> For example, did you choose MW as your authority after you read it and > determined it was in agreement with your views? Did I do the same? MP: In point of fact, *I* didn't choose MW, the wikipedia referenced footnote used it to explain why they used "deity" even where MW did not. That MW used the same definition I had been using from several other sources was just a bonus. :-)
Ultimately, there needs to be an authority that decrees a definition to be "accepted" (at least for the time being.) That authority *might* be achieved through an authority of consensus, but more often consensus cannot be reached. At which point an figurative authority (a person or a pre-selected group, with its own final personal authority) needs to step in and settle the discourse for this moment. The point of definitions is to have accepted meaning that behaves in a constant manner to allow for dialog to use that "brick" to build with. A place like wikipedia can't figure out if its dialog or authority. That's its real problem. One cannot be both. MP ---- "Don't believe everything you think." Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
