What is the simplest philosophy for achieving success?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the philosophy of success, exploring various interpretations and definitions of what success means. Participants share their personal beliefs, question the nature of beliefs and actions, and reference philosophical ideas related to virtue and knowledge.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant proposes that "Your true beliefs are always expressed and only expressed in your actions" as a philosophy of success.
  • Another participant questions whether different beliefs can lead to identical actions, providing examples to illustrate the complexity of belief and action.
  • Several participants discuss the simplicity of defining success, with one suggesting it is merely achieving something one has dreamed of.
  • Another participant argues that success comes with a price, indicating that the definition of success is crucial and may be limited in scope.
  • Philosophical references are made to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle regarding the relationship between knowledge, virtue, and action.
  • One participant expresses admiration for philosophical ideas and indicates a desire to explore them further.
  • There is a discussion about the nature of beliefs, with examples illustrating how different motivations can lead to similar actions.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the nature of success, beliefs, and actions. There is no consensus on a singular definition of success or the implications of beliefs on actions, indicating that multiple competing views remain.

Contextual Notes

Some participants acknowledge the limitations of their definitions and the complexity of beliefs, suggesting that the discussion is nuanced and dependent on individual interpretations.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in philosophy, particularly those exploring concepts of success, belief systems, and the relationship between knowledge and action may find this discussion valuable.

ThomasJoe40
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What I have concluded for the philosophy of success is a very simple one. So I would also like to call that "the simplest philosophy leads to the most successful consequence"... Anyway, this philosophy is "Your true believes are always expressed and only expressed in your actions"

There have two purposes that I post this philosophy here, one is that I want to know that if there have any opposite believes against this one... Another is because the my personal belief is "Find your ultimate belief first, then take actions" I think mine shouldn't be that useful...
 
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Is English your native language? Your bio says you lived in Beijing. Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese? How do you say "hello"? Hââ-pô, Néih hóu, Neilhou, Lay ho, Ho yat, Ngh on, Jou san, Nî hâo, Nín hâo, Nîmen hâo?

Is your philosophy about a specific type of belief? Like ethical (good and bad, right and wrong), epistemological (knowledge, true and false), etc.?
 
honestrosewater said:
Is English your native language? Your bio says you lived in Beijing. Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese? How do you say "hello"? Hââ-pô, Néih hóu, Neilhou, Lay ho, Ho yat, Ngh on, Jou san, Nî hâo, Nín hâo, Nîmen hâo?

Is your philosophy about a specific type of belief? Like ethical (good and bad, right and wrong), epistemological (knowledge, true and false), etc.?


Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that I am not a native English speaker... I am a Beijinger actually, so, basically, I cannot speak any Cantonese...

Your Chinese is good, the one I use is Ni Hao... I rarely use Nin Hao because I don't usually encounter formal situation...

Well, I don't think my philosophy belongs to any specific type you have mentioned above... it is just a philosophy about oneself, the philosophy that can make one live in peace forever...

BTW, Ni Men Hao means "Hello, Everybody..." or sth like that, which I have never used before, haha~ :smile:
 
ThomasJoe40 said:
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that I am not a native English speaker... I am a Beijinger actually, so, basically, I cannot speak any Cantonese...

Your Chinese is good, the one I use is Ni Hao... I rarely use Nin Hao because I don't usually encounter formal situation...
It's no a big deal, I just wanted to say hello. Nî hâo.
I haven't memorized all of those phrases, I looked them up :biggrin:

Well, I don't think my philosophy belongs to any specific type you have mentioned above... it is just a philosophy about oneself, the philosophy that can make one live in peace forever...

Is it like Socrates' (and Plato's) idea that knowledge is virtue? That if a person knows what is virtuous, they will act virtuously? If so, you can read Aristotle's denial involving the weakness of will: That someone may know what is virtuous, yet not have a strong enough will to act virtuously.

You may be saying something else, but I can't tell from only one sentence. Can you explain more?
 
ThomasJoe40 said:
What I have concluded for the philosophy of success is a very simple one.

What is success?
 
Ivan Seeking said:
What is success?


Well, to me it might just be a very simple one, that is to actually achieve something that one has dreamed of...

Is that too simple??~ :rolleyes:
 
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honestrosewater said:
It's no a big deal, I just wanted to say hello. Nî hâo.
I haven't memorized all of those phrases, I looked them up :biggrin:

Anyway, your Chinese is pretty good. I actually thought you might be a Chinese, esp Cantonese, hehe. Anyway, now I think you might have a close relationship with some Chineses?? Anyway, nevermind, just a stupid guessing I think~


honestrosewater said:
Is it like Socrates' (and Plato's) idea that knowledge is virtue? That if a person knows what is virtuous, they will act virtuously? If so, you can read Aristotle's denial involving the weakness of will: That someone may know what is virtuous, yet not have a strong enough will to act virtuously.

You may be saying something else, but I can't tell from only one sentence. Can you explain more?


