TOPIC: Father Watson Q&A v2

Father Watson wrote:
Wise words from a wise man - Much obliged, Watson. I'm rathered flattered by the compliments.

In your eyes, what does it mean to be a good person?

Vaccine

Nope. Not yet.

What makes a good person?

There are five things that make a person fundamentally good:

1) Honesty/Candour - Having the capacity to tell someone upfront what you think and feel. This is so important, because lies can hurt someone so deeply. Some people tend to associate being honest with not being able to shield someone's feelings, but there's a difference between being honest, and being hurtful. Which brings us to the next thing...

2) Empathy - Empathy is vital, in today's day and age. Many people wear the mask of empathy to propogate their own silly crusade against little things they don't like. But in all honesty, empathy just means having the ability to share someone else's emotion and sentiment for a particular situation. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes. It's a strangely rare trait, because like I said - many people seem to wield empathy as a weapon for clout.

3) Humility - Honestly, this is more of a personal thing. Confidence is a wonderful thing, but so is having the ability to look at yourself and say that you could be better, without dragging yourself down into a pity party. Arrogance is honestly so unattractive, and can really make people look upon you unfavourably, even if you're amazing at what you're doing. It just means taking the time to remember that while you are a good person, you can always be better, and you should never put yourself above everyone else - unless of course, you're referring to mental/physical health, in which case, your health always comes first.

4) Temperance - Also known as self-control, temperance means taking the time to think about what you do, before you do it. It's probably the rarest trait on this list, because impulsivity is extremely common in today's society, especially in terms of arguments, and heated debates. Of course, being human means to make little mistakes, get upset, frustrated, slip up with your impulses, but also it's about recognising that you have the ability to control yourself, if you just try.

5) Self-awareness - Again, perhaps more a personal thing, but self-awareness and thoughtfulness is a really good thing to have. If you're aware of your own self, if you're willing to recognise your mistakes, and learn from them, and if you're willing to work on yourself to be better because you know you can always be better - then that's self-awareness. But furthermore, it also means taking the time out to recognise how good you are at certain things and always working towards achieving your goals.

In short - it's just about having the capacity to recognise your own flaws, to recognise that other people exist and need to be considered, and to always work towards achieving your goals, while being kind, considerate, and caring.

Opinions on this person?

"Mark Zuckerberg?"

I don't really have any major opinions about him, to be perfectly honest. He's a strange fellow, but I think he created a social network that a lot of people still value to this day. I don't think he's got very good social skills, but this is in comparison to other titans of industry who have spent their lives hingeing their bets on their charisma.

Are you scared of death?

Lewis_is_java wrote:
Good question.

Not sure.

On the one hand, I think I'm scared of death. Purely because I've never been able to hurt myself without being deathly afraid of losing everything. I think I'm kind of scared of the idea of everything in this life being over and done with.

On the other, I think there's a strange acceptance inside that comes from the possibility of death. I guess it hits at random intervals, but there are times where it feels like that's kind of what we're all headed towards - and not to sweat it.

((Sorry for the delays))

If anyone has any thoughts, or questions - I'm more than happy to answer.

Learning with Watson:

Kantian Ethics

Kantian ethics essentially dictate that as human beings, we are driven by the desire to be firm in our convictions, but also that everything is rooted in will, and that ultimately, every human being has a duty to act when it comes to our fellow man.
Kant believed that we, as human beings, are fundamentally good and that we all have a duty to be good to others. But that any good act propogated by selfish, ulterior motives are not intrinsically good in the first place, no matter the circumstance. Especially if you're being good to be seen as good, and not just being good to be good.

What do you think of the idea that things are neither good or bad, but neutral, what defines something as good or bad relies only on our perception of said thing, meaning that in all situations we have the ability to not be affected by said thing?

Lewis_is_java wrote:
Morality is a social construct built, defined and maintained by society at large. The thing is, how do we define where our personal lines are? Where does the wider context of morality fit in with our own beliefs, does it matter? Is it black and white, or is it just different shades of grey?

Personally, the perception of morality is one that I've wrestled with a long time, and I think that I personally go out of my way to be affected by the concept of good and bad, because it helps keep me grounded in the world. I have a tendency to act impulsively when I get upset, like a person who's drunk would have their inhibitions taken away. If I had no bar, if I had no morality and no belief that things were good or bad, I think I'd be a mess. I think I'd ultimately end up hurting myself, and others around me as I'd have no awareness of the ethical consequence of good and bad. You could argue a couple of ways here, primarily in the sense of: Good and bad don't matter as long as you're following the law and not necessarily getting into trouble, but I'd argue that good and bad are what keep us out of trouble.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Favourite media (shows and movies mostly) with a focus on pyschological ideas and philosophies? Like Tarkovsky's Stalker is a banger for that kind of stuff

Nogtog wrote:
Good question (not to say they aren't all good)! This is gonna be a long one...

TV Series
The Good Place deals with a lot of moral philosophy, which is fascinating. Trolley problem is quite an interesting little quandary.

Watchmen, The Boys and Invincible all deal with the fundamental flaw in superhero fiction, which is essentially, stealing one of the most iconic lines from Watchmen: Who watches the Watchmen? or who watches the heroes and makes sure they don't just go full villain. Where is the line of morality?

Video Games

The BioShock series has a heavy focus on philosophies and their inherent issues, unconsciously creating dystopias from one philosophy over many. The first Bioshock deals with Objectivism, No God's, No Kings, Only Man - you are your own god, and you should invest yourself into building the reality you want to see... Which doesn't offer too much in the way of wiggle room. BioShock 2 is Collectivism, everyone works together to achieve a single goal - great in theory, but it's basically, "Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?" No one has an identity outside the collective. Boiled down, worst case scenario - You're dealing with a cult.
Bioshock Infinite is American Exceptionalism combined with Isolationism. Americans sit above everything, everyone. The ultimate country, and anyone who thinks they're better, anyone who is an outsider... You're asking for trouble.

