Canadian Politics Today

I have only come into this term recently - my understanding is that it refers to the "making real" of human-made constructs.

Let's list some things that we take to be real that aren't:

-Money
-Possessions
-Law
-Rights
-Nation States
-Corporations
-Mathematics

These things were almost all invented at the dawn of civilization and the fertile crescent and they have changed ridiculously since they were invented (by humans).  So, when I think about the challenges of tribalism in a digital society, I think about the erosion of these constructs and how fragile they are - not being real and all.

When considering the role of these cultural devices in current society, I look back at the origins and how these things were brought into early agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies .... for a reason.

So "surveillance" or "money" don't exist as unchangeable elements of our world.  And that's both good and bad.  It's good that we can change them, but not if we don't understand them better.

Mathematics is as real as music. Neither were invented as they always existed. Humans just discovered them.

No, you are wrong there.

If mathematics is real, why doesn't PI end ? It's called a "real" number but more tellingly it's an "irrational" number.  That means that it doesn't map to the real world.  In fact, nothing does when it comes to mathematics, nothing does.  Unless it's counting human-made things like votes, you will never get 100% precision on anything to do with the real world.

Mathematics was invented to do accounting and that's where it feels most at home.

Music is sound, and sound is real.  But "music" is a human interpretation of sound isn't it ?

-----

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, just conveying philosophies and ideas that I have read and some I have come up with.  The thread is supposed to be an exploration...

There is debate among philosophers about whether math is a human construct.  Clearly, much of it is simply a description of the natural world. 

2+2=4 will still be true whether there are human minds around to contemplate it or not. 

But, mathematics is certainly the odd one on your list of human constructs, and is up for debate.  The only people who take the rest of your list to be “real” are people who haven’t thought about it. 

Additions:
Religion
Philosophy
Biological species
Gender

Edit:  I think “possessions” misses the mark completely.  The coffee cup I possess is a real thing.   And when you say “money”, you probably mean “the value imparted on money”. 

Just because humans constructed them doesn't make them
not real.

We're able to change certain things we invent to suit our needs and wants.  Or not change them based on the same.

Calling human rights "not real" is part of an argument so you can better legitimate getting rid of the ones you don't like. Yes we can get rid of them.  Chairs and cows are real we can get rid of them too.  The question is "should we".

Human rights are clearly a human construct.

When did I say any different?  LOL.  Your reading comprehension is very poor.

There is debate among philosophers about whether math is a human construct.  Clearly, much of it is simply a description of the natural world. 

2+2=4 will still be true whether there are human minds around to contemplate it or not. 

But, mathematics is certainly the odd one on your list of human constructs, and is up for debate.  The only people who take the rest of your list to be “real” are people who haven’t thought about it. 

Additions:
Religion
Philosophy
Biological species
Gender

Edit:  I think “possessions” misses the mark completely.  The coffee cup I possess is a real thing.   And when you say “money”, you probably mean “the value imparted on money”.

But it's "yours" until I take it so what is possession ?  Do I possess it now ?  (I was actually thinking of the legal idea of it)

Money as the value imparted, yes.  Obviously money as a physical object exists as much as anything does.

Human rights are clearly a human construct.   Do you think human rights existed for all of human kind?  Why are my rights different than the rights of a Swedish person?   Will human rights still be around when humans are gone?

You're saying what I think of these things.

I argue on the other board who says that because humans wrote that rights are "inaliable" then ... they are.  ie. we are both with them somehow.

I disagree with that too.

Yes to the list

I was hoping you’d disagree with biological species on my list as I have an interesting (for nerds) thought experiment I learned in evolutionary biology class.  Most people would say we have clear, objective and scientifically valid ideas of what makes a species.