Gary Sugar
@garysugar.bsky.social
I post about rationalist philosophy, mainly Yajnavalkya, Parmenides, Shankara, Descartes, and Spinoza.
This is my book on metaphysics. I forgive you if you're not interested. https://www.docdroid.net/Fkh2Xam/rational-metaphysics-gary-sugar-pdf
This is my book on metaphysics. I forgive you if you're not interested. https://www.docdroid.net/Fkh2Xam/rational-metaphysics-gary-sugar-pdf
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Gary Sugar
@garysugar.bsky.social
· Mar 21
In his second reply to Blijenbergh, Spinoza tells him that because they disagree on first principles he doesn't think they can profit from discussing philosophy. I wouldn't go that far, but fwiw my first principles are I think therefore I am and being cannot be non-being.
My mom picked Gary. She said it sounded strong. I guess she probably asked a rabbi for a Hebrew name similar to Gary; but anyway, it's Gershom. Gershom was the son of Moses; but the stupid and evil Aaronites deposed him after he started deducing rationalist stuff. So we got goody two-shoes Joshua.
December 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
My mom picked Gary. She said it sounded strong. I guess she probably asked a rabbi for a Hebrew name similar to Gary; but anyway, it's Gershom. Gershom was the son of Moses; but the stupid and evil Aaronites deposed him after he started deducing rationalist stuff. So we got goody two-shoes Joshua.
Everyone had food allergies; and there were fights at school every day; and we had an unbelievably high mortality rate compared to kids today. But I admit wandering free with probably a fourth as much adult supervision was fun.
December 25, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Everyone had food allergies; and there were fights at school every day; and we had an unbelievably high mortality rate compared to kids today. But I admit wandering free with probably a fourth as much adult supervision was fun.
I got a good present this year. I couldn't believe it when I saw the email. The dealer finally got my my goofy blue Roman Day-Date from the factory. It was the first fake watch I ordered, five months and five days ago.
December 25, 2025 at 11:41 AM
I got a good present this year. I couldn't believe it when I saw the email. The dealer finally got my my goofy blue Roman Day-Date from the factory. It was the first fake watch I ordered, five months and five days ago.
He admits it's not deduced from first principles and just something he considered common sense.
December 24, 2025 at 3:24 PM
He admits it's not deduced from first principles and just something he considered common sense.
He sometimes sounds like a gushing romantic with the
'human' stuff, mainly in Ethics Part 4. It's really insofar as I understand reason I desire nothing except to understand reason and likewise for all other things to understand reason.
'human' stuff, mainly in Ethics Part 4. It's really insofar as I understand reason I desire nothing except to understand reason and likewise for all other things to understand reason.
December 24, 2025 at 11:44 AM
He sometimes sounds like a gushing romantic with the
'human' stuff, mainly in Ethics Part 4. It's really insofar as I understand reason I desire nothing except to understand reason and likewise for all other things to understand reason.
'human' stuff, mainly in Ethics Part 4. It's really insofar as I understand reason I desire nothing except to understand reason and likewise for all other things to understand reason.
It isn't fair that philosophers don't get to read their books until after they've written them.
December 23, 2025 at 5:53 PM
It isn't fair that philosophers don't get to read their books until after they've written them.
Well, it's not really separate; but it is being, consciousness, and bliss. I think therefore I exist and enjoy existing.
December 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Well, it's not really separate; but it is being, consciousness, and bliss. I think therefore I exist and enjoy existing.
Brain science doesn't show any of these things. At most, brain scientists assume them.
December 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Brain science doesn't show any of these things. At most, brain scientists assume them.
Okay, close enough. The Clinton approach was to globalize machine-politics corruption. What Trump is doing is isolating America so it will have no friends and only enemies and at best servants plotting to depose their master.
December 23, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Okay, close enough. The Clinton approach was to globalize machine-politics corruption. What Trump is doing is isolating America so it will have no friends and only enemies and at best servants plotting to depose their master.
It's been bipartisan Establishment vs Trump from the beginning. Very early after getting elected he told CIA and so forth he didn't want their briefings because he didn't trust them. That kind of thing was the end. Too bad he's no better than they are.
December 23, 2025 at 2:04 PM
It's been bipartisan Establishment vs Trump from the beginning. Very early after getting elected he told CIA and so forth he didn't want their briefings because he didn't trust them. That kind of thing was the end. Too bad he's no better than they are.
...than you thought. What they're talking about is they made a huge mistake not growing hands. They thought they were rid of the human pestilence when they climbed out of the water, and had no idea they'd eventually find ways to destroy everything.
December 23, 2025 at 1:51 PM
...than you thought. What they're talking about is they made a huge mistake not growing hands. They thought they were rid of the human pestilence when they climbed out of the water, and had no idea they'd eventually find ways to destroy everything.
