Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 11:37:51 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712021637.LAA21963@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Robin Turner Sender: Lojban list From: Robin Turner Subject: Re: gaffs X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1131 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Dec 2 11:38:50 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU >Robin Turner wrote: >> >> (a) [Nazi soldiers] were victims, just as surely as the victims in the >> concentration camps. >> Ronald Reagan (Kahane 1992:33) >> Rex wrote: > >How is this first one a logical gaffe? > IMHO, it's equivocation i.e. playing with definitions. Jews were victims in the literal sense of the word; Nazi soldiers in a metaphorical sense (e.g. "a victim of prejudice/ignorance/brainwashing"). OK, soldiers could also sometimes be seen as literal victims in that they get shot, but the word is not normally used to include acitve participants in a war. >Do Democrats ever make logical gaffes? > Of course - all humans do. It's just that the Republican triumvirate of Reagan, Bush and Quayle provide much more amusing examples. I imagine if someone went through Clinton's speeches they would almost certainly find a few. I suspect politics is such a rich source of illogicality because it so often requires people to defend the indispensable. Robin Turner Bilkent Universitesi, IDMYO, Ankara, Turkey.