that sounds liek a great method. i shall have to try it out when someone asks me that question, or when i ask myself that question regarding something i do automatically.
on the other hand, i could see someone simply meaning ‘why do you use qwerty’ as ‘what’s the history of your using qwerty’. i wonder if this linguistic issue might cause us to conflate facts of the past with motivations. when i give a reason why i use qwerty historically it might just be ‘well, that was what was available’ whereas an answe to a ‘why’ question aimed at getting justifications might be ‘well, i don’t know if it’s justified.’
perhaps this sheds some light onto the problem of confusing is with ought. we might confuse ‘why is it’ for ‘why should we’.
on the other hand, i could see someone simply meaning ‘why do you use qwerty’ as ‘what’s the history of your using qwerty’. i wonder if this linguistic issue might cause us to conflate facts of the past with motivations.
I tend to say ‘Why do you use QWERTY?’ for the question that Eliezer was writing about, and ‘How come you use QWERTY?’ for the question of history. As far as I know, this isn’t justified by any recognised rule of English grammar, but it feels right to me.
You can also use more precise phrasing: ‘Why do you choose to use QWERTY?’, ‘How did it come about that you use QWERTY?’. But who wants to use more words than necessary?
that sounds liek a great method. i shall have to try it out when someone asks me that question, or when i ask myself that question regarding something i do automatically.
on the other hand, i could see someone simply meaning ‘why do you use qwerty’ as ‘what’s the history of your using qwerty’. i wonder if this linguistic issue might cause us to conflate facts of the past with motivations. when i give a reason why i use qwerty historically it might just be ‘well, that was what was available’ whereas an answe to a ‘why’ question aimed at getting justifications might be ‘well, i don’t know if it’s justified.’
perhaps this sheds some light onto the problem of confusing is with ought. we might confuse ‘why is it’ for ‘why should we’.
I tend to say ‘Why do you use QWERTY?’ for the question that Eliezer was writing about, and ‘How come you use QWERTY?’ for the question of history. As far as I know, this isn’t justified by any recognised rule of English grammar, but it feels right to me.
You can also use more precise phrasing: ‘Why do you choose to use QWERTY?’, ‘How did it come about that you use QWERTY?’. But who wants to use more words than necessary?