Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 06:46:53 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712081146.GAA01582@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Robin Turner Sender: Lojban list From: Robin Turner Subject: cold logic (was "re:kennings") X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 2359 X-From-Space-Date: Mon Dec 8 06:47:03 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU >>"Coldly logical" - now there's an interesting metaphor in itself, and = >one >>we might do well to discourage! > >Sometimes logic is used as an excuse to be emotionally cold. I think = >"coldly logical" is a useful metaphor for that. Maybe we should instead = >encourage the parallel use of "warmly logical" for uses of logic which = >contrast with that. =20 > It certainly can be used for this purpose, or to score points off an opponent, or to put someone down for being "overemotional". I think one problem is that we confuse "logical" with "rational". One can make a statement which is logical - in the sense of being semantically well-formed, consistent with its premises and so on - but this does not guarantee that the behaviour pattern (of which this speech-act is a part) is rational. Being "emotionally cold" (and remember that this is metaphorical too!) is a rational response to some circumstances and an irrational response to others. Similarly "illogical" or "irrational" are sometimes used to mean "emotional", whereas in fact they don't, they just mean "stupid"! The temperature metaphor (or image-schema, if you prefer) is very powerful (for example Cognitive Therapists talk about "hot" and "cool" cognitions). On the other hand, it reinforces cultural stereotypes, including the rather negative one that people who try to be logical (which probably includes Lojbanists by definition) are "cold", and therefore somehow less than fully human (maybe half-Vulcan??). "Warmly logical" may have shock value, but I'm not sure how one might use it. We are, of course, operating from a basically Northern perspective here - maybe in Arabic "cold" might have more positive connotations (Turks seem to be somewhere in the middle - they constantly praise themselves for being Mediterranean "hot people", but "cold-blooded" can sometimes be a compliment, similar to our "cool-headed"). >Logic relating to low temperatures? What's the attitudinal for "Brrr!"? >Physics does get weird at low temperature, but I don't see how logic >would change. > Well, perhaps you could get the logical equivalent of a quantum singularity. Maybe as you appproach absolute zero propositions can be simultaneously true and false - who knows? ;-) Robin Turner Bilkent Universitesi, IDMYO, Ankara, Turkey.