Curiosity Killed The Cat

[______]

Well, will it? What do you think?

[Michael]

Let's see, the adage is, 'Curiosity killed the cat'. The definite article would indicate that there is a particular cat in question. However, usage would indicate that it is a generic cat that's being discussed. If it is a singular cat then the answer is no, curiosity won't kill the cat because it has already killed the cat in question. If, on the other hand, the cat is generic then curiosity no doubt has and no doubt will kill some past and some future cat.

Or is there some koanic depth to the question?

[______]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Okay, this may be true for the cat, but what about mankind?

[Thomas Knierim]

Curiosity? Why should it? It seems more like the reason for mankind's survival.

Cheers, Thomas

[______]

I'm drawing off of Alpha's thread "Is Knowledge Good for Us?"

But instead of knowledge, curiosity...

[______]

I'm not so sure it is our cause for survival, but instead the cause of our successes.

[______]

Hey, Alpha. Please do not edit your previous posts when they have been replied to.

Thanks.

[Michael]

Curiosity? Why should it? It seems more like the reason for mankind's survival.

Thomas, do you throw these in just to stir the pot?

This comment is very untypical of your nuanced philosophy and imperical logic. 'It seems like...' Seems like a rope..... ooops!

In fact curiosity or science, the result of curiosity, has placed mankind in a position where we can be compared to a cancer patient being given chemo therapy. The cure could kill us before the disease does. We haven't got a clue just what is being developed by the world's scientists. Michael Crichton, the futurist writer, is on record as saying that there are things being done in the scientific world that are too terrible to even write about. One example of this is the fact that when the hydrogen bomb was first tested they weren't sure that it wouldn't ignite all the hydrogen in the universe - the odds were tiny. But the chance was there and they took it.

[Michael]

Hey, Alpha. Please do not edit your previous posts when they have been replied to.

Apologies, entirely unintentional. A time overlap thing, hadn't seen your response.

[Michael]

Knowledge is the outcome of mankind's curiosity. Curiosity is the belief in non-knowledge. And the funny thing is, the more we know the more we know we don't know. A good paradox is frequently a sign that there's truth around there somewhere.

[______]

Originally posted by @--
Curiosity is the belief in non-knowledge.
Interesting...

Care to explain how you arrived at curiosity as a belief?

[Michael]

Perhaps I should re-phrase that and say 'curiosity is the belief in non-knowing'. If you believed you did know, you wouldn't go in search of knowledge. Curiosity arises from the belief that you don't know. Curiosity is the desire to know. And you know what the mystics think of desire. This is not to say that curiosity is a belief. I said, 'curiosity is the belief...'

But that's only what my very limited mind suspects at the moment, wouldn't get too excited, but the speculation is stimulating. All this damn searching, even while I decry it. Gotta laugh.

[______]

Originally posted by @--
And you know what the mystics think of desire.
I think these "mystics" you speak of are refering to the desire of that which leads to suffering. Desire to free yourself from cyclic existance is another type of desire.

Anywho, curiosity has led to many tragedies in the past. Take the holocaust for example. Okay, bad example of curiosity except that the German scientists of the time were curious of what certain extremes the human body can withstand. Many of their experiments were out of curiosity, not out of cruelty--how ever cruel they may have been.

[Michael]

the desire of that which leads to suffering

That's the guy I'm talkin' about. Certainly lead to problems for that apocryphal cat

[scameter]

I think curiosity is like any other emotion. It helps and hurts. Arrogance will be the downfall, if indeed we have a downfall.

[______]

Well put, Scam!

[Brahmanyan]

Curiosity is the natural trait of every living being. Watch the Child how it learns the world. Except hungar and sleep all other activities are the outcome of curiosity. Yes there may be accidents due to lack of guidance. But it is only a shortcome, which will slow down the curiosity.

[scameter]

But can curiosity, which is an emotion, be evaded?

[______]

"Curiosity is the fuel of the human mind." -a friend

[Smurf]

Well, Curiosity is just another way in which we expand our minds, it can have good consequences or it can have bad consequences depending on the circumstances?

[scameter]

lol Excuse me for talking about emotion again/still. Didn't know I talked about it that much. :lol:

[Starry_Canopy]

And you know what the mystics think of desire

Alpha

I am curious to know what you meant by that. Could you please tell me further about it? Thanks. :)

[Michael]

Well, Starry, I was thinking of the goal of no goal. Living in being seems to be the big mystical thing.

Desire takes you out of the state of being into the state of desiring which is a non-present state, you want something to be or not to be or to happen in the future.

Desire sticks its head up everywhere.

I once watched the prior of a Trappist Monastery(vows of silence, vegetarian, pray night and day and when they're not praying they're working, dig their own graves) watch of pair of mendicant buddhist monks (can't possess money, can't cook, depending totally on the charity of strangers) leaving after visiting the monastery. He watched them with envy. :lol:

[Starry_Canopy]

He watched them with envy. :lol:

:lol:

Thanks for the explanation of "desire" from the mystics' perspective.

It is also said that 'wishing' for things creates our world. Would this be the same as 'desire'? I mean, wishing that something was such and such, not really desiring to possess them, but desiring to see them in existence.

[______]

It is also said that 'wishing' for things creates our world. Would this be the same as 'desire'? I mean, wishing that something was such and such, not really desiring to possess them, but desiring to see them in existence
A bit like the boddhisattva's wish to help all beings achieve enlightenment?