A.R.Amistad

Well, being afraid of death is normal and unavoidable, exactly such as death himself.It is one whole other thing though to not accept it, reaching such conclusions as the technocrat's/tranhumanist's...After all, as we two agree, it would be impossible to give meaning to life if there wasn't deathsimilary, it would be impossible to give meaning to humanity if the later had achieved omniscience.

Nice, I didn't expect to find someone with similar views with mine concerning technology and transhumanism...I had never even stood to state them, thinking the other side won't even listen...kudos

Thanks for your carefully thought out reply. I'm reading up on Hegel at the moment, and he has an interesting conception of freedom. Similar to Kant, but not as a rigid. I think your point about freedom from being influenced by externalities is an interesting point. Freedom is not as simple as "I'm free because I can do what I want"; in a consumerist society there is so much external pressure from billboards, the TV, magazines, adverts, newspapers, the media etc etc. This is something that Hegel is quite strong on. Are there any sources or books you can recommend that serve as an introduction to subjects like existentialism? Thanks.

I like it how you call us "Bolshevik-Leninists" rather than Trotskyist but then again, it was first thought up as a pejorative I think. Yes, I do have an interest in Sartre and his attempted reconciliation of Marxism and existentialism. I wouldn't say I know enough about existentialism to have a coherent enough position on it though. What I do know I will try and discuss; I find it interesting how existentialism derives pretty much from Nietzsche, (at least I'm fairly sure it does) yet Nietzsche had some seemingly rather anti-Marxist ideas. For example ubermensch, which is basically the concept that "great men" make history. This seems to directly oppose the working class perspective, Marxian, materialist conception of history. What are your thoughts on this?

i can try... what do you need help with?

Help with what?