Defining A person

p

I was reading with interest the thread on the Music board regarding Music fasciests.

One of the comments in it said that music was hardly the defining thing in a person, with regard to people judging is someone is cool, or worthless depending on their musical tastes.

Anyway, it got me wondering, along with music, you can take a handful of other things that could fall into the same kind of catagory: Music, fashion, job etc...

Basically, I mean, if music isn't a good thing to judge someone by what is?

- Kevin

WhiteWashMan

their actions...

Evil Phil

The company they keep

chernobyl

You can define someone by anything, but surely the only one who can define you is you...

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

Manach

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WhiteWashMan:
their actions...</font>

I'd agree with WWM.
I ran across this quote by Wittgenstein.
"If you want to know a man's beliefs, don't ask him, observe him"

p

I don't know about that.

It's quite easy to misinterpret what people do aswell.


- Kevin

WhiteWashMan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by p:
I don't know about that.

It's quite easy to misinterpret what people do aswell.


- Kevin</font>

i wouldnt agree with that at all.
people do things for different reasons.

in fact, myself and amp came up with the meaning for all things.
'people do stuff'
it covers everything.
doesnt matter what motivation is there for doing something, they still did it.
if someone murders something because they were insain with jealousy, or something, at the end of the day they are still a murderer?
as the old addage goes, actions speak louder than words....

DEmeant0r

yea i would completely agree with whitewashman

DadaKopf

Really interesting topic, by the way.

I'm not so sure it'll ever be answered either. Some people, like the existentialists, say it's all about your actions - the choices you make. That's what defines you, whether you took the road less travelled or the one most travelled, or whatever. But surely it's about how you're seen either by you or by someone else but the ways in which you're seen probably change all the time.

The criteria by which people judge you, of by which you judge yourself, are so complex and relative that any objective answer about what defines a person or how they can best be understood and pigeonholed is an oxymoron and the issue defeats itself - it's unanswerable.

Rather, the question should be: "What do I think are the features that define me?" on one hand and "What do I think of X and why do I think that?"

Each culture and each person have their own system of values and systems of meaning that aren't, at least, easily answered with certainty and at best are arbitrary and unanswerably complex.

Maybe, it's a dynamic relationship between your genetic personality predispositions, upbringing (sort of a priori and environment with secondary features such as actions, experiences and things like that (a postereriori).

N'est pas?

Clintons Cat

i think dadakopf sums up my feelings on the matter with perfect eloquence.
We can only judge others against ourselves and the ideals we live up to.
What defines a person is the self,the id, the concept of identity and the willingness of others to accept that definition.
Against that concept of self come into play external factors such as the desire to conform and the perception and distortion of cultural stereotypes.
Maybe it is only through confounding our own expectations and limitations that we can truely define the self.and thus the person.
.........
As for what defines other people,well colour is a bad judge of character.
Actions definately.
words maybe.
Thoughts and Intentions perhaps, though we are in no position to judge these objectively.
.............
Everything Resonates Against Each Other.

amp

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">People do stuff</font>

Obviously WWman forgot to mention that this is an extrapolition of Sheron's famous ground breaking edict of "Do you like stuff?" at DubLan.

The approach I make to defining a person is borrowed from reverse engineering:

You can never actually read the exact thoughts and inner workings of someones brain so you ask questions and compare them to the responses. It takes time but eventually you get a limited working model of their brain and make certain predictions about their responses and reactions to certain events.

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Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
"Boxes for show, Baskets for a pro" - [FCA]SyxPak

Oogy_Boogy

TO define a person you look at his shoes

OConnor

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DadaKopf:

..it's all about your actions - the choices you make. That's what defines you..</font>

Well i think time is like a pair of trousers - you either take the Right route
(non-smoker) or you take the wrong route(smoker)

I see ze world in black & white...

swiss

Interesting...

If anyone's played Deux Ex... you might remember Morpheus (in Everett's house) discussing the human need for judgement. I'm a little tired to go into it in detail now - but anyone who's played the game should know what I'm on about. As for the rest

We judge each other as we judge ourselves - partly based on how we are judged by others.

When I sometimes ask people why they like pets so much they sometimes reply "They're so non-judgemental". We judge each other all the time - based on any and all personality and racial traits we have.

I tentatively agree with what appears to be the consensus here, that a person's actions define who they are. Very interesting slant on things by the way, dadakopf. I'll sum it up with another Deux Ex quote "We are our choices".

DadaKopf

Hey, that's not my sland, it's Kierkegaards!

I, personally, amn't so sure a person if soley defined by his or her actions even though it is certainly a very, very important aspect. I mean who is it who cares more about any person's actions? It could be them or it could be other people... actions define conveniently, but maybe there's other things at work too.

Chubby

Errrm, I'd think you define yourself by the most important thing to you. To others, you're defined by how they perceive you.

Oogy_Boogy

Its the shoes, how do you define Elvis?
His Blue Suade Shoes

Oogy_Boogy

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"Dont Drink & Drive. Smoke & Fly"