[lit-ideas] Otiose
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 23:25:33 EDT
In a message dated 6/8/2009 11:46:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
rpaul@xxxxxxxx writes:
any moral theory, or meta-moral
theory that maintains (i.e., assumes from some fictional neutral stance)
that until stamped and certified by those in the higher orders it is an
open question whether torturing (killing, raping, mutilating) the
innocent (the word 'innocent' is really, as JL would say, 'otiose')
is wrong is, to that extent, at least, defective.
------
Actually, I learned 'otiose' from L. M. Tapper, a student of R. Albritton
at Harvard (And I recall R. Paul submitting the R. Albritton obit in
PHILOSOP).
--- Here some good OED quotes. It should take some precious leisure to go
one by one and challenge whether the thing _is_ otiose.
As to the otiosity of 'innocent', I'm not sure...
R. Paul says, "would" say, not "will" say.
And the prhase, "as [X] would say" is usually otiose -- in a fine sense.
Let's consider the judgement:
I'll simplify the claims:
i. torturing (killing, raping, mutilating) the innocent (the word
'innocent' is really, as JL would say, 'otiose') is wrong.
Reminds me of
ii. Eating people is wrong. (Flanders and Swann -- the Reluctant Cannibal).
Indeed, 'innocent' is otiose in that it would make the _claim_ otiose or
circular:
Condemning the innocent is wrong.
Condemning people is _not_ wrong, though. Well, it _is_ wrong for me.
"Condemn" and "torture" etc. are verbs too strong for my taste.
Let's think:
To rob the robber.
'the robber' is otiose. To rob is wrong regardless who you rob.
To love the loved ones.
is otiose.
i. torturing (killing, raping, mutilating) the innocent (the word
'innocent' is really, as JL would say, 'otiose') is wrong.
I think R. Paul is wanting to say that 'to torture', 'to kill', 'to rape',
'to mutilate' _can_ *never* be used in a '--- is right' context.
I'm not sure about 'kill':
STORM KILLS THREE
The Oregon Guardian.
Surely like 'meaning', and 'cause', a storm cannot "kill".
"mutilate" is, I think, etymologically, to cut into pieces. So one can
mutilate Momma Geary's pickan pie, I assume. -- which should be _right_.
'rape' is wrong and then you have people like David Carradine -- at 74, too
-- raping himself with some rope.
'torture' we should find the etymology -- 'semantics war'.
L. tortura twisting, wreathing; torment, torture; f. torquare, tort- to
twist, torment.]
"Twist" is an American dance, so one has to be careful there.
Cheers,
JL Speranza
---
1795 W. PALEY View Evidences Christianity (ed. 3) I. II. i. 342 Such stor
ies..as require, on the part of the hearer, nothing more than an otiose
assent. 1844 W. G. WARD Ideal Christian Church (ed. 2) 93 We must learn to
dismiss all otiose and unfruitful contemplation of external models. 1853 C.
HARDWICK Hist. Christian Church (1861) 292 Reposing with a vague and otiose
belief on the traditionary doctrines as they had been logically systematized
by John of Damascus. 1875 W. JACKSON Doctr. Retribution 49 The ‘why’ of
moral duty is not an otiose but a fruitful principle. 1946 A. J. AYER Lang.,
Truth & Logic (ed. 2) 6 It might be argued..that it was otiose, on the
ground that the question which it was designed to answer must already have been
answered before the principle could be applied. 1991 Wilson Q. Spring 122/1
As Lynne never read it, it was otiose to wonder whether she would have
seen anything of herself in the character of Sheila Spindrift, erring wife.
1997 M. BURLEIGH in N. Ferguson Virtual Hist. (1998) vi. 326 The vast
quantity of surviving documentation..makes it otiose to imagine hypothetical
scenarios.
1837 G. PHILLIPS Syriac Gram. 6 Vau and Yud in the end of a word, when the
preceding letter has no vowel, are also otiose. 1878 W. E. GLADSTONE
Primer of Homer xiii. 146, I doubt the opinion sometimes held, that there
abound
in Homer idle or ‘otiose’ epithets. 1880 Nature 26 Feb. 406/1 An alphabet
which..possesses otiose and needless letters. 1925 I. A. RICHARDS Princ.
Lit. Crit. xxiv. 269 Sometimes it is held that whatever is redundant or
otiose, whatever is not required, although not obstructive or disruptive, is
also false. 1965 M. FRAYN Tin Men xx. 110 Large sections of the English
language were also rendered otiose by replacing long words with small words
hyphenated together. 1993 Classic CD June 57/1 Divorced from its dramatic
context, much of the music here seems simply otiose and self-indulgent.
1850 Tait's Mag. 17 732/2 A malcontent by necessity, because otiose and
resourceless. 1865 Sat. Rev. 7 Jan. 24 Our policy in Turkey has now dwindled
into an otiose support of the Government. 1885 F. HARRISON Choice Bks.
(1886) 198 An otiose God..surveying unmoved ‘this dusty fuliginous chaos’. 1910
J. RUNCIE Idylls by Two Oceans 46 Here let our childhood still repose By
spacious veld or opal sand, Full of large dreams and otiose. 1979 J. HELLER
Good as Gold 401 Gold should have remembered he had no chance ever of
staring this otiose, imperturbable childhood friend out of countenance.
