Excuse the time taken to reply. — Brett

I think it makes sense at the least, or as a beginning, to say that an artist produces art, to begin with the artist. — Brett

I was wondering, if we destroyed all art, made it disappear, what would go and what would be left? — Brett

Perhaps my fear is that despite the huge growth of internet communication and the potential raising in peoples' education, societies instead become more fear-based. — Tim3003

The elites, of course, live no where near these people, nor hardly interact with them unless it is to be served by them. And they would know what is best for us? — NOS4A2

Just to be clear: the populism I'm talking about is that espoused by Trump, the Brexit Party and others who promote nationalism at the cost of demonising immigrants. Other policies could be said to be based on what the people want or what is best for them, but that's not what I'm majoring on here. — Tim3003

Thus it's no more a force for improvement in society than was the credo of Hitler. — Tim3003

If it spreads, as the increasing mobility of poor or war-ravaged populations seem to threaten it could, what will the future look like? — Tim3003

The more public fear is whipped up the more dictators can seem acceptable as the antidote. I don't think it's coincidence that, whatever destabilising tactics the Russian use internationally, Trump unashamedly admires Putin.. — Tim3003

I've heard the argument that money is a social construct and this is used as an example of how gender might also be a social construct. Indeed, there are examples of societies that do not use money and have no concept of money (Awa people of the Amazon, for instance). Therefore, we should be able to identify a society that has no concept of gender. — Roxanne Kelly

Populism isn't tied at all to the current situation. — ssu

Openly populist parties emphasize this and their idea of populism leaves out (at least officially) the crucial ingredient: that populism has the important division to "us" and "them" and that "they", the elite, the establishment, the powers at be, are against their ideas.

There's a distinct difference in saying normal democratic movement "We want this and the leaders should listen to us" and a populist movement "We want this and the leaders are against what we want". — ssu

I think the governing principle is not whether there is a deficit, but how large it is, and whether it is less than the rate of inflation. So if inflation is at the 2% target and the deficit is 1.5% then the total debt is increasing at less than inflation - ie decreasing in real terms. Interest rates also have a bearing. As they are now so low both govt and opposition are happy to borrow more. Infact they are talking about instituting new targets for the annual repayment of debt as a % of gdp (I think of ~3% for the Tories and ~5% for Labour), rather than just aiming to limit the size of the deficit. — Tim3003

As you say, socialist policies would dominate if the easing of poverty was the populist view. — Tim3003

To be unbound from all causes and conditions, where "exists", and "does not exist" doesn't even apply. — Inyenzi

the experiences of this world are nothing but stress and suffering. — Inyenzi

Haha. I don't know if I have more faith in people's reasoning/analytic skills, but it does not mean I'll give up arguing and trying to appeal to their reasoning :). But you are right in that oft-times the preference is "baked in" to the person's psyche from all the cues provided from family and society as a youth. — schopenhauer1

Put it this way: if a law were passed that levied a tax of X% of your income but gave you a tax credit of X% the mean income, in a country with an income distribution like the US about 75% of people would get more than they pay, and the whole thing would be neutral on the national budget because that's how math works. (Assuming X<100). — Pfhorrest

Which suggests either that your thesis is wrong, or that we don't really have an open democracy. I lean toward the latter. — Pfhorrest

I think one can talk about it as a movement sweeping the Western world. — ssu

and 8 years of austerity. — Tim3003

Similar to that episode from Seinfeld where George's mom receives advice from an 'Asian' lady on the phone which she considers to be gospel. Yet once she learns that the 'Asian' lady is actually 'Caucasian', that advice is rendered meaningless. This would be value maybe acquired through stereotypes. — JoeStamos

And yet, we are social animals. We do not flourish in solitude. We need human contact like we need food. — Monitor

Perhaps the chatbot provides an easy candy (false food) when we need immediate gratification. — Monitor

Out of nowhere, a masked man steals the mans wallet, punches him in his face and has sex with the mans wife in front of him. — Mark Dennis

does that mean Effective Empathy is skill based not emotion based? — Mark Dennis

Not to be cynical, but do we really know when some one genuinely cares about our troubles? Certainly there can be many motives and many filters. At some level don't we project the meaning and relief upon the helpful empathy that we believe we are receiving? — Monitor

I live in Leicester, a small city in the UK midlands. — Chris Hughes

On yours, in the way of relationships, the number of such immediately explodes into an uncountable infinity of descriptions of relationshps, and of everything in every combination. — tim wood

And we have to consider that the existence of relationships, in this case, in as much as they do not depend on mind, must be real in virtue of something other than mind, and thus not necessarily accessible in any way by thee and me. — tim wood

even if it destroys by explosion the concept of existence via the notion of relationship. — tim wood

