Rolf:
,,What do you think of, say, philosophers’ endless arguments of what the word “knowledge” really means?″
I think meh!,,This seems to me one example where many philosophers don’t seem to understand that the word doesn’t have any intrinsic meaning apart from how people define it.″
Well, if they like to do so, let ’em. At least they’re off the streets. =)
What’s worse is the kind of philosophers who flourish by sidestepping honest debate by complicating matters until nobody (including themselves) can possibly tell a left hand from a right foot anymore, and then go on to declare victory. Definitions belong to their toolset, too.
But are we going to argue against knifes because the malignant can hurt others with them, and the ignorant or plain unlucky even themselves? We need them to carve the turkey, so if we want turkey slices we’ll just have to operate carefully. I, for one, want to keep my knife!
,,Presumably Eliezer would ask, “for what purpose do we want to answer the question?” However, many philosophers would prefer to unconstructively argue what semantics are “correct”. So my personal experience is that I don’t think Eliezer’s attacking a straw man here.″
He is if he is going to spill the baby with the bath. He’d have to write “Careless/malignant use of definitions is bad.” not just “Definitions are bad.” (which is my perception).
Rolf: ,,What do you think of, say, philosophers’ endless arguments of what the word “knowledge” really means?″ I think meh! ,,This seems to me one example where many philosophers don’t seem to understand that the word doesn’t have any intrinsic meaning apart from how people define it.″ Well, if they like to do so, let ’em. At least they’re off the streets. =) What’s worse is the kind of philosophers who flourish by sidestepping honest debate by complicating matters until nobody (including themselves) can possibly tell a left hand from a right foot anymore, and then go on to declare victory. Definitions belong to their toolset, too. But are we going to argue against knifes because the malignant can hurt others with them, and the ignorant or plain unlucky even themselves? We need them to carve the turkey, so if we want turkey slices we’ll just have to operate carefully. I, for one, want to keep my knife! ,,Presumably Eliezer would ask, “for what purpose do we want to answer the question?” However, many philosophers would prefer to unconstructively argue what semantics are “correct”. So my personal experience is that I don’t think Eliezer’s attacking a straw man here.″ He is if he is going to spill the baby with the bath. He’d have to write “Careless/malignant use of definitions is bad.” not just “Definitions are bad.” (which is my perception).