From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 19:15:37 MDT
J. R. Molloy said
>Harv wrote,
> > Phogiston is obvious. Consciousness, philosophy and mind, I think mean
> > different things to different people.
>
>Exactly! One of the attributes that makes these terms useless is that no
>one
>can pin discrete definitions on them. To function in a useful way, words
>need
>to mean specific things. When no one can agree what they mean, they lose
>their
>utility. The English language (and especially scientific language) can get
>along just fine without meaningless words like these.
Wow, I understand, you're against difficult-to-define words. Hmm, such as
"game" (pace Wittgenstein). Not to mention "science", "freedom", "reason".
I'm actually all for the above words, not to mention "philosophy". BTW,
philosophy basically means "rational inquiry", whatever *that*, in turn,
means to different people.
OTOH I'm happy to get rid of words that I think contain false
preconceptions, such as "sin" and *perhaps* ("perhaps", I say carefully
because I'm not wanting to pick a fight with Samantha and Amara, so I'm
prepared to bracket off the issue) "spirituality".
Here's to freedom, reason, philosophy and science!
Russell
===============================================
Russell Blackford
writer philosopher lawyer transhumanist
Active Member: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Member: Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA)
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