Good point, Arthur.[snip]
What I have never understood, though, is this thing of breathing in AND out. I mean, wouldn't that just cancel everything out? Like, why bother? Well, OK, some argue that we do need oxygen. I can accept that, at least in theory. But then why not just breathe in? You know, do half the work, and therefore live twice as long. Seems to me that that would make lots of sense.
Alas for your lament, lungs are not like gills which, I believe
in my ignorance of the Naturwissenschaften ("hard sciences"), *is*
a one way flow-thru process.But my point here is something different: "some argue that we do need oxygen". I would propose that all instances of the grammatical construction "<whoever: self or other(s)> needs <whatever>" are really obfuscations of the semantic structure normally specified by: "I want <whatever>".
Another instance from the above-cited class of rhetorical ploys is: "<whoever: self or other(s)> should <do whatever>".
Nobody *needs* oxygen -- unless they *want* to live, i.e., the desire to live logically entails acting to procure oxygen. But we know that persons sometimes choose not to live and to forego oxygen in pursuit of their desires, which in such cases often aim to save from dying other persons whose life they wish to preserve.
Ultimately, all human relations are grounded in either one or the other or some admixture of coercion and uncoerced cooperation. The "ethical" realm, it seems to me, is often used to try to trick persons into freely choosing to do something to which, if they realized how "the wool was being pulled over their eyes", might say "No, thank you." instead -- presuming it was not "an offer they could not refuse"....
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
