What does it mean for one thing to be more real than another thing?
Also, when you say something is “map not territory”, what do you mean? That the thing in question does not exist, but it resembles something else which does exist? Presumably a map must at least resemble the territory it represents.
What do you mean by surface? Do you mean people exist as your perceptions but not otherwise? And is there anything ‘beneath’ this ‘surface’, whatever it is?
What do you mean by ‘progress’? There is more than one conceivable type of progress: political, philosophical, technological, scientific, moral, social, etc.
What’s interesting is there is someone else in this thread who believes they are right about something most others are wrong about. ZankerH believes there hasn’t been much political or social progress, and that moral progress doesn’t exist. So, if that’s the sort of progress you are meaning, and also believe that you’re right about this when most others aren’t, then this thread contains some claims that would contradict each other.
Alas, I agree with you that arguing on the Internet is bad, so I’m not encouraging you to debate ZankerH. I’m just noting something I find interesting.
Arguing on the internet is much like a drug, and bad for you
Progress is real
Some people are worth more than others
You can correlate this with membership in most groups you care to name
Solipsism is true
Are these consistent with each other? Should it at least be “Some “people” are worth more than others”?
Words are just labels for empirical clusters. I’m not going to scare-quote people when it has the usual referent used in normal conversation.
What do you mean by solipsism?
My own existence is more real than this universe. Humans and our objective reality are map, not territory.
What does it mean for one thing to be more real than another thing?
Also, when you say something is “map not territory”, what do you mean? That the thing in question does not exist, but it resembles something else which does exist? Presumably a map must at least resemble the territory it represents.
Maybe “more fundamental” is clearer. In the same way that friction is less real than electromagnetism.
More fundamental, in what sense? e.g. do you consider yourself to be the cause of other people?
To the extent that there is a cause, yes. Other people are a surface phenomenon.
What do you mean by surface? Do you mean people exist as your perceptions but not otherwise? And is there anything ‘beneath’ this ‘surface’, whatever it is?
What do you mean by ‘progress’? There is more than one conceivable type of progress: political, philosophical, technological, scientific, moral, social, etc.
What’s interesting is there is someone else in this thread who believes they are right about something most others are wrong about. ZankerH believes there hasn’t been much political or social progress, and that moral progress doesn’t exist. So, if that’s the sort of progress you are meaning, and also believe that you’re right about this when most others aren’t, then this thread contains some claims that would contradict each other.
Alas, I agree with you that arguing on the Internet is bad, so I’m not encouraging you to debate ZankerH. I’m just noting something I find interesting.