Chinese imperialism and future Australian sovereignty

[Mugwump]

Your comments on Chomsky are childish rot and demonstrate you have no knowledge of his technical writings.

I only have one interest in this particular context, namely his later thinking on cognitive philosophy. This is a technical argument you would do well to research in depth so you can pass serious comment on it.

I'll duck the tone of that lot and accept (with some relief) that you were not using Chomsky as an authority on a political level !

[pietillidie]

[David]

That is, our sense of sense of "the good" or "the moral" is not controlled by the moons of Jupiter any more than our heart beat is controlled by the tides on Pluto, so what else is there to conclude, scientific or otherwise?

...or just a cultural construct, like "evil" or "possessed"? Apologies if I've missed something obvious, I'm just a little confused by what you're saying is innate here. Many fantastical things are believed in (that have developed organically) that have no basis in reality. But that seems too obvious, so I'm guessing I've misunderstood your point?

[think positive]

Your comments on Chomsky are childish rot and demonstrate you have no knowledge of his technical writings.

I only have one interest in this particular context, namely his later thinking on cognitive philosophy. This is a technical argument you would do well to research in depth so you can pass serious comment on it.

I'll duck the tone of that lot and accept (with some relief) that you were not using Chomsky as an authority on a political level !

Oh man your good, I read both sentences, and I actually laughed out loud! I'd steal it, but I couldn't remember the whole line!

[pietillidie]

That is, our sense of sense of "the good" or "the moral" is not controlled by the moons of Jupiter any more than our heart beat is controlled by the tides on Pluto, so what else is there to conclude, scientific or otherwise?

...or just a cultural construct, like "evil" or "possessed"? Apologies if I've missed something obvious, I'm just a little confused by what you're saying is innate here. Many fantastical things are believed in (that have developed organically) that have no basis in reality. But that seems too obvious, so I'm guessing I've misunderstood your point?

Right. Constructivism wouldn't confuse the ability to imagine pink hippos on flying carpets with a stable, universal phenomenon such as a notion of "good". Think about it, most of what science is doing is separating the persistent and robust notions from artifacts, and that is still fully consistent with a strong innatism. (All it means is that some cognitive constructs are more reliable than others).

[HAL]

I am thinking about it most of what science is doing is separating the persistent and robust notions from artifacts and that is consistent with a strong innatism .

[Mugwump]

As one looks through history, it seems to me that humans do have a sense of "the good." It seems far less clear to me that this is innate in any directional sense. The Nazis are a little obvious as a reference point, but they do make useful shorthand for a generalised human capacity for evil. One of the interesting, if revolting, things about Himmler and Co was their apparent conviction that they were doing moral work in ridding the earth of untermenschen. If they had not been defeated in 1945 (and there was no inevitability about that), then their Neitzschean morality might be the morality of much of Western Europe today. It is not too difficult to suppose that the course of history across most of the world might have been permanently altered in such an event.

We may be in the barren realm of metaphysics, but I think the evidence is that humans, on average, have an abiding capacity for both good and evil, though an individual expression of this capacity depends on culture, intelligence, neural makeup and other things. Some cultures and political systems are forged from enlightenment ideals of reason, science and equality, which have been gropingly formulated and, of course, often violated by their professors. Some cultures, presently, are far less influenced by these ideals. Those that are in the fragile but relatively happy state of being liberal democracies may well slide backwards, and those that are not, may move forwards. There seems to me plentiful evidence in history for this.

As a final comment, I was hasty and slighting in my comments on Chomsky's important work in linguistics, with which I am fairly familiar. Because i loathe his politics, and this is a political thread, i did not give due credit to his real and lasting intellectual achievements. Not that I suspect he reads Nicks a lot. He's probably a St Kilda supporter.

[David]

[think positive]

[Wokko]

David has said on more than one occasion I believe that if Australia was facing a real, physical, imminent danger that he would join in defending the nation.

[stui magpie]

This reminds me, I need to go buy a decent hunting rifle and scope. I'm thinking a .223

[think positive]

place across the road has a range where you can play with all sorts of semi automatics!

[David]

David has said on more than one occasion I believe that if Australia was facing a real, physical, imminent danger that he would join in defending the nation.

Correct. But who needs invasion when your own government bends over and hands its independence across on a platter?

[pietillidie]

[watt price tully]

I like Chinese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH2P_pVze6s