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The fruit vs. vegetable debate (especially regarding the tomato) will go nowhere because language has declined, largely relating to definitions. A tomato is a fruit AND a vegetable.
The problem is that the word fruit has multiple meanings depending on the context.
Culinary:
Fruit = Sweet-tasting, used for dessert/snack
Vegetable = Non-sweet, used for dinner/supper
Terms are dependent on usage of the plant. Nothing more.
Thus, Tomato = (Culinary) Vegetable
(Oh and if you make a carrot cake, you're technically using the carrot as a fruit)
Botany:
Fruit = Seed-bearing fleshy pod (sugar is high energy food supply, so fruits tend to turn out sweet)
Vegetable = This word is not a botanical term. It means nothing in botany. A tomato is a fruit of its vine, a cucumber is a fruit as well, a mushroom is a fungi, corn is a grain, celery is a stalk (probably qualifies as a grass?), a strawberry is a berry (and are used as culinary fruit), etc.
The botanical terms relate to their biological qualities.
Thus: Tomato = (Botanical) Fruit
LITERALLY, I have not met a single person in my life who understands this. I had to study this and figure it out for myself.
I think the only others who understand this are botanists. Maybe. I guess they don't know culinary terms necessarily so maybe even they are lost because they studied to become a botanist but never came across the word "vegetable" in their studies.
It's odd.
"I have not met a single person in my life who understands this"
Sorry but i have to admit i'm one of those XD
The KKK had great influence over the Democrats at one point in time.
In Australia we had the White Australia Policy which was a Labor party thing. Labor is like our version of the Dems.
Democrats used to be the Conservative party. Republican party was Liberal when it was new. Before Repiblican party was the Whig party.
I know your account and I will not allow you to spread this hateful, manipulative propaganda.
Im watching you.
Adding salt to a Hot Chocolate enhances the flavour.
shareCan one sleep with either eye open? I say there is no way a person can sleep with one of their eyes open.
shareNot that i've heard of.
sharePartially open, yes. Both can be. It's quite rare and it's more like a squint. It's creepy because their eyes will look at you and follow you.
shareSo the eyes basically act on their own?
shareYes, it's like breathing -- When you give up voluntary control, the involuntary controls take over. Eye-focus is an involuntary control. This is why we don't have to physically "turn" our eyes to look at something, why we don't have to consciously focus them, why our eyes will snap toward a threat, and why our eyelids will close automatically when necessary.
shareOh but FYI, I can voluntarily de-focus my eyes. Can you? It feels kind of good, like stretching almost.
I'm wondering how common this is.
Just last year at my checkup my eye doctor told me I was sleeping with my eyes partially open. I thought she was kidding at first. I had mentioned that my eyes felt dry and scratchy most mornings. She recommended that I use a sleep mask, which helps keep the eyes completely closed so they don't dry out. It works.
shareLol, my little girl sleeps with her eyes partially open - it's like something out of The Exorcist! She uses a sleep mask now too,
sharethis reminds me of something fun & interesting i read about dolphins some time back.
dolphins & other marine mammals apparently sleep with half their brain at a time, which allows them to remain conscious of predators & surface to get air.
they will actually close the eye of the hemisphere that is sleeping, while the other will remain open and alert.
i think that's pretty neat.
https://www.livescience.com/44822-how-do-dolphins-sleep.html
WOW! That's nutty and I love it.
Have you ever heard about severing the Corpus Callosum? It creates two people inside one head.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201211/split-brains
oh yeah, absolutely. a few years ago i got a bit obsessed with the topic of free will, started reading into how it was this incoherent notion, and one of the things that many papers & books on the topic mentioned was split brain surgery, and how one person will essentially house two distinct minds. fascinating topic.
i know i read a few books specifically on split brains & the consequences & what it means for free will & so on. i know one of them was michael gazzaniga's 'tales from both sides of the brain,' but i can't remember what the other ones were & all my books are boxed away in a closet.
there are some really remarkable experiments that demonstrate certain behaviors that at times show the two halves working together, coming up with work-arounds, & others where they almost seem to fight with each other. i'm in the middle of a movie & then i'll need to get dinner together, but i'll try to come back later tonight & post some links to some videos & articles on the topic. fascinating stuff.
I'm a hardcore Determinist, and free will is indeed a misnomer. It's an idealized religious concept.
I have several ways of showing the flaws of "free" will being considered truly "free." I believe the term "free" actually means that your will is free from the control of others. However, that word in a "post-slavery world" ends up being interpreted as "untethered," as if we make decisions from a vacuum.
So here are my explanations, the most recent and simplest being at the top:
-Demonstrating determinism. How much of your life is determined by circumstance? Is that difficult to fathom? Nope... Cave men from as long as 50,000 years ago were just as intelligent as you and I. If one of them was taken from birth to our present time, and raised normally, they would be indistinguishable from anyone else except maybe facial appearance (which changes quickly due to sexual selection).
So, if you were born before civilization, would your life be similar to your life now? Nope. You would not have language, you would not be able to think about logic, you would not live inside, you would know very little, but you would have the same mind you have right now. Therefore, basically 100% of your life is determined by circumstance.
-Will. To make a decision, one must have a basis for that decision. An "untethered" free will would NECESSARILY be random and unconnected.
To have a basis for decision, aka a personality, one must live and experience stimuli, one must learn. A baby could not make a decision even if you put that baby's mind in an adult body, because the baby has no basis.
Our personalities, our basis for decision, begins forming in the womb. We do not choose the influences we receive in the beginning, and by the time we begin to choose influences, we are basing that choice on unchosen influences.
Our decisions are not random "free" choices; They are conclusions we reach. All can be traced back to a time when influence was involuntary.
i am definitely in the determinist camp as well, essentially for the reasons you laid out.
our minds & consciousness are the expressions of the workings of our brain, & whatever went into forming it, genetics, environment, whatever, we had no control over those inputs.
certainly it seems to me the notion of true free will, that at any given moment we could have acted in a way other than the way we did, is an incoherent idea that holds up to scrutiny like cheap bathroom tissue in a waterfall.
the only thing that slightly gives me pause are some of the arguments i've heard from some compatibilists, daniell dennett specifically. i've listened to dennett speak on this several times, most recently on sam harris's podcast, & it always frustrates me because i never quite seem to be able to grasp what he's saying, & i feel like if i could learn enough to completely grok what he says on that matter it may turn out that he's saying something worth hearing.
I'm going to look into that too. I know Dennetts name but Compatiblism is new to me.
Will return to this when after, but it may not be soon...
if you're interested, here is the podcast sam harris did with daniel dennett on the subject, harris taking the deterministic position, dennett compatibalism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Yst8l51GY
Grazie!
(Yes I get that from Amadeus, if you happen to be wondering)
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Beautiful :-)
shareBanging your head against a wall for one hour burns 150 calories.
share