Good point. Thanks.

If psychology (or sociology) is not a science, then what is it?

It seems to be a hybrid of formal science (such as when psychologists measure response time, learning rates, memory, etc.) and a mix of the humanities -- philosophy, history, literature, et al. It also has a practical streak: "Just what, exactly, is your problem and how can you solve it?" Some psychologists are really good at this and others are not, just like one's friends might be good problem solvers, or not.

What the hell is economics, for that matter? Economists study behavior but they seem to be no better than anybody else at predicting the next economic disaster. If you can't tell me when the next collapse is coming, what good are you? How about "political science"?

All of the behavioral sciences suffer from an inability to surreptitiously observe enough people closely enough long enough. Picky ethicists disapprove of bird-watching people, and doing rat-maze experiments on our fellow man. Put the fussy ethicists out to pasture and we might be able to get something done (90% just joking).

Some workers in the field have actually done some first rate bird-watching; thinking here of Laud Humphreys and his public toilet sex study. Great work, Tearoom Trade. Another such study was done by Prof. Jack Weatherford of Washington, D.C. adult book stores. Extra, extra, read all about it. Porn Row.

Both of these sociologists / anthropologists got up close and personal without compromising anyone's identity or safety. Others have observed gangs, punk rockers, drug users, etc. etc. It's slow, sometimes dangerous work. Most prospective PhDs (for some odd reason) don't want to hang around in gangs or mahogany paneled suites for years on end studying the local fauna.

I've been trying to decide whether I should try to make a comprehensive case for psychology as a scientific discipline. I'd considered doing that in the past but never got around to it. That would be the only potentially effective way for me to respond to your skepticism, but it will take some effort. Let me think about whether I've got the energy to do it right now. — T Clark

Brother Wood will, like as not, doubt the worth of psychology (and sociology as well, most likely) no matter how solid your defense. People who think psychology should be a hard science like physics or chemistry need their heads examined, as well as their lives.

Psychology can not be a science like chemistry because its subject matter -- the minds of human beings -- are not directly observable, and moreover consists of billions of individuals who are all capable of obfuscation, deceit, dishonesty, distrust, willful stupidity, and more (as well as brilliant understanding and very sharp perception). One can with considerable accuracy measure how fast a person can read, how much they can remember, how quickly they can learn a skill, and the like. When it comes to examining a life in all its neurotic splendor, whether it's ones own or someone else's, one enters a funhouse of uncertainty.

Despite all that, there are many (not sure its more than a billion) people who seem to be healthy, well grounded, clear headed, honest, open, and cooperative. They, of course, do not end up on the psychotherapeutic couch. Psychology would probably learn more if it spent more time analyzing all the happy people who are alike, and less on the unhappy people who are all different and totally screwed up.

You are dating yourself. Sears is as good as dead. But now we have Amazon, which has much crap for sale than Sears did. Once we had only philosophy, which philosophers will think was as solid as bed rock--just the way Sears was once the go-to retailer for most of the country, selling everything from ladies corsets to farm machinery.

Granted, psychology is not as rigorous as physics--and why would it be, considering it's subject matter, and the capacity of its subjects (you and me) to deceive themselves and others? Neurology, physiological brain science, etc. have rigor, but they don't help us know ourselves.

Did you, or are you reading Candide? If not, it's an easy read, and pretty short.

It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss.[8] The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes Candide with, if not rejecting Leibnizian optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds". — Wikipedia

The horrors he lists, some of them absurd, all happened to characters in the story. Are you familiar with Leonard Bernstein's opera, "Candide"? It's a great show. Here's a sample... Here Pangloss (with his face disfigured from syphilis) explains why everything is for the best to Candide.

It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss.[8] The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes Candide with, if not rejecting Leibnizian optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds".

what type of reaction do you think the police would have against a large non-mainstream protest against capital? — Maw

Are you speaking of das capital or de capitol?

Any strong, coherent, powerful protest against capital[ists] has been and will be suppressed by the state (some branch). This is not a left/right issue: Most people support capitalism (in the same way they support air or sunshine). Every now and then an effective stroke against capitalism is made, usually in the form of a labor strike. Democrat and Republican governors alike will call out the national guard to assist the capitalists (96 times out of 100, anyway).

