“Since you’re troubled by the other possibly unwanted associations of the word stupid, how about we just agree to say that toasters aren’t highly intelligent? It doesn’t really matter whether you say that that’s because toasters aren’t the sort of thing one can call intelligent, or that it’s because you could call them intelligent if they were but they aren’t; either way we can agree that toasters are not highly intelligent agents, and that’s what matters.”
“Oh, yeah, that works.”
“Great. Let’s move on.”
(Of course, in many arguments about how one should define things there isn’t a sufficiently convenient circumlocution, either because there isn’t a good one at all or because it’s super-important to have a handy short term or because the question is exactly about how one particular term should be used.)
“Since you’re troubled by the other possibly unwanted associations of the word stupid, how about we just agree to say that toasters aren’t highly intelligent? It doesn’t really matter whether you say that that’s because toasters aren’t the sort of thing one can call intelligent, or that it’s because you could call them intelligent if they were but they aren’t; either way we can agree that toasters are not highly intelligent agents, and that’s what matters.”
“Oh, yeah, that works.”
“Great. Let’s move on.”
(Of course, in many arguments about how one should define things there isn’t a sufficiently convenient circumlocution, either because there isn’t a good one at all or because it’s super-important to have a handy short term or because the question is exactly about how one particular term should be used.)