joelb wrote:One way you could prove your point is to provide an example of a social interaction in which you are not competing against anyone. That would prove your point.

what is friendship?

joelb wrote:I was born and did not choose to be.

I'm sorry that you should feel this way joelb. Don't feel bad about it though, as it would of course be impossible to make a choice when you don't yet exist.

Both myself and Ty Webb have argued our respective points in considerable depth over the past few pages-you may agree with one more than the other, and you're welcome to of course. Sorry, but I don't feel that I have anything further to add at this point.

bassdriver wrote:

joelb wrote:One way you could prove your point is to provide an example of a social interaction in which you are not competing against anyone. That would prove your point.

what is friendship?

It's many things that don't have anything to do with competition, but one thing it absolutely is is a social contract between two or more people that, if executed in a certain way, will result in a competitive benefit to the participants that comes at the expense of someone else. If executed in a different way, the contract can reduce the fitness of one or both of the participants and confer benefit to someone else. In between these options are likely infinite other ways for the contract to operate, but a friendship will always confer a competitive advantage or disadvantage to someone.

This has the makings of a new topic.

Isabelle Gall wrote:

joelb wrote:I was born and did not choose to be.

I'm sorry that you should feel this way joelb. Don't feel bad about it though, as it would of course be impossible to make a choice when you don't yet exist.

I don't "feel" this way; it's merely a statement of fact. Whether it's impossible or not doesn't change the fact that I did not choose to be born.

To your point, which was that the phrase "in a competition" implies a choice to compete and an understanding of rules. This is false. Being born inserts a being into a competition with no choice and no understanding of rules. There are many other examples of this, but being born is the most obvious one to me.