The Legacy of Kain series deals with determinism, the concept of free will, and the pros and cons of prophecies and destinies. Are we better off following the course of destiny? Or are we more likely to succeed shaping our own fate?

Silent Hill series

I won't go over every single one, but the Silent Hill series is iconic for tackling dark, disturbing subject matter. Including manifesting inner demons as literal monsters that serve to punish the protagonist for previous transgressions. Sometimes the protagonist is genuinely guilty - James Sunderland, Alex Shepherd - and sometimes the protagonist is simply a bystander dragged into the nightmare - Henry Townsend, Heather Mason, etc.

Comics/Manga

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

This one deals with mental health, subjectively also tackling the fundamental flaws in the rehabilitation of dangerous criminals, not just in a fictional sense but also making reference to underfunding, lack of staff interest or even just using the wrong methods to rehabilitate people.

My Hero Academia

Individuality, control, social Darwinism,. Us Vs them, corruption, mental health, and even religious iconography/symbolism. It's all referenced in this. You're dealing with anime tropes while simultaneously tackling the realism of abuse, trauma, and even monetising and capitalising on being a hero.

Film

Jacob's Ladder

The inspiration for Silent Hill. This deals with trauma, facing your inner demons, and the sheer complexity of the human mind when faced with repression, obsession, and near-complete mental breakdowns.

Slingblade

An incredibly deep film, tackling moral and mental health issues. A character with intellectual disabilities and social troubles attempts to navigate an incredibly delicate new home situation where he is both an outsider and a witness.

What was one moment in your life where you felt completely satisfied with yourself? Like, "Wow, I am proud of myself"?

MsRevine wrote:
These moments are few. But still special. One example is last year, getting that confirmation that I'd finished my master's degree in creative writing. I did my final dissertation in 4 days. I was supposed to spend the year doing it, but I did it all in the last four days due to a mixture of laziness, lack of motivation, a lot of personal issues that made it difficult to get time, etc. 30k words, which was a fucking nightmare.

I was sure i would fail. But I got a good grade, and passed. And the wave of relief that washed over me, cleansing those fears of time wasted, leaving me with the warmth of knowing I had something to show for my hard work... It meant a lot.

Hey bro, you're such a good guy, I appreciate you

I've stolen your question to pose it to yourself because I like the way your write and describe things

What personal philosophy do you most identify with? What do you identify with least, or the opposite of what you believe in?

Father Watson wrote:
I don't know if you have heard this from anyone recently, but I am so proud of you <3 You're an everyday hero!

Lewis_is_java wrote:
Personally... I'm not certain what philosophy I subscribe to the most. I feel like I cherry pick things from a few different philosophies, thinking realistically. If you'd like a weird one, I'm quite partial to the fallibilism concept. No beliefs are guaranteed truths and do, in fact, remain simple beliefs. This doesn't necessarily extend to the concept of all knowledge, as there are concepts, elements and aspects that can't necessarily be disproven.

Immanuel Kant was a profound thinker, and transcendental idealism proposes that conscious and cognitive perception of all things might be a manifestation and amalgamation of social and personal stimuli (this is a gross oversimplification, however).

As an overthinker, this gives me validation. Quite honestly, by this point, I've grown so used to my overthinking brain that I actually enjoy the flights of fancy that my brain takes me on.

Anyway, sorry. I didn't really give you a proper answer. To simplify:

I most identify with Consequentialism. All it means is that I believe that the value of acts is summed up by the results of that act, not necessarily the act itself. In this case, consequence is defined in its purest form as the result of an action - not necessarily a negative one, as typically indicated by the word consequences.

One of the biggest things that's been plaguing my thought process this year is whether an act is inherently good if you're only doing it to appear good. The answer is profoundly complicated, but consequentialism answers it by asking the assessing party to look at the results of the act, not the act itself. It's the opposite of saying "You did this so you're good." It's instead saying "This happened because you did this, so you're inadvertently good."

To put that into an example: A man who gives to the poor is good. A man who gives to the poor but only gives when people are watching is not good.
Let's try that with consequentialism: A man who gives his son his ten dollar allowance. The man has been preaching the importance of helping your fellow man. The son goes out, purchases food and a small toy, and has change. He gives that change to a poor man begging on the street, because he remembered the lesson his father told him. The father has inadvertently, yet simultaneously purposely, done a good deed through the consequences combining two actions: simply advising good behaviour, and doing a weekly action - giving an allowance.
Summary: Do good things, and good things will happen.
Find out more: www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/consequentialism_1.shtml

The one I least identify with is Solipsism. I believe that the world is far too complex for one brain to have manifested this entire universe, all of space, time, and everything in existence.
No other mind exists, and I deny all others that suggest culpability in the existence of this universe.
Solipsism is essentially: "I'm the centre of this universe. I created everything and the second I die, the world ends." But it's not aggrandising oneself as a god, it's basically like saying this is all one big dream. Believe it or not, this philosophy is actually held by some people, and studies have shown that those who carry this philosophy are more likely to be nihilistic, egotistical, even have messianic leanings.
Summary: I think therefore I am - but lol ur all just figments of my imagination
Find out more: www.britannica.com/topic/solipsism

Much obliged for the questions, and the encouragement! It's lovely to know people enjoy my answers. It means a lot. And I'm always fascinated reading other Q&As. And Revine, you're a wonderful support - thank you for the very kind words. Same goes for you, Lewis.

Bump. Let's resurrect this bitch once again.

What's something that has made you happy recently?