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What makes a culture civilized?

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ruveyn
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29 Jan 2012, 6:40 am

Libraries and other such repositories which the public can use at little or no charge to the user. The cost of providing such amenities will be either through public donation or taxation.

A civilized order will not continence illiteracy. Anyone capable of reading (either visually or by audio) will be provided the means to learn how and the materials to use.

Refusal to learn how to read will lead to losing the right to vote. To vote one must be minimally literate.

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29 Jan 2012, 9:28 am

donnie_darko wrote:
So you are a moral relativist?

I am certainly a relativist on the term "civilized". I mean, there is no way to solve this problem, and frankly, I get the feeling that two different answers can be stated on something like the spanking of children. One side may say that "beatings are uncivilized", another may say that "a society lacking discipline is uncivilized", and so on. It's just framing.



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29 Jan 2012, 9:34 am

What makes a culture civilized is human rights. These human rights don't have to absolutely apply to everyone though, it's perfectly reasonable to lose human rights if you don't respect the human rights of others.



iamnotaparakeet
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30 Jan 2012, 5:41 pm

donnie_darko wrote:
Is it how kindly they treat others? How technologically advanced they are? The existence of written language? The presence of agriculture? The presence of fine art?


A culture is a grouping of people with similar customs and a civilization is a grouping of cities with common leadership. A culture is civilized if they live in cities. However in more usual sense of the word, there are very few people who are civilized living either within or without of cities. I'd say that sense of the word has to do with how they treat other people, as for with all the technology existent today people act like high-tech barbarians more than anything else.



ruveyn
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30 Jan 2012, 5:46 pm

AceOfSpades wrote:
What makes a culture civilized is human rights. These human rights don't have to absolutely apply to everyone though, it's perfectly reasonable to lose human rights if you don't respect the human rights of others.


Human rights as such were not recognized in either Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. The issue of Human Rights is a rather recent happening. Civic Rights were beginning to be recognized in England at the time of Magna Carta but did not become a primary concern until the 17-th or 18 th century England.

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30 Jan 2012, 5:47 pm

ruveyn wrote:
AceOfSpades wrote:
What makes a culture civilized is human rights. These human rights don't have to absolutely apply to everyone though, it's perfectly reasonable to lose human rights if you don't respect the human rights of others.


Human rights as such were not recognized in either Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. The issue of Human Rights is a rather recent happening. Civic Rights were beginning to be recognized in England at the time of Magna Carta but did not become a primary concern until the 17-th or 18 th century England.

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And?



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30 Jan 2012, 5:48 pm

What makes a culture civilized? Agriculture! :p



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30 Jan 2012, 6:01 pm

AceOfSpades wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
AceOfSpades wrote:
What makes a culture civilized is human rights. These human rights don't have to absolutely apply to everyone though, it's perfectly reasonable to lose human rights if you don't respect the human rights of others.


Human rights as such were not recognized in either Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. The issue of Human Rights is a rather recent happening. Civic Rights were beginning to be recognized in England at the time of Magna Carta but did not become a primary concern until the 17-th or 18 th century England.

ruveyn
And?


So, if you have Human Rights as the criterion of delineation for civilizations it thus defines practically every civilization of the past as not being civilizations. Actually though, since there were Greeks such as Hippocrates who recognized the right to life of the unborn, I'd say that those who did were more civilized than most people living in Europe and North America in that regard.



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30 Jan 2012, 6:01 pm

Lots of white people, Jesus and Conservapedia


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30 Jan 2012, 6:05 pm

Vigilans wrote:
Lots of white people, Jesus and Conservapedia


Yeah uh, according to whom? <.< (prolly God I'd wager)



iamnotaparakeet
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30 Jan 2012, 6:05 pm

Mars is very peaceful because it is uninhabited. Perhaps making the Earth uninhabited would make it peaceful.



phil777
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30 Jan 2012, 6:06 pm

Correction, Mars is dull.



iamnotaparakeet
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30 Jan 2012, 6:10 pm

phil777 wrote:
Correction, Mars is dull.


Dull is nice and peaceful as far as I'm concerned.



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30 Jan 2012, 6:12 pm

phil777 wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
Lots of white people, Jesus and Conservapedia


Yeah uh, according to whom? <.< (prolly God I'd wager)


The proof is in the pudding. But I don't eat pudding


As to the OP; I think "civilized" is a relative term. The earliest Mesopotamian city states were "civilized" at least compared to their neolithic ancestors and the remaining primitive peoples. I'm sure "eye for an eye" seemed like a great revelation at the time, that one would suffer consequences for their crimes against the laws. It seems rather brutal today, though we still extract something- time (prison) or money (fines, lawsuits, etc)- from people who violate the law. Many more arrogant cultures claim that those who live more primitively are "uncivilized". The Europeans, Middle Easterners and Chinese are good examples


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30 Jan 2012, 6:21 pm

Vigilans wrote:
Lots of white people, Jesus and Conservapedia


The funny thing is, Jesus would almost certainly have been black or Arab most likely, not white :lol:


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30 Jan 2012, 6:25 pm

abacacus wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
Lots of white people, Jesus and Conservapedia


The funny thing is, Jesus would almost certainly have been black or Arab most likely, not white :lol:


Shhhh lol
I think he was of the green, scaly, reptilian shape shifting persuasion, if you get my meaning


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Opportunities multiply as they are seized. -Sun Tzu
Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many -Machiavelli
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do