Wow, I got to say that I love those ideas. To be honest, I have never heard of any of those philosophies before. I will definitely look them up in the library.
So, it seems you MIGHT BE a philosophy student... :smile:


Finally, just let me repeat that, knowledge is virtue, definitely!
 
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Knowledge is also power.
 
ThomasJoe40 said:
Well, to me it might just be a very simple one, that is to actually achieve something that one has dreamed of...

Is that too simple??~ :rolleyes:

Maybe not too simple but surely limited in scope.

The point is that success always comes with a price. The price can outweigh the benefits of success, so the definition of success becomes rather important IMO.
 
  • #10
ThomasJoe40 said:
Anyway, now I think you might have a close relationship with some Chineses?? ...So, it seems you MIGHT BE a philosophy student... :smile:
I am a student of everything- though certainly not a master of everything. :biggrin:

Wow, I got to say that I love those ideas. To be honest, I have never heard of any of those philosophies before. I will definitely look them up in the library.

Plato was a student of Socrates, and Aristotle was a student of Plato. They were all philosophers in Ancient Greece. No written works by Socrates have survived. (I'm not sure he actually wrote anything for posterity.) We know about Socrates' ideas because Plato wrote about them.
Some of the works you may be interested in reading are Plato's "Meno" and "Apology" and Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics". You can search Google (www.google.com/) to find them. I know many English translations are available (for free) online, but I'm not sure about translations in other languages.

If you prefer to read in Mandarin, Google has many language tools which you can find by clicking "Preferences" and "language Tools". For instance, you can search only for pages written in Mandarin. There is also a "translate this page" tool, but the translations aren't great since they aren't done by humans.

In addition to reading these works, you should also read what others have written about them. I hope you have fun :)
 
  • #11
Ivan Seeking said:
Maybe not too simple but surely limited in scope.

Keeping in mind the pitfalls of casual generalizations... I have noticed Eastern, Ancient Greek, and French languages often tend towards a simplicity which seems rather cryptic to me. They seem to be able to convey in a few words the equivalent of several sentences in English.
 
  • #12
"Your true believes are always expressed and only expressed in your actions"


can different believes (or intentions) lead to identical actions ?
 
  • #13
Sho'Nuff said:
can different believes (or intentions) lead to identical actions ?
That depends on what you include in a belief. Adam and Bob may both believe that they shouldn't lie. Adam may believe he shouldn't lie because lying is wrong in principle. Bob may believe he shouldn't lie because he might get caught and be punished, and he doesn't want to be punished. They both end up believing the same thing (you shouldn't lie) but for different reasons.

Additionally, Adam may not act as he believes he should act. This could result from many things, for instance, a lack of willpower. If you exclude the reasons, identical beliefs could also result in different actions.

Another circumstance includes Charlie. Charlie believes that he should lie. If Adam doesn't act as he believes he should, Adam and Charlie could end up acting identically though they have different beliefs.

____
Of course, ThomasJoe seems to be saying the last two circumstances can't happen.
 
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  • #14
Ivan Seeking said:
Maybe not too simple but surely limited in scope.

The point is that success always comes with a price. The price can outweigh the benefits of success, so the definition of success becomes rather important IMO.


:bugeye: ... Oh, Thanks ... it widened my scope, even thought this fact does not sounds very nice...
 
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  • #15
honestrosewater said:
Plato was a student of Socrates, and Aristotle was a student of Plato. They were all philosophers in Ancient Greece. No written works by Socrates have survived. (I'm not sure he actually wrote anything for posterity.) We know about Socrates' ideas because Plato wrote about them.

Cheers... to me, those indroductions are brilliant... before I only knew Aristotle because physics is my only speciality...

honestrosewater said:
Some of the works you may be interested in reading are Plato's "Meno" and "Apology" and Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics". You can search Google (www.google.com/) to find them. I know many English translations are available (for free) online, but I'm not sure about translations in other languages.

Thank you! I appreciated a lot for those recommendations... these are what I am looking for actually...

honestrosewater said:
If you prefer to read in Mandarin, Google has many language tools which you can find by clicking "Preferences" and "language Tools". For instance, you can search only for pages written in Mandarin. There is also a "translate this page" tool, but the translations aren't great since they aren't done by humans.

In addition to reading these works, you should also read what others have written about them. I hope you have fun :)

Thanks a lot again, for those detailed instructions... actually, I have already used a lot of those Chinese search engines. I guess I will prefer to read in English.


Thank you overall, finally~





honestrosewater said:
Keeping in mind the pitfalls of casual generalizations... I have noticed Eastern, Ancient Greek, and French languages often tend towards a simplicity which seems rather cryptic to me. They seem to be able to convey in a few words the equivalent of several sentences in English.


I guess you are talking about linguistics here, not philosophy... am I right? :-p
 
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  • #16
ThomasJoe40 said:
I guess you are talking about linguistics here, not philosophy... am I right? :-p
Right. And you're very welcome. :smile:
 

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