Hey Steve, Just reading your words (which I've been enjoying, btw )and came to a point that caught my attention:
On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 8:05 PM, Steve Peterson <[email protected]>wrote: > What I was suggesting is that there is no difference in what we mean by the > word 'true' in the sentences "it is true that slavery is wrong" and "it is > true that 2+2=4." Obviously, the sentences are very different, but I think > 'true' is used in the same way in both. Do you agree or do you think that > there is a difference in usage of 'true' in these two sentences? The usage of "true" is relative to the speaker. If I was saying "it is true that slavery is wrong", my meaning of "true" in this sentence would have social connotations underlying the statement, backed by a whole edifice of social morality and historical assumption, aknowledging implicitly that the statement is debatable. When I say "it is true that 2+2=4" I have a different intellectual foundation for how I construe "true" - that of mechanistic logic which is unswayed by social factors. Now somebody who has actually suffered under slavery, would mean something much more comprehensive and non-debatable if THEY said, "it is true that slavery is wrong". Part of their meaning of the word "true" would encapsulate their reality. If I was in conversation with such a person, I probably would realize this and aknowledge their reality, but in the back of my mind I would still hold their truth as relative to their experience. All meaning is negotiated in conversation. Hey! Maybe I'm a Roycean Rortyist! 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/
