From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri May 31 2002 - 19:32:17 MDT
Hal's post, below, summarized how the meanings of "censorship"
varied from person to person, and then went on to explain that
even the innocuous term "semantic" wasn't being used in the same
way by several people.
I will say again that it's almost always best to route-around a
word that is causing problems. Words are like ball-bearings on
a skating rink: to get anywhere to you have to tread carefully and
be especially wary of putting too much weight on any one of them.
To try to resolve our differences concerning the meaning of
"censorship" is not prudent, nor is it even possible, in my
opinion. The term is too emotionally laden, and within present
day society conjures up too many completely negative images.
People who I would have thought were cognizant of what it
means according to dictionaries (e.g., "the principal censored
nude photographs in the student newspaper") suggested instead
that it has come to always mean a grotesque evil.
Fine. So we avoid using the word. But the term "semantic" or
"semantics" is NOT an emotionally laden word, at least outside
the halls of academic linguistics. It means, I think, "having
to do with the ultimate referents of words, i.e., their meanings".
But wouldn't it be nice to see what lexicographers think it means?
semantic - of or related to meaning
semantics - 1. the study of meanings in language
2. connotative meaning
Lee
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Hal Finney
> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 11:52 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: Censorship
>
>
> Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > cen·sor
> > To examine and expurgate.
> > and
> > ex·pur·gate
> > To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise
> > objectionable material ... before publication.
>
> Hal Finney wrote:
>
> > Asking what is or is not censorship is a semantic question and there is
> > no unique answer.
>
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
> > I disagree it is a "semantic question". Words have pretty
> > straightforward meanings at times. Censorship is prohibition of
> > the expressing of certain thoughts and opinions by the use of
> > force. Nothing else is remotely censorship.
>
> Michael M. Butler wrote:
>
> > I agree, as far as Samantha goes, but would amend that to say that
> > censorship involves force _or_ _subterfuge_.
>
>
> It's not a semantic question, hmmm? What is a semantic question? It is,
> by definition, a question about the meaning of words! And here you are,
> all disputing the meaning of a word! How can that not be a semantic
> question?
>
> Maybe we now have to have an argument about what a semantic question
> is. That dispute would itself be a semantic question, being about the
> meaning of the word "semantic". Then someone could disagree that whether
> something is a semantic question, is a semantic question! Would that
> then be another semantic question?
>
> Mad, you've all gone mad.
>
> Hal
>
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