Louis_Schmier wrote:
> Jeff, Aristotle is doing pinwheels wherever he is. We people of words
> will find that words are far weaker and more imprecise, as you have
> indicated, then we think. He love to throw around "oh,you know what I
> mean words" that belong in a fly-paper dictionary to which you can stick
> anything you wish. In short, Jeff, you can't have it all three ways by
> saying a zygote is..... But, on the other hand we can have different
> meanings. On the third hand, it is not.
Well, I don't believe that Aristotle is anywhere doing anything at this point.
But you are correct to argue that one cannot say, at one and the same time,
that a zygote DEFINITELY is X but that it also DEFINITELY is not X, and that we
also can have different meanings of the same term. What I said is only the
last. We use words for practical purposes. The meaning of a word depends upon
the particular context we are in. That in one reason why it is so difficult to
make ourselves understood by others who conceive of the situation in a
different way and, thus, have different purposes in mind.
> The truth is that on that definition of zygote hinges--and I told you
> these are dangerous waters that I don't really want to stir, the crux of
> the abortion question which by your own statement science cannot answer.
> And that is my point. Science does not have the answers to all the
> questions, and there are questions asked that are outside the realm of
> science.
No one can definitively answer a question involving central human concerns with
any system of thought, whether it is religious, scientific, political, or
whatever. Each one may inform the answer given by a particular person. But, if
you think that specifying the definition of a word will answer such questions
definitively, than I think that Aristotle might take that pinwheel and stick it
in your eye. But I have to get to class.
Take care,
Jeff
--
Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213
9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298
Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
"The truth is rare and never simple."
Oscar Wilde
"No one can accept the fundamental hypotheses of scientific psychology
and be in the least mystical."
Knight Dunlap