Occupy was able to establish its camps on the doorsteps of the corporation and the government without receiving police suppression because it was (more or less) beneath the contempt of capitalists and the state. It just wasn't a threat. It was worth doing, but let's be clear -- the idealists who flocked to Occupy were not plotting revolution. They were engaging in a very pleasant Young Folks Frolic & Political Dance. They should do it more often,

But Cuba. — schopenhauer1

Yet for some reason these people are painted as radical Castro-loving communists by the right. — Mr Bee

Cuba and Castro? Up here in Canadian border state land anyway, Cuba and Castro just don't show up on the radar. Just because they've had some demonstrations doesn't make them relevant to US politics, all of a sudden. (I'm in favor of lifting the embargo on Cuba and freely trading with them.)

I don't think problem lies with Leftists per se, as some members seem to suggest (I think Leftists are far smarter today than they have in decades prior), but rather lies with the colossal structures of Capitalism, ideological bulwarks, state militarization, etc. — Maw

Absolutely.

It would be hard to over-state the intensity of efforts against labor and the left by the capitalist class (the ones who actually are succeeding at capitalism) and their government / political branches.

There are forms of Left Wing radicalism apparent in the US, but none so apparently emboldened as the Right's. — Lil

Old style Communists would probably brand the right-wing storming the US capitol building (1/6/21) as "infantile adventurism" or some such. There is no good reason for the left--even if it were a coherent militant force, which it is not--to pull a similar stunt.

Why not?

The US Government, like most large governments, is perfectly capable of defending itself and prosecuting would-be revolutionaries, right or left. True, the capitol police force was caught flat footed, but they are but a tiny branch of the forces available.

As mentioned above

The very idea of there being an uprising is skipping steps, there isn't any other option than hard work by organizers and taking over local governments and councils — Saphsin

There is virtually zero revolutionary left-wing (socialist) organizing going on in the United States. There probably is more right wing / fascist organizing going on, but we are not talking about a mass movement on the right, either. The Right wing doesn't need to get organized as long as you have people like Trump, Mcconnell, Abbott, et al around.

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This is a serious issue James Riley, the younger generation is suffering and the Boomers ignore their cries of pain/calls for reform. Denying someone's identity is tantamount to genocide — K Turner

You have gotten carried away. Going off the deep end doesn't strengthen your case. Disagreeing with screwy ideas is not genocide.

One of the reasons "boomers" ignore you is that we have been around the block a few times and find many of you "gender specialists" inordinately self-involved. "Sexual identity" is a new issue for you, but is not a new issue historically. Lots of people have dealt with it more and less productively over the last century.

There is this mantra that "You can be anything you want to be." President of the United States; as rich as Bill Gates; a self-designed new gender. Dream on.

I once specializing in being a liberated homosexual, politically radical, a rebel. Fine for me, but when I ran it up the flag pole I expected everyone to salute. Guess what: Outside of a small circle of friends there were no salutes. You can be as far out as you want, but there are costs. A lot, maybe most people are going to flat out reject you. Get used to it.

From now on I want you to address me a "@#$#@!#$#". Oh, you don't know how to pronounce that? That is your problem, not mine. )(()((()((()( over there wants you to kneel when you address )(()((()((()(. You don't mind, do you?

I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a source that could help convince me that technological progress and ideas are unlimited. — Maximum7

You might as well decide for yourself, because nobody has the answer.

IMHO, there are reasons to suppose that progress will not be unlimited. In order for our progress to be unlimited, we would have to be unlimited, and we are--just my guess--probably not. As species go, our 'high achievement record' is pretty short. There have been bright flashes in the pan, but nothing resembling a constant beacon of steady progress.

Think: The industrial revolution started with steam roughly 250 years ago. After not a lot more than 1 century of full-blast industrialism, we are heading towards inadvertently heating the atmosphere to civilization-stopping temperatures.

What can possibly go wrong with everything that we can think of? Well, just about anything. We are the weak link here. We are not good at long-term thinking. It's difficult for us to plan 10 years ahead, let alone 100 or 200 years. Coherent planning and execution over long periods of time just isn't our forte. We are not good at calculating the downsides of things we want to do.

