Ontology has shaped your behavior in significant ways.

Describe two separate and significant choices you've made in your life that were shaped by the ideas found in popular ontological theories:

• Unconscious: You were aware of your thoughts and feelings at the time you made the choice, but only see the resonance with a popular ontological theory in retrospect.
• Conscious: You were conscious of the ontological ideas shaping this choice when you made it.

Do you think there is value added when a conscious conceptual link to ontological theory is present?

Good questions and starting point,but I´m haveing trouble with ontological status of conscious.

I think the definitive moment in my life was when I realized that my chair wasn't just a chair, but also part of the larger body of organized furnishings comprising the room I was smoking weed in.

whoops . . . . to answer the question . . . this obviously happened after I had just read Heidegger's refutation of Plato's forms. I'm sure everyone picked up on that, I just wanted to make it explicit.

lol, it happens to the best of us.

What's ontology? The only words I know with ology in their end is a subject I take in High School

Extreme Coder

Perhaps this simple story will clarify the practical implications of different ontologies:

George belonged to the Mumbie clan so when there was an opportunity to kill the last remaining village full of Bubudu clansmen, he did so with enthusiasm and became a hero. George knew that his decision to vanquish his foe was supported by his ontology because he listened to and accepted that ontology as it was told to him all of his life. He even recited stories to himself before the battle to remind himself of that ontology: The Great Zorg created all life. Over time the Mumbie clan proved themselves worthy of blessing, while the despicable Bubudu clan proved themselves worthy only of curses from the Great Zorg. It is the duty of the Mumbies to eradicate the Bubudus. Praise Zorg.

Later in life King George, as he became known, took a strange turn. One day he ceased eating flesh. Then he ceased eating greens. Eventually, he simply ceased eating. He withdrew from his luxurious palace and his proud but restless clansmen and settled for the rest of his days in a cave near a natural spring in the woods.

He drank from the spring for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, breathing fresh air for desert. He talked to the trees and the ants and the clouds in the sky. People thought he had turned mad and so left him in peace. On the day he died an old friend passing though the woods saw King George sitting on a rock in silence. They embraced and smiled, but George had little to say of himself or his old life that he had left behind. The friend asked what it was that made George change his behavior all those years ago. "I have never stopped to think about it," George replied scratching his head. "I guess my ontology must have changed."

In the silly example we might say that George unwittingly exchanged one brand of monotheistic ontology to some sort of pantheistic ontology.

As to the question of value added, my example is funny: When he's aware of the motivational story of Zorg he seems evil, foolish, or both; whereas later in life he's living with respect for all existence without questioning the ontological basis of his actions.

But George doesn't exist. Back to you.

Good story wich explains what you want to ask.I didn´t mean to be ironic,sarcastic or anything else wich will offended you.Your story is about changing state of mind,change perspective and how that influence our actions.From that point of view this can be very good and fruitfull discusion.But,that can not change my mind about ontological status of conciusness.Nobody give right answer to that question and that´s why is so intriging(to me at least).Simple example.Does that raise question on dualism and monism.What kind of monism?This questions are just begining of discusion.I hope we will all enjoy this convesation.

A theory of existence or the science that investigates it.

To spunout

Correct me if I missunderstood your first question.I belive it is conection between concious and ontology.If it is so,that raise question wich I belive will interest all on this forum.Is arteficial inteligence possible?

I think it's more a matter of how your world view affects your decisions and behavior.

Sometimes people will cease to act and worry over something, "giving it over to God," and plenty people pray hard over big decisions. During the time when they're praying, they're on high lookout for little nuances in the fabric of life which they might interpret as signs from God.

On the other hand, when such direct correlation is not so evident, what one believes can affect behavior subconsciously. They call it a "world view" because it is seriously just that: how you view and react to the world and all the semantics which come with it. It comes right down to what you wear, to what you eat, to who you date (And how far you go how early in that case), how you drive, how you react to peer pressure... I mean, seriously, a world view is deep stuff.

Belief in a higher being, or lack there of, changes your perspective on life, which changes how your character develops.

raises* which* believe* artificial* intelligence*

That's worth it's own thread.

SigmaX

I have to disagree with you because this thread started with sentence

Culture wich we coming from may shape our world view too.But that was not what spunout want to ask.Feel free to correct me if I´m wrong.And finaly
I can not agree more.

Worldview can stand for ontology in this discussion. It may be more accurate to specify that one's ontology is the set of subtle and elusive axioms behind one's worldview.

If it were easy to tweak, I'd be adjusting my ontology directly instead of dancing around it with words on the web.

We can say that ontology shapes our behaviour completly in two cases:
1.predestination
2.materialistic determinism

In both cases we don´t have free will.But if we have choices and free will to make that choices,ontology is not only thing wich shape our behaviour.