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• A reply on Conversation: Is truth relative?

  Nov 8 2011: As Larry Davis stated, situations like this are resolved by persuasion and majority consensus. We encounter relative truths like this everyday.
  
  There is a lot of chaos in the universe and this does not keep it from perpetuating as it has for some 16 billion years. However, you are right, nothing can really be held ultimately true, it comes down to a matter or perception and the rules defined prior to defining the truth (rules which are also arbitrary).

• A reply on Conversation: Is truth relative?

  Nov 8 2011: What was the question attempting to resolve outside of itself?
  
  Also, are you implying that all discussion is not a word game? Ha ha.

• A reply on Conversation: Is truth relative?

  Nov 7 2011: Nothing is absolute outside of its relative context of truth (including the very statement itself) =! nothing is absolute.
  
  There are instances where you could propose absolute, such as infinity and totality. However, this is true within its defined limitations and context, therefore, relative.
  
  You have to define the stage from which you propose a truth. Every truth is dependent upon another relationship.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of "10 Things I Know to be True."

  Nov 6 2011: 1. Sleep makes the world a happier place
  2. You are what you eat
  3. Music is the universal language
  4. Everyday is a learning experience
  5. No matter what, all of us just want to feel good
  6. We all want to be loved unconditionally
  7. Everyone has fears, so show empathy
  8. If you look past the superficial layers of culture, we are all the same
  9. There is no universal truth
  10. Some truths are universal to humans

• A reply on Conversation: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of "10 Things I Know to be True."

  Nov 6 2011: While I am sure no one would admit to the tortuous acts as being moral, you do realize that within the very framework of your question it necessitates a human validation, explicitly stating that without a human observer to testify to its existence, there is no immorality or morality.

• A reply on Conversation: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of "10 Things I Know to be True."

  Nov 6 2011: Nihilism is not necessarily grim. This is an arbitrary value assignment. It would appear that as a result of our physiologically machinated behavioral patterns, Nihilism is bound to feel negative, and therefore linguistically labeled as negative as a result of the associated feelings; however, this does not mean that Nihilism is intrinsically grim outside of a contextual and relative dependency.
  
  In reference to self-actualization, it appears to me that self actualization is an impossibility if approached within realms of process. Is it not the very idea of actualization that keeps one from achieving the state as it is defined? For there to be a state of self actualization, there must be a state of non-actualization.
  
  From this point, one may move forward through reality attempting to experience situations that we arbitrarily define as valuable, which are subjectively indicative of an ever approaching achievement of self actualization.
  
  Yet, if it is our very mind which is defining the the way in which one experience is more valuable or actualizing than another, then ultimately it is empty outside of the human mind's value association.
  
  If these values associated with actualizing experiences are fundamentally dependent on feelings, which I would assume (given that self actualization would imply fulfillment, peace, or everlasting happiness etc., which can ultimately only be subjectively felt), then it is our very tendency to desire and value that prevents one from experiencing every moment of existence as equally actualizing and fulfilling.
  
  In conclusion, would being self actualized be anything else but the simple acceptance of reality as it is in any given form of space and at any moment of time without arbitrary value assigned to the experience?
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  A comment on Conversation: Since oxytocin can influence trust, is it possible to use it for manipulation? Can "the moral molecule" be used for immoral purposes?

  Nov 6 2011: Anything can be used for immoral purposes within an identified moral system. If morality is to exist, immorality must also exist in order to manifest a contrast which is used in defining the limitations of what a "moral" act is.

• A comment on Conversation: Is truth relative?

  Nov 6 2011: One plus one equals two within the mathematical framework implied in the statement. It is unnecessary to clarify the context of one of plus one because assumingly most of us are already aware of the context. However, this is indicative of a relativity.
  
  There are absolute truths within realms, and there are realms in which truths are subjective. There are no truths which are absolute outside of their relative context.
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  A comment on Talk: Helen Fisher: The brain in love

  Sep 21 2011: Too much poetry and "romanticism" not enough science.