Who has bigger problems?

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by kyman

What conclusions do you draw from this comparison?

What comparison? There is no comparison. The conclusion is that the person submitting the question has some agenda for asking for conclusions about another question which he proposes may be some sort of a comparison.

The original question is who has the bigger problems. There is no attempt to elicit a comparison of the problems. Neither the individuals nor the problems are defined, and so any attempt at comparing them would be pointless. Any answer involving a comparison would have to be qualified relative to the individuals and their situations.

If this is an exam question, and the focus of the lecture was anything other than a structured approach to reasoning, the instructor gets an F. If the lecture did have that focus, the correct answer would be to critique the question.

[kyman]

Originally Posted by Bobbo

What comparison? There is no comparison. The conclusion is that the person submitting the question has some agenda for asking for conclusions about another question which he proposes may be some sort of a comparison.

The original question is who has the bigger problems. There is no attempt to elicit a comparison of the problems. Neither the individuals nor the problems are defined, and so any attempt at comparing them would be pointless. Any answer involving a comparison would have to be qualified relative to the individuals and their situations.

If this is an exam question, and the focus of the lecture was anything other than a structured approach to reasoning, the instructor gets an F. If the lecture did have that focus, the correct answer would be to critique the question.

Point taken, and I appreciate everyone entertaining the question.

The ideas I wanted to discuss that were implied by the question were subjective perception of stress and pain compared to another person's experience of the same stress and pain, love for one vs love for many, and the issue of equality and judgment.

I agree with the idea that we are not equal when judgments are made to preserve our way of life, and if that is the case sometimes a single person's love for one other person can outweigh love for many. It all depends on what you are trying to preserve in humanity. And on the planet.

[Epimetheus]

As someone that parented a sibling, I understand the difference between the two. As a parent, you must meet the basic needs of your children. Thus, the child that is forced to do so is in a more complicated and fundamental situation than the politician fighting for the powerless. Politicians do not have to provide for the basic needs for survival of their constituents. Now if the politician had to provide food, water, shelter, and security to these constituents it would be a different story.

[Andy]

The idea the politicians have some kind of abstract 'love' for the electorate I think is wrong. Rather, politics is a sphere of activity engaged in by civilised man; here what motivates the individual is ambition, self-love, intellectual vanity, even religious conviction. With one's family there is supposed to be disintersted love, there is an almost animal sense of attachment which is very different from the emotional reality of concepts like national pride and other more ideoligcal concerns.

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Andy

... With one's family there is supposed to be disintersted love, there is an almost animal sense of attachment ....

In its purest form it is called agape. Love without condition. The difference between grace (unconditional) and favor or concession which may be revoked.

[Transcendance]

I remember seing a bird being attacked by a cat, it's mate dancing around out of reach but peeping helplessly as it watched it's mate killed and eaten. I wonder how a brain that size feels something like that. Ornothids aren't known for their cerebrum.
Makes me wonder about the strength of feelings and their relation to the size of the creature's brain.

[Ca$hback]

Did you cry?

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Transcendance

... Makes me wonder about the strength of feelings and their relation to the size of the creature's brain.

Classic species prejudice; me and mine are better than you and yours. Which of God's creations do you choose to despise?

[Dragon]

Of course I see the first option as the one that would be having bigger problems.
For one thing, a child was never meant to be put in a position of care of another child, while for a politician it IS his job to find solutions and ideas for the rest of the community.

[kyman]

How many students should one teacher care for at a time? A few or a fifty?

[Ducreux]

I remember seing a bird being attacked by a cat, it's mate dancing around out of reach but peeping helplessly as it watched it's mate killed and eaten. I wonder how a brain that size feels something like that. Ornothids aren't known for their cerebrum.
Makes me wonder about the strength of feelings and their relation to the size of the creature's brain.

Originally Posted by Ca$hback

Did you cry?

Epic. I swear, seems everything now is screaming emo.

[tralne]

here the comparison is very difficult.
parameter for comparison is unclear..
As both has its own dificulties and both are diffrent situations...this cannot be answered accurately,friend.

[kyman]

What is the difference between the answerable and unanswerable? What is the basis of your assertion, and which way would you lean if you were put on the spot for the preservation of whatever you feel is most required for humanity's sake?

People make judgments just like this one everyday.

[tralne]

simple,
answerable are related to (clear,valuable,wise,mind cracking...) question.
and the other don't have the real quality.

[kyman]

One teacher tending to a few vs one teacher tending to fifty produces what kind of good, and what kind of society?