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I really enjoyed your comment. Nevertheless, I have to ask: what is a person if not their ideas? Their actions?

by ttymck 4y ago

unregistereddev 4y ago
I'd argue that a person is their decisions. That encompasses actions - we generally decide whether and how to act. This also rings true when you add "bad thoughts" alongside "bad ideas". Everyone has bad thoughts in addition to bad ideas. Part of what makes a good person is their ability to discard (or at least decide to not act on) bad thoughts. Part of what makes someone seem wise is their ability to discard (or decide to not act on) bad ideas.
- deleted 4y ago
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- jldl805 4y ago
  >Part of what makes a good person is their ability to discard (or at least decide to not act on) bad thoughts. I think this part is really key, and that the quality and characteristics of your "internal idea killer" ends up defining what kind of person you are, in almost all aspects of your life. For example, think of someone you may know that regularly just sticks with their first idea on any topic, or someone you have seen latch on to a mediocre idea for far too long. Now compare them to the person you know most likely to quickly discard ideas and come up with new ones, either instinctively all the time or at the first sign their previous ideas were not holding up to snuff.
randcraw 4y ago
I think every person entertains many ideas. Being receptive to possibilities does not define you, but it may incline you. 'Criticism' can play a valuable role in helping you see demerits in your inclinations before you misbehave.
andsoitis 4y ago
That is a very deep question. Here is an example of a range of ways to think about that question: https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/What_is_a_Person https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/What_is_a_Person If one thinks that agency (and actions) is what defined personhood, it is worth having a framework for thinking about free will, such as https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-think-about-free-will-in-a-world-of-cause-and-effect https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-think-about-free-will-in-a-w...
jollybean 4y ago
Ideas are different than actions. The most competent and predictably conscientious people often don't have very good ideas at all.
guerrilla 4y ago
I'd really question the idea that a person even "has" ideas rather than responds to the world ("internal" and "external") in specific patterns after specific experiences. But if you must, a person is a body, so it's the body that has the ideas and as far as anyone else cares, a body's appearance, actions and intentions are the only thing they could really care about.
state_less 4y ago
People change over time. Just as a sick person can recover from illness, a person can shake off bad ideas. Similarly, a person may right their wrong actions. That’s why I think we should be careful not to forsake them.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
As others have answered in this very thoughtful thread, it's a most deep and puzzling question. As is the distinctions between ideas, intentions, and actions - the basis of much jurisprudence - which is examined here too. However there is the truly horrifying idea in Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, which once you comprehend it is so dark that even those who call themselves 'nihilists' recoil from it. And yet maybe we should celebrate it because it's Kierkegaard through and through - that we have 'no essential self'. If we are possessed by a soul it is as an observer, a witness to a perfect drama involving other mind-bodies, each equally devoid of a central "self". That can be a relief. But as was discussed here recently with regard to mindfulness and Buddhism, that "idea" can itself be dangerous, for some it's a license to be a dick. Perhaps nature/evolution is clever in giving us all a little anxious piece, a "self" that can be hurt, since that allows social structures.

I really enjoyed your comment. Nevertheless, I have to ask: what is a person if not their ideas? Their actions?

by ttymck 4y ago

I really enjoyed your comment. Nevertheless, I have to ask: what is a person if not their ideas? Their actions?

I'd argue that a person is their decisions. That encompasses actions - we generally decide whether and how to act. This also rings true when you add "bad thoughts" alongside "bad ideas". Everyone has bad thoughts in addition to bad ideas. Part of what makes a good person is their ability to discard (or at least decide to not act on) bad thoughts. Part of what makes someone seem wise is their ability to discard (or decide to not act on) bad ideas.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jldl805 4y ago
>Part of what makes a good person is their ability to discard (or at least decide to not act on) bad thoughts. I think this part is really key, and that the quality and characteristics of your "internal idea killer" ends up defining what kind of person you are, in almost all aspects of your life. For example, think of someone you may know that regularly just sticks with their first idea on any topic, or someone you have seen latch on to a mediocre idea for far too long. Now compare them to the person you know most likely to quickly discard ideas and come up with new ones, either instinctively all the time or at the first sign their previous ideas were not holding up to snuff.

randcraw 4y ago

I think every person entertains many ideas. Being receptive to possibilities does not define you, but it may incline you. 'Criticism' can play a valuable role in helping you see demerits in your inclinations before you misbehave.

andsoitis 4y ago

That is a very deep question. Here is an example of a range of ways to think about that question: https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/What_is_a_Person https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/What_is_a_Person If one thinks that agency (and actions) is what defined personhood, it is worth having a framework for thinking about free will, such as https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-think-about-free-will-in-a-world-of-cause-and-effect https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-think-about-free-will-in-a-w...

jollybean 4y ago

Ideas are different than actions. The most competent and predictably conscientious people often don't have very good ideas at all.

guerrilla 4y ago

I'd really question the idea that a person even "has" ideas rather than responds to the world ("internal" and "external") in specific patterns after specific experiences. But if you must, a person is a body, so it's the body that has the ideas and as far as anyone else cares, a body's appearance, actions and intentions are the only thing they could really care about.

state_less 4y ago

People change over time. Just as a sick person can recover from illness, a person can shake off bad ideas. Similarly, a person may right their wrong actions. That’s why I think we should be careful not to forsake them.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

As others have answered in this very thoughtful thread, it's a most deep and puzzling question. As is the distinctions between ideas, intentions, and actions - the basis of much jurisprudence - which is examined here too. However there is the truly horrifying idea in Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, which once you comprehend it is so dark that even those who call themselves 'nihilists' recoil from it. And yet maybe we should celebrate it because it's Kierkegaard through and through - that we have 'no essential self'. If we are possessed by a soul it is as an observer, a witness to a perfect drama involving other mind-bodies, each equally devoid of a central "self". That can be a relief. But as was discussed here recently with regard to mindfulness and Buddhism, that "idea" can itself be dangerous, for some it's a license to be a dick. Perhaps nature/evolution is clever in giving us all a little anxious piece, a "self" that can be hurt, since that allows social structures.