as a kind of semantic brackets; I think the official way to do this is to write-the-words-connected-by-hyphens, but that just seems hard to read;
to remove a possible connotation, i.e. to signal that I am using the word not exactly as most people would probably use it in a similar situation;
or as a combination of both, something like: I am using these words to express an idea, but these are probably not the right words, but I can’t find any better, so please do not take this part literally and don’t start nitpicking (don’t assume that I used a specific word because I wanted to hint at something specific).
For example, as I understand it,
“Shortcomings” compared to a robotic ideal of perfect instrumental rationality.
Means: things that technically are shortcomings (because they deviate from some ideal), but also a reasonable person wouldn’t call them so (because it is a normal human behavior, and I would actually be very suspicious about anyone who claimed to not have any of them), so the word is kinda correct but also kinda incorrect. But it is a way to express what I mean.
Not Lukas, but I also sometimes use quotes:
as a kind of semantic brackets; I think the official way to do this is to write-the-words-connected-by-hyphens, but that just seems hard to read;
to remove a possible connotation, i.e. to signal that I am using the word not exactly as most people would probably use it in a similar situation;
or as a combination of both, something like: I am using these words to express an idea, but these are probably not the right words, but I can’t find any better, so please do not take this part literally and don’t start nitpicking (don’t assume that I used a specific word because I wanted to hint at something specific).
For example, as I understand it,
Means: things that technically are shortcomings (because they deviate from some ideal), but also a reasonable person wouldn’t call them so (because it is a normal human behavior, and I would actually be very suspicious about anyone who claimed to not have any of them), so the word is kinda correct but also kinda incorrect. But it is a way to express what I mean.