are irrelevant to the universe......one could argue the converse....that the universe is irrelevant without human cognition. After all, doesn't "relevance" rely heavily on human perspective? :thinking
 
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Of course it does.

Of course it did.

Several billions of years the universe existed without the need of the human intelligence need for existence. That much is true.

I said "consciousness".

You said "human intelligence".

Not the same thing.
 
Basically I just enjoy it and have fun - frankly, I could care what anyone else has...

Now that I've answered your question(s), what would you do in my situation?

I'm a run and sharer.

Moving from the stomach chakra to the heart chakra, by some schools' reckoning.

Thats how the question was presented to me.

That in our spiritual evolution most are living in there stomachs. Ever needing to be filled.

Being more giving is indicative of living in the heart.
 
To be completely and perfectly honest I would probably keep it to myself. Eventually find a way to sell it in small amounts so their would always be a demand. Then I would become the most rich and famous person in the world. It's selfish but It's the truth.
 
That depends an awfully lot on what it is and how controllable it is.
 
Share it with the world after making certain others won't make money from it.
 
Ahhhh, the delusion and over-inflated sense of self is strong in this thread.

Not a single one of you would share, you bloody liars! :) :)

This is the exact same situation as winning the lottery. Stumbling upon plenty of a great thing (money) that you didn't work for....

How many lottery winners do you know who shared their entire winnings with strangers?

Yeah. Gotcha.
 
Ahhhh, the delusion and over-inflated sense of self is strong in this thread.

Not a single one of you would share, you bloody liars! :) :)

This is the exact same situation as winning the lottery. Stumbling upon plenty of a great thing (money) that you didn't work for....

How many lottery winners do you know who shared their entire winnings with strangers?

Yeah. Gotcha.

Speak for yourself. I don't share your perspective and I'm happy for that.

When my children were young they would urge me to buy lotto tickets. They'd seen the commercials on television. One day I talked with them about it. I told them I'd give them $10.00 every time they saw a lotto commercial or ad that said the lotto would make you happy. Of course, they never saw one. Unfortunately there aren't any commercials about sharing.

Sharing or giving or volunteering is unbelievably humbling. Nothing connects a person more with others. You obviously tried it and didn't like it. That's OK. Not everyone agrees with you. But, given your preference I don't know that you'd consciously come into contact with people who share with others.
 
It would depend on what it actually was, and what the ramifications would be in the long term. Not everything that is considered beautiful and free, is also "good".
 
I'd simply give it ALL away....even if there was none left for me to enjoy. But, then.....I AM the epitome of selflessness. :lol:
 
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Odds are - if I think it's the most beautiful thing - it's something nature related . . . not even mine to claim - at most I can take a photo if it's not 'always' going to be there - like a sunset or some such.
 
Let's say one day you stumble upon the most beautiful amazing thing. Doesn't really matter what it is. Just whether it can be shared. It IS a shareable thing.

EVERYBODY would love to share it.

There's plenty for everybody to have for free.

You invested nothing in it.

What would you do?

Run to share it with the world?

Share it with a select few?

Keep it all to yourself?

Try to figure out how to sell it even though it costs you nothing?

Or...?

Destroy it. Otherwise it will destroy man kind and possibly Earth in the process.
 
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