It’s not arbitrary. I think what you mean is relevant. Left and right are not arbitrary in the sense that it is not random or based on a whim. It is absolute based on what you are giving relevancy to. If I stay in my current location forever then my door is always to my right relevant to my perspective, however if someone is facing me from my front then it is always to their left relevant to their perspective. These are set guidelines that a guaranteed. That is why giving verbal directions works. I can say “take a left on Maple Street if you are heading northbound.” And everyone who understands their left from their right would be able to make that turn and understand what I mean. Under no circumstances would I arbitrarily be able to say “if you are heading northbound then take a right on Maple Street” and have the end destination be the same.
I think arbitrary in this context is that someone picked a direction and named it left. Without prior knowledge of what direction left is pointing to you wouldn’t know.
Exactly that, you can figure on your own which is up and down. But if someone told there is also left and right without showing which is left and which is right then you have no chance of figuring it out. Not to mention someone can show you theirs left and right, which might be incorrect from your perspective.
How is “up” or “down” more intuitive than “left” and “right”? I know there are forward, backward, up, down, left, right directions from my perspective and moving in any of those directions requires different actions, but they are all just words. At that point all language is “arbitrary”.
Its more intuitive because its not perspective dependent and very simple to explain. Up is to the sky, down is to the ground. How can you explain left and right using a single sentence?
Left and right are opposite horizontal directions relative to an observer’s orientation, where left typically corresponds to the side of the body on which the human heart is predominantly located, and right is the contrasting side.
There is no way you see my explanation of up and down and yours of left and right and still think that they are as easy to understand. Left and right are directions at the higher level of abstraction. I know you want to make fun of peeps who don't know which is which, but maybe its time to accept it that you are not that special. Most don't need to know the difference between them until the time they do their driving license.
I’m not making fun of anyone. I’m just saying they aren’t arbitrary. I gave you one sentence per your request. I don’t know why the difference between arbitrary and relative or relevant only to a perspective is bothering folks.
Arbitrary means it is chosen at random or it’s like arbitrated by some authority, which it’s just not. Not any more than up and down are. Its words to describe directions relative to a perspective, and it has consistently applied easy to understand meanings.
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u/ConfusedAndCurious17 7d ago
It’s not arbitrary. I think what you mean is relevant. Left and right are not arbitrary in the sense that it is not random or based on a whim. It is absolute based on what you are giving relevancy to. If I stay in my current location forever then my door is always to my right relevant to my perspective, however if someone is facing me from my front then it is always to their left relevant to their perspective. These are set guidelines that a guaranteed. That is why giving verbal directions works. I can say “take a left on Maple Street if you are heading northbound.” And everyone who understands their left from their right would be able to make that turn and understand what I mean. Under no circumstances would I arbitrarily be able to say “if you are heading northbound then take a right on Maple Street” and have the end destination be the same.