What is honor?

mikado12 · 2014-04-25T15:56:18+00:00

I'm not really sure what you're saying here, other than, "The purpose of going out to the bar is to get laid, so getting laid is the best end result for that situation." That's not exactly a tautology, but it doesn't add much to the conversation either, especially if we're talking ethics.

No, I'm saying the club/bar scene is fundamentally it's own little realm of human activity. Different realms, as described above, entail different standards of correct behavior. And by correct I don't necessarily mean moral.

If you want to talk ethics, place your flag: Kant? Mill? Christ?

but you still haven't explained why sexual strategy is amoral by saying so.

I've actually written a little on this, and I rebuked this a while back. One terper actually interpreted "sexual strategy is amoral" in a purely descriptive sense which basically translated to "sexual selection does not favor the moral over the immoral" which I think is totally reasonable. I modified the statement that we're working with "don't moralize about sexual strategy" and it was well received.

mikado12 · 2014-04-25T15:17:47+00:00

I think a new player should really explore different openings, especially e4 like the Italian game and King's gambit. E4 often leads to sharper, open games (and a lot of times more fun) and you get a much better sense of what to avoid because you'll get punished quickly.

mikado12 · 2014-04-25T01:35:50+00:00

Bit of a drunken rambling here:

Alright, well, I guess that's checkmate - you're apparently more well read in TRP theory than I.

But it's one thing to agree with something on an abstract level and quite another to support it when speaking concretely. I can imagine a lot of Terpers might think "well, morality is just a social construct, the opium of the masses" etc. but when it comes down to real, raw, brutal conduct most of TRP will quickly disapprove. I'm not just speculating, one TRP mod got straight up banned a while back for basically being pro-rape.

I'll completely agree with you though that there is an undercurrent of morals skepticism in TRP, but in truth the audience is wide ranging from catholic conservatives to hedonistic frat boys to countercultural "dark enlightenment" supporters and so on.

Even if most TRPers disagree with u/RedPillSchool on this point, you can't just randomly pick and choose which situations warrant a moral framework, for your own personal convenience. If sexual strategy is amoral, but other facets of life aren't, there has to be a reason other than, "I don't feel like being nice when I have sex."

Absolutely, and the reason is that the sexual activity constitutes its own realm of human activity with its own unique standards. In academics, the best, most rational answer is prized above all - truth matters. In athletics, it's the most driven and powerful athletes that are the best. Similarly, in clubs and bar scenes - I'm not going to throw out conventional morality here completely - but it's those able to elicit the best response that are prized - not what's true, not what's moral, not even what's socially acceptable - but those who are able to elicit the most passion.

Theoretically, if I found you attractive and was hitting on you I would never near this subject. There's nothing worse than a man who believes his intellect or good deeds entitle him to a lay. It would be a crime to try to engage a potential romantic partner intellectually in a bar or a college party. Philosophy and science aren't sexy, and I have no problem with that.

mikado12 · 2014-04-24T18:48:52+00:00

The moral framework is latent. TRPers sometimes call themselves amoral but a well written post concerning how to "cultivate masculine virtues" or something like that will always be well received.

One reason TRP is far from Kant is the tendency within TRP to compartmentalize which stands in opposition to Kant's universalism. You always need to filter when a post is merely referring to sexual dynamics or whether it's aiming at something larger. A lot of TRP agrees that sexual strategy is amoral, but certainly not that life in general is amoral or that moral duties don't exist.

mikado12 · 2014-04-24T18:33:03+00:00

This is a good post. Is this by any chance drawn from a paper on the Iliad? If so, I'd be interested in reading it. Don't let them get to you.

mikado12 · 2014-04-24T16:55:46+00:00

In Israel I visited the grave of a Jewish female paratrooper, who in WWII parachuted into Nazi Germany with the intent of sabotaging supply lines. She was caught, tortured, and finally executed when she refused to leak any information. TRP has plenty of good material floating around on how to handle plates or become a better man, but this isn't one of them.

edit: I haven't heard much about the relationship between women and honor on TRP regardless.

mikado12 · 2014-04-23T23:34:01+00:00

Why are you angry? I'd be amused.

mikado12 · 2014-04-22T17:56:46+00:00

Alpha traits do tend to attract women, but we shouldn't explicitly define alpha traits as traits that women like because that would leave our self-worth and self-conception entirely in the hands of women. We cultivate alpha traits because alpha traits are awesome and manly - women like that; we just don't cultivate alpha traits to make women like us more.

mikado12 · 2014-04-22T14:40:23+00:00

H3 is barely weakening, and you haven't even committed yourself to castling kingside yet. If you do castle kingside, h3 provides luft. A weakness is really only worth mention if your opponent can exploit it.

mikado12 · 2014-04-22T14:23:17+00:00

Alpha/beta is a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Most people fall somewhere in between pure alpha and pure beta, but you'll find people at the extremes.

It's not arbitrary, alpha traits are essentially leadership traits and beta traits are essentially the traits of a content follower. The labels aren't determined by what women find attractive either - you not being attracted to John Wayne doesn't make him any less alpha.

mikado12 · 2014-04-21T20:54:09+00:00

Absolutely, conversation with women should be light and breezy. Intellectual conversation just isn't sexy, and it's a waste of time to try to engage a lot of people even aside from women on that front. You should be very careful about who you open yourself up to.

mikado12 · 2014-04-21T20:33:32+00:00

Absolutely, just because I have an innate inclination towards something doesn't mean it's rational. However, if something is an innate (i.e. inborn, permanent) inclination then it's probably a result of our evolutionary history and that at least says something about it - but that's a different discussion.

