From LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Sat Mar 6 22:49:07 2010 Reply-To: Lee Daniel Crocker Sender: Lojban list Date: Tue Apr 08 13:24:37 1997 From: Lee Daniel Crocker Organization: Piclab (http://www.piclab.com/) Subject: Re: Philosophy (was: CPE: Corliss Lamont) X-To: Lojban Group To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <199704080113.SAA21274@mail.calweb.com> from Steven Belknap at "Apr 7, 97 08:13:58 pm" X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 2190 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Apr 08 13:24:37 1997 X-From-Space-Address: - Message-ID: > Wittgenstein, who was a suicide, eventually concluded that philosophy > was a form of mental illness, . . . This seems a defensible position, > given the tragic personal lives of most philosophers. In Wittgenstein's case, I agree--and Neitsche and Satre as well. But let's not let the insane ones define our terms for everyone. As much as I admire Ambrose Bierce, let us model our dictionary on Webster's instead. To allow editorializing in the language itself is against the very nature of the language. In fact, don't we want agendas to be harder to hide? There's nothing preventing one from saying "the field of pointless discussion" (terzu'ecau tavla tadni), or using an attitudinal to say psychology/incredulity (menske.ianai) or a philospher kind of time wasting (tadnytadni cacra bo fesygau), but it should be expressed as such explicity. Clarity is no less artful. I still like "tadnytadni". Tadni emphasizes a studier in any field by any method or none, whereas saske emphasizes a body of knowledge based on some method, so things like theology are seltadni, and things like psychology are saske. I don't think the language should make any editorial judgments here, so things like accupuncture are still saske because they are a body of knowledge by a particular method, even if they happen to be quackery; and the study of education is a seltadni, because it doesn't imply a particular body of knowledge by any particular method. seltadni field of study, academic subject (not necessarily scientific or by any method at all amond students x2) cevtadni theologian (of type/religion x2) tadnytadni philosopher (x2 is particular philosophy) menske psychology (by method x2) benske neurology (by method x2) Of course, we could just say to hell with it and make them names, but I think these are useful and basic enough. -- Lee Daniel Crocker "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC