As if.... ! I did think about them. But, given that I wasn't citing anybody else, I couldn't be confident that I could summarize them with reasonable ...
Suddenly, I understand what you are saying. :grin: I was interpreting "how" as asking a different question. How you got home, or How a computer works ...
"utility, beauty, and sustainability", I would say are not components of the building, but aspects (properties) of the whole. So I agree with your sen...
But, in the end, everything is related to everything. The test of Cognitive Archaeology is what it produces. There's no true or false here, only pragm...
Neat, but wrong. If you want to get a high salary, Technology and Engineering or Business is what you need to study. But if you want to make real mone...
I agree. I was trying to outline an idea and left that point out for simplicity. Once you start looking, there are a good many disciplines that need t...
It is true that the work on-site is the most visible and possibly most exciting phase of the archaeologist's work. The stuff back home is less visible...
I have always thought of it as much more complicated than that. Something along the following lines:- (That is actually a quotation, which I give beca...
I'm sorry you have decided to give up on our discussion. I thought there was a reasonable chance that we might end up with an understanding, if not an...
The days when that was possible are long gone. What are you an expert in? Yes, they are. One respects the data and draws some worth-while conclusions....
I would have thought you could work out my interests by observing what I take in interest in. Equally, I would have thought that you could work out my...
Well, that's very kind of it. But it's not very meaningful in the context of water or electricity systems. Both do whatever they do. They are not cons...
Ah, so pure form is not enough on its own, and that pesky unmathematical history turns out to be essential. What do historians say about the usefulnes...
An academic paper is a terrible way of publishing research. Nobody really knows, but it seems likely that more than half of academic papers published ...
Yes. In a sense, the processes act blindly. But that implies that they follow rules, which they don't. They do not differentiate between following a r...
You make it sound like the weather. But what you mean is that systems theories are now trying to apply it to social science and human history. Judging...
Yes. They used the same argument to justify enclosures in England as well. It's a case of finding a weapon, not the truth. "incompetence" is a legalis...
Yes, you said that before. "pure form". Not being a mathematician, I'm not qualified to talk about that. But you seem to be talking about applying tha...
This is very helpful. This is not helpful. In the first place "hierarchy" was invented to describe a human social structure. In the second place, it d...
That's a pity. I'm not interested in discussing philosophy with anyone who expects me to pass a test of any kind before they will engage. That will sa...
Oops! Not well written. Perhaps the problem of finding a suitably non-committal way describing the role of physics here was clear enough? Or perhaps I...
Yes, I had heard about that. I'm not surprised that people were more optimistic. There must be a lot of resistance to accepting that the system is tha...
Wouldn't that be circular? Most people who are not dualists accept that there is a physical <insert your preferred term> of abstract reasoning, music,...
Thanks. I hope you won't find a final comment on common sense boring. Common sense, it turns out, has a philosopohical origin and a certain level of p...
I think that he was pulling my leg by exaggerating the facts. We didn't know each other very well at the time. But you see how easy it is to get the w...
I don't deny that for a minute. I just think that we should acknowledge that his version wasn't based on race. In other words, the 18th century versio...
I'm not denying that. On the contrary, in the 18th century, a lot of the gentry would have read Aristotle. But Aristotle does not specify that speakin...
H'm. In respect of physics, you may be right. In respect of other matters, I'm not so sure. We all worry about fake news, don't we? This is where it o...
Maybe I'm nit-picking, but I think "moral obligation" is a contradiction in terms. But the important question is whether the system achieves its objec...
Competence is over-stating it, I agree. But you are expecting more from common sense than it will deliver. Certainly. But I'm not Joe Public, who will...
I'm sure you are right, at least in a forum like this. I do understand how annoying it can be when someone pronounces authoritatively about something ...
I did mean something like laws - because they involve compulsion. When people talk about structure in the context of a discussion about societies, sta...
That's not ancient slavery. Certainly, the ancient greeks regarded foreigners as lesser beings because they couldn't speak properly. But ancient greek...
I'm not sure about "pre-programmed" biology. But even if it is pre-programmed biology, it doesn't show that it is pre-programmed in human beings. "Som...
OK. If you had explained this up front, it would have been clearer what you were saying. Yes, those words do get used in very sloppy ways. It's compli...
That makes sense. Though didn't I read earlier that you do take up some work or business opportunities from time to time? But I guess that's marginal....
Thanks for this. I'm glad I stuck to what I was sure of. Those countries were, of course, regarded as terra nullius because the societies there were n...
Well, there's no-one forcing hierarchies on us. Unless you are positing that hierarchies are only ever formed because some individual decides to grab ...
Yes, I expect that there were people who were keen to take advantage. But the question is, could cities have supported that many people in a hunter-ga...
By coincidence, I've been reminded that Wittgenstein discusses the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge - the paradox that one may know how...
Income tax was levied in the UK from 1799 to 1802, and again from 1803 to 1816. It was brought back - on a strictly temporary basis - in 1842. Somehow...
Yes. If I had my time again, I would probably adopt Linux long before now. But it would be a big project for me and I think I have more pressing thing...
I have not used either. I had no protection whatever until 10 years ago. Now, I have a virus-checker (Norton). I have never had any security problem. ...
H'm. Perhaps self-discipline is freedom. An interesting thought. So you know how far to trust them? Or do you just think you know? Put a foot wrong an...
I'm really sorry, but the fact is that I have had many firm reassurances that IT is absolutely, finally secure, only to discover that it isn't. So I'm...
Yes. One quibble. Our conceptions of the physical and mechanistic will originate with us (collectively). What would it mean to found our indeterminate...
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