(December 20, 2011 at 5:51 am)Darwinning Wrote: I think we could have a discussion about what to include as part of a 'relationship'.
We certainly could. In my mind, a relationship is the sum of many things. If you oversimplify it, it loses its meaning.
Quote:I don't think I am. Relationships are neither.
If a relationship is not feelings, what is it? Without feelings, you cannot have relationships. Those feelings define relationships.
Quote:I can understand there are thoughts and feelings about a relationship, but those are not the relationship itself. Thinking about a duck doesn't make it a duck.
Not in the case of a duck, no. In the case of a relationship, yes.
Quote:Relationships are visible?
Yes. You have never seen a relationship?
Quote:You give examples of things that may result from a relationship, but are not in themselves the relationship. Proof by proxy? Sure, I use that all the time, but that does not make the relationship a thing.
If it is not a thing, how can it produce things?
In the basest of terms, a relationship is a thing, as evidenced by our grammar. "Relationship" is a noun, correct? Is it a person or a place? No? Then, it is a thing.