We will be doing well to exit stage left honorably and gracefully, at some point in the future, without taking everything out with us.

On the micro-level, change is a constant. The same on the macro level but might be a bit too slow to notice. People do not have an aversion to change, they have at least some aversion to adversity. A little adversity is OK. I enjoy a big thunderstorm and wind. Most people are willing to tolerate quite a lot of adversity--especially when it is other people's adversity.

As a child, ever experience the rush of opening a Christmas present? — HardWorker

No. it was always a lump of coal. Me and my siblings developed an intense, revolutionary longing for change. Sadly, we didn't get that either.

Why is it okay to believe in the theory of a higher-dimensional being but not God? Aren’t we describing the the same concept? — SteveMinjares

I have found that a lot of people who believe in various crock-of-shit theories think that religion is beneath contempt, when -- unbeknownst to them -- it's all pretty much the same faith-based kind of thinking.

1. How have you arrived at your belief that God exists? Was it after some theoretical or logical proofs on God 's existence or some personal religious experience? Or via some other routes? — Corvus

Surely, only a philosopher would think that many (any?) arrived at belief in God through theoretical or logical proof.

The much more probable routes are:

1. Being taught, as a child, that God(s) exists.
2. Being persuaded by a teacher [missionary] as an adolescent or adult that God(s) exist.

The experience of being taught, persuaded, comforted [or threatened] is the critical part for most people. Some may arrive at belief through their own private efforts.

I think a non-believer, were they to move to being a believer, would likely need to have experiences. — Bylaw

Absolutely. And believers also need to have experiences to maintain belief. That is what the community of believers does -- provides validating experiences. Lukewarm believers (millions and millions) gradually drift into actual or functional disbelief by (usually self-selected) isolation from an effective community of believers (any religion). Showing up at a random congregation periodically probably won't maintain belief. It needs to be a friendly, welcoming, all-around good experience. And it should be noted that plenty of congregations -- any belief system -- manage to be fairly unpleasant, one way or another.

Good preaching / good teaching is another aspect of continued belief.

Famously (though perhaps not famous enough) the Cochrane trials only recently found most common paracetamol to be largely ineffective for the majority of people. — Isaac

Interesting result, because Tylenol/paracetamol/acetaminophen (all the same compound) are sold OTC. It seems very unlikely that people would buy it by the billions of pills IF it had no effect?

I have osteoarthritis which causes a lot of mid-level pain and limits mobility. I prefer ibuprofen (Advil in the US, Anadin®, Brufen®; Calprofen®... in the UK) to acetaminophen which seems to have more negative long-term or large-dose consequences.

Some of the drugs used to treat cancers do seem to work well, at least in the medium run. Some kinds of lymphoma, for instance, can be controlled for a few years, though in the end the cancer proves fatal. But 2 or 3 years of survival is a good result, I think. Some drugs, many of which are very expensive and/or have serious side effects, may control a cancer for only short periods of time (months), which seems like a dubious achievement.

I'm 75; I currently take 6 Rx medications for chronic conditions -- none of them new. Do they work? Yes; but not a cure. That's OK; at my age some things don't need to be cured, just tolerated.

DuPont's advertising logo used to be "Better Things for Better Living... Through Chemistry." A lot of people count on chemistry to solve their life-style generated problems caused by smoking and drinking; too many calories, not enough exercise; too much time in the sun; too much fried fish and meat cooked on open fires or charcoal (loaded with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons); too much striving after a high-consumption life style, etc. etc. etc. Never mind pollution from chemical plants producing better living through chemistry,

All good points.

Scientists in big pharma's labs are probably much more motivated by the potential for human benefit than the executives. My guess is that they are salaried and have no share in the patents.

It's now so lucrative for pharmaceutical companies to get an anti-cancer drug approved that could make a profit from absolutely any chemical at all and simply run sufficient trials for one to have a positive effect by chance alone. — Isaac

That is how a lot of early-stage drug research is done. Colonies of cancer cells are cultivated in many petri dishes, then exposed to one chemical after another to find one that is harmful to the cancer cells. Same thing with AIDS drugs back in the 1980s and 90s -- lots of lab techs in universities testing one chemical after another.

