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What is your definition of "generation," and why do you refer to it as an abstraction? We are referring to generations as a structural parent-child term, where
by totalZero 9y ago
What is your definition of "generation," and why do you refer to it as an abstraction? We are referring to generations as a structural parent-child term, where people on the same tier of the tree share the same generation. This is not the same as saying "Generation X/Y/Z" and so forth, which is a different meaning of the word entirely.
- Retric 9y agoI am deriving the second definition from the first. Basically, as you start looking at the family tree that actually represents humanity the idea of generation breaks down, do you mean the shortest route from you to someone in ~100,000 BCE or the longest route to some person in ~100,000 BCE. You could say your mother's mother's mother's ... or your father's father's father's but even then the length of the chain going back that far stops being equivalent. The only thing that becomes meaningful on such a scale is simply generation as unit's of time.
- totalZero 9y ago> I am deriving the second definition from the first. That doesn't make any sense. The first definition is a parent-child tree relationship. The second definition is a way to characterize the social atmosphere of a given span of twenty-some years. They are structurally different definitions that are not reconcilable.