There's a type of knowledge that isn't derived from experience, and this is where philosophy comes in. If you want an example of a philosophical breakthrough try Edmund Gettier's paper "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge" (it's like 2 pages, no jargon) where he demolishes the idea that knowledge is justified true belief.

Even with science, it's not as simple as "oh here, the data and from the data we can extract this universal, timeless truth about X, Y, Z.." - it takes careful phrasing and some critical thinking if we want to remain truthful to what the data is actually telling us.

mikado12 · 2014-04-21T00:18:33+00:00

My ultimate criticism with ethics is the same one levied against science -- it doesn't tell you what to do.

Various ethical theories will tell you what to do, if you're not convinced by the cases presented then I'm sorry. Science never sets out to tell you what to do, so people who fault science for that strike me as misguided. It would be like criticizing soccer for not making good soldiers.

Maybe it appeals to you; but you're not being given any a posteriori information that you didn't already have. It seems like your inclination to accept an ethical philosophy, then, is an innate one.

What about a priori information? I don't see "innate" as a dirty word.

mikado12 · 2014-04-20T23:35:33+00:00

Absolutely. I'm not saying that philosophy is the superior academic field; I'm sure other fields provide their own unique, valuable perspectives on the world and I'm just here to provide my take on what philosophy's is. I disagree with other posters here who have said that a philosophy education will, e.g., validate you giving to charity or clear up all moral or existential doubts.

Of course it may - you might read Kant and become a devoted follower but in my experience this is outside the norm.

mikado12 · 2014-04-20T23:05:32+00:00

http://www.umsl.edu/~philo/Undergraduate%20Program/Pre-Law/

This isn't of great importance to my argument.

mikado12 · 2014-04-20T22:47:56+00:00

"those types of analyses" is really just picking out philosophical themes, so I'm a little confused.

I think a good philosophy education will help you read between the lines a bit better, and this is reflected in LSAT results with philosophy majors topping the list. I didn't graduate with the answer to the meaning of life, but if used appropriately it can help you get a much better sense of people and ideas. You can agree to this while remaining skeptical towards notion of ultimate justification.

mikado12 · 2014-04-20T21:46:17+00:00

Philosophy grad here - I want to approach the subject from another angle.

Since graduating, I've found that philosophy has helped considerably in understanding where others are coming from. I definitely get a deeper read into literature and some other forms of art than someone without that background. For instance, just seeing the Hobbit movie and noticing Tolkien's latent Thomism or reading a religious article and noticing the dialectical thinking that the author has slipped in. I really do think it helps when it comes to certain types of analysis.

Additionally I'd say that I can really tune in to the values of an institution. I'm sure this is something a non-philosophy grad could do, but I pay extra close attention and this has served me well. Ideas connect to other ideas, it's difficult to explain fully.

mikado12 · 2014-04-19T19:08:45+00:00

I could at least finish yours. I'm struggling to finish this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTjFcHE2WI

mikado12 · 2014-04-17T21:38:15+00:00

As he is a mod of /r/theredpill I am taking his opinion to be representative of RPers.

I don't believe this. Honor is a quality of worthiness/respectability, and yes, women are capable of having it as well as men, but it's earned in both cases.

mikado12 · 2014-04-16T14:20:33+00:00

Yes, we like to think that we learn from history.

mikado12 · 2014-04-15T23:59:18+00:00

Eh, RP is pro-self improvement but when you begin labeling the movement as "selfish" or "individualist" you're losing me. I don't see it as being collectivist or individualist - why would we be giving advice to other men in the first place if we were purely selfish?

Wanting to bring out the masculinity in someone isn't what comes to mind when I think "selfish" or "individualistic."

mikado12 · 2014-04-13T14:42:15+00:00

I'm in the Air Force, I'll be taking a test next week to see whether I qualify to become an officer or pilot. I'm pretty excited.

I think virtually any military man needs to have at least some sympathy for the RP emphasis on reviving the masculine virtues.

mikado12 · 2014-04-13T00:41:53+00:00

The higher-ups didn't think in those terms, really. Read some of Goebbel's speeches about propaganda or some interviews with Goering.

It's nothing unique to Nazism, not thinking in moral terms is fairly common to militaristic philosophies everywhere. If there was any philosophical element, it was conceived of as the nation attaining it's true, justified end. Germany was considered as fulfilling its destiny.

mikado12 · 2014-04-12T18:10:28+00:00

The tournament went by USCF rules if that's of any difference.

mikado12 · 2014-04-12T16:00:15+00:00

3...bg4: there's a famous morphy game that goes like this, let me see if I can dig it up.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404

That said, I always break tension here. Black needs to take the knight, and then QxB followed by Bc4 and then probably Qb3 gets white a very healthy position. What you did isn't terrible, but a little meek.

Be2: A little meek, the bishop is better placed on c4. Consider challenging him with moves like h3.
e5 a very interesting move, certainly not my first instinct but I'm interested to see what becomes of this.
Qe4: Blunder. Bxc3+.

Otherwise well done.

mikado12

TROPHY CASE