Sometimes a given chemical's effect on tissue is known, but there are so many different chemical compounds, (hundreds of thousands, at least) for which the effects on tissue are not known. That in itself is another problem, because we end up getting exposed to many of these chemicals.

Pharmaceutical companies paid for 6,550 trials out of 7,598 in 2014. — Isaac

That's a problem. Another problem is that drug trials are not what one would call 'thorough'. The real drug trial often starts after a drug is approved for use. Drug companies collect "adverse results" to see whether too many people are getting sicker. Non-drug-company-research is done (not often enough) to determine whether drugs work at all. Fairly often the result is "not that much" or "no better than existing drugs".

Millions of people take antidepressants for a long period of time. Do they work? To some extent, they may. They probably help people put up with bad situations. It would be much better if people changed their life circumstances, but that is far easier said than done.

Same year that the Cochrane report found Tamiflu had little to no benefit in preventing the flu or shortening the duration of flu symptoms, yet had a chance of life-threatening side effects, including suicide. — Isaac

Public health measures (vaccination, social distancing, masks, frequent hand washing, staying home when sick...) are effective in reducing the incidence of influenza and Covid 19 and some other diseases. We should depend on public health rather than pills to deal with viral disease.

What kind of schizophrenic CEOs do you imagine are in charge of these organisations? — Isaac

The "schizophrenia" concerns the kind of drugs that are sought in R&D laboratories and how these drugs are priced. First, the drug companies favor drugs that are taken for long periods of time over short periods of time. Bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites pose the greatest threat to human health and well-being (apart from global warming). There are no new antibiotics in the pipeline of drug development, and the existing ones are gradually losing their effectiveness. The demands of investors drive the search for the multi-billion dollar jackpot that will cost $50,000 to $100,000 a year, or cost much less but will be taken over decades.

Antibiotics are missing from the R&D program because they won't yield as much profit -- pure and simple. They are generally taken for 2 or 3 weeks, and then are no longer needed.

Pricing of drugs isn't "schizophrenic"; from their POV, it makes perfectly good sense to extract the cost of development and profit-potential as rapidly as possible. What that means is that many of the humanity-benefiting drugs will be far too expensive for most of humanity to afford.

I benefit from several old drugs that are long-term cash cows. I am grateful for their place on the pharmacy's shelves. But these old drugs I am taking are still remarkably expensive (in the US). They are priced at the highest level the market will bear because they are allowed to get away with it. In most developed countries they are not.

So I thought I would ask here and see if anyone has any thoughts on what rules or attributes you would like to see in the civilization you participate in. — RoadWarrior9

We form increasingly complex communities (eventually aggregating into "society" and then "civilization") in order to meet our basic requirements for life and to fulfill our extended wants, like a system of meaning, new stories to hear, read, or watch; more complex forms of self-expression; safety; security, enterprise (business), and so on.

There are various ways of putting together a complex civilization. Whatever works.

To start off here are a few of mine:

Freedom. Being an individualist and somewhat of a recluse this is one of my most important attributes. This can be a complicated subject to fully define as it applies to beings but the basic idea is: You can do any thing you want as long as you do not interfere with someone else's freedom.
No taxes
Free quality health care for everyone
100% employment opportunities — RoadWarrior9

What does a reclusive individualist need freedom for? You are holed up in your apartment. Freedom is more important for the socially engaged person who put's himself/herself into the daily give and take of normal life.

No taxes. Well, this goes well with being a reclusive individual. Presumably you won't ever be asking for any assistance from civilization, so civilization has no need for income to provide you with any services. How do you support yourself in your secluded room?

It was noted above, but free health care without taxation is extremely problematic. Providing health care costs money. How is the health care system supposed to pay for the services you wish to be provided for free?

100% employment opportunities? I suppose you mean that everyone can have a job of some sort, whether they like it or not. Who is going to oversee employment? No taxes means no government.

No taxes, no government, no services... Suppose your apartment building catches on fire. Are you and the other recluses living there going to put it out? Or are you going to call the fire department? No taxes, no fire department.

Suppose a local gang beats you up every time you venture outside. Who will protect you? No taxes means no police.

