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stratification / heirarchy of ideology implies a universal metric to guage competing ideologies. plurality of absolutes means "we can and must live within disagreements over what is true". can we believe in both the latter and the former? is plurality it's own universalism?
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OP said: "If an economic conflict lasts longer than 30 yrs, ideological superiority determines outcome." testing this implies by historical comparison implies defining ideological superiority
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Yes and that's not easy to do. Attribution problem. Is Europe overtaking China a) Greek heritage b) Protestant ethic c) rule of law d) linguistic diff?? e) Whiteness f) decentralized polity? Each could be basis for an ideological reading
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Evolutionary psych has same problem. There's like 8 explanations for how humans developed a brain-size advantage over competing similar size mammals (see recent Dunbar paper)
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I am hedging towards a universalism in my thinking, but I don't know what it would look like. I think PoA cannot sustain; not so much the dominant emerges as the plurality blows up. This theme is all over Dostoevsky's writing.
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I don't think a single universalism has ever been powerful and closed enough to test that way. People always overstate totalitarian power.
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Right next door to Islam in the east and various resistant paganisms to the west and north. Not a universalism. A traveler could have easily encountered 4-5 bright worlds in a month on horseback
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