T_Clark

I think we have had this discussion before. Dealing with Pol Pot doesn’t involve morality, it involves control. Things like that need to be stopped, n...

Here’s how I see it - this is from Ziporyn’s translation of the Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi). This is how Emerson put it in “Self-Reliance.”

What is legal and what is right are not the same thing. Laws are a matter of control with the purpose of maintaining social stability. Much of what is...

It sounds like you’re paralegals fill a roll very similar to one my wife fills. The difference is probably that when I command her to do something, sh...

Welcome to the forum. Given my obsession with metaphysics, I will point out that Jung’s formulation is metaphysics and not science. On the other hand,...

Is that what they mean by “paralegals?”

My mother, who came from a more lofty social strata than I have attained, got silverware for her wedding that includes grapefruit spoons. Not silverpl...

I think that’s why the British Navy used to give its sailors, rum with lime. You know, limeys.

Thanks for the link Jamal. Interesting. I’m partway through. It still strikes me as kind of a mishmash of sociology, psychology, social criticism, mor...

Is it metaphysics or is it sociology?

I played squash a few times when I was in school. I actually owned a racket for a while. I went to a hoity toity New England school. There was actuall...

My wife makes a dish that combines carrots and butternut squash. The carrots add sweetness to the squash and it’s really good and that’s from someone ...

In my experience, rutabagas have a bit of a bitter taste. It’s not bad, but it definitely is an acquired taste. With pertaters around, I’ve never felt...

Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung

A bit out of scope for this conversation.

First comes daily life, then comes philosophy.

Your understanding of Taoism is different from mine.

Your... aggressive, willful approach to interfering with other people's threads used to infuriate me.

It's not a principle, it's a definition, so there is no theory backing it up, just a consensus of the meaning of the word among users. What I posted i...

I think it’s more likely that the more education you have, the less likely it is that you will be wise. Of course that’s an overstatement. This is fro...

I still think you’re clearly wrong.

As someone who came to whatever wisdom I have later in life, it’s possible my definition is tilted. Perhaps we should add character to my short list o...

If nothing else, it has the virtue of brevity.

I’ve heard of “Come and See.” It sounds brutal and disturbing. Descriptions I’ve read make it sound like a book I read back in college - “The Painted ...

That’s ridiculous. I think it shows, perhaps, a lack of wisdom.

Of all the personal qualities that a person can have - intelligence, character, integrity, experience, wisdom, temperament, maturity, personality, vir...

Without looking it up on Google, here’s my definition off the top of my head A system is a group of elements or components that interact to behave in ...

You can usually find it around here at hoity-toity beer places. The kind I like is not sweet at all and has a nice little bite to it.

I never said I wasn’t nitpicking.

According to Google:

I think there are already military dog drones.

Persnickety people don’t say “fucking.” Perhaps pernickety ones do.

I’m reading a good book - “The Smoke Thieves” by Sally Green. A fantasy. It’s very well written. I’ve read other books by her and they are also very w...

I say persnickety, but apparently those Brits say pernickety. Fucking Brits.

One of the more graceless posts I’ve read here on the forum.

I doubt you would find many people in their 20s who agree with this. Older people have the money and the power. Older people are the bosses, younger p...

Good examples. Studying other humans does not have to be harmful, disrespectful, or over-intrusive.

It looks like you’ve just restated Zeno’s paradoxes.

Sometimes when I’m in a frustrating discussion and I don’t feel like we’re making any progress I’ll say something like “I don’t think there’s any reas...

You mentioned Feyerabend and Kuhn, about whom I know very little. So I looked them up on Wikipedia. I’m not particularly sympathetic to the way they s...

Are you sure you didn’t just ban Scooby Doo?

I did not type in the quote. I uploaded the figure and then opened it in Google Docs. That automatically translated the photographed text into copyabl...

I was going to comment on how attractive your thumb is.

The text you posted includes this statement: I've often said that science is not the only way of knowing things, but it's a good way for particular pu...

Here’s what I know about chickens - when the little dohickey pops up, it’s time to eat. On the other hand, we do have wild turkeys in my backyard.

Keeping observer effects out of the results is a problem for all science. Obviously, it’s more of a problem when you are observing people. In the case...

Hold your horses.

A certain amount of separation, objectivity, is required for any scientific study. I’d go further and say it’s required for any truely rigorous study....

Studying something without an adequate level of rigor defeats the purpose of the work entirely. That’s what science is for - to gather information and...

This doesn’t seem necessarily true to me. There’s nothing inherently deceptive or manipulative about observing a society or culture, whether or not it...