[MD] Definitions.

[Ian Glendinning]

Ad Hominem attack alert.

Dave said to Ian ... ego-driven nonsense etc ...

Ian

On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 11:22 PM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> Ian said:
> Strawman alert. Who suggested Pirsig wasn't careful (even skilled and poetic) with his words?
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> dmb says:
> Okay. But what about the rest of it? Don't you have any reply to this part.....
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> "Definitions are the FOUNDATION of reason. You can't reason without them." (Emphasis is Pirsig's. ZAMM, page 214.) "A metaphysics must be divisible, definable and knowable, or there isn't any metaphysics." (Pirsig in Lila, page 64.)
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> Now, has anyone ever said - or even implied - that dictionary definitions are the end point for the MOQ or anything else. No, of course not. This is a straw man, one that interprets the basic of demands of intellectual quality (coherence, logical consistency, etc.) as something that's beneath them. The implied claim, it seems, is that the contradictory use of terms is not a very basic failing but quite the opposite. It is above and beyond words, Ian claims, because "evolution involves people using the language beyond existing understood explicit meanings".
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> You see how that works? The use of contradictory word salads isn't a problem or an error to be criticized, it's above all that stupid static stuff like definitions and metaphysics. Only a pedant is interesting in stuff like that, right? Nope, I really that that's just ego-driven nonsense wherein those accused of very basic errors reply with a transparently self-serving dismissal of the criticism.
> ....Does anyone really think they are too deep, too mystical or too special to be bothered with the basic demands of intellectual quality? You're too evolved to be bothered with definitions? That sounds like the ego is doing the talking, not intellect.
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