Samantha

Unseen wrote:
Well, in the States there are only a few distinct city accents.

How about the movie Fargo?  It’s set in Minnesota and it claims that a lot of people in that area speak like Scandinavians.

Unseen wrote:
One thing I’ve discovered in watching British mysteries is the existence of numerous distinct local accents. A witness will say detect a Yorkshire or Manchester or London or whatever accent.

Apparently it’s because of all the European countries that have invaded Britain in centuries or millennia past.  The Scottish accent is like Sc…[Read more]

I’m glad you like our detective shows.  I don’t watch anything apart from Judge Judy and real-life cops nicking people.  But I know a lot of people are into these DCI dramas, I’ll try and get some recommendations.

Unseen wrote:
Yeah, but didn’t anyone tell him that the number of voters who didn’t want him to touch Roe v. Wade was twice as big as those who did?

That’s why, in his calculated, transactional, Machiavellian way, he’s been dialling back his support for anti-abortion issues.

I think Trump’s appeal is that he tells potential supporting demographics exactly what they want to hear, and promises them power.  This way he corrupts everyone who gives him the time of day.  The evangelicals, the entire Republican party.  He didn’t care about abortion, until he realised the anti-abortionists would vote for him if they be…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
You’re a relativist. Moral values are relative and not permanent over time.

I guess.  But I don’t think “anything goes”, based on my own values, and I can see that’s not the case for other people too.

Unseen wrote:
And here I thought you were an absolutist who believe right and wrong are real. Turns out you’re a total relativist and have been all along.

There is a multiplicity of values that have some kind of factual status.  The Spartans had their values; we have ours and I have mine.  They don’t always agree with each other.

Unseen wrote:
And what “mutual benefit” derives from abandoning one’s baby…that benefits the baby? If one (or a social entity) gets to choose who benefits from actions and who doesn’t, that sure looks relativistic to me.

It doesn’t benefit the baby.  In the case of the African women, it is a form of abortion.  In the Spartans, they didn’t valu…[Read more]

I think morality has the same factual status as do the correct ways to fix a bicycle.  The problems are recurrent, the bike is real, the actions are real.  What factual status do the correct fixing methods have?

Unseen wrote:
The values available for an ancient Spartan to choose from would be far different from those available to a Quaker pacifist.

That’s true, not many people would countenance throwing a baby off a cliff.  However, according to Sarah Bleffer Hrdy in “Mothers and Others”, there are a surprising number of women living in the bush in…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
They are also not built into the fabric of reality so that they were true, like 1+1=2, even before the Big Bang and after the last atom falls apart.

The thing is, they are somewhat built into the fabric of reality, given the requirements that humans have to live in the way they do (collaboratively).  The multiplicity of values…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
By saying “one way,” out the window goes any pretense of absolutism or universality or objectivity.

Sorry to burst your bubble – but I’m not sure what you’re after.  It’s factually correct that people in need, need help.  It’s always been the same the world over.

Unseen wrote:
Yeah, well “human well being” is something that societies define for themselves through mutual agreement and acceptance, and what that will be (we’re back to this) will vary from time to time and place to place.

Morality is less about human well being, than about the process itself, of achieving it; and one way is through helpi…[Read more]