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Basic Philosophical Question

Which do you believe is more the case?

  • We inherit the world from our parents.

    Votes: 18 72.0%

  • We borrow the world from our children.

    Votes: 7 28.0%
  • Total voters
    25
ALiberalModerate

ALiberalModerate

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On balance which of these do you believe is more true and why? They are both true of course, but which do you think is more the case.
 
We borrow the world from our children. I don't like the implication of the former that the world is ours to do with as we please. The latter carries the implication that the world and its inhabitants should be treated with consideration, and that our actions have consequences.
 
I voted for "we inherit the world from our parents". Like you said, obviously both are true. If we borrow from the future generation it really hits home that our actions make a difference. This is how it should be. I don't see many people in this world actually thinking down the road too far which is why I picked the first option. There is a sense of 'the world is now ours, we can do what we want with it' which is something I see as somewhat...prevalent in the world, to say the least.
 
We inherit the world from our parents and in turn while we are in quasi possession of the world, we are in effect, borrowing it from our children.

What our parents have done to the world affects how we handle it. What we do will affect our children and our children's children. It's an ongoing and continuous process. The world 'belongs' to all of us, but none of us.
 
That's an easy one. Everyone has parents or did at one point. Not everybody has children. And even if you were talking about some metaphysical argument, I still take my stance.
 
We inherit the world from our ancestors, which in turn creates our debt to them which we repay by providing a better world for our children.
 
Our children have never had ownership of it prior to us, so we cannot "borrow" it from them. What they receive from us is what they get, and have to deal with just as we did from our ancestors. It was handed to "us" in a certain shape, and thus it will be handed to future generations in a future shape.
 
There has always been a past, but there won't always be a future.
 
We don't borrow or inherit the world from anyone. We are of it, and to it, we shall return.
 
I've always felt its more important to plan for the future, based upon the past. Therefore, I agree with both statements, but I prefer the former statement, because it is my belief that the next generation has the responsibility to improve from the previous generation.

Improvement being an ambiguous term.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
On balance which of these do you believe is more true and why? They are both true of course, but which do you think is more the case.
Click to expand...

"We borrow the world from our children."

This statement implies more responsibility on our part, which is crucial, and its also an endangered rarity in today's world. If the world is messed up, it because the previous generation did not contribute to what they borrowed.

If we say we inherited something that is messed up, then it implies that even our current generation could mess it up more for the next.
 
aren't the statements the same thing?

if we inherit the world from our parents, doesn't that mean that they borrowed it from their children.

but that aside, we borrow it from the children, as none of our actions can affect the past
 
My answer was because of how I see time. The past already happened so I tend to gravitate to the statement that we inherit the earth from our parents.
 
Neither.

We own the world while we're here. Those that came before us owned it, those who come after will own it. While we're here, it's ours. Of course, we have a responsibility to make sure that those who come after have something to own while they are here as well, that's basic biology.

The idea that anyone owes us anything is foolish.
 
It is a one way street, so the convenience store a few blocks behind us is of no use (edit to expand: except as a reference to compare similar products and the costs associated as we come across them).

I have to go with we borrow it from our children,
 
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