I’m actually amazed how little it seems that most people track the definition of words in a conversation to see if they’re changing. Something like the points made in Arguing “By Definition” or Scott Alexander’s popularization of the term “Motte and Bailey” should be obvious. When someone makes one of these arguments to me, I am confused what is literally going on in their head. Unless the speaker does not care if their argument is sound, I have no map of what it is like to expect the switcheroo to work. In my brain, I resolve words into concepts, but it seems that 2 concepts that share the same symbols when written down are genuinely confusing to many people, suggesting this is a separate skill?
I’m actually amazed how little it seems that most people track the definition of words in a conversation to see if they’re changing. Something like the points made in Arguing “By Definition” or Scott Alexander’s popularization of the term “Motte and Bailey” should be obvious. When someone makes one of these arguments to me, I am confused what is literally going on in their head. Unless the speaker does not care if their argument is sound, I have no map of what it is like to expect the switcheroo to work. In my brain, I resolve words into concepts, but it seems that 2 concepts that share the same symbols when written down are genuinely confusing to many people, suggesting this is a separate skill?
Goofus: “Let us, for this argument, define ‘horse’ to mean ‘human’.”
Gallant: “Alright.”
Goofus: “So you accept then, that humans should wear horseshoes?”
Gallant: “What??!”