But I invite you to consider whether relationships can be a different species of existence, or if instead they fall into ideas/mental constructs - that is, will you develop your thinking a bit more so that we might fall on one side or the other? — tim wood

I guess I'm using intelligibility/comprehensibility as a good yardstick for discerning the simple from the complex. Do you think that's wrong? If yes, why? — TheMadFool

is a black hole very simple or very complex? — ZhouBoTong

The difficulty I have is that the relationship is no thing separate from the objects themselves. Two stones are near each other, and no others are close. That must be two, yes? No. the two is in the mind of the observer who associates the idea of two with the two stones. — tim wood

I'm looking on line for a definition of force , but haven't found a good one. How would you define "force?" — tim wood

Not letting down or hurting family, the culture surrounding procreation, the ideal of family life, etc. — schopenhauer1

To be brief, I think the evidence of the site is that a philosophical discussion of religion is not possible here. — tim wood

One definition of populism is this:

a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups. — Terrapin Station

Yes, but it doesn't 'strive to appeal' in my view. It latches onto base fears, exploits and manipulates them with half-truths and lies; and its aim is to benefit the egos and megalomania of its leaders rather than the ordinary people. — Tim3003

I saw someone recently characterize the difference between left-wing populism (which is a thing) and right-wing populism something like this: both are ostensibly in favor of the common people against their elite rulers, but left-wing populists see the "common people" as the laboring classes (proletarians) generally and the "elites" as the wealthy ownership classes (bourgeoisie) generally, while right-wing populists see the "common people" as the "middle class" (petite bourgeoisie) of the "normal" national identity (race, language, religion, etc) within the country in question, and the "elites" as some nefarious international cabal of foreigners and their political puppets within the country in question. — Pfhorrest

but the preference for procreating new people is not necessarily natural. It could be just as much a deliberative choice as buying a car, or choosing to get this dinner instead of that dinner. — schopenhauer1

A physical relationship? Care to say how that is? — tim wood

I offer here what I think is an exhaustive listing (i.e., why it might be a short thread).

1) All material things.
2) All other things existing by reference, but not material, as ideas/mental constructs. — tim wood

That we can create a mountain and a hadron collider but not a cell or a human is clear evidence in which category these four items fall. — TheMadFool

We can create only things we understand the mechanics of and what is beyond our understanding and therefore can't create is a sign that some stuff are just too complex. — TheMadFool

It is really just pointing out some confusion on my part as to what exactly you are suggesting with "complex"??
— ZhouBoTong

Do you consider deleting features from my understanding of complexity and simplicity or adding other features you think are necessary?

Have a go. — TheMadFool

What is more complex, a cell or a mountain?...why? What is more complex, a human or the large hadron collider?...again, why? — ZhouBoTong

Could we also form an ethical life and consented sentence for criminals incapable of not committing crimes in the real world by just getting them to agree to go to a place where they can do whatever they want for the rest of their life, free of real consequences?[/quote]

While I think you are on to something, society has not advanced far enough for this to become a reality. Surely, the "prison" you described is better than the lives of A LOT (most?) of people. Add in conjugal visits and it would be the ideal life for many.

I doubt that people struggling to pay rent would vote for a massive increase in resources for criminals (or even for potential criminals).

So I think it is a very interesting idea, but it may need to be postponed until we are closer to reaching the star trek utopia (elimination of scarcity). — Mark Dennis

How? Can you name one man-made object that is more complex than humans? — TheMadFool

A complex system would have many components/parts and the relations between them would also be greater in number. — TheMadFool

I guess I have a very basic conception of the words "simplicity" and "complexity" — TheMadFool

I’m only suggesting that the defining feature of racism is the attaching of significance to race. — NOS4A2

Argumentation at its best — Baden

I would not cite Wikipedia in an academic article, perhaps, but it's been proven to be quite reliable for information: — Artemis

I suppose you’d hate an ethnicity, not a race. I’m not sure of the correct term in that case. — NOS4A2

I’m merely arguing that abandoning the false and superstitious ideology of race gives one no grounds to be racist. — NOS4A2

Please explain in what way you've noticed an atom. — ZzzoneiroCosm

Nothing; it's a verb, not a noun. — Banno

You dont buy that definition of racism? How do you define it? — DingoJones

The first thing we should do is stop being racist, — NOS4A2

It is time I hung my gloves up, and take up a less intellectually demanding hobby, such as crocheting or fishing. — god must be atheist

my success rate of winning contentious differentness in views on philosophical matters. — god must be atheist