Philosophical Topics in Light Novels/Manga/Anime (details in the first post)

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 28 May 2019, 21:35

This thread will be about discussing philosophical (not all, but some) topics in light novels, manga and anime. Feel free to post anything ontopic.

Just to give some background to people who might not know what would qualify and what would not qualify for this thread.

Philosophy has the following main branches (just to give you some background):

logic, epistemology (study of reasoning, knowledge, truth, thinking, language etc. (math, linguistics and psychology related))
metaphysics (study of basic, very general objects that exist and do not exist (physics related))
ethics (study of morality, what are some possible goals, values etc. (politics, law related))
aesthetics (to make it more general, what people like and dislike and why, what things are valuable and what are just rubbish (art, music etc. related))

If your topic is in one of these branches or something related it qualifies. It doesn't need to be complicated, even basic things are interesting. If it's something like "what is the meaning of life" it does not qualify. If it's Paulo Coehlo style "philosophy", it does not qualify.

Also all irrational types of philosophy, like e.g. postmodernism in application to logic, epistemology or metaphysics are excluded. Things like postmodernism in application to ethics and aesthetics (which is often rational) are included. If you don't know what postmodernism is, just ignore this line. In general, only rational discussion qualifies. Irrational arguments go elsewhere (rational arguments about irrational people's behaviour are still rational).

If it's a topic related to some inside elements of a particular religion or worldview (e.g. things like whether or not Mary was a virgin or what's the difference between marxism and trotskyism), it's probably too specific for this thread. This thread is more about general topics.

This thread will be moving very slowly, becuase there aren't so many philosophical light novels/manga/anime, so when I encounter something interesting I'll post. And you can do it as well. Let's try to make this topic good quality.

You can also ask philosophy-related questions if they relate to a light novel/manga/anime you've read/watched. E.g. there might be some behaviour of a character which seems moral/immoral, rational/irrational etc., but it's not certain or it depends on a point of view, so it's a good starting point for a discussion.

I hope we can have a good conversation. This topic is about explaining and discussing problems and not convincing people to believe in any philosophical ideas.

If you consider this thread "elitist" etc. just don't participate.

I you want to discuss something not directly related to LN/manga/anime, use this thread: showthread.php?122516-Philosophical-Top ... ost4749651

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 13:23

I would like to discuss a part of episode 5 of the older anime adaptation of Kino's Journey. The part's title is "A Land of Decision by Majority - Ourselfish"

It starts somewhere close to minute 15 of the episode and continues to the end of it.

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 13:34

So a general question is the status of people with minority opinions in democracy. Is there a way to prevent the tyrrany of the majority? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority)

Momogari · Post by **Momogari** » 09 Jun 2019, 13:37

decentralization and localization of government is a good mitigator. At least, the wider the scope of law, the bigger the tyranny of the majority.

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 13:40

Yes, this would work, but only for situations when the the ratio of minority to majority is unevenly distributed. If the ratio is constant in all geographical locations, it won't help, right?

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 13:48

Actually it doesn't even need to be constant. The only requirement is that the majority in all parts is the same majority.

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 15:02

Unfortunately, in my opinion there is no "technical" way to prevent it. I think it all depends on the values of the people. If the values of the majority are not against establishing a tyrrany of the majority, the majority and the minority always vote in opposite ways, and the minority is always losing the vote, the only thing to do for the minority is to try to convince the majority to their viewpoint and if it doesn't work leave the country (and join a country with opinions more aligned with theirs, or establish a new one) and if it's not possible (e.g. the majority doesn't let them go) to fight (the history shows that it's possible for the minority to win). That's why having different countries makes sense and it might be a more peaceful approach.

Any thoughts on that?

Momogari · Post by **Momogari** » 09 Jun 2019, 19:46

that makes me wonder whether the whole idea of countries is too limiting

unoduetre · Post by **unoduetre** » 09 Jun 2019, 19:59

[mention=6444]Momogari[/mention]

Yeah, it is. What are your thoughts about that? I want to know more.

Momogari · Post by **Momogari** » 09 Jun 2019, 20:20

I don't have much more, it just made me think so. There's not much alternative when the possibility exists for violence.

Endynyp · Post by **Endynyp** » 19 Jun 2019, 19:24

A lot depends on what you mean by country and what is specifically untenable about countries. For example, I think discrimination on the basis of accidentally occurring factors is immoral, as an extension of that I must conclude that our system of borders and exclusive citizenship is also immoral. It assigns benefits to individuals and denies benefits to other individuals solely on the basis of where and to whom they are born, accidental factors that are out of their control. Perhaps we could think of a system that could maintain certain functions of the state that we deem important (for exmaple, law and order, maintenance of group goods) without having to rely on immoral practices.

Turning to our example of Tyranny by Majority, I am inclined to agree with [mention=107568]unoduetre[/mention] about the impossibility of guarding against it in our current systems, but I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Demarchy or Sortition. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition) I won't tell you mine yet, so as not to sway your opinion.

lambda-sky · Post by **lambda-sky** » 19 Jun 2019, 20:14

Momogari · Post by **Momogari** » 19 Jun 2019, 20:25

lambda-sky wrote:If 1 person = 1 vote is creating problematic majorities you can weigh the votes against some metric. e.g. the US electoral collage weighs votes against geographic region so you don't have large population centres stomping on the will of larger but less populous states. Which is important because the millions of men in suits running around New York are arguably not more important than a few hundred farmers in Montana who are actually growing the food you eat.

The US electoral college also makes it so that minority populations within states have zero power in federal elections.

Momogari · Post by **Momogari** » 19 Jun 2019, 21:09

before I start seriously wondering whether to move this to GD...

I think Suisei no Gargantia might have had an interesting political system with the different floating cities but I can't remember.

lambda-sky · Post by **lambda-sky** » 19 Jun 2019, 22:38