You might want to go for a ride in a car. No taxes means no roads.

No taxes and freedom are, basically, incompatible. This will sound very counter-intuitive to you.

DNA is a code, true enough -- vastly more complex than a batch of IF/THEN codes. DNA and brains are both extraordinarily complex. Remember, the idea of a human being like a robot is based on a diminution of the concept of "human". Robot = human is far more of a crappy metaphor than a helpful comparison.

If we go to the root of all emotions and desires, we are not that different from robots. — Kinglord1090

We are a lot different than robots. And robots, remember, are a shabby imitation of ourselves, not the other way around.

The thing about emotions is that they are not a discrete function. They are integrated deeply into our thinking processes--so integrated that without emotion we wouldn't be doing much thinking. Emotion provides the motive power behind thinking. We engage in difficult problem solving because we have desires to solve problems, and find pleasure in doing so. Then there is fear driving us forward if we face a life-threatening problem.

Emotions become a problem when they are not regulated by reason. If something happens that "makes us angry" we can either allow anger to reckless rampage, or we can channel it into a socially tolerable form.

We can do without murderous road rage--absolutely.

"We are a nation of laws." I've heard this said by various pontificating politicians who want to emphasize how civilized we are, or something.

Having laws on the books in itself is not all that significant. Lots of acreage around the world is covered by laws on the books that are both ignored and not enforced. You'd want body guards for an evening stroll, never mind a trip to the bank to deposit cash.

Unobserved and unenforced laws are dead letters. Citizens' adherence to the law and enforcement of infractions is what makes a society "a nation of laws". Law functions as a framework for managing everyone's behavior. There is often a big space between the wording of the law and its enforcement.
For something that is supposed to be clear, the law seems to require a lot of interpretation.

Many prefer that the people be law abiding, thereby minimizing the need for enforcement. The people also interpret the law on their own...

Psychopathic traits, limited enough to allow for normal function in society, enable persons--like high-level managers--to make decisions that make good sense for the company, like laying off 3000 employees on Christmas Eve to meet year-end targets.

People with normal personalities would find this sort of decision extremely difficult or impossible to make.

Psychopathic traits are, in general, undesirable. Only if you think the company's year end profit picture is more important that the lives of 3000 employees could one find it a virtue. Some people do...

The ability to act without crippling guilt can be helpful and healthier. It might be better for everybody concerned if a someone has a brief and inconsequential hookup with someone at a convention, without being tied up in knots of guilt. An inconsequential affair might kill off the primary relationship if it were confessed. One doesn't have to be a psychopath to let what happened in Las Vegas STAY in Las Vegas. One does have to have some moral flexibility, however.

I see a very unnatural state. For example, I see a drive to force almost against our will different segments of society, different groups, different biologies, different backgrounds, together in a way which, compared to a historical sense, seems very forced, engineered, calculated, planned and ultimately is unnatural in that historical sense. — JohnLocke

Whether natural or unnatural, several forces are at work. First, population growth. When I was a boy, the population was 2.5 billion (1950); 70 years later, it is about 7.8 billion. Never mind whether 7.8B is too many, 5 billion extra people means more interaction with other people, desired or not. Second, global warming. As the climate heats up, more and more people will find themselves in areas where adequate food and fresh water are going to be harder to obtain. These people will be heading towards more livable locations. Third, trade. More people, more transportation, more production and consumption, etc. brings people together, if not for decades, at least often for shorter periods of time.

Fourth, relief programs. Minneapolis has a large Hmong and Somali population. Did the various refugee groups look over maps and decide that a cold northern hemisphere city was the best place in the world to live? Probably not. But part of the mission of Lutheran Social Services is refugee resettlement -- a mission for which they get paid on contract. There are also quite a few Vietnamese, Karin (Christian refugees from Burma), and some others. I'm not complaining, but there are ways and means for these people being here instead of Rome or Rotterdam. Migration, legal or not, is a fifth cause, driven by poverty or by horrible governments.

My guess is that there are no social engineers pulling levers behind the curtain (cue the Wizard of Oz) reshuffling population.

