> > democracy It seems to me there are two distinct extensional meanings of democracy and many more intensional meanings (to borrow Hayakawa's terms).
"Democracy", the ideal, for example, is embodied in the Preamble to the US Constitution in which a goal is stated. I believe the Preamble is the device by which the people of the US declare themselves a people, a nation, a democracy. This is what I would call the first extensional meaning of Democracy, at least in the US. The remainder of the Constitution is the implementation of the mission described in the Preamble. That is the second extensional meaning of democracy (in the US). This part of the Constitution is, of course, an utter failure -- it does not, in fact, do and ordain the goal of the Preamble, primarily because its functions can be purchased by hoarders of wealth. (I think it was set up that way by hoarders whose main interest was wresting the ability to accumulate away from the East India Company and the King. The terminology of the Preamble -- and thus, one of the intensional meanings of it -- was not just a good idea, but a good cover for a bad idea, i.e., purchasable government.) A nationwide Constitutional Convention to generate a new implementation of the Preamble might solve the problem, but that would take a new God, and He's too busy watching TV. Dan _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
