It must be the same with all other invisible boundary lines. Do we want them to exist? — TogetherTurtle
What if we made a world with only boundaries that protect us and none that restrict us? — TogetherTurtle
if you asked if a wolf was the same species as the rest of its pack, they would immediately say "of course!". — TogetherTurtle
Instead of holding on so desperately to categories that aren't useful, why don't we just make new categories? And when those categories and rendered invalid by new information, we again make new, more accurate categories. — TogetherTurtle
I'm not sure we have any choice. It's what we do. You can argue where the lines should go, but humans are line-drawing animals. — T Clark
All lines restrict us. — T Clark
Generally speaking, I don't think wolves do much line-drawing. Or maybe the lines are more likely to be genetic with them. — T Clark
Well, we do sometimes, often. Eventually always, although I guess some of our lines are genetic also. — T Clark
Well written and well thought through. I only have a few thoughts right now: — T Clark
Quite the opposite, I believe that wolves do the most fundamental kind of line-drawing:Generally speaking, I don't think wolves do much line-drawing. — T Clark
Yes, I agree. We should try to reflect on all the lines, and not take any of them for granted, or believe them immovable."If we don't want one to exist or it doesn't benefit us, we shouldn't have it". — TogetherTurtle
There has to be lines, but there are a lot of places we can choose to draw them. I think I was going for "If we don't want one to exist or it doesn't benefit us, we shouldn't have it". — TogetherTurtle
Is a place really restricted from us if we didn't want to go there in the first place? — TogetherTurtle
It probably just wasn't clear, but I was trying to say that a biologist would say that. Wolves might draw lines, but I couldn't tell you, I'm not a wolf. — TogetherTurtle
Really? I wasn't really sure how well this would be received. Regardless, I've been thinking about it for a long time now. — TogetherTurtle
There you go, you've summarized all of philosophy in two sentences. We can shut down the forum now. — T Clark
Well, I was sort of joking, but then the idea of genetic lines appealed to me, as you can see later in my post. — T Clark
When I first read your post, it seemed too broad. As I said earlier, it basically covers everything people ever wrote or spoke or thought. All of human mental output. It's all just drawing lines. — T Clark
Yes, I agree. We should try to reflect on all the lines, and not take any of them for granted, or believe them immovable. — WerMaat
Granted, that's probably a rather simplified approach, but I think that this type of in-group/out-group categorization actually explains a lot of human behavior.
What makes it complicated, is that today a lot of different groups and organizations try to appeal to our "pack" feelings, in order to gain our help, obedience or solidarity. the family, the employee, the sports club, the nation... — WerMaat
DNA is just a chemical compound. It's our imaginary lines that clump it all together. — TogetherTurtle
Do you still think it's too broad? — TogetherTurtle
What I meant is that we draw some of the lines we draw because of the way our brains and minds have evolved. The way they are structured. We are not and never were blank slates. For some things, we don't have any choice where to draw the lines. — T Clark
I think it is appropriately too broad. — T Clark
Quite the opposite, I believe that wolves do the most fundamental kind of line-drawing:
"Part of my pack" / "NOT part of my pack" — WerMaat
Agreed, but I don't think words are required. I believe that birds and mammals can do that, as in: animals that learn from experience and adapt their behavior accordingly.Maybe we mean different things when we say "drawing lines." For me, they are drawn using words and symbols. It's a mental practice. — T Clark
I think the probably have concepts like: part of my family, potential danger, potential prey. And perhaps some more specific ones: smell-of-human-that-brings-food, rock-that-is-nice-and-sunny-for-afternoon-nap.
I definitely would not limit the mental line-drawing activities to humans only. — WerMaat
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