There have been many population shifts in the US. Between 1914 and 1950 many blacks fled the south for (hoped for) better lives in northern cities. Waves of European migrants rolled west across the continent. Imagine how the Aboriginal populations felt about "forcing societies together".

I grew up in the rural midwest, where population is still more thinly spread than New England, S. California, Florida or much of Europe. I have lived in much denser cities with more diverse people than Minneapolis. Density and diversity make for livelier social scenes. But I like the social distancing of frosty upper midwesterners. I feel your discomfort with too many people. It will get worse, inevitably.

They were there, now they are here. Get used to it.

Arguing against trans-ism today is like arguing against gay rights in the 1970s or against BLM last summer. Trans proponents grant across-the-board consistency and validity to those who claim they can transition from one sex to another sex, man to woman, woman to man. Trans-dissenters are automatically classed as bigots, transphobic, stupid, etc.

I too have known a few transsexuals, going back to the 1970s--maybe... a dozen altogether. They were extremely varied, ranging from a secular Jewish woman who wanted to be an orthodox man to an alcoholic vet who decided in middle age to become a woman. They were all rational people, no more deluded in their thinking than the average successful citizens--meaning, there was room for at least substantial delusion.

Note to @Benkei regarding "delusion": The majority of American workers believe that with hard work and a bright idea they will become rich. They are deluded in this belief. Donald Trump, and 40,000,000 American conservatives think that the 2020 election was "stolen". This is a delusion.

Americans believe--and say quite often to children--that "you can be anything you want to be. You could be president of the United States." The odds are absurdly small of any child becoming president; the odds are against people trying to be whatever they want to be--ESPECIALLY if they are starting out with no money, a mediocre education, no models, no connections, no nothing. They are deluded.

So it is that parents bring forward 3 and 4 year olds who have decided they want to be girls instating of the boys they are, or visa versa, and demanding treatment. Delusion.

There is room in mass society for people to dress, act, work, and live as if they were the opposite of their biological sex. It seems to make this very small minority of people happier once they figure out how to pull off this act (it doesn't come naturally -- one has to learn it). I do not object to these people finding happiness by changing their costumes.

What I do object to is argument that persons can change their sex. They cannot. No matter how any hormones and surgical procedures are employed, one remains XX or XY -- like it or not.

I'm homosexual. I knew I was different, that I found boys much more interesting than girls from an early age on, though I did not have the vocabulary to say so. Of course, I had no idea in the late 1940s or early 1950s what was involved in having a homosexual life style, or that other people like myself even existed. I would guess that many transsexuals experience something similar at an early age.

Had my parents identified me as homosexual and then facilitated my development as a homosexual from kindergarten onwards, I think I'd have thought myself pretty poorly raised. As poorly raised if they had dragged me to a child psychiatrist to cure me of homosexuality before first grade. Young children have too much plasticity for parents to become too involved in their sexual identity, A mother encouraging her very young son in wearing girls clothes to school is behaving in ways that borders on indecency. Young children need to work through these issues over time, slowly, on their own.

First off – the term “ad hominem” refers to an argument. An insult is an insult, not an ad hominem attack. This is the most common misuse of the concept. “@Bitter Crank, you’re a midwestern hayseed,” is an insult, no matter how true it may be. It is not an ad hominem argument. That doesn’t mean that insults are appropriate in a philosophical discussion. I guess if I were to say “Bitter Crank, your argument is bullshit because you’re a midwestern hayseed who doesn’t understand anything,” that would be an ad hominem argument — T Clark

But Clark, all those statements are true! I WANT to be a smart East Coast urban sophisticate, but what with oat chaff in my hair, and bullshit between my ears, it's too difficult to pull it off. I've never been accused of being suave. I've never started a trend. Nothing I said went viral. I'm a non-influencer incarnate and incognito.

St. Thomas Aquinas was celebrating mass on the feast of St. Nicholas in 1273 and had a revelation. He said, " All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me". He stopped writing, leaving the Summa Theoogicae unfinished.

I have it much easier than St. Thomas. I didn't have to write the Summa Theoogicae, only to discover that I had been turning out theological pulp fiction. I've been consistently turning out silage ever since I learned how to write. There will be no inconvenient revelations.

