Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 October 7

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October 7

Diaz painting

Our article on painter Narcisse Virgilio Díaz is in poor shape, as it is basically a copy of the old 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica entry. I'm trying to verify some of the information and update it, but there's one painting from the entry that is giving me some difficulty. The old entry mentions a painting named Sunset in the Forest (1868) which I can't find. Obviously, it's called by another name now. I have a hunch that it refers to The Edge of the Forest at Les Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau, 1868 because they share the same year and the sun does appear to be setting from the west. But, there are a few other possible candidates, such as Forêt de Fontainebleau (1868) at the Louvre, Fêt de Fontainebleau, enceinte palissadée (1868) at the Musée d'Orsay, and Lichtung im Wald von Fontainebleau (1868) at the Neue Pinakothek. Then again, if the 1911 encyclopedia got the date and the subject wrong, there are two other paintings from 1850 with the word sunset, Common with Stormy Sunset and Cows at Sunset, but I doubt either of those are correct. So, to summarize, I'm looking for whatever Sunset in the Forest (1868) is currently named today. Thanks. Viriditas (talk) 01:35, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

This dictionary of sales has two sold 1869: Paysage, soleil couchant and Une lisière de bois, au soleil couchant which unfortunately does not match the dimensions of The Edge of the Forest at Les Monts-Girard. fiveby(zero) 22:20, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for at least checking. Viriditas (talk) 23:53, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Is there any logical rebuttal against the main argument of "Famine, Affluence, and Morality"?

Besides moral nihilism, is there any other logical rebuttal against the main moral argument made by Peter Singer in his 1971 essay Famine, Affluence, and Morality? StellarHalo (talk) 02:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Objectivism, perhaps, although I personally consider that school of thought to be repugnant. Cullen328 (talk) 06:49, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

I take it you mean

If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it

as the main moral argument? To find nothing between nihilism and Singer's premise is to simply accept it as an absolute. Maybe moral skepticism as a step up from nihilism to other forms utilitarianism as a step down from "it seems we are all murderers"? Are you looking for more direct rebuttals to the paper such as Arthur's "rights and deserts" and Kekes' "rampant moralism" linked in the article, or some specific aspect such as impartiality? fiveby(zero) 19:26, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

criminal liability

what is the line of distinction between "common intention" and "common object" in criminal liability? why doesn't an unlawful assembly involve an element of common intention if the common object is clear? Grotesquetruth (talk) 10:03, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Why does every question you ask seem like a homework problem? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:12, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

wp:deny

@--Lambiam is this "common intent" an underlying aspect that is assumed to be present upon the furtherance of course of action towards achieving that "common purpose/common object"? Grotesquetruth (talk) 13:28, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Psychologist author David Joseph Weeks - an encyclop. relevant person?

David Joseph Weeks is the author of the scientific study Eccentrics: The Scientific Investigation and of the book Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness (the German translation has a Wikipedia article, de:Exzentriker: Über das Vergnügen, anders zu sein). David Joseph Weeks argues that many persons who are friendly but just do not worry about unjustified social demands for conformity are much more/better sane than the average person who always tries to satisfy these social demands. In Germany, his book has been discussed widely in the public media. Is he a well-known person in the English-speaking world? Should he be added (as a redlink) to the disambiguation page David Weeks? Thanks in advance, --Himbeerbläuling (talk) 17:56, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

He was well known some time ago. I remember when people were talking about him in the states in the late 1980s just before his first book.[1]. I think it’s likely he also received a second wind after his 1995 book. Weeks is a neuropsychologist, so I’ll ping @Tryptofish for a more informed opinion. Viriditas (talk) 19:54, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't know anything about this. --Tryptofish (talk) 21:08, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Red links should not be the only link in a given entry on a disambiguation page; see MOS:DABRED. If the book is notable (see WP:NBOOK) we could include a stub and have a blue link for an entry in the dab page.  --Lambiam 20:40, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

The book is notable as a popular culture oddity (one of the only or few works to explore the phenomenon of eccentricity), but in terms of science, it is considered greatly flawed due to its reliance on self-selection of survey participants, so it isn’t taken as seriously as it should. It’s a shame Weeks didn’t take the criticism he received from the scientific community at large and attempt to reboot the study. Viriditas (talk) 03:05, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks to Viriditas for blueing the link. I think, this may finish the talk thread.--Himbeerbläuling (talk) 14:28, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Gun violence in Los Angeles - 1990s

Have there been gangs, many gang-related deaths and shootings in Los Angeles during the '90s? 86.131.222.15 (talk) 22:02, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

The Crips were founded in 1969 and their bitter rivals, the Bloods, in 1972, so I think it's safe to say there was lots of gang-related mayhem in that decade. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Interestingly, if you look at the 1992 congressional hearing data,[2] there was a significant drop in black on black gang killings by the 1990s. Most of the mayhem you are referring to peaked in the mid to late 1980s, with 1984 considered the high water mark. I personally recall the impact of the 1992 Watts truce throughout California. Our own article says it "was a major factor in the decline of street violence in the city between the 1990s and 2010s". So really, the kind of violence you are talking about was in the 1980s not the 1990s, and by the time Clinton was elected in the 1992 United States presidential election, scientists were discussing the fall in US crime rates, leading to various theories to explain it, such as the lead–crime hypothesis and the legalized abortion and crime effect. In other words, the 1990s was known for less gang-related deaths and shootings. Viriditas (talk) 00:14, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

I stand (or sit) corrected. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:31, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

See The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations (2015). Viriditas (talk) 00:14, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

I asked this because... In the final Father Ted episode called Going to America, Ted was offered a parish in America and was so excited he accepted. Until he learned there were gangs, deaths and shootings there. See the episode fast-forward at 21:43-23:05 on Dailymotion. 86.131.222.15 (talk) 21:10, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

The lowest number of homicides in Los Angeles County in the 1990s was 891 in 1999 (highest was 1,944 in 1993). [3] The number of murders in County Galway (the supposed location of Craggy Island) in 1990 was 17. [4] Alansplodge (talk) 11:23, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Galway has about 275,000 people and Los Angekes County has almost ten million people, almost twice as many people as in all of the Republic of Ireland. Cullen328 (talk) 00:06, 10 October 2022 (UTC)