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We know "planet" is a social construct because the astronomers decided, some years back, that Pluto wasn't a planet. And the rules they created to make that de
by eesmith 4y ago
We know "planet" is a social construct because the astronomers decided, some years back, that Pluto wasn't a planet.
And the rules they created to make that definition only apply in the Solar System, not to exoplanets around other stars nor to rogue/free-floating planets.
And Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were considered planets for over half a century.
- jojobas 4y agoIn order to decide whether Pluto is a planet, one has to assume that there are, in fact, planets. This assumption is not social in nature, it's language describing natural, inarguable phenomena.
- eesmith 4y agoDoes "marriage" exist, as a "natural, inarguable phenomena" independent of its social construct? What about "US citizen"? I don't think so. Which means we can't say the existence of a word means its the result of a physical assumption. When you wrote "planets, stars", did you not assume those two are different? But originally, "planet" meant "wandering star" - a planet was assumed to be a type of star.