Santa and Pegasus do not have a material existence but they do exist as symbols [characters in popular culture for Santa, a character in classical culture for Pegasus]. Othello in a play and an opera; Mimi in an opera; Al Parker in gay porn films [a role played by a man not named Al Parker]; Bartleby the scrivener in a story by Herman Melville who generally preferred not to do whatever was asked of him--all these characters have an existence in our culture and in our minds. That is why we can talk about them.

Not having a material existence is no bar to existence for immaterial beings. The Holy Spirit does not have a material existence. Dead authors whose books we read do not now have a material existence. People have no problem speaking to the Holy Spirit and referencing what Karl Marx or Hammurabi said. The latter, Hammurabi, wrote a code of laws which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Shamash doesn't have much of an existence these days, because the culture in which he once existed is long, long gone. He probably hasn't had a message in his inbox for 3,000 years. But we can still name him, and I suppose under an odd set of circumstances, he could become a hot cultural item again.

If language is use, then we give life to immaterial things (like the Holy Spirit or the milk of human kindness, and a zillion other things), so that "they exist".

Most of the time we do not have any difficulty maintaining the line (in our heads) between material beings (like your cleaning lady), perpetually immaterial beings like Santa Claus, and immaterial beings who were once actual warm bodies -- like Henry VIII or Cleopatra. Sometimes we trip over the categories.

The nick though explains it. I still think binge eating cheese is a good way to get out of depression. — Shawn

Does it make a difference what kind of cheese? Roquefort or Velveeta, une telle merde, sacre bleu!

Many people who report depression also report low self-esteem. Perfection, in whatever effort they make, is not achieved, further driving perfectionist drives and further lowering one's sense of effective executive agency. It's a vicious cycle. I'm not sure whether depression is the cause of this cycle or the result, but they seem to go together for many people.

Depression might have genetic causes, but maybe not. It might have environmental causes (i.e., other people) but maybe not. Not only do we not know precisely what causes depression, we also may not know whether it is, or is not actual depression.

There things make us feel bad: loneliness; prolonged anger (expressed or not); fear; hunger and fatigue; serious debt; too many frustrations and interferences; too much alcohol and recreational drugs (sometimes prescribed drugs can cause depression); physical pain; chronic illness; lack of sleep; a failure to fulfill perfection. (Perfectionism is the opposite side of low self-esteem.)

What some "depressed people" need is a reorganized life, not an antidepressant. Their problems are overwhelming.

I don't think 'individualism' per se is related to depression, but certainly an insistence on solving all of one's problems alone is a guarantee of more problems.

All that said, there are other people who experience depression without any sort of obvious cause.

she just kept writing repetitive posts, and not taking on board anyone else's point of view at all — Jack Cummins

Why, that NEVER happens here! I'm shocked--shocked!--to hear such a thing.

Corporations will tear into genetic experiments they think will produce profitable profits. They will probably be as concerned about adverse consequences as the petroleum and coal industries were/are about global warming.

Ban in Boston, condemn in Cleveland, and banish from Baltimore as you will, but I thought his discussions with me were OK.

Advertisement is not a force, though. It cannot push people to this or that outcome, whether good or bad. It cannot create anything, let alone demand or waste or an impact someone’s health. — NOS4A2

True enough, but only in the short run; It's not an irresistible force. In the long run, advertising can shape what people desire, what they think they need, what they like. Steady pressure applied over time.

There are differences between commodity production and consumer production. If your company makes electric switches, a catalog of products is all you need. If other manufacturers find your switches to be cost effective and reliable, nothing more needs to be done. Advertising is part of the overhead of consumer production. It is quite counter-productive to make a new consumer product without planning for its promotion.

To a large extent, advertising is the program. The drama you like to watch, the magazine or newspaper you like to read, the social media you check every 30 seconds, the porn--all that is the bait.

Newspapers were sustained by advertising. It was advertisers' shift to the internet that killed off many newspapers. Content costs money, whether it is news, high quality science and dramatic material, or soap operas. Where is the cost of production going to come from? It's either advertising or frequent pledge drives and government grants. Take your pick.

