I'm on thin ice here, will skate real fast. I think Pirandello addresses the issue of "truth". His take on it in Six Characters is that by definition truth slides instantly and continuously into the past. Truth therefore changes constantly (depending in addition to time also on perspective, etc.). We can reflect truth but we can never know it (as embodied by the actors playing the characters but never quite getting there, among other things). This position is born out by reality I think. Truth by consensus is alternatively known as propaganda, politics, religion. It's not much, but it's all there is. ----- Original Message ----- From: John Wager To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: 1/8/2006 4:29:49 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Here's a useful word for the list.... I was taught that philosophy classes were supposed to examine and evaluate philosophical arguments. All my classes as an undergrad and in graduate school did that. But when I got to my first year of teaching, many many years ago, I found that students could not grasp the "argument" because they didn't understand or appreciate the statements that made up the argument, and further that they didn't have any appreciation or interest in the concepts that made up the statements. I decided the first thing I should do is try to teach the value of philosophical CONCEPTS, before puting them into an argument. "Arete" ("virtue") is something that one should understand even before evaluating how successful Aristotle is in making an argument about this concept. Ever since, I'd say that over half of my efforts in teaching have been to address the concepts philosophers use, exploring and meditating on them, rather than evaluating arguments containing them. Of course that means my students do not get to "truth" because they don't get to evaluate arguments. I'm a bit uncomfortable because philosophy should be about the "truth" in some sense, and I agree that concepts by themselves cannot be true or false. Am I doing the right thing or not? (This isn't a rhetorical question; I would like to know what you think.) wokshevs@xxxxxx wrote: A concept can't be true. Only statements, judgments have a truth value. Concepts can be useful, coherent, possessing wider extension than another concept, lesser intension than another, inspiring, noble, sublime, motivationally ert/inert. They can't be physically extended or coloured, are odourless, are not possessed in coherent form by any member of the American Reublican or Canadian Conservative party, and they don't taste good with leg of lamb with rosemary and sage (isn't there a song like that?) So I go "We should, like y'know, care for language and thought as we do for the planet and our own souls, or sumptin like that." And then she goes: "Yeah, whatever." Like, you know what I mean? Like, get a life. Realizing that most of the students who will appear in my undergrad classes tomorrow were born when or after I turned thirty (and still trustable). Your friendly neighbourhood baby boomer, Walter No, I sat out Woodstock. Not the camping type. Quoting JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx: <><< A panel of linguists has decided the word that best reflects 2005 is "truthiness," defined as the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts. >> -- ------------------------------------------------- "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence and ignorance." ------------------------------------------------- John Wager johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx Forest Park, IL, USA