Descartes: "This vice is so unreasonable and absurd that I would find it difficult to believe there are men who allow themselves to fall into it, if no one was ever praised unjustly. But flattery is so common everywhere that there is no man whose faults are so great ... (1/2)
December 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Descartes: "This vice is so unreasonable and absurd that I would find it difficult to believe there are men who allow themselves to fall into it, if no one was ever praised unjustly. But flattery is so common everywhere that there is no man whose faults are so great ... (1/2)
I watched his Batman movies last year, and my comment was the scripts were obviously written by ChatGPT. I'll probably eventually watch this one, and I guess I'll be happy if it's one-fourth as good as L’Odyssee (1968), which you must watch, many times.
December 23, 2025 at 1:27 PM
I watched his Batman movies last year, and my comment was the scripts were obviously written by ChatGPT. I'll probably eventually watch this one, and I guess I'll be happy if it's one-fourth as good as L’Odyssee (1968), which you must watch, many times.
So support for Zionism is declining even in Israel? US, UK, Russia and Germany will not do what I want them to do, but I think the least they could do to help fix the problem they created would be to offer citizenship and help with immigration to any Israeli who requests it. Anyway, get out of there
December 23, 2025 at 1:16 PM
So support for Zionism is declining even in Israel? US, UK, Russia and Germany will not do what I want them to do, but I think the least they could do to help fix the problem they created would be to offer citizenship and help with immigration to any Israeli who requests it. Anyway, get out of there
As far as I can tell, by causes they mean bouncing billiard balls, and by inference they mean induction, even from only one observation.
December 23, 2025 at 12:39 PM
As far as I can tell, by causes they mean bouncing billiard balls, and by inference they mean induction, even from only one observation.
They want to convert to Catholicism, and they also want to convert Catholicism to their opinions. I think they imagine Catholicism is the most traditional and highest-status Christianity, and traditional white Christian high-status is what they actually worship and want the Church to worship.
December 23, 2025 at 11:53 AM
They want to convert to Catholicism, and they also want to convert Catholicism to their opinions. I think they imagine Catholicism is the most traditional and highest-status Christianity, and traditional white Christian high-status is what they actually worship and want the Church to worship.
I'm like fire; my consciousness is like light; and my desire is like heat. Fire gets stronger, brighter, and hotter insofar it's modified by fuel; that's like joy or love. But it gets weaker, dimmer, and cooler insofar as it's modified by water; and that's like sorrow or hate.
December 22, 2025 at 11:00 PM
I'm like fire; my consciousness is like light; and my desire is like heat. Fire gets stronger, brighter, and hotter insofar it's modified by fuel; that's like joy or love. But it gets weaker, dimmer, and cooler insofar as it's modified by water; and that's like sorrow or hate.
Hermes and Prometheus are nice decorations; but Descartes said it explicitly. "When someone says ‘I am thinking, therefore I am, or I exist’, he does not deduce existence from thought by means of a syllogism, but recognizes it as something self-evident by a simple intuition of the mind".
December 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Hermes and Prometheus are nice decorations; but Descartes said it explicitly. "When someone says ‘I am thinking, therefore I am, or I exist’, he does not deduce existence from thought by means of a syllogism, but recognizes it as something self-evident by a simple intuition of the mind".
2016 establishment candidates were so unbelievably bad, a guy who didn't even want to be President was the most popular candidate, and another one who never planned on winning and was just promoting his brands did win.
December 22, 2025 at 1:29 PM
2016 establishment candidates were so unbelievably bad, a guy who didn't even want to be President was the most popular candidate, and another one who never planned on winning and was just promoting his brands did win.
Fine. I guess that rules out Rembrandt and Vermeer, but there has to be at least one Van Gogh left to write about.
December 22, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Fine. I guess that rules out Rembrandt and Vermeer, but there has to be at least one Van Gogh left to write about.
I don't know who said "uncaused cause" first, but Descartes copied it more or less uncritically from Scholastics like Aquinas. Spinoza thought about it and revised it to cause of itself. He didn't think about "created", but likewise would have had to revise that to self-created or self-creating.
December 22, 2025 at 12:17 PM
I don't know who said "uncaused cause" first, but Descartes copied it more or less uncritically from Scholastics like Aquinas. Spinoza thought about it and revised it to cause of itself. He didn't think about "created", but likewise would have had to revise that to self-created or self-creating.
Steve Jobs said this, not Spinoza.
December 22, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Steve Jobs said this, not Spinoza.
I've been saying it should be way more than nine voting justices since I read Spinoza's Politics in something like 1983. Only nine is idiotic, just asking for trouble.
December 22, 2025 at 11:53 AM
I've been saying it should be way more than nine voting justices since I read Spinoza's Politics in something like 1983. Only nine is idiotic, just asking for trouble.
I agree overall, but no one writes code in the first place. They find something similar and modify it. But they do that with code that works, not code that has microscopic errors all over the place.
December 22, 2025 at 11:48 AM
I agree overall, but no one writes code in the first place. They find something similar and modify it. But they do that with code that works, not code that has microscopic errors all over the place.
"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel." Yeah, sure. Where's Gershom?
December 22, 2025 at 11:43 AM
"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel." Yeah, sure. Where's Gershom?