frank

How so?

:up:

At the time of the revolution, their factories were mostly owned by the British and French, so there wasn't any native expertise. I wonder how they ma...

Qaddafi believed democracy-socialism could work with religion as a third column. It would probably sour eventually, but don't all social schemes?

That's what Rosen was getting at, but I think he ends up saying that what we're really analyzing here is the way we think about life. We think of it a...

If it's strong emergence, it's dualism. Weak emergent freedom is a contradiction in terms. A causally closed system doesn't have to be one that has no...

Wouldn't that be efficient causality, though? As long as you think of yourself as a causally open system, the logical conclusion is determinism. Your ...

Fortune magazine says the reason we haven't had either a soft or hard landing from the Fed's efforts to control inflation is private lending. This is ...

It's was an element of a large scale shift in power in Europe. The old Catholic view was that if you were born poor, this was God's will for you. To p...

Right. Free will is the idea that there are choices and you're responsible for what you pick. If there is only one choice, you have no responsibility.

I don't think there is one Protestant ethical outlook. One potent vein of Protestantism is Calvinism, which disconnects your actions from reward or pu...

And then there's fortune. It's just a wheel that turns. There's no plan. It's just the way things are. One day you're fantastic, the next you're in a ...

:lol:

Kripke gives good reason to doubt that this is what's really happening. It certainly sounds plausible, but falls apart in the details. Maybe the missi...

Maybe you could have free will by imagining something like the multi-verse scenario, and you have the ability to pick which universe you end up in.

I think cultural forms always express the same story arc. They start with a golden age where everyone is strong and true. Then they progress to greate...

That's true. But if you rely on a government to enforce your property rights, that also becomes a racket. You'll have to protect your stuff with your ...

I've long been fascinated by Russian history. I read a book by Hosking that didn't paint a rosy picture of Lenin. But I absolutely agree that sufferin...

:up: Yea, I also thought there might be a spectrum with extremes of selfishness and selflessness on the poles and a mixture in middle. Conceptually, a...

I think the kind of stability you're looking for only exists in the grave.

The AI answer: "Yes, Karl Marx believed that communism was inevitable. Marx's theories of history and economics, which he called economic determinism,...

:grin: According to Trotsky, Communism wasn't the kind of thing anyone tries. It was supposed to be the inevitable unfolding of events according to th...

You're doing the Socialism fallacy: because Socialism didn't work in China, it won't work anywhere, except you're saying that because the Church ended...

And that's what your wife wanted to see?

I agree. People turn to religion when they don't feel good about the world. I think the old religions are worn out. Maybe a new one will appear shortl...

I guess I'll watch it then. In the meantime I've been listening to the soundtrack. Spooky and symphonic.

The US is made up of subgroups. Couldn't that work on a larger scale?

:up:

Was it? I love Christopher Nolan's stuff, I just didn't want to see Oppenheimer for some reason.

I just saw Godzilla Minus One. It's a mind bender. It kind of makes me want to watch Oppenheimer.

I see.

ECB dropped it's rate by 25 basis points. In the US, unemployment is rising, so we might be next.

Are you saying the switch operator is guilty of murder no matter what she does?

This occurred to me as well. A society without the concept of ownership would have to be stranded and alone (like the original Berbers) or a global en...

Trollies don't kill people. Switching attendants kill people.

Millions of imaginary people have been severely injured due to this problem.

That's cool. If you can't conceive of it, I imagine it's because you're investing the idea with essential features of thought or the nature of animals...

Yea, I was just pondering the origin of the concept of ownership. I suppose it's somewhere in mammal evolution. Not sure where.

OK :up:

1. Imagine a possible world W where there is no concept of ownership. 2. Let's say that in this world there's no way to say "my wife," but there is a ...

But what about some science fiction future where there is no shortage of goods. Would boredom intrude there as well?

I knew that if this thread went long enough, someone would comment on that. :grin: I wasn't proposing a debate between communism and capitalism. Histo...

Then what's the origin of sharing? Is that also innate, or is it an adaptation to circumstances?

It's true though.. Communism came first. Free markets came much later, when the old system was dying. I think property, as we know the concept has to ...

Joined at the hip.

I suppose that's because you think the fish are yours, and not public property. What about chipmunks?

It's not the same. You can kill someone whether there's a law against it or not. You literally can't be a thief if there's no such thing as private pr...

I didn't mean that, but that's the point of Augustine's City of God. He was saying that when cities pile up riches, they're practically asking to be r...

Isn't that what private property is about? What does it mean for it to be "mine" other than that you can't take it from me? Or have control over it? I...

The first agricultural societies were what we would think of as communist. The people brought their produce to the temple and the priests divided it u...