There is, apparently, a debate among economists about whether or not advertising is worth its costs to sellers. When you confront a laundry detergent display, which product do you buy? Do you go on price alone, the packaging, the brand, or your last experience with the product? If you just want a cheap, reasonably effective soap, advertising won't sway you much. Most people, though, are influenced by product packaging and advertising. Brands and reputation matter.

Maybe laundry soap isn't your thing. What about shoes, clothing, and electronic items? Autos? Bikes? Music? How are people's strong preferences formed? Most people are looking for more than mere functionality.

Advertising a holiday sale is one thing; building up a taste for a certain kind of product (Nike instead of an off-brand; Toyota vs. Ford; Apple vs. Acer...)

Can a male be turned into a female? How? — Andrew4Handel

IMHO, a male cannot be turned into a female (likewise, a female cannot be changed into a male). What can be done is a change of clothing, hair style, makeup, gait, and so on. Prescribed hormones can do what hormone disorders can do -- give men breasts and women mustaches. A surgeon can slice away unwanted giblets or can fashion wanted ones.

The upshot? The man is still a man. The woman is still a woman. Can they pass? They can, if they are good at it, Going back centuries, some men have passed as women and some women have passed as men. Were the fakes to be examined with a little care, their real sex would be discovered.

The Soviet Union, Italian Fascism, and German/Japanese ethnic-based fascism are all kind of totalizing ideas of history that was a culmination of the 19th century ideas in political-social theory. — schopenhauer1

I agree that the Three Fascisms were totalizing systems as was the USSR. Stalin was bad news all round--ruthless, dictatorial, paranoid, etc. but that doesn't make the USSR fascist. Fascism is not the clearest ideology. There are differences among the three. A brutal state doesn't have to be fascist, but fascist states tend to brutal. Do you count Francisco Franco as a fascist?

No, I don't think we can lay the blame for Fascism, whether in Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, or anywhere else on the Enlightenment's doorstep. Marxism is a different matter. It seems to me that fascism is a rejection of enlightenment values. What does "authoritarian and racialized ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy" have to do with the enlightenment?

I think it'd be a mistake to ignore the extend to which Hitler's ideology motivated the course of the war. Resources were but one part of the equation. — Echarmion

Yes, Nazi ideology, built on top of resentments over WWI, the Versailles treaty, and a decade of weak government and economic problems during the Weimar Republic drove German policy from the early 1930s.

Germany had a number of critical resources (land, coal, iron ore, industrial know-how) but 20th century technology required a lot of materiél that it didn't have--various metals, rubber, petroleum, and so on. If it was going to feed itself and a large military, it needed more food production. (A good share of German agriculture was not very efficient or was conducted on heavy wet soils.). If it were to be independent of imported food, it would need more agricultural land.

It is open to question whether Germany ever had the resources to win the war it attempted. Take population: in 1939, there were 12,000,000 German men between the ages of 15 and 34. A large portion of these were already in the military. Granted, some soldiers would come from acquired lands, but the pool had definite limits. By the end of the war, children were being pressed into service.

Suppose the USSR had collapsed, or at least retreated east of the Ural Mts; world peace a la Deutschland uber alles would not have been the instant result. Generals in both Japan and Germany warned their leaders about the untapped military power of the United States. The USSR had resources east of the Ural range, and (presumably) an intact and effective government. .

Still, had the USSR collapsed or retreated, it would have been exceedingly bad news for the rest of the world.

A day-by-day account doesn't appeal to me, but if you like it, great. Will it cover both the war in Asia as well as the war in Europe? The World War -- Part I and Part II (1914 to 1945) was a huge watershed; nothing was left untouched.

American men when they turn 55 turn into either a World War II nut or a Civil War nut — Maw

I didn't become interested in WWII until I was about 70. For the last decade or so I've been reading to fill in the large holes which high school and college left. There are many good books, television, film--even radio programs which cover the war.

The Thames Television program The World at War, must have been made in either the late '60s or 1970s; it was a many-episode history of documentary film and narration. I say it in 1980, about. Very good program.

Because world war is a watershed with endless political, financial, military, social, technical... consequences, there is no end to the topics and angles that can be pursued. It's a really rich area for study, which the war in the Crimea or the Franco-German war isn't, by comparison.