by Sean Prophet

This outline is a work in progress.

ONTOLOGY

1. PHILOSOPHY
1. Subjective/objective
2. Causality/observation/empiricism
3. Relativism vs. methodical discovery
4. Negative proof
2. NATURAL/SUPERNATURAL
1. How would you measure or observe supernatural? Everything is natural
2. Various cosmological models – shouldn’t talk about implications until much more is understood (even the smartest physicists barely understand this stuff, not cocktail-party ready discussion) Big Bang, String Theory, Theory of Everything, Everything Forever, Quantum physics, Dark Matter.
3. Even if the universe is finite, or there are many of them, we don’t know how or if you can get outside time or space. For all practical purposes, it is infinite. (e.g. 100,000 years just to get across our galaxy): If  matter ends up being all ‘energy’, it’s still energy with structure. If there end up being many dimensions, we still live in this one. Better to learn the laws of matter than pretend you’re not subject to them.
4. What’s the rush to understand big questions? Simply watch and wait. Leave what’s undiscovered alone. Don’t make up stuff about it. Understanding the boundary between known/unknown is very important.
3. RELIGION
1. Anthropological response to death
2. Ritual
3. Scripture
4. Myths. Tension between irreconcilable opposites, divine resolution. Patterned after human struggle with death. Deus ex machina.
5. Power structure absent government, but strong secular government eliminates the need. Old structures don’t want to let go of power.
6. Revelation vs. Discovery
7. Since religion is a human created subjective enterprise, it has no compatibility with or relevance to science.
4. PURPOSE/MEANING
1. Teleological argument, waged based on uncomfortability with apparent lack of purpose for universe.
2. Beyond physical evolution—we don’t know.
3. Might not have any at all, so make your own.
4. Anthropic principle.

CONSCIOUSNESS

1. DUALISM
1. Matter/Spirit
2. Mind/Body
2. PRECEDENCE
1. Consciousness
2. Matter
3. WILL
1. Subconscious/Unconscious
2. Genetic Determinism
3. Reptilian brain
4. Shadow
4. PSYCHOLOGY
1. Beliefs
2. Truth vs. Result
3. Cognitive Dissonance
5. SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
1. Loss of spatial localization – feeling of oneness of everything
2. Dreams/sleep paralysis
3. Enhanced Arousal/Quiescence
4. Can be brought about by many types of ritual, not simply religious
5. Not different than some types of drug use

POLITICS

1. ETHICS
1. Equality, the biggest lie. None of us are equal.
2. Fairness, another whopper.
3. What matters is that rules are consistent, not arbitrarily changed over time to benefit one group or another. Legal framework must be independent of individual or group meddling. Impartiality.
4. Powerful will always dominate. How can we best mitigate the severity of domination, with minimum consequences to the individual.
5. Deception is endemic to human race, especially in mating. Goes back at least 100,000 years, if not to pre-hominid species. Animals hide food, engage in sexual deception, mimic other species to trick prey, change color, etc.
6. Social contract. People don’t sign one. It’s implicit, and not everyone agrees. So you have the free-rider problem.
7. Biggest ethical problem is free-rider. Externalities are the basis of resource over-depletion, pollution, lack of medical care, etc.
8. Getting control of externalities would allow the market to be truly free. Every ethical problem with trade has to do with unpaid externalities. Would eliminate need for activism. Would eliminate need for consumers to inject morality into purchasing (fair-trade, etc.) Would eliminate energy choice as a moral concern. Who cares how big a car someone drives, or if they waste electricity if it’s renewable and all externalities are paid Control of externalities is the only proper way of drawing healthy boundaries between individuals, corporations, the state, and the environment.
2. ISMS – the bad
1. Relativism – refuge for intellectual scoundrels--public enemy No.1
2. Utilitarianism
3. Altruism
4. Collectivism/Communism
5. Consumerism–doesn’t really exist—see externalities
6. Narcissism
3. ISMS – the useful
1. Individualism
2. Objectivism
3. Capitalism
4. Libertarianism
5. Existentialism
4. EXTREME – ISMS
1. Fundamentalism
2. Fascism
5. CULTURE
1. Rights vs. Duty
2. Objective measures of culture relative to universal human needs.
3. Psychological origins of culture wars: Jealousy, desire to control other people's success, enjoyment. Misery loves company—controlling belief systems naturally make people unhappy, but they feel their suffering is for a good cause. But they secretly wish they didn’t have to suffer. So it becomes very important to them to make sure no one else is “getting away” with anything, i.e. suffering less. Projection: In extremely patriarchal cultures where women are treated as property, men project their sexual urges onto the women. Hence the veils, burqas or other image control devices are used to prevent men from seeing the reflection of their own sexuality. Repressed shadow.