1886 J. R. LOWELL Progr. World in Latest Lit. Ess. (1891) 178 As has been
somewhat otiosely discussed. 1896 J. HAMMOND Church or Chapel? 187 An
article of faith..held, not otiosely, but after it has been threshed out again
and again. 1922 Mind 31 145 Here..is a heroic Hegelian..not only continuing,
otiosely and sans meaning..but actually repudiating the absolute truth
revealed to Hegel. 1990 C. RAINE Haydn & Valve Trumpet (2000) 303 Hill also
added, somewhat otiosely in my view, the warning that [etc.].
1867 Macmillan's Mag. Apr. 523/1 They complain of otioseness of letters in
some words, of inadequacy in others. 1912 in G. S. Gordon Eng. Lit. &
Classics iv. 106 That easy agility, dexterous sweetness and smoothness, in
which Philostratus and his peers might boast to have renewedalways bating the
otioseness of their matterthe glories of Plato and Xenophon. 1950 Mind 59
206 This plots the particular degree of the peculiar kind of otioseness
mentioned in the description of 4. 1987 Amer. Lit. 59 279 The author dutifully
cites..Paul de Man on the otioseness of considering ‘the actual and
historical existence of writers’.
1483 CAXTON tr. Caton sig. Cijv, By ouerlonge reste and ociosyte been
gendred or goten..thre grete synnes..auaryce, lecherye, and ouer moche talkynge.
1532-3 Act 24 Hen. VIII c. 4 The people..liue nowe in idlenesse and
ociositee. 1584-9 J. MAXWALL Commonpl. Bk. f. 96, Thairfoir..flie ociositie.
1848 THACKERAY Vanity Fair lx. 542 A life of dignified otiosity such as
became a person of his eminence. 1866 S. BROOKS Sooner or Later i, The happy
otiosity enjoyed by the million. 1939 Philos. Rev. 48 60 This dyadic
fallacy may be the main ground of the otiosity of the traditional logic through
the many centuries of its reign. 1991 Independent 1 Nov. 36/8 That some of
this lessening has to do with food is incidental; it is far more important
that I control the mind and the habits that have led to otiosity and excess.
1632 W. LITHGOW Totall Disc. Trav. V. 172 A Towne..of small importance, in
regard of..trafficke..: Want of Strangers being one let, and vitious
otiosity the other stop.
1614 J. SYLVESTER Bethulia's Rescue v. 121 Private men (whose otious care
Scarce passe the threshold of their own door dare). 1656 T. BLOUNT
Glossographia, Ocious, idle, careless, restful, at ease.
1611 SIR W. LOWER MS Let. 19 July f. 433, But indeed I haue here much
otium and therefore I may cast awaye some of it in vaine pursuites. 1815 T.
CHALMERS Let. in W. Hanna Mem. T. Chalmers (1851) II. 21 A life of
intellectual leisure, with the otium of literary pursuits. 1850 THACKERAY
Pendennis
II. xxx. 306 Mr. Morgan was enjoying his otium in a dignified manner,
surveying the evening fog, and smoking a cigar. 1877 L. W. M. LOCKHART Mine is
Thine v. 55 Life cannot be meant to be passed in literary otium or
philosophical speculation. 1979 Washington Post 15 July H5/2 Nguyen Trai.., the
scholar-strategist-geographer who helped in the anti-Ming campaign, praised the
delight of otium.
1863 H. J. BYRON George de Barnwell IV. 20 With spade in hand plant
flower, tree, and twig, And thus enjoy my otium cum dig. 1898 W. S. GILBERT Bab
Ballads 356 Agent, I Have come prepared at once to buy (If your demand is
not too big) The Cure of Otium-cum-Digge. 1990 Daily Tel. 14 Feb. 17/7 There
is not a single proper countryman in the Cabinet now since Lord Whitelaw
took his otium cum.
1807 R. ALSOP & T. DWIGHT Echo 270 That humble, in his native state, he
Might otium mix with dignitate.]
1729 VISCT. BOLINGBROKE Let. 19 Nov. in Pope Wks. in Prose (1741) II. 96
Otium cum dignitate is to be had with 500l. a year as well as with 5000.
1760 W. KENRICK Falstaff's Wedding V. xvi. 83 Your majesty will please to
order me from your Exchequer a competency to support the infirmities of nature,
and the dignity of knighthood, Otium cum dignitate, my liege. 1820 SCOTT
Monastery I. Introd. Ep. 9 Intending there to lead my future life in the
otium cum dignitate of half-pay and annuity. 1863 TROLLOPE Rachel Ray xxx,
Otium cum dignitate is a dream. 1906 Outlook 20 Nov. 495/2 Dockyardmen who are
in danger of losing that otium cum dignitate which they have regarded as
their perquisite. a1918 R. S. BOURNE Hist. Lit. Radical (1920) 90 Against a
background of Harlem flats and stodgy bourgeois prejudices he works out
this life of otium cum dignitate, calm speculation and artistic appreciation.
1995 Hist. Jrnl. 38 171 The virtues were designed to conduce to a vision of
otium cum dignitate. 2002 Times (Nexis) 9 Aug. (Features section) 22
Meanwhile, otium cum dignitate will revert to what it was before: the preserve
of a redefined patrician elite.
JL Speranza
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