h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you destroy something, can you say that you owned it? hmmm

I see the logic behind the argument, but I think it's flawed.

I wasn't arguing anything. I want to see what other people come up with when they interpret the question.

I don't think you can... all you could really say is that you destroyed it.

If you *can*, that would explain God's power trip . Or the arms race, and other instances of 'might makes right.'

But it is possible to destroy something that is/was owned by someone else.



Ste

Right..but isn't ownership guaranteed by the force of a threat?

No, retribution is garunteed, or implied by a force of threat. Ownership is sketchy. Can anybody actually 'own' anything else? Discuss...

Well you can't take anything with you. So aside from destruction, you will have to define "own". Can you "own" something for a time?

Good point. So if you can't own anything, the best you can do is make sure nobody can take it from you, and the most permanent way of doing that is destroying it.

Bloody hell. Human reasoning. Is this why we get ourselves into so much trouble?

Hehehehe *sips her bloody mary* MMmmMM..if I ingest something do I own it? If I drink too many, my tummy cells will form a workers strike. What does *that* insinuate?

Ah, it's like the saying. You can't own beer, you only rent it

My way of things is - share as much as possible and it comes back to you.
(just be warey of who you share with)

Nyssabird, what is it with your threads - most of the time I can tell it's you who started them just from the conversation title?

On-topic, maybe 'posession' in the sense of the UK law regarding controlled substances is a useful concept. As far as I can remember, posession is (was?) defined as knowledge of, and control of, the item in question.
In that sense, though multiple *ownership* might be tricky to imagine, multiple or varying degrees of *posession* may be easier to consider. either in terms of objects, or even of people.
The more serious the destruction, the less of the item there is to posess, both in terms of how much of the item exists in a recognisable state, and also in the sense that the more disordered the object, the less it may be possible to control it.
Also, on the ingestion question, once you have swallowed something, and assuming it is digestible, it has permanently passed beyond your control, and hance out of your posession.

*rolls on floor, giggling inanely*...wait a minute. what the heck did you mean by that?!?

Ahh, but potholer, under Uk controlled substances law there is actually such a crime as 'past possesion' Stupid I know. There is also 'Attempted possesion' Which means you could be prosecuted for buying mixed herbs if you though you were buying something illegal.
Bloody stupid eh?

I smashed my father's car up, and I can tell you definitely that I did not